fx 5200 dead? newer, cheap agp options?

[foo]

Hello,

I'm curious how likely it would be for a geforce fx 5200 to simply *burn up*? Or could my problem be somewhere else?

I've had it for a few years now and never had problems with it playing BFV quite often. A couple weeks ago I started playing Combat Arms online and it seemed to work fine, until a couple days ago it started lagging- worse and worse each day and flickering blank screen; at first only while playing. Then 2 days ago it started lag anytime there was any 3d image on screen (even the little rotating emblem on nvidia control panel). then yesterday the screen wouldn't come on while pc was on.

the card heat sink was obviously "hot to touch" but didn't seem any hotter than before and nothing smelled.
I swapped back to vga cable and on board video and at least I can use pc again...

after researching the fx 5200 it seems like such a crap card now-a-days anyhow... any recommendations for a cheap replacement agp card that could work well with combat arms + has dvi? under $100 hopefully... (this mobo has agp 8x, pcie x1!, or pci--- so I assume I'm stuck with agp until I get another computer ?in a year or more?)

I've seen old b-marks online showing that just the 6200 beats the hell out of the 5200, but even that card is old now...
what would you say is the best agp card right now in categories up to $50, $75, $100, $125 ranges? or how much is too much to be spent on a system like this:

winXP home
Athlon64 3000+ 1.8ghz
asus a8v-mx mobo
1gb x2 Corsair PC3200 VS1GB400C3
Linkworld LPJ2-23-P4 430W ATX12V Power Supply (12v@18a)
dx9.0

any comments on some of these offers/cards:
XFX 6200 128MB DDR2 AGP $49.95
EVGA GeForce 6200 256MB DDR AGP $43.76
Bfg Geforce 6200OC Agp 256MB VGA Dvi Svid $43.50
HIS Radeon X1650 512MB DDR2, PCI-Express, DVI, VGA,TVO $50
Diamond X1650 ATI Viper X1650Pro 256MB AGP GDDR2 Dual DVI $59.99
Force3d ATI Radeon Hd 3650 512mb Ddr2 Hd3650 AGP 8x $90.94
HIS Radeon HD 2600 XT 512MB GDDR3, AGP 8x, Dual DVI, HDTV,HDMI $99.99

[-RK]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102814

This is what I personally would recommend. The 6200 is quite far on the low-end scale now, even though it does beat out the 5200. That card should be bumping up against a processor bottleneck though, so anything higher than that would be quite unnecessary.

You could also go with one of the x1650s, they would be decent for your system.

I'm a little drunk right now, otherwise I would gladly go into more detail about the individual cards.

[Radiator]

The HD 3650 is the fastest of the bunch you listed ... but the CPU will bottleneck it . HOWEVER , it'll still beat all the other cards with that CPU .

[foo]

thanks guys

after thinking about it some more I don't think that my gaming needs would justify the extra $ for the hd3650. I did contemplate this one b/c it is $69.99 w/ rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121260
but it seems people have issues with drivers in reviews, it doesn't come with the power cable, it's huge, has passive cooling (bad experience with that already since no case fan other than a little pci slot type), and I don't know if I'd have the power for it...

so I think I'll go with one of these x1650pro's for ~$60:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102781
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102073

any thoughts on how these 2 compare? they seem to have different layouts, one is clocked faster, and one has cover for air flow/heat sink (one review said that this cover assembly actually makes card *hotter* since it isn't in contact w/chips?)...

also, I have never used a card w/a separate power connector; would the included "power cable" need its own dedicated connection, is it just a y-cable splitter/etc., or what?

[-RK]

It's the same connector that is used for floppy drives, you shouldn't need anything special.

Personally, I would still choose the hd3650 even with it's driver issues, just not a passively cooled one. The x1650 should do you just fine though.

[Radiator]

The HD 3650 is MUCH faster , than the X1650 Pro , though .

[foo]

awhhh hell. I just couldn't resist seeing what the difference is between old & new so I went ahead and ordered the sapphire hd3650 agp... should keep me going for a while. guess now i might as well upgrade to the opteron 185 cpu for the same cost.

but over $30 more for agp version! damn these industry f****r'ss for their price manipulation and planned obsolescence! surely someone could have finished that agp-to-pcie adapter and got it on the market for less than $30 (i'm sure they were *persuaded* not to sell this) so they win again... you'd think the agp cards would be in clearance sections, but nooo, you have to pay a premium for not buying their *new stuff*. but i digress...

thanks for the input guys.

[Radiator]

You can't simply put an AGP-to-PCIe bridge on a card , it's CONNECTED TO THE CORE !

[-RK]

Would you mind telling me where you can get an opteron 185 for the same price as an agp 3650?

I would definitely buy it.

[foo]

Would you mind telling me where you can get an opteron 185 for the same price as an agp 3650?

I would definitely buy it.


I think I was reading it wrong, it was an AM2 or 175 or something... and I had deleted the link because I oc'd this Athlon64 3000 to 2.4ghz instead... for free! Even got it to 2.7ghz but it was sooooo slow to boot or recognize something as simple as a right click...

Oh ya and the HD 3650 is friggin sweet guys, thanks. This computer has life again [gaming].

[-RK]

Even if it was an opteron 175 it's still a dual core 939 opteron for...

Ahh, damn...

[hdantman]

Hmm. Yeah--had three customers with burnt up 5200s. And yeah, crap card. All kinds of great performance to be had these days for sub $50 that'll blow you away after suffering that card for a while. Did you catch the $80 9800GT sale from Newegg tonight?