hi again... im gonna upgrade my vcard this weekend and i was wondering which one is better or worth the money ...between this 3vcard... SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, for $138 SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600XT Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-bit, $184 POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9600XT ULTRA w/ Overdrive Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, $163. i found this cards at newegg.com. thanks in advance
Whatever you do if you are a gamer, do not get a SE card. The SE series have a 64-bit memory bus, which is hardly presentable in this day and age. For the same pricerange, go for a 9800 np, which can easily be overclocked quite a bit. 9800 has 8 rendering pipes, 9600 has 4.
I have the 128MB version of the Sapphire Radeon 9600XT and it's great. Overdrive is part of the drivers and is part of the 9x00XT cards. The Sapphire 128MB should be a little cheaper than the 256MB version you listed, althouogh it'll help to some degree in the future.
hey question to add is what is this 9600XT TURBO? whats the diff? and why am i paying more for the diff? i was gunna buy it based on the fact that it said TURBO! which kinda made me wanna run out and get it right away ... oooh shiny!
Sounds like it might be a 9600XT card that comes overclocked by default...I might be able to tell more if you have a link handy.
http://www.hardavenue.com/reviews/his9600xt1.shtml This page has a review and specs the XT Turbo seems to have the edge over the other 9600 cards would it be worth getting this card at (all australian dollars) $ 285 for the 128mb version or $ 295 for the 256mb version or should i go with the standard XT for 50 bux less or the pro for 30 bux less .. which is the better card? or should i go for a different card? youv'e said not to go for the 9800SE.
The HIS 9600XT Turbo has the RAM running faster by default than standard 9600XT's. I'd go for it. The 9x00SE's are to be avoided. They're only running half the bits of standard 9x00's. This will mangle your performance cap by quite a bit. They are cheaper, but not enough to offset the massive performance hit you take with them.
Are the turbo's just pre overclocked? or is the ram just faster, would there be room for further overclocking do you know? also ive seen on benchmarks that the 128 models do better than the 256 .. why is that? should i go for the 128?
The RAM on the 128MB cards is clocked higher, per ATi spec, than the 256MB. The turbo's do come pre-overclocked, but that doesn't mean you're going to have no headroom left over.
ah just found me something interesting, the NVIDIA FX5900 XT .. this card performs better than the R9600XT in every test and it also doesnt lose as many FPS on the higher resolutions that the R9600XT does. specs for this card are as follows GeForceFX 5900XT – 390MHz/700MHz (core/mem) 128MB RAM (Single Slot) (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTk5) this is has a 50MHz boost on the memory and 110MHz shorter than the 9600XT's clock speed. will the 110Mhz make a huge diff? Problems apparantly are * Requires power from a spare HDD Molex connector * 300w PSU or better required for stability this isnt such a huge problem to me and if it beats the hell out of a R9600XT at only $10 more i'm all for it, this card is also a tad better than the R9700PRO .. is there anything i should know about the Nvidia cards before i make my choice? are they as easy to overclock, i read on a forum that Nvidia pushes their cards to the limit so there isnt much room for overclocking, i also read that while one fella pushed his till he got artifacts then dropped it down 10MHz and still had artifacts then he dropped it to default and the artifacts remained, is this a problem with Nvidia cards or would it be just this one? also it has "4 pixel pipelines with 2 TMUs per pipe" i have no idea what this means .. is it good? This is the card here http://www.dove.co.nz/products/Albatron/Graphics/GR7591.htm
I wouldn't get an FX card simply for the fact that it doesn't do what it's supposed to: render DX9 effects properly. Also, the FX series of cards have a tendency to perform like champs on older games but much much worse on newer games. I'm not sure if the prices are higher in Australia but for $227 usd (which is $295 australian), you can get a BBA 9800 Pro and that's what I would get if I were you.
yeah bit too expensive i think i might just go with the R9600xt turbo .. aaaaaaah fu*k it i'll go the pro i want to play stalker when it comes out ... oh how i want to play that game .. thanks harrack ur a champ
Yeah, other than the DX9 issue, the FX cards are pretty good. Sadly, the DX9 feature is a big deal with the newer releases.
ooooooh crap! the 9800 pro cards are fuggen expensive .. elcheapo version "GeXcube" is $420 AUS .. and im broke .. what i am thinking of doing is grabbing a shitty $90 card for the timebeing and when i actually need to i will upgrade to whatever is the best at the time. the games i want to play havent even come out yet, and the games that are out at the moment will run fine off a $90 card .. wont they? .. pixel shading isnt that new is it? http://www.gamedude.com.au/prod_show.php?art_no=viDImx4408x_128 I figure if my mate can get 5500 3D Marks off a shitty GF4 MX440 and a 1.4Ghz processor then i should be able to do a bit better i know the 440's are shit, i know this .. but i dont need the best right now, i just need better, do you know if these have pixel shading?, am i going to be able to run the games out at the moment, baring in mind that i can run most off the R7000 i have at the moment, it just runs like Sh*t.
Unless your buying something off someone, you're not going to get a card for that cheap and still be a decent upgrade from what you already have. $90USD can't buy much. A Radeon 9200 would be better than what you have, but to be honest, I'd save my money. They aren't bad cards, but if you want to play stuff like FarCry, you're better off sticking with what you have now. If you can spend a little more, you might be able to pick up a plain Radeon 9600. The only 9600's in your price range (if this is 90USD) is the SE's, which as stated before are crap. They do have DX9, but they are so crippled that you're basically buying something that can't really perform any better than a 9200. They do have a GeForce FX5500 (new FX core), but I still wouldn't bite, based on the DX9 issues the FX family has. Basically, save your money. When the next generation of GPU's hit, the 9800's will drop in price and you'll still get a nice card for much less than available now.
that link is to the card im thinking of getting, its a 440MX $90AUS .. its a cheapy .. but it will play me the games im after, plus i just got me 90 bux for my bday so yeah, i dunno .. i just wanna play games, its so depressing getting 10FPS with this piece of crap
Yeah, but that's not much of an upgrade, if any. I'm not sure where in Aus you live, but the prices here seem to be pretty good...and actually comparable to local shops here in the US. http://www.it-rite.com/ Depending on which, it seems like a Radeon 9200 will run you about $75AUD (+ any taxes, etc). They do have GeForce FX 5200 in your price range, but unless they're an Ultra, DON'T buy them, and even then, they'd better be pretty cheap. A whole list of AUS shops: http://forums.tweaktown.com/viewtopic.php?t=975 I don't know how good any of these shops are, so I can't really say who would be the best place to put your dollars. Oh, and BTW, Radeon 9200 > GeForce 4 MX440. The GeForce 4 MX's are basically faster clocked GeForce 2 MX's, and they only support DX7, whereas the 9200 supports DX8.
Would this be ok for the price? http://tw.giga-byte.com/VGA/Products/Products_GV-R92128DH.htm# thats for $140 is the 9200SE better than the normal 9200?
Nope. Stay away from the SE's. They only have a 64-bit memory bus, whereas the regular 9200's have a 128-bit memory bus. Not worth the money you'd save. If you're going to get an SE, you might as well just drop that cash in a toilet and flush. Gigabyte is a good company, so they are able to command a little higher price than others, it's a little on the high side in terms of price. The other company making Radeon cards you might wanna look at if price is your main concern is PowerColor. You get the bare card, only the necessary cables and a driver disc, whereas Gigabyte is throwing in a full-length FPS title to start fraggin right a way.
