AGP card for 230W PSU to play AOE3 and CIV4

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Squilliam

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My Mothers partner had an accident at work, I wanted to help him out by putting a basic graphics card into his system.

It has a 230w PSU! I know, but all she wants to do is be able to play AOE3 and CIV4 at a decent resolution.

The computer has AGP 8* and is 1.5 volt.
The system runs just an optical drive, a single HDD and thats about it.

Yea I know it isn't much but is there anything that'll work?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-51341

Thats the full specs.
 
if your looking for cheap(under £25) radeon 9000 or 9200 or 9250 or nvidia 5200 or 6200
if your looking for power x1950pro or 7900gs (doubtfull on that psu though)

rec gfx spec for aoe3 = 64mb dx7 card
 
For best performance you could get one of the AGP X1950s/7950(or whatever nVs correspondent was called. Going with newer cards might be problematic as that PSU probably won't have the required power connectors, although there are 3850s in AGP...which have driver trouble, but still.
 
Youguys are giving poor advice. A 9700 would be terrible.

You can get about the same graphics quality from a super low end modern card that will use 20% of the power.
 
How about a 7600gs? I can get a good price for it, and it will run dx9 games like command and conquer? Sorry I didn't follow technology between the r300 and the Geforce 8800gtx, so I have a blank in my knowledge there.
 
Squilliam said:
How about a 7600gs? I can get a good price for it, and it will run dx9 games like command and conquer? Sorry I didn't follow technology between the r300 and the Geforce 8800gtx, so I have a blank in my knowledge there.
Click to expand...

Basically after the NV3x debacle things went to parity.

7600 would be a superb choice for what you are talking about. You want something like that a midrange part (so it take very little power).

One thing to add:
A good way to find low power ones are those that have no fan on them and a reasonable heatsink size. Also many of the low/mid range parts have tiny heat sinks and really annoying loud fans so a passive one might be worth thinking about.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121064
 
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I have to keep the card in a 230 watt power window, for the whole system :/. I don't think they will want to go too expensive or upgrade what is already a pretty old system. Actually whats the most modern card to use the AGP interface? Im talking smaller process size etc that also runs at a low power usage? Any idea if the 3400 series will be AGP? I think the 3600 series might be good also?

I have to keep it cheap, I live in New Zealand and our etail scene for parts is pretty bad unfortunately. I also can't use yours.

Edit, I think i'll recommend either a 7600gt or gs, according to coding horror they use either 36 or 27 under full 3d load and I can get them for a reasonable price.

I can't seem to find any decent newer cards that are AGP around here.
 
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later 7600 and 7300GT cards have a 80nm GPU (the G73-B1), improving a bit from its already small and efficient 90nm counterpart.
 
6600GT or X700Pro. I bet those go for very cheap on fleabay. Maybe even a 7600 AGP but those aren't cheap.
 
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