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Thread: Buying a new graphics card

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    Geek Trainee my_ark_4 is on a distinguished road
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    Default Buying a new graphics card

    Well i desperately need an upgrade from my MX440 and I was looking at a Radeon 9600 or 9800. Im looking to spend under $175 CAD ($145 USD). I found a 128mb 9600 XT for $135 CAD ($112 USD). This seemed like a great deal bassed on the high clock speed and other factors, the only thing is lagged behind on the 9800's (sub XT) was a few factors which I have a vauge idea of what they mean (geometry rate, pixel fill rate and it only has 4 pipelines vs the 9800's 8) and the memory speed. Ive heard fairly good things about this card, but with technology as it is, to be able to play recent games on semi decent settings (read: medium to medium low) on my rig (P4 2.4 512DDR (going to a full gig soon) will it last me long before i need to upgrade. I'm not expecting it to last the almost 2 years that my MX440 did, but something close to that.

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    all grown up ProcalX will become famous soon enough ProcalX's Avatar
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    A 9600XT is a very good card, however if you can wait, or stretch your budget i would go for a 9800Pro or 9800XT.

    Or IF you can find one, get a 9700Pro.

    The 9700/9800 Range all have 8 pipelines, where as anything lower only has 4
    for newer games you really would be Much better off with the 8 pipelines as it make a big difference.

    The 9700Pro has slightly lower clock speeds than the 9800Pro, however has 8 Pipelines, the problem is that this card is rather hard to find.

    Or, if you wanted a cheap 9800Pro, buy a: ATI Radeon 9800SE All In Wonder, it will cost you slightly more if not equal to a 9600XT, and with a simple software modification (merely done by downloading different drivers), you can "unlock" the other 4 pipelines, as they are Actually on the card, just disabled by the drivers
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    ProcalX is absolutly right, I sold my 9800 SE to someone so they could softmod it to a 9800 Pro. The 9700 is also an excellent card in your price range, you can run World of Warcraft without slowdown on the higher settings.

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    Although it might work, I wouldn't advise you to buy a card in the hope of soft-modding it.

    Sometimes (like the 9500 to 9700 mod), the disabled pipelines are disabled because they are not working right. Therefore, once you enable them, you get artifacts.

    I suggest you at least get a 9800 Pro 128mb. Anything slower is a waste of money IMO, because you'll have to replace it soon, whereas the 9800 pro still has some life into it.

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    Geek Trainee my_ark_4 is on a distinguished road
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    So would you recomend a 9800 Pro or SE above a 6900XT?

    EDIT: I will probably end up with a Saphire made card if i go into the 9800's if it makes a diffrence (which i doubt)
    Last edited by my_ark_4; 17-03-2005 at 05:55 PM.

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    Go for a Radeon 9800pro if you can over a 9600XT. But keep away from SE cards.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Addis
    Go for a Radeon 9800pro if you can over a 9600XT. But keep away from SE cards.
    ^^

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    Sorry, one more thing, what about the straight 9800?

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    The performance (and price) should be very similar when compared to the Pro, it should run FarCry and maybe even HL2 on higher settings without much of a hitch. It's a little harder to come by though, Newegg only has one in stock but it's over $200.

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    yeh I have the sapphire 9800 pro 128mbm, and it's so far handled every thing I've thrown at it and spat it back out again. And with my new chip n mobo, only D3 slows me down on 1600*1200, which is no major biggy.

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    Geek Trainee my_ark_4 is on a distinguished road
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    The place where i found them (this is in Canadian funds)

    Sapphire ATI 9800Pro Atlantis AGP8X 256MB DDR W/VGA/DVI/TV-out W/Completed Cables
    $265

    Sapphire ATI 9800 Atlantis
    AGP8X 128MB DDR W/VGA/DVI/TV-out/ADP

    $179

    Given, the pro does have double the ram, but i really like the price of that 9800, without any objections, i think i might go for that once i sell my old bike.

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    I think you should, it's a better deal in the long run. Why pay $86 dollars more for something that will only give you between 5-10 fps better (or less)? The Pro does have more vram but depending on what your playing you wont notice it. My card has 128mb's of vram and I only have one stick of 512mb ram yet FarCry still runs smoothly. There are 9800's with 256mb's of vram but you will have a hard time finding them for $179 CAD. If you had PCI-express I'd suggest the GeForce 6600 line but oh well.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Waffle
    yeh I have the sapphire 9800 pro 128mbm, and it's so far handled every thing I've thrown at it and spat it back out again. And with my new chip n mobo, only D3 slows me down on 1600*1200, which is no major biggy.
    Wow, what detail settings were you using? I'm impressed you cranked it up that high before the slowdown became particularly evident.

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    remember this, every SE card has 64bit vRAM. Not 128, or 256 like the 9800pro/XT's. So they cannot be fully softmodded. They will still be SE's.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Exfoliate
    Wow, what detail settings were you using? I'm impressed you cranked it up that high before the slowdown became particularly evident.
    He's exaggerating.

    Im running 1GB Dual Channel 2-2-2-5 / AMD64 3200+ / 6600GT @ 900/1.04GHz using DX9.0C & Omega Forceware and i can't run 1600x1200 at high graphics using my system (he'll be on lower graphics).
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