Do any Conroe boards support AGP or will i need a new VGA card?

[BottomsUp]

??

I know this isn't the graphics forum, but if i need a new one what's a good buy between 300-400. I don't plan to upgrade my machine for 2 years after this upgrade. My last build was a northwood.

[party animal]

This board supports Conroe and has an AGP slot: http://www.asrock.com/product/775Dual-VSTA.htm

[NoSinder]

Well you can go with the $58 dollar ASrock motherboard that still has AGP,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157092

or you can get a X1900XT PCI-E card for 355 bucks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102025

[BottomsUp]

interesting. I have a 6800GT which works fine for CS:S and several PATA drives that i hate to toss in the trash. I would like to OC my conroe though and this board looks limited. I guess getting the new card is the way to go if i want to play with OC'ing the chip.

[LuckyNV]

that board only supports upto 4x speed PCI-E, so a 6800GT type card would be bottlenecked at certain resolutions

[jkresh]

get the cheapist pcie card you can find, then speend about $300 in december (or so) on the "gt" version of either nvidia's or ati's dx10 card.

[Brahmzy]

An eVGA 7600GT would be a great hold-over card if money's tight. Then do the Step-up to G80 in October.

[chrono03]

I am in the same posiiton actually. I have an x800XT AGP video card.. and i am planning on getting a conroe 6600 for gaming. You have the same two options as i do. You can buy a PCI express video card and the popular asus mobo now. (Dell has the pci express x800 128 mb card for 59 $ right now and the asus mobo is 260) In this method, you overclock your conroe and get decent 3d performance in the mean time while waiting until january 07 for the new ATI/Nvidia cards and vista. In the second method, the one i prefer, You buy the Asrock mobo, and a 6600 and keep it at stock speed and keep your agp card. (Youll still get a huge jump in performance over northwood) You end up spending 60 $ now, instead of $320. You will become used to the speed of the conroe and want more by about december. This will give you the incentive to buy a new video card and new mobo in january. You then get to feel the excitement of another huge jump in performance. The mobo should be significantly cheaper than the 250 $ asus mobo and contain a lot less stuff youll neve ever ever use. Also, you can use all the same ram if you get the asrock mobo ( I am getting the 2gb OCZ plat from outpost for 160$ shipped)

Hope this helps

[Sanborn]

Solution for all of you (semi-expensive).....becuase I have same problem.

If you HAVE to upgrade this summer, go on newegg and buy the cheapest pci-x card you can find. Your performance might even be less than that AGP card but damn will it be worth it.....

save up money for 2-3 months, buy the best damn PCIe 512mb ATI/Nvidia DX10 graphics card you can buy. Thats my plan and I'm stickin too it.

[chrono03]

Solution for all of you (semi-expensive).....becuase I have same problem.

If you HAVE to upgrade this summer, go on newegg and buy the cheapest pci-x card you can find. Your performance might even be less than that AGP card but damn will it be worth it.....

save up money for 2-3 months, buy the best damn PCIe 512mb ATI/Nvidia DX10 graphics card you can buy. Thats my plan and I'm stickin too it.


I find a lot of flawed logic here. The reason this doesn't make sense is that the OP seems to be posting this that he plays games and already has a good AGP card. Why would you put a massively powerful cpu with a junky gfx card unless you are playing a game at 800x600 resolution? And if you do that, why upgrade in the first place? His FPS will probably be damn near the same becase every game he will play will be severely limited by his gfx card. If he buys an ASrock mobo and keeps it at stock speeds with his current AGP card he will be able to play games at better settings detail wise than if he bought a junky pci express card. Then all he has to do is ebay his asrock for 20 $ and buy a real mobo in december

[Sanborn]

I guess, but your solution is basically the same as mine. If he gets the asrock he still has an AGP videocard that needs to be replaced. And honestly....I wouldn't throw anything into an ASrock motherboard that was new technology.

I guess we are just all screwed, the solution was really more geared towards myself becuase I currently own a crapass 9800 pro 128 AGP

[chrono03]

Yeah, but you end up saving about 120$ with my solution =)

You wouldnt put it in an asrock mobo even at stock speeds..? Why?

Are there other options for a VIA chipset?

[onewingedangel]

Just dont upgrade until g80 and/or r600 is out, and get the whole system in one go. By then you'll see a price drop on conroe (a e6700 would be great if its not too much more than e6600) and more importantly you'll have seen what motherboards to go for (including possibly rd600 based boards).

As long as you can hold out a few more months it'll be far better in the long run.

[Sanborn]

^^ yeah thats what I am attempting to do but its soooooooo freaking hard to wait.

I've had this crappy computer for 4 years and it needs to be ditched. I'm really waiting to see when all this stuff is getting released. If the RD600 mobos are September or early October I can hold out.....but if the R600 is December then I am going to sub in a crappy PCIe card untill then.

for the OP, it's gonna be tough man but I agree you need to wait it out if you have too.