Agp?

[blackpaw]

Any drawback to just using a cheapo AGP card - say a NVidia 5200 with a modern miniATX motherboard? Given the shortage of PCI/PCIe slots I want to maximise their usage.

I need SVideo/Component out so most MB onboard videos aren't an option.

[psycik]

Only drawback I guess is performance, ie. can it keep up with the UI (sould be ok) and later on HD

[blackpaw]

I can always upgrade the card - a 5200 is only $35, basically a throwaway.

[K.S.]

Any drawback to just using a cheapo AGP card - say a NVidia 5200 with a modern miniATX motherboard? Given the shortage of PCI/PCIe slots I want to maximise their usage.

I need SVideo/Component out so most MB onboard videos aren't an option.

do you have a MB with AGP? or do you want to buy one? if the later i would like to discourage from that idea. AGP is between the deceased (friendly name: legacy) tech... AGP GPU's are more expensive compared to PCI-e...
oh & better get something newer then the 5200, that's stone age. if you have to buy a new MB, why don't take a look at the ones with AMD690G chipset? there are some with onboard GPU & tv-out...

[blackpaw]

Easy enough still to get a MB with AGP, though harder to get AGP video cards.

I looked at some AMD690G mobo's - still seems to be relatively new tech and reviews varied on the HD performance. The ones that had tvout were all ATI based and I prefer to stick with nvidia. Plus its a lot harder to upgrade a MB than a video card.

[DanielP]

A ATI radeon HD2400pro should sort you out if you want HD- my Nvidia GF 6200 AGP is also great value for money. Neither are great for games, but both scrub up really nicely for media PCs.

The 2400 is great if you apply the reg tweaks on this forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=872538

If you want "all singing and dancing" the Radeon HD3850 for around £120 should blow you away- I have one on order!

Daniel

[K.S.]

I looked at some AMD690G mobo's - still seems to be relatively new tech and reviews varied on the HD performance. The ones that had tvout were all ATI based and I prefer to stick with nvidia.

the 690G ain't HD able, only the 780G & and all the 780G MB's anounced till now don't have tv-out, only HDMI/DVI
if it's the HD capable you're after, the 8200/8300 chipset is nvidia based & should also be onboard HD ready, i doubt you'll have more luck on tv-out, for that you can always stick the 5200 or some other cheapo GPU in. i would still go the PCI-e way, makes no sense to invest in stone age equipment

[blackpaw]

the 690G ain't HD able

How's that? I thought it could handle 1080p/i easily?

Starting to see your point re the AGP though.

[K.S.]

How's that? I thought it could handle 1080p/i easily?

yeah, sure, if you stick in some beefy CPU it can... footnote 1 from this page http://www.amd.com/us-en/0,,3715_15248,00.html

"For HD configurations, AMD recommends a 2.2 GHz CPU or higher for MPEG2 and VC1 and 2.8 GHZ CPU or higher for H.264"

that's not the support i expect from the GPU... if the GPU is HD capable the CPU should only be under load for decrypting (i.e. HD-DVD/Blue Ray)

[shrek]

I think I'll wait for some decent 780G motherboards before upgrading my system TBH.

If anyone hasn't seen a review, check out: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/AMD-780G-H...30420.html

Just out of interest (and because I can't be bothered to lug my desktop PC into the lounge!!!), would there be any point in simply upgrading my AGP ATI 9600 Pro to one of the newer cards? I mean, would I get superior quality, sharpness and colour with a new card? The existing card's drivers don't give many options for improving the quality.

P.s. I can watch 720p OK on my Athlon 2400+ using CoreAVC.