need help buying a new video card

[cronus1914]

Hey everybody. How's it goin? Well, I just built a new system and never realized that my motherboard came with a different type of AGP slot then my previous computer. I was unaware that AGP 4x cards were meant to fit into a new type of AGP slot? So I guess Im screwed with my 1x AGP card. Aren't they supposed to work in the newer slots anyway??? Also, what's up w/ this new AGP Pro? Does that use a different AGP slot also???

Anyways, I obviously need a new 4x video card. Im looking for suggestions. Low cost is my major concern. Not the best brand. However I would like it to be 4x (obviously), have 64MB of DDR-RAM, and have TV-In & TV-Out capabilites? Do any cards like that exist out there? If so, what do you all recommend me getting?

Thanks in advance!!!

BiLL

[Whyzman]

Hi Bill,

You might want to have a look at PriceWatch (http://www.pricewatch.com) and type in the requisites you want into the search box after selecting Video Cards.

Someone here might have knowledge of exactly what your're looking for...I think they're all asleep no though! :D

[saphalline]

Yeah, your current AGP 1x will work, AGP slots are backwards compatible. So a 4x slot supports 4x, 2x, and 1x. Don't worry about AGP Pro, I've only seen it used by the workstation-level cards for professional CAD apps (probably why they're called "Pro"). Just so you know and you're not even more confused, they're already working on and releasing AGP 8x! :rolleyes: We'll see if it's actually any better, but you'll need AGP 8x slots for next year's major graphics cards (which really isn't saying much since last year's GF3 cards aren't even being stressed yet). But AGP 8x will again work with all previous versions of AGP.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we work on what you want. The first you'll need to tell us is what kind of graphics apps you run. Do you work in Photoshop? CAD-lite creation? Play games? If so, what kinds of games? 2D? 3D? Extreme 3D (like UT 2003 *drool* :p ).

Just off hand, I would suggest a GF4 MX440 graphics card with TV-in/out. These cards are pretty cheap (around $100), have 64MB of DDR RAM (and decent bandwidth to boot), and are all AGP 4x. Don't get any of the MX420 (underpowered) or MX460 (too expensive) versions. Even so, it would be better to know what you do with your graphics cards.

[iisbob]

Yeah, your current AGP 1x will work...

Not necessarily, some of the first AGP 1X cards had a different slot configuration and a different power need than modern cards-he'd be better off purchasing a newer card to take advantage of it's more modern bandwidth/memory usage, and lower power requirements.

My suggestion is to stick with a Geforce 2 MX 400 or ATI 7000 series card, either of which can be had with TV out options at a pretty reasonable price.