It's-a-time to buy a new videocard!
 

Yes, the time has come that I can finally ditch this 6-generation-behind Geforce 4 MX. I am buying a new Videocard, and I want to buy one that excels in every imaginable way, therefore i need some experts advice.

What I want, is an ATI card that has Passive cooling (so its COMPLETELY noiseless), handles Pixel Shader 2 well, connects to the motherboard with AGP, and does not eat 283472984 watts of power (power consumption becomes an increasing nuisance with my computer running 24/7).

I'm thinking of a Radeon 9800xt but I've absolutely no clue if it has a model that meets my requirements. Any ideas?

edit: the card is to accompany a Gigabyte nForce 3 250gb Socket 939 motherboard with an Athlon 64 3200+ (Venice, I think, supports sse3) in it, if that matters any.

If you're going to get a socket 939 board, then you might as well go for PCI-E instead of AGP. PCI-E boards are more expensive than AGP counterparts, yes, but the cards produced for them are cheaper, and you'll have more upgradability.

Uh, I composed that sentence wrong. I already have that motherboard and cpu, I'm about to kill the shitty Geforce 4 MX in it. And yea I know a PCIE mobo wouldve been much nicer and I'm kicking myself because of it, but the old mobo i had to switch was SO horrible that I didn't even mind buying this Gigabyte one with AGP only, fully knowing that pcie (or rather, the lack of it) will cause problems in the future.

Either way, I found 2 cards that match my description, the Sapphire 9600 XT Ultimate and the Sapphire 9800 XT Ultimate. They come with passive cooling, AGP and they would go well with my current mobo/cpu - I guess.

9800xt is far better than 9600xt for performance.

Hmm I have an old 9800XT (club3d) and it's hot and noisy.. dunno about that sapphire model, though.

it doesn't have fan so obviously its not noisy .... I bet its hot though. I have the 9600xt ultimate and its ran well for me at good temps.

Since you're stuck, I would suggest getting a 9800 XT and then putting on a cooling sleeve. There's some floating around, but I can't recall off the top of my head which one is best.