Radeon 9600 Pro and XT don't need external power.

Fastest doesn't always mean better gameplay though!

If you want to stick to Nvidia, GeForce 4 Ti cards don't need external power, surprisingly.

Any of those or their Quadro4 equivalents would be among the fastest cards from that time period that run only from the AGP bus power.

They'll all be faster than a 5600 or 6200. I know from experience because a had a ti 4400 die under warranty, and EVGA replaced it with a 256mb 5600 which was significantly slower. It was so noticeable I sold it and bought a 128mb 9600 pro. That was the fastest of the three, but these days we've all been made hyper aware of minor game compatibility issues (8bit palletized textures, table fog... fancy shadows in one game?), so in those cases a GeForce4 Ti is better.

It's also worth noting that the 9600 and the FX series take a smaller hit from AA and AF than the GF4 Ti series, so keep that in mind. Still, I don't think you'd see the 5600 pull ahead of even a Ti4200 before the frame rates were too low to be enjoyable.

Club3d GeForce 7600GT or Medion Radeon 9800XL.

Note: 9800XL has external floppy power connector, but does not require it to be connected on most motherboards.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2021-01-16, 02:11:

Club3d GeForce 7600GT or Medion Radeon 9800XL.

Note: 9800XL has external floppy power connector, but does not require it to be connected on most motherboards.

I'd never heard of either of these, so I Googled it and found the thread where you guys discovered the Club3D 7600GT just a week ago here at vogons:
Re: Mistery Club3d 7600 GT AGP card WITHOUT external power connector

And, I see some posts about a Medion 9800 XXL from over the years, and one sold on ebay back in November, but these cards are both pretty rare.

Definitely the fastest cards on AGP without external power, but finding one would be purely chance. I'm sure they are really pushing the limits of AGP power delivery on the motherboard, being the only cards from those series (9800 and 7600) that people seem to be able to run without them. Even the 7600GS and 6600GT AGP need external power. No idea if this actually makes any real difference though.

Would be curious to find out more about that 7600GT though, for sure. That should be THE fastest of the cards mentioned in this thread, unless it's neutered in some way.

Even the 7600GS and 6600GT AGP need external power.

Inno3D has 7600GS DDR3 without external power. Although it's practically same Club3D card.

Personally, I don't see a good reason to use them. In fact, I can find some reasons not to use them at all, like cost-reduced VRM or increased power current through AGP.

personally I recommend a Geforce 7600 GT AGP
they are enough fast for 2007 and earlier games don't need external power and if you are enough smart you can mod one to be fanless
don't go for the geforce 7800 or 7900 series ( some of them do not require external power but they are a headache, they break easily because they work very hot and they waster lot of energy constantly even in idle

Laser wrote on 2021-01-30, 22:44:

personally I recommend a Geforce 7600 GT AGP
they are enough fast for 2007 and earlier games don't need external power and if you are enough smart you can mod one to be fanless
don't go for the geforce 7800 or 7900 series ( some of them do not require external power but they are a headache, they break easily because they work very hot and they waster lot of energy constantly even in idle

As mentioned earlier in the thread, the 7600GT AGP almost always uses external power. Only one model from Club3D is known to not need it.

Unless you're saying you can just run the card without it plugged in. If that's the case, I'd wonder what the side effects are.

I'd wonder what the side effects are.

More load on AGP and ATX connector.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2021-01-31, 06:20:

I'd wonder what the side effects are.

More load on AGP and ATX connector.

I never bothered trying to run a card without the external power connected. I know modern cards will either not work or will go into "limp" mode and simply refuse to run at full power.

Seems odd if older cards just attempted to run anyway... like we would have seen a lot of damaged boards from people forgetting to plug in their 5950 Ultras.

Most 7600GT will most likely refuse to work without external power. But some non-reference designs might be too "dumb" for that. For example, another version of Inno3D 7600GT, but with external connector.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2021-01-31, 06:31:

Most 7600GT will most likely refuse to work without external power. But some non-reference designs might be too "dumb" for that. For example, another version of Inno3D 7600GT, but with external connector.

I'm glad I was never unfortunate enough to run into a configuration that tried to pull all that power through the motherboard. I wonder how common it was.

Add to that the capacitor plague, the peak of high-TDP processors with undersized heatsinks and the decline of mainstream power supply quality... it's a wonder that any gaming components made it out of the early to mid 2000s intact.