[jr2]

Just thought I'd let you guys know... if you live in the US, Circuit City has these puppies for a decent price:

here

My brother already got his, mine's on its way.  XD

[CP5670]

That's a terrible price for that card at this point.

[edit] Well, I guess it's not that bad for AGP, but still not great by any means.

[jr2]

XD  Find it cheaper, I'll mail you a dollar.

[CP5670]

The problem is that a 7600GS is a bad deal at just about any price, unless you just want a 2D card. If you're stuck on AGP, you're much better off looking for something on ebay than paying the massively inflated prices for the few AGP cards still around in retail channels.

[jr2]

Yer... but is it better than a 6200 256 MB AGP?    (which you can get for ~$56)

[CP5670]

It depends. It's faster, but they're both next to useless for any recent games, and if you're looking for 2D only then they will both work equally well, so the 6200 is a better deal in that case.

I see a couple of AGP 2600 Pros on the egg for only a little more ($90-100). Those are two to three times as fast and would actually provide passable performance on many recent games.

[jr2]

  What's the nVidia equivalent?

[CP5670]

There is none. The low end 8 series cards aren't available on AGP at all and the older gen 7900GS costs much more unless you look for used ones on ebay.

[jr2]

  But I like nVidia....

[CP5670]

You really don't want to have silly brand loyalty when on such a limited budget.

The only sub-$100 AGP cards I would look at for more than just occasional gaming are the 1650 Pro and 2600 Pro cards.  They aren't great but still miles better than a 7600GS. Beyond that, ebay is the place to go.

[castor]

The only sub-$100 AGP cards I would look at for more than just occasional gaming are the 1650 Pro and 2600 Pro cards.  They aren't great but still miles better than a 7600GS. Beyond that, ebay is the place to go.

I must comment, that according to the reviews I've seen the 1650 Pro is only marginally better

Another thing to cosider, if there's any plans on using it with Linux...

Spoiler:

ATI cards will prematurely gray your hair.

 

[CP5670]

The only sub-$100 AGP cards I would look at for more than just occasional gaming are the 1650 Pro and 2600 Pro cards.  They aren't great but still miles better than a 7600GS. Beyond that, ebay is the place to go.

I must comment, that according to the reviews I've seen the 1650 Pro is only marginally better

Another thing to cosider, if there's any plans on using it with Linux...

Spoiler:

ATI cards will prematurely gray your hair.

 

They're similar in older games, but from what I'm seeing the gap has increased by quite a bit in titles from last few months, which are all very shader heavy. I mentioned it mainly just because of its pricepoint, as you can't really get anything else in the same league for $60; the 2600 is much better if you can spend $35 more. You're right about the Linux support though.

There actually used to be very decent AGP cards available around $100 in retail channels only a few months ago (namely the X1950GT), but those seem to have all dried up unfortunately. At this point, I think ebay is a much better option than buying anything AGP at retail. I see a bunch of 7800GSs there for around $50 right now.

[jr2]

What's the diff between 7600 GS and 7800 GS, performance-wise?

[CP5670]

It's somewhat better across the board, maybe by 30% or so. If you can get it under $50, it's worth a look.

Actually, I see one of the 580mhz 7600GTs there for a similar price, which is probably a better option.

The ideal thing would be a used X1950GT, which used to go for $70-80 last I checked (maybe a month ago), but there aren't any on there at the moment. If you're ready to wait a bit, they may show up again in a week or two.