Nvidia GeForce 7800 GS AGP

Review Hands-up who remembers AGP? Ah, just the two of you, thought as much. You'd be forgiven for thinking that'd be the way such a conversation with four million geeks would go, given all the coverage of PCI Express graphics cards and platforms since PCI Express became the kind of slot you'd most want to plug stuff into...

The reality is that AGP still sells well, even at the fairly high end, where ATI Radeon X800 and GeForce 6-series boards play. Indeed, Dixons here in the UK reports that they still ship 50:50 AGP:PCI-E when it comes to graphics boards, and 50 per cent of that first 50 per cent cost more than £100. So there's a bunch of you out there, to the tune of thousands of units a month, that want to drop decent money on AGP.

And for those with solid AGP systems that don't fall over and do exactly what you need them to do, why not? If it weren't for a VapoChill incident, there's a large chance that'd I'd be typing this to you from an AGP-based system that just rocked. Back when it still worked, anyway.

Sure, the latest and greatest would still have rolled my way, but I'm also a big proponent of not fixing what isn't broken. The ASUS SK8V is still one of my all time favourite mainboards, the Athlon FX-53 would still be very sweet today, and all I'd really be looking to upgrade would be the memory, to 2GB. Oh, and the graphics card.

You see, back then I was running an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro in my personal system. R350 kicked some ass back then, but it doesn't quite kick it now, especially with the likes of F.E.A.R. around. Folks running similar systems and still hanging on to a 9800 Pro or XT, or 5900 Ultra - cards that rip through Unreal Tournament 2004 at high-ish res - will be thinking the same.

If you're burning along with a card like that, you might be hankering after an upgrade right about now. There aren't many legs left to AGP, that much you have to admit. So, to get that copy of F.E.A.R. purring along using AGP, you're realistically looking at a Radeon X800 XL or GeForce 6800 GS, when it comes boards on sale today.

Today, yes, but in a week or so's time you'll also have the new GeForce 7800 GS AGP to pick.

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