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Purchsing a vid card: Need advice(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)
Posted by: Runriot
Been out of the know for so long, I dont have a freaking clue! Wanting a vid card to pull maxium speed for 3d gaming (say HL2 and DIII) at or below $300. Looking to get it by the end of July.
Last I heard, King of the hill was ATI with the R 9800 pro. Now they have Xinsertnumberhere and nvidia FX cards Ive never heard of 
I have a gf 4 Ti4200 64 currently, and I feel its the bottleneck in my gaming rig (XP2600+ barton, 1 gig PC3200 DDR). So whats the news these days? I searched back threads here, and looked around anandtech but nothing really answered the question:
What card, under $300 should I use in my system for future gaming?
Posted by: Xeno
For under $300 I would suggest the Radeon 9800 pro, preferably HIS Excalibur IceQ 9800 pro. http://www.hisdigital.com
It takes up the pci slot below your video card because it has a pre-installed Arctic Silencer on it. Keeps it nice and cool; allowing the card to overclock very well. 9800XT speeds for the 9800pro price tag. 
Posted by: smeerkat
what's the diff between 9800 Pro, and 9600XT?
Posted by: Nevina
Radeon 9800 Pro still gets kickass marks. I'm kind of sorry I didn't opt for it when I got my 9800XT. This new card they have..x800?? is apparently awesome. Then again, who knows (if it comes out) what this BTX will bring with it?
Posted by: Runriot
quote:
Originally posted by smeerkat
what's the diff between 9800 Pro, and 9600XT?
yeah, that is a good question. I like the thought of switching to ATI from what I have seen (not recently) nvidia has not scaled up very well, buit ATI always had driver/compatibility issues.
Should I be worried with my nForce2 Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo?
Posted by: SL!PPy
quote:
Originally posted by Runriot
yeah, that is a good question. I like the thought of switching to ATI from what I have seen (not recently) nvidia has not scaled up very well, buit ATI always had driver/compatibility issues.
Should I be worried with my nForce2 Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo?
Well First of all I have the same mobo as you and I have an ASUS ATI Radeon 9600XT. I'm very pleased about this card, no problems at all.
I would recommend you to take the 9800XT (it's faster than the 9800 Pro) if you want a card right now, the X800 cards are a bit expensive now, because they were just introduced. But if you can wait a bit longer I would recommend one of those new ATI cards.
For your iformation:
Posted by: Trog
I like to take a gander at these charts whenever I think about buying a video card. Compares them all (except for the newest, which are out of price range anyway): http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gr...-charts-03.html
Posted by: Xeno
quote:
Originally posted by smeerkat
what's the diff between 9800 Pro, and 9600XT?
About 20 fps. 
If I recall correctly; the 9600xt has half the pipelines & memory bandwidth when compared to the 9800pro.
quote:
Originally posted bySL!PPy
I would recommend you to take the 9800XT (it's faster than the 9800 Pro)
The speed increase you get from the 9800 pro to the XT is not near worth the $100 or more extra. Most 9800 pro cards can be easily clocked up to XT speeds and beyond right out of the box. On top of that, he could get a x800 for the price most 9800XT cards are going for.
quote:
Originally posted by Runriot
ATI always had driver/compatibility issues.
Should I be worried with my nForce2 Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo?
No. ATI's drivers are great nowadays. Infact, I'm using an A7N8X Deluxe motherboard with my 9800pro. 
Save some money and get a 9800 pro or set more aside to get a x800 pro or 6800GT. The 6800GT performs on par with the x800 but also offers pixel shader 3.0 and in most cases better OpenGL performance (think Doom 3). Both are right around $400.
Posted by: SL!PPy
quote:
Originally posted by Xeno
The speed increase you get from the 9800 pro to the XT is not near worth the $100 or more extra. Most 9800 pro cards can be easily clocked up to XT speeds and beyond right out of the box.
He's right, forgot about that...
Posted by: Runriot
So the consenses is to either go 9800pro, or wait a tad for the x-whateva? Sounds like a plan 
Posted by: Veinman
I might be specing a new box, (see my HD failure thread), and will probably go the 9800 Pro route. I just can't afford an X800.
Edit- after taking a look at newegg, I was surprised to see that no nForce3 boards support PCI-Express. Do you have to go the Intel route for that? I guess I wouldn't have to worry about it since I am only going to get a 9800 Pro. It would still be nice to do a bit of future-proofing though. (yeah like that ever works...)
Posted by: Veinman
Also- what are everyone's thoughts on getting a 9800Pro with 128MB vs. 256MB? How much price difference makes this not worth it?
Would this price difference be better spent going from 512MB system RAM to 1GB? (I realize the price differences are not equal, but I'm trying to save money.)
Posted by: Kosh
I picked up a 9800xt (256mb) and have been surprisingly pleased with it. there's some issues in UT2k4 and CoH that are probably fixable with driver tweaks, but all-in-all, I've been pleasantly suprised.
I was a nVidia fan all the way back to the TNT 16 days. so to make the switch now was a bit unsettling, especially after all the driver horror stories I've heard about the Radeons.
I picked mine up off eBay for $250 dollars (retail package). don't feel too bad about it.
Posted by: Kosh
quote:
Originally posted by Veinman
Also- what are everyone's thoughts on getting a 9800Pro with 128MB vs. 256MB? How much price difference makes this not worth it?
Would this price difference be better spent going from 512MB system RAM to 1GB? (I realize the price differences are not equal, but I'm trying to save money.)
As games start to use larger and larger textures, the extra RAM on the video card will become vital. I would recommend increasing the video RAM, if you've already got 512 system memory.
Posted by: Runriot
quote:
Originally posted by Kosh
As games start to use larger and larger textures, the extra RAM on the video card will become vital. I would recommend increasing the video RAM, if you've already got 512 system memory.
So Kosh, you advocate going with the 9800pro over the newer xseries?
Posted by: Trog
I cant say I completely agree with the RAM statement. The newer games are starting to have outrageous requirements (such as 512MB minumum).
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