Graphics cards

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donbenni

donbenni

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Looking for a good card for approx. £150.

Found two of interest, but by Sapphire, but i'm open to suggestions.

1. 128Mb 9800 Pro £143
2. 128Mb 9600XT Ultimate £163

Would be happy to pay the extra £20 if it's worth it, but i don't really know much about this sort of thing myself.

Please provide some kind of sensible, knowlegable comment about either of the two, or about another card that's in the price bracket and better than these. (I have no phobea of Geforce cards btw)
 
I have a 9600XT.

I'm happy with it. It plays all my games well.

I'm not exactly sure what you'd like to know, but you can go ahead and ask away. 👍
 
I dunno really exactly what i'm looking for. A graphics card is a purchase that i don't want to have make again for a while and obviously i'm looking for something that is problem free and as powerful as possible.

Gaming is the main concern. With Battlefield 2 coming out early next year, i want to have a decent setup ready. Planning on overclocking my Athlon XP and the card itself so i guess a card with overclocking potential would be desirable.

But i guess unless anyone knows any other worthwhile card, the choice is really between the two stated at the top as i've heard they're both pretty decent.
 
Within the price range, you could probably get around a FX5700 Ultra, which is a little worse in performance and lacks in image quality. The only other option would be looking around for a used/refurbished 9800 Pro or FX5900XT. Another option may be getting a 9800np and trying to open up the 256-bit bandwidth. Other than those options, I'd say the 9600XT is the way to go.

Of course, one other thing being waiting for the new generation of cards. That is, the Nvidia 6600 should be around $150 American, when it finally does come out in AGP. They are out as of know, but only in PCIE, and currently there are no motherboards for socket A with PCIE.

I'm quite happy with my video card. I could tell you what settings I'm able to play games at if you'd like. One example being NFSU. I play at 1024x768 with 2xaa/4xaf. Very smooth.

As far as overclocking goes. I think my PSU is screwed up, as my rails suck horriby. However, with the power as it is, I run at 550/338(676 effective). Like I said, most people are able to go above 570core on stock cooling (I bought the most expensive air cooler I coudl find, along with BGA copper RAMsinks), but I'm still limited, not by temps though. I'm looking into the whole PSU thing, if I get it fixed anytime soon I'll let you know.

I do recommend it, though. 👍

(I have the Gigabyte, by the way)
 
If you had a choice of the two, I would definately go for the 9800 Pro! It's a great card, rock solid! Check the benchmarks.... Your overall gaming experience will be better with the 9800 Pro. :-)
 
Hmm, different views, different people [/David Brent]

Computer Shopper (UK mag) have been plugging the 9800 Pro as the best card in the price bracket for a while now. Right now i am slightly swayed towards it, but i've still got until the Christmas holidays until i get my pc to run it in.

Guess i should give the spec incase that helps:

AMD Athlon 2600+ XP
1 Gig ram (unsure of speed)
Currently running ATi 9200SE (not the worst card ever, but powerless and leaves mega gaps between textures resulting in white lines crisscrossing the battlefield)
 
toyomatt84
9600 XT 256meg
9800 Pro 128meg

I'd say choose from these 2, because they have the best prices in the UK. If you want better shaders, choose the 9800 Pro. If you want faster framerates, choose the 9600 XT. That's where I leave it to you.
Click to expand...
Huh?

The 9800 Pro is all around better. Higher framerates, as well as better shaders. Also, 256MB doesn't change the performance, practically at all. In some cases it reduces speed, as larger RAM has higher latency. It may have a change in heavy AA/AF situations, but such situations would be too much of a load on the GPU on the 96XT anyways. You have to remember the 9800 Pro is in a different bracket than the 9600XT. The 9800 Pro is last year's enthusiest bracket, while the 9600XT is in the upper-end mainstream.

This is where I leave you.
Want better performance and shaders, but want to spend more money, get the 9800 Pro.
Want decent performance, and still good shaders, while spending less money, go with the 9600XT.
 
Burnout's got the right response.
Go with the 9800 pro, the 9600 series were made for the mainstream - rather than a gamer's video card.
 
Cool, well that's pretty conclusive then. No offense to those of you with th 96XT, i'm sure it's a great card, but the 98Pro is the card for me by the looks of it.

Thanks people, much appreciated 👍 👍 👍
 

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