What to buy?

CrimsonMech

CrimsonMech

Geek Trainee
My problem: Ive a great 2.4ghz pc, with all the nice bits (amazing sound card/speakers, dvd writter, tft 19", 80GB hd, 5GB hd, broardband...).

but i have no grfx card so i cant play a lot of DX 8/9 games.

imagin youre me, you dont much like nVidia (or their shoddy attempt at the Geforce4MX = Geforce 2!).

give yourself a budget of £85.

what card do you buy (pref 256DDRVRAM - 128 will do)???

feedback much apreciated.

Crim
 
nVidia is fine, but the FX series of cards has a flawed DX9 implementation. ATi has a full DX9 card with the Radeons (95/96/97/9800). That's the biggest issue. If DX9 isn't all too important, then the GeForce FX 5700 is fine. Outside of DX9, it is pretty fast. I know the 5700 Ultra is actually a little faster than the Radeon 9600XT.

Just browsing Dabs.com, you can get a Sapphire Radeon 9600 256MB for £81.00 w VAT.
I can't find any 5700's within your budget @ Dabs, but I'm not familar with that many online UK stores.
 
you can get second hand 9800 Pro for between £90 to £130, so try and find then if you can, try to raise your budget a bit if you can...
 
Thanks Big D, that 9600 256 sounds promosing, do you have a link?

And its not so much a hardware/performance thing which i have against nVidia, its more that i just dont like them very much, the company aided MS in raiding the console market (which they sucked at: Sony sold more Eye-Toys than MS have sold xBoxes...).

and a friend sold his 9800Pro 128 on ebay, fetched £235... so im now sure how accutate that is.

whats the key differences between 96/97/9800's?

thanks,

Crim
 
The 9700/9500 cards were the first DX9 compliant Radeon cards. The 9700 was the high-end and the 9500 was the mainstream card. ATi came out with the 9600/9800 line of chips. These were made using a smaller manufacturing process which yeilded less heat and less power consumption. When ATi put out the XT versions of these chips, thermal monitoring was also added in addition to a much higher clock speed.

Here's the Sapphire Radeon 9600 256MB at Dabs.
 
I got a better deal for you.
Anti-Trend is selling a 9500 that is softmoddable to a 9700.
You should swing buy our Buy / Sell /Trade forum
 
harrack52 said:
I got a better deal for you.
Anti-Trend is selling a 9500 that is softmoddable to a 9700.
You should swing buy our Buy / Sell /Trade forum
Click to expand...

Got any links? -> sorry, im a little new to this forum not sure how it works.

and essensially, (please correct this): all the 9x00 cards are capable of doing prety much the same thing, its just tweaks and bells and the memory that sets them appart?
 
They're all DX9 except for one of the 9000/9100/9200. (I'm confused about these 3 cards)

The main difference between the rest of the cards is the pure speed. That doesn't mean the 9800 has a higher clock speed and memory speed.

The architecture is not the same on all the cards. But the main difference is the performance.

Also, the 9500 is faster than the 9600 (9600 < 9500 < 9600 PRO < 9500 Pro)

Here's the link to the card. Anti-Trend is a mod here, so you won't get ripped off.
http://www.hardwareforums.com/showthread.php?t=1870
 
see:
(9600 < 9500 < 9600 PRO < 9500 Pro)
was all anyone ever needed to tell me!

I'd be interested in a comprehensive scale (liek the one above) for EVERY card, from 9200 to 9800Pro AllInWonder...
 
You can forget about the 9000/9100/9200. They're not what you need.
IF you already have one of those, you might be able to cope with it, but if you don't, these cards are good for people that do not play games.

9600 < 9500 < 9600 Pro < 9500 Pro
Now you crank it up a couple of notches.
9700 < 9800 < 9700 Pro < 9800 Pro (both flavors) < 9800XT
Now you crank it all the way up and you have the X800 Pro and the X800XT

The X800XT costs $800 CAD ....I'm sure it's a great card though
 
Im sure i can sweet talk an X800XT for £70... just smile down the phone and tell them about my sick mother and my war-torn borthers and sisters back in whatever country they are in, and somehow relate these problems to my lack of a good graphics card?

Ok, maybe not... Could be worth a try though.

Ok its not worth a try...

...Wanna buy one for me anyone?

...anyone?

...anyone at all?...

...Crim
 
800 CAD Dollars?! Ouch.

That works out as 322.865 Sterling...still...ouch.

Oh yeah, no disrespect to nVidia, but the X800PRO is £100 cheaper than the 6800Ultra (I think) and still beats it in most benchmarks..poor nVidia.
 
Last I checked, the Canadian dollar is roughly equal to $0.70 USD, but that could've easily changed.
 
9000, 9100, and 9200 Demystified

harrack52 said:
They're all DX9 except for one of the 9000/9100/9200. (I'm confused about these 3 cards)
Click to expand...
ATI's naming convention is severly lacking in the logic department. Let me lay down the straight dope:

9000
Rendering Pipes: 1
DirectX Support: 8.1
Clock Speed:~200-275MHz
Special Features: HYDRAVISION, PIXEL TAPESTRY I
Description: This card is really a 8500se with one rendering pipe disabled. For all practical purposes it's a crippled 8500SE with *no* advantages over it's predecessor.

9100
Rendering Pipes:2
DirectX Support:8.1
Clock Speed:~250-300MHz
Special Features: HYDRAVISION, SMARTSHADER, PIXEL TAPESTRY II, SMOOTHVISION, TRUFORM
Description: Basically a revamped re-release of the 8500SE, with slightly higher clocks and a few extra features. Best of the three listed here.

9200
Rendering Pipes:1
DirectX Support:8.1
Clock Speed:~250-300MHz
Special Features: HYDRAVISION, SMARTSHADER, PIXEL TAPESTRY II, SMOOTHVISION, TRUFORM
Description:Same as the 9100, except with one of the pipes disabled. Performs about the equivilent of the 8500, except with a few added features.

To further clarify, cards from the 8500 to the 9200 all support pixel shader 1.2 (DirectX 8.1). Cards from 9500 to 9800 support Pixel Shader 2.0 (DirectX 9).
 
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