DIE HARD of AGP ! with Sapphire Radeon HD3850 AGP (Picture Preview)

[dvs1313]

how do you figure that? 400$ is the cheapest i can find for even a low end system and thats just the motherboard/cpu/video/ram...not including anything else.

Cheap x2 = 70bucks
Cheap Ram=70 bucks
HD3850 512mb=170bucks
Cheap Mobo=50 bucks...


I dont understand how you got 125 out of that, id rather not downgrade.

[CoolZone]

I'd get it for my current rig,which is a P4,but only if someone gives me to test it,not to buy it with my own money

[initialised]

btw. one question or give some ideal from all, How do you thing for testing it on review, i should used P4 cpu for real old-school performance or some small conroe cpu ? Thanks

Since it's aimed at old systems you should use an old system but throw in 3850 512 AGP vs 3850 512 PCIE data from a Penryn just for a laugh and to see if 8x AGP is a bottle neck.

[Epsilon84]

how do you figure that? 400$ is the cheapest i can find for even a low end system and thats just the motherboard/cpu/video/ram...not including anything else.

Cheap x2 = 70bucks
Cheap Ram=70 bucks
HD3850 512mb=170bucks
Cheap Mobo=50 bucks...

I dont understand how you got 125 out of that, id rather not downgrade.

I wasn't including GPU price of course. I'm not from the States but there seems to be heaps of combo and MIR deals around, I guess you gotta know where to shop. Don't forget the AGP version of the HD3850 will probably carry a $50 premium as well.

The truth is that a single core A64 2.35GHz and 1GB RAM would run the latest games very poorly.

Look at Call of Duty 4 for example, it chokes with a single core A64 2.4GHz processor.
http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6183967/p-5.html

As does Crysis...
http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6182806/p-6.html

[dvs1313]

call of duty 4 runs amazingly well on my system, the only thing holding me back is my Radeon x1300pro..it does well in every game but crysis but I would like cod4 to run a lil faster.

[Epsilon84]

call of duty 4 runs amazingly well on my system, the only thing holding me back is my Radeon x1300pro..it does well in every game but crysis but I would like cod4 to run a lil faster.

At what settings and res do you play COD4 at?

COD4 has a 2.4GHz dual core CPU as a recommended requirement, I ain't making this stuff up you know.

[dvs1313]

1280x1024 all max no AA or AF it runs fine but the hd3850 agp would be a big upgrade I am just not sure if it justifies the 200$ price.


Has anyone actually purcahsed this card to tell me how it would run on a set up like mine?

What speed does a p4 have to be at to equal my processors performance?

[dvs1313]

Never mind its not worth my money.

Its funny though that 1gb of ram only loses 3 fps compared to 2gb of the same ram...

I would be chugging along barely pulling 30fps out my ass which I already get with my current card..

Oh well, I plan to put my current pc in my car with a pup up dvd player 7 inch touchscreen, @ 800x600 my current system will run everything under the sun

Would be cool to also hook up a sprint to go wireless data plan to it and have internet everywhere I go, (multiplayer anyone?) lol I would be using a wireless xbox 360 controller to play..of course not when I am driving.

[dvs1313]

Just got done playing multiplayer and while looking at the sky my fps went up to 70 so why wouldnt I get 70 fps with a more powerfull card not looking at the sky? It proved to me my processor is powerfull enough to feed my card to up to 70fps in cod4..so what gives with the 29fps on that chart.

[Dainas]

CPU limitation is one of those things people do not know how bad they had it till they step up to a faster system. I was blown as too how many games ran much much smoother and more enjoyably on my Q6600 than my Athlon X2(which had the same 8800GTX in it before I put it in my new system). Many times you will have FPS hits way lower that the benchmarks do not show, that a newer system would not.

But like a brand new monitor that makes an older look poor by comparison, most people do not truly realise it until its staring them in the face.

[Epsilon84]

Just got done playing multiplayer and while looking at the sky my fps went up to 70 so why wouldnt I get 70 fps with a more powerfull card not looking at the sky? It proved to me my processor is powerfull enough to feed my card to up to 70fps in cod4..so what gives with the 29fps on that chart.

Umm, because practically nothing is rendered when looking at the sky?! LOL

No, your CPU is NOT fast enough to maintain 70fps in COD4. Sorry.

[KoHaN69]

This card is a great upgrade for any X800/6800 agp owner

COD4 also requires a dual core CPU to run well, I would assume an ageing (I swear this is the correct spelling but Firefox says otherwise) AGP system would have a single core CPU... just keep that in mind...
http://au.gamespot.com/features/6183967/p-5.html

Bullocks!!

I build a rig for my bro- dfi nf4 ultraD, 939 venice 3200 @ 2.4GHz, 1.5GB ram @ 200MHz, 6800GT

COD4 all MAX, shadows off, @1280x1024 with great framerates, sir

gamespot is a joke, and you shouldn't even be on their site, for any reason at all.

[Omastar]

It would draw close to 100W under load I guess, perhaps a bit less.

COD4 also requires a dual core CPU to run well, I would assume an ageing (I swear this is the correct spelling but Firefox says otherwise) AGP system would have a single core CPU... just keep that in mind...
http://au.gamespot.com/features/6183967/p-5.html

That's because Firefox is right; drop the e, add -ing.

[Epsilon84]

That's because Firefox is right; drop the e, add -ing.

After doing some googling, it appears that is is spelt ageing with British English, and I, being Australian use British English, so we are both right.

[Epsilon84]

This card is a great upgrade for any X800/6800 agp owner



Bullocks!!

I build a rig for my bro- dfi nf4 ultraD, 939 venice 3200 @ 2.4GHz, 1.5GB ram @ 200MHz, 6800GT

COD4 all MAX, shadows off, @1280x1024 with great framerates, sir

gamespot is a joke, and you shouldn't even be on their site, for any reason at all.

Define 'great' framerates. Can you do a screenshot with FRAPs in the background? Not doubting you, I just haven't played the game on older hardware. Btw, it ain't max if you turn off shadows...

[Apollonas]

FANTASTIC. What I was looking for.

[AnXioZ]

Question: Should I upgrade my old Geforce 5900XT, with one of these?
I have an AMD AthlonXP 3200+, with Kingston 1GB (2x512) DDR1 and Nforce 2 mobo. :P

[RAW-Raptor22]

Question: Should I upgrade my old Geforce 5900XT, with one of these?
I have an AMD AthlonXP 3200+, with Kingston 1GB (2x512) DDR1 and Nforce 2 mobo. :P

Definitely for the SocketA crowd, the AXP 3200+ was legendary. I would get more RAM too though if you want the PC to deal with textures properly.

[dvs1313]

Umm, because practically nothing is rendered when looking at the sky?! LOL

No, your CPU is NOT fast enough to maintain 70fps in COD4. Sorry.

I find it very funny with your statement there, now granted you are right that looking at the sky almost nothign is being rendered, but my cpu was still running the game and was able to feed my video card 70 frames per second while looking at the sky, while my limitation is my graphics card what stopps my cpu from feeding the hd3850 70 frames per second when the load on it while playing is the saem as the load on my current card while looking at the sky?

People with quad core processors and crazy expensive computers always look down on peoples like its something from 1975, this computer does everything i need it to right now except for run the newer games at max settings. Id love to have 2gigs of ram but ddr1 ram is so expensive its not worth the investment anymore and there is no point in buying "budget dual core systems" as they get bottlenecked by "budget graphic cards" like the hd3850...I know I wont see the max potential out of this card with my current set up but a review on newegg puts a P4 @ 3.4ghz to 5k in 3dmark06 with the card, now I just need to know how much better my cpu at 2.4ghz is compared to that p4 @ 3.4...then I can acess the performance id get, right now im barely pulling 1800 in '06 with this card.

[strange|ife]

while i dont have raw data, it's safe to say a good 30% of gamers out there still use AGP systems..

[Big SturL]

And the same 30% aren't playing the newest titles with proper framerates...

[Zytek_Fan]

Has the AGP bus been overloaded by bandwidth yet?

[Dainas]

Has the AGP bus been overloaded by bandwidth yet?

No no no, although AGP is only half the bandwidth of PCIe 16x, these interconnects are the only thing not holding these systems back. With the handful of Asrock Conroe AGP boards the could only account for 5%, however those and even decently overclockled a64 X2 agp systems are rare. What is wastefull that most of these cards will be going into ancient Athlon XP and Pentium 4 systems.

[Kain665]

If only my A8V in my A64 X2 2.8ghz system hadn't died...

[KILLorBE]

even decently overclockled a64 X2 agp systems are rare.

What do you concider to be a decently OC'ed A64 X2 system?

I'm thinking about getting one of these for my DFI nF3 Ultra-D (System in sig but the CPU, I got a X2 3600 yesterday).

Main reason for me to stick with my old AGP based system is that I already have a PCI-E based system and my old AGP system is worth **** these days.
If I'm lucky I'll get €150 orso (Payed ~€500 for MOBO, RAM, CPU and 6800LE), I'd rather keep it and use it as a HTPC that is able to play some games at low resolution (1024x768 orso) with decent FPS.
I just need to buy a decent PSU and see what my CPU can do, and maybe buy another gig of RAM or sell the current sticks and buy 2x 1GB.

Also, I was thinking about buying a HD2600XT but they're €75+ and the HD3850 is ~€130, sure almost twice as much but performance is also about twice as good, so why not inject my system with some steroids so it'll last me a few more years as a great HTPC that is able to play games pretty well?