Question about up-to-date AGP video cards.

[Howard_Casto]

First off Merry Christmas!

I got a nice new Hanns-G lcd monitor for my aging mame cab and it works great.  The only problem is the pc inside it is a little on the old side.  It's still a dual core 64 bit processor, but the MB only has a AGP  card slot, no pcie. 

Now I know I'm not going to be able to play sfiv or any of that stuff on it, but I would like to support the latest shader technology.  I thought I would test out Shank on it, which I'm pretty sure has fairly light requirements, and it errored out asking for a video card with shader 3.0 support.  The same thing happens with some of the dreamcast emulators and the Taito X games. 

So can anyone reccomend a good agp video card that supports all the latest protocols?  Perferably something cheap as this pc will probably be rotated into my gorf cabinet in a couple of months. 

Remeber, it's a hd lcd monitor, so tv-out isn't necessary and hdmi would actually be preferred.


I sure would appreciate any help as it's an odd thing to look for.

[lilshawn]

First off Merry Christmas!

I got a nice new Hanns-G lcd monitor for my aging mame cab and it works great.  The only problem is the pc inside it is a little on the old side.  It's still a dual core 64 bit processor, but the MB only has a AGP  card slot, no pcie. 

Now I know I'm not going to be able to play sfiv or any of that stuff on it, but I would like to support the latest shader technology.  I thought I would test out Shank on it, which I'm pretty sure has fairly light requirements, and it errored out asking for a video card with shader 3.0 support.  The same thing happens with some of the dreamcast emulators and the Taito X games. 

So can anyone reccomend a good agp video card that supports all the latest protocols?  Perferably something cheap as this pc will probably be rotated into my gorf cabinet in a couple of months. 

Remeber, it's a hd lcd monitor, so tv-out isn't necessary and hdmi would actually be preferred.


I sure would appreciate any help as it's an odd thing to look for.

No, fancy shader stuff and all that needs a modern card with a modern processor that has the required instruction set inside it to be able to do it. even the last AGP cards where pale in comparison to low end PCIE cards.

you'd be better off getting yourself a new mobo. I just built a quad core with 4 gigs of ram.. including the case, power supply, and a CDROM drive it was still under 200.

oh, and i belive the only and last of the AGP8x cards that support shader 3 where nvidia 6600 gpu cards... even the 6800 was PCIE

[Howard_Casto]

Well just with the standard google search I found a agp card that supports shader 3.0 so I'm not sure what you are getting at.  I am well aware that it'll be slower and not as good as a pcie but as I said, I'm just looking to support the latest shaders, not play the latest games.  As I said, the processor is fairly new.

I appreciate the advice, but I really don't see how spending maybe 30 bucks to get a shader card that'll do me until I'm ready to buy a new pc (don't have the cash atm) compares to 200. 

[lilshawn]

Well just with the standard google search I found a agp card that supports shader 3.0 so I'm not sure what you are getting at.  I am well aware that it'll be slower and not as good as a pcie but as I said, I'm just looking to support the latest shaders, not play the latest games.  As I said, the processor is fairly new.

I appreciate the advice, but I really don't see how spending maybe 30 bucks to get a shader card that'll do me until I'm ready to buy a new pc (don't have the cash atm) compares to 200. 

i dunno, i just see it as a crutch to keep an already aging computer around a little longer. 30 for a video card... then you'll want a bigger harddrive cause the new roms you want won't fit, more ram, pretty soon youve sunk 200, and you have an old computer still.

guess i'm generation "throw away" I've kinda been under the ideal of, buy the most expensive thing you can afford, that way you don't waste your money in the near future fixing or upgrading...and it stays "modern" longer.

[Howard_Casto]

Well then you are throwing your money away, no offense.  The best value for the money is always the middle of the road.  It's not old, outdated crap and yet you aren't paying "bleeding edge" prices. 

You've got to understand that I'll need to get the pc up to speed anyway.  It will be put in my gorf machine once I upgrade the main cabinet.   Mind you a dedicated gorf doesn't need a whole heck of a lot, but I've found that you need something fairly beefy to handle gorf's suprisingly high sys requirements.  The star field generator, the static generator and all the voice samples make it need a fairly decent pc compared the the average pacman era game. I'll throw mamehooker on there as well to get the rank lights working, so it needs to handle xp pretty well.

You've also got to understand that up until a year or two ago, this pc was my main pc and it was constantly upgraded.... except for the video card.  So I've got 500 gigs of storage, 2 gigs of ram and dual core processor running a 10+ year old video card.  I didn't really bother with the video card because I'm not much of a pc gamer (or at least I wasn't) and for the longest time mame didn't need anything more than decent hw acceleration.  Now even mame requires shaders for the hlsl effects.

[ark_ader]

You should get a ATI 9550 pretty cheap.  That should work for you Howard.  I'd send you one but all mine are PCIe.

[Howard_Casto]

You should get a ATI 9550 pretty cheap.  That should work for you Howard.  I'd send you one but all mine are PCIe.

LOL nope..... pretty sure the 9x series is what's in there now.  It only supports as high as shader model 2.0, all the latest emus need 3.0. 

[404]

last card i saw that was agp was a nvidia geforce 8400. On the same token, you can probably find yourself a second hand motherboard that supports your cpu and hard drive that has a pci-e slot for next to nothing these days. New AGP cards tend to be sold at a premium these days. By the time you get one, you would almost incur the same costs as a compatible pci-e motherboard.

[knave]

$43.00
HIS H435F512HA Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit DDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161318R

Edit: This one is now out of stock but there are other comparable cards in the $50 range. Just try one.

[Gray_Area]

$43.00
HIS H435F512HA Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit DDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161318R

Noot any-more. I'm seeing 2.8ghz HT mobo PCs on CL for under a hundred dollars (although, I think they're still too much). I'd upgrade. Do as Arby says: donate your old one to the proles. No, seriously, sell yours and upgrade.