Right, having received some really good advice from here, and several large bills from elsewhere () I had decided to put my PC upgrade on hold for a month or two. Alas, my WC system has just leaked all over my trusty GF4 Ti4200 and forced the issue.


I am about to go on a rather expensive holiday, and while I am waiting to see exactly how much I end up spending I dont anticipate having a lot of disposable income in the near future. For this reason and this reason only I am considering buying one of the dying breed of AGP graphic s cards to tide me over until I can afford a proper upgrade.

Obviously anything I buy in AGP is a dead end upgrade because no modern mobo will support it, so I want to spend as little as possible. On the other hand, a little more performance than the 4200 had would be nice and I doubt I could bring myself to live with anything slower than it was.


I am pondering these two

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=607995 (NV 7300GT)

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=609454 (ATi 3650)

which seem to be about the right price. Which would you get in my shoes?

Open to other suggestions, but its exceptionally unlikely that I am going to be able to upgrade my box this side of Christmas so anything PCI-E is right out.

TBH I would look to buy a cheap one off ebay or a second hand card if I was in your shoes, seems a bit of a waste to me spending 30 quid+ on AGP at this stage ...Maybe something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATI-Radeon-7000-32MB-DDR-AGP-graphics-card-TVout-SILENT_W0QQitemZ290257775807QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item290257775807&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A2%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Two ways of doing it, if you have a reasonable processor you might want to keep it as a home entertainment system/second PC, in which case the HD3650 would be a good choice. Otherwise, if you are going to be upgrading reasonably quickly to a new PC, go for ebay and as cheap as you can get.

thanks for the tips,

as I say Im likely to upgrade in the short to medium term, but its unlikely to be this side of Christmas.

Ill have a look on ebay and see whats around, then if I cant find anything cheap and chearful but at least as fast as a Ti4200 Ill go for the HD3650.