Need help making video card decision

[GreenGround]

Right, so having done a bit a of reasearch I have found only found 1 motherboard that supports agp and pci-e and there were only 3 reviews, 1 review said the board died after a month or so. The others raved about it, the thing that makes me sketchy is it from on unknown company.

So basically what i am trying to say is i am forced to get a agp video card because of my cpu socket, I cant upgrade to a motherboard that has pci-e cause it wont support my cpu.

The thing i am having a tough time making my mind up about is should i get a top of the line card (going with the nvidia 7 series) and use that till I have to get a new computer, or go with last years ati or nvidia last line and use that till i have to get a new computer.

The thing is if i get a top of the line card how long will my computer still be update with todays technology, cause if in a year or so my computer becomes too out-of-date then all the money i spend on the video card will be wasted.

my current specs are p4 2.6, 1.5 gigs of ram at 400mhz, 5200 nvidia, 80 gig hd and a 300 gig hd (uses sata sytem)
The 300 gig hd, and ram i am gonna transfer since i upgraded those so they should still be compatible in the future, hopefully.


BAH what do i do?

[lolfighter]

Me, I wouldn't go with a top-of-the-line AGP card, unless it isn't significantly more expensive than the second-best. AGP is on the way out, PCI-E is The Future™. Might as well save the money until you can afford a PCI-E mainboard and a processor to match.

[Leaderz0rz]

ati 9800xl will work for most anything you want to play and is fairly cheap. if you want better opinions go to ossn.net

[Fewlio]

If you're going with AGP don't get top of the line, your CPU will be bottlenecking your system yo.

[GreenGround]

I have the money to get a pci-e motherboard and new processor but, this computer is still relatively fast by todays standards. So a new computer is out of the question for awhile.

Bottle neck really? How fast a computer do you need for it not to bottle neck?
I figured i was ahead of the game enough for that not to happen.

As well ossn.net? i went to it, all i got was some contracter site for home building.

i am trying to find a decently priced 6800, i was also looking at the x1600 but review for that were pretty bad and the benchmarks did not help.

[Necrosis]

IMHO I'd save for an entirely new rig, from the sounds of it you're going to need one in the near future anyhow.


In fact, I saved for an entirely new rig, and got a Nvidia 7900 GTX. Nice card, till it burnt itself out.

Still, fingers crossed there's no problem with the 7950 G2.

[Leaderz0rz]

OSNN

[Fewlio]

6800 is cheaper in pci-e loll, AGP one is at least $50 more expensive. Mmmm supply and demand! I'd call that a good choice though, will work well and isn't too expensive.

[GreenGround]

well i made my decsion.

I got a X-fi extreme soundcard and a bfg 6800 GT OC 256 and a copy of windows xp all for $400.

Just if any you wanted to know.

[Malevolent]

Sounds like you got a good deal. I know I am happy with my 6800GT that I got a couple of years ago. My system still holds up very will today surprisingly. I finally got around to buying F.E.A.R. (was such an awesome game), and I can pretty much put everything on high. It's a great video card.