Since the release of the PCI Express standard with the launch of the 925 chipset from Intel, new computer systems with AGP slots are few and far between. But there is a market for older systems with AGP slots on them as not every computer user wants to buy a new CPU, a new motherboard, memory graphics card etc. as they are content with their current system. One of the issues with current video cards is that few if any are released on the old AGP standard.
GIGABYTE is a Tier-1 manufacturer of motherboards, video cards and other computer accessories based in Taiwan. They cater to every facet of the computing community from the high end enthusiast to the casual gamer wanting a solid dependable motherboard. Their lineup of AGP cards consists of the 9550 and 9250 chips which were based upon the DirectX 8.1 Radeon 8500 which was released many years ago. They also released a 9600 Pro chip which supported DirectX 9.0 but is relegated to Legacy status and no longer available. Today they are releasing their first modern AGP card, the Radeon HD 4650 in the form of the GIGABYTE GV-R465D2-1GI Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 8X HDCP Ready Video card which is on the review bench.
