Card limit running AGP4x

[tomaso11]

I am considering upgrading the video card in my Dell Precision 350.
It currently fitted with an ATI Fire GL card, which doesnt score too well on most benchmarks.
I am looking for a general improvement in streaming video and image editing.
However I am limited to AGP4x so dont want waste money on more card than my machine can handle( 2.6g P4 Northwood 512 mb Ram).
Opinions or suggestions please.

 

[m33sta]

From what ive read AGP8x has very little advatage over AGP4x, the only difference is supposidly the games load quicker????. Both AGP4x and AGP8x use a 1.5v rail,so you can put an AGP8x card in your machine but obvoiusly it will only run at 4x. If your looking for streaming and image editing you may want to go for one of the Quadro FX (Nvidia) cards they arnt cheap but they rock for editing etc. If you want an all round card( that will also play HL2 etc. ) I'd say the Radeon 9800pro is the one to plump for, its dropped in price since it was released and is excellent value for money.

 

[addy]

The difference between AGP 4x and 8x is negligible - 1 to 3% at most in benchmarks, such as 3DMark2001SE.

As m33sta said, the 9800Pro is a very good value card. OK, it's a couple of tech generations old, but still offers good games performance as well as all round performance and they can be found quite cheap these days.

 

[felixc]

Yup, the 9800Pro is a good deal. I don't know how good the FireGL was in streaming video, but the ATI cards are good performers for video.

My 9600XT gives a good video performance in a 2.6 GHz system. I use Studio 9 for video editing, with great success. The Radeon 9800Pro is one step up from mine. As a bonus it will play all 3D titles at pretty good resolutions.

 

[tomaso11]

Thanks for the replies. I had been considering something around the 9800Pro mark.
Left project on the back burner pending advice guess I need to spend a few bucks and get it done!

Thomas