ATI Radeon HD 3450 AGP 1.5 V?
 

Hello all. I'm upgrading my video card. My motherboard (Gigabyte GA-7VT600) requires AGP card that is 1.5 V. For choice of video card, I'm thinking of going with ATI Radeon HD 3450 AGP. is it 1.5 V? Here's the link for the video card. http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?mo...=9&l3=772&l4=0

Thanks.

- Josh

Yes it's compatible, 1.5v is the newest AGP standard. Only VERY old motherboards would have the older type (1.8v I think).

if you gonna use that rig for gaming get the HD 3850 instead. Or better yet do a full scale upgrade. If not gaming, then you dont even need to get an HD 3450.

Well, I'm looking for a resonable priced AGP video card that will work well with Vista. At $45 on newegg.com, price isn't too bad. Just want to make sure that it will work with that kind of AGP slot on motherboard.

- Josh

Thanks alot. Just wanted to make sure the card would be compatable.

i would think that your current Radeon 9000 should work on Vista, so thats why i said there bis little point in the upgrade if not gaming.

If you gonna get the HD 3450 i highly recomend to get the actively cooled version. Passively cooled cards are blazing hot, especially under load. I know this from first hand experience.

The Radeon 9000 doesn't have a native driver for Vista. Also it's not mine, it's a loaner from my brother. Also, I'm gonna do a little gaming with it. Most importantly, how can I tell if the card that I'm gonna get is actively cool or passively cooled?

- Josh

Look at a picture of the card, if you see a fan anywhere then it's actively cooled. If there's no fan and just a piece of metal on it, it'll be passively cooled. I imagine a low powered card like a 3450 would be passively cooled to save money on manufacturing costs, plus it'll be silent of course. A passively cooled card won't overclock as much as an actively cooled one though.

I really wouldn't bother getting it if you intend to play recent games though, even an AGP 3850 would struggle with a lot of modern games like Crysis for example.

Yea, i agree with that. Furthermore if you are planning to use Vista on your present system be prepared to upgrade to a min of 2 GB of RAM, recomended size is 4GB. In all honesty, even with 2 GB of RAM and HD 3450 your machine will struggle with Vista and newer games. You are much better off upgrading everything as i sed earlier.

Thanks. I just took a look at the pic of it off the newegg.com site. It definitely has a fan on it, so it's actively cooled. Gaming isn't one of my really big main concerns. Just looking for a reasonable decent AGP card that will work under Vista and directX 10.

- Josh

Just wondering -- if gaming isn't a big concern, why worry about getting a card that supports directX 10? You could find you an older Radeon X1600 AGP somewhere on ebay for $10, probably.

Well, let's say that gaming could be a concern. I do have a couple of games.... Silent Hunter 4 and will be upgrading Chessmaster.

- Josh

in that case you will be better off with a 3650 or 3850. HD 3450 is not a gaming card, its more for HTPC or media playback uses or to provide display functionality to systems without IGP. It may play modern play games but just barely. I'm not familiar with the games you mentioned but i know that all games list recomended and minimum requirements needed to play. Check them out and see what kind of hardware they recomend and go from there. Also, dont forget to get more RAM, if your board supports dual channel -- great, then pick up some cheap DDR on ebay otherwise Vista will bog your system down.