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Ok, I plan to get a ATI radeon 1650 series 512mb AGP, here is the link to it
http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1650/index.html , ok what I'm looking for is to overcloak games like Empire at War, Battlefield 2, Battlefront 2, etc..., or at least have most of it's settings on High, suggestions, thougts or comments are welcome.

Well I have a Radeon X1300 and it has served me very well. Your card would work just fine for what you want it for so I have nothing against it.

Graphic Card? Overcloak? I think you need to do some research before you start messing around with this stuff, dude.

(It's overclock, and you overclock the card itself, not games.)

I don't recommend overcloaking. Its not really necessary for games such as the ones you mentioned, and if you do it wrong you screw the video card. I'd just keep it at 512 mb.

JabbaLovesLava wrote:I don't recommend overcloaking. Its not really necessary for games such as the ones you mentioned, and if you do it wrong you screw the video card. I'd just keep it at 512 mb.

lol, overclocking a video card doesn't physically increase its graphics double datarate (GDDR). What it does is allow you to manually increase or decrease the clock speeds for the memory and core.

And don't bother with AGP. A year ago? Sure, of course. But now PCI-E rules the market. If you're going for a new video card, grab a PCI-E motherboard from ASUS' P5-series and compatible DDR2 RAM to go along with the PCI-E video card which you should grab from Nvidia. If you can't afford it, get a job and save up, otherwise you'll be wasting money on an outdated and weak video card. Ultimately, outdated technology.

I have an Xtasy ATI 256 Mb in mine, and that thing rips! Just make sure you get you're money's worth and do some research.

Well, I'd recommend you to buy a new, good Graphic Card, because playing games in high graphic settings is funnier than low.

I'm more a nVidia fan (my card: nVidia GeForce 6700 XL), but ATI is good as well.

- Bird-Kid

NVIDIA and ATI are both Top GPU's (Video Card's) I have Extensively tested both brands, and I prefer NVIDIA over ATI, and a good amount of the time/ most of the time, NVIDIA performs better that ATI, as ATI (depending on the GPU you get) can be a little "sluggish" and NVIDIA's drivers seem to "get along" better with windows, but they are Both very good cards. It just depends on the type you get. And if you do not have the money to get a PCI-E Motherboard or GPU, getting a AGP is fine, there is nothing wrong w/ AGP, yes it may be a little older but it performs great.

also - make sure your psu (Power Supply) can handle your new GPU.

Yes, make sure your power supply can handle it.

Also make sure you can get rid of any extra heat your computer may be giving off as a result of the Video Card.

A friend of mine recently fried a 400$ Mother Board due to the improper cooling of his system.

Yes Cooling is very important, liquid cooling or fan cooling (or you can use both) it is good to have like 2-4 fans in your computer to keep the air circulating and bring cool air in an send hot air out. If you are getting a PSU (your computer performs better the colder it is)– do not get just enough, always get more so your system is never “in want” of power” – if you get a “to low psu ”your system will not perform good, having low power can cause problems any ware from slow boot-ups, problems with graphics cards( the graphic card problem is the gpu is not getting enough power) and the like – have a GOOD psu is essential to any computer as having good cooling, good GPU, large hard Drive or more RAM.

Yes, I have researched about this since like 1 month, and I made the same topic in other forums, just want to know wich is the best card I can get, thanks for your omment though

Check out TigerDirect.com, newegg.com and zipzoomfly.com – I buy from those sites whenever I build a new computer for myself or a person im building a new computer for.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Home.jsp

http://www.newegg.com/

http://www.tigerdirect.com/

Look for a video Card in your price range, then read the reviews on it to see how people like it/how it worked, and then check to make sure it has good specs - etc, and when/if you decide to get it make sure your psu can handle it, and you have good cooling.

Hey, How do I know how many power supplies my PC has or is using?

Your PC has but 1 power supply my friend. If you are looking at power supplies, you should try to buy one that will exceed the demand placed upon it. If you are running an AGP motherboard, this shouldn't be too much of a problem, and anything over a 450 watt power supply should do. But remember - you get what you pay for. There are 450 watt power supplies to be had for $35, and some that are $135.. take a guess which one is better..

When checking out equivalent wattage (if you don't understand the amps that are being supplied to each rail), pick them both up. USUALLY, the heavier of the two is the better built power supply. Why? Because the heavier supply usually means its been designed with better heatsinks and capacitors, and can handle power distribution better, with a more consistent CLEAN power flow.

I have an Antec power supply in my system (they make great power supplies - unfortunately not alot of high wattage ones right now). My power supply is only 300 watts, but my friend has a no name 450 watter in his system and mine is MUCH better.

Also, the more devices you have hooked up, the more power drawn from your supply. If you have your mobo, cpu, 2 hard drives, 2 optical drives (dvd/cd drives), and a video card, you want to ensure you aren't drawing more than 75% of the maximum output of your P/S, otherwise you will quickly burn it out. A P/S that runs at full draw for very long tends to have a short life span.

Now on to your choice in video card - For AGP, the X1650 pro isn't a bad choice, but keep in mind that AGP cards cost quite a bit more than their PCI xpress counterparts, and are quickly becoming a dieing breed. If you have the money, the best AGP card available would be the Nvidia Geforce 7800 GS (AGP version). It's by far the fastest card, and is identical to the 7800 GS PCI express version - it will scream in your system, and will take anything you can throw at it. Next in line would be the 7600 GS and Radeon 1650 / 1600 pro. Also, the Radeon X800 series of cards are very good, and you may still be able to find a few in AGP form. Check different hardware review sites about these cards though, as many of them DO have 512 megs of Video ram onboard, but the performance is not worth what you are paying for them. You may be better off going with a card with only 256 megs of RAM onboard if it is a faster chipset. Do your homework though, and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Thanks dude, you helped me a lot, now, I have made my choice of what card, the only thing left is to find the power supply, I checked the top 5 AGP out there, the first is the Geforce 7800, the second the Radeon 1650, I read it's specs and they fit perfectly in my PC, also, I saw the opinnions of other that bought those two cards, and they say that for what I wan't them, they will fit perfectly, so, thanks to all of you.

No problem. Good luck with your choice (whatever that may be). If I might make one suggestion though.. We all know that PCI Express is the new de facto standard for Video Cards, so don't go nuts and spend like mad buying a $300 AGP card. You'd be better served buying a midrange card (like the X1650 or 7600, and saving money to upgrade your motherboard and cpu for the future and eventually buying a pci express card (or 2 for SLI / Crossfire).

Personally I have a Radeon 9800 pro 256 meg ram video card, and its served me well for the past 3 years, but its definitely starting to show its age now. In the new year I'll finally upgrade my video card, mobo, cpu (maybe quad core by then), ram, power supply and optical drives.. My hard drive space is more than sufficient (I have 2 - 250 gig WD SATA drives, and 2 - 40 gig Seagate Barracuda IDE drives.. I'm still probably looking at spending at least $2500 - $3000 on upgrades though, but I'm gonna wait until ATI has released their direct x 10 PC video cards as it should spank Nvidia back into submission because it will be their second generation DX 10 card (The first being the graphics chipset for the Xbox 360). By that time, there should be some decent DX 10 games out, and most of the bugs and glitches should be ironed out of these cards. I don't expect to spend much less than $600 Canadian on a video card by then, and if I can sweet talk my wife into it, maybe I'll buy 2 of them Either way, with that sort of video processing power I expect to have to buy at least a 1kW (1000 watt) power supply, or a second dedicated power supply just for the video cards (I've only seen 2 on the market as of right now though, but they're considerable cheaper than buying 1 HUGE power supply for the whole system), and they supply dedicated clean power to the PCI express video cards.

I'll go to PCI-E later, for now, I'll stick to my AGP x8 Port with 7800 Nvidia, and maybe next year move to PCI, also, I need the money to buy a new RAM memory