Graphics Cards

[Big_al]

I'm looking to upgrade my Geforce2 to something with more power.

Don't really want to spend loads probably around £60 ($100 US)

Question is do I go for the Radeon 9600 or Fx 5200 which both fall into that price range?

[Tyberious]

9600. If its a 9600 SE then you are pretty much limited to either pancakes or tortias (SP?) which are about the same thing, now if its just a normal 9600 then you are in good hands, you can overclock it to 9600 Pro speeds but I hear the TSOP(dom'e remember the acronym for it, I think its Transposer sodered on Pcb???) (9600 Pro uses BGA (ball grid array) memory might not meet that clock speed. Out of those cards the ATI is faster, now if you had a choice between a FX 5600 Ultra and a 9600 or then I's might take the FX but then again ATI is usually faster with AA and AF.

to make things short and sweet, I cast my vote with the ATI card out fo the two (now if it were between the FX 5700 Ultra and the 9600 XT then I'd say get the 5700U any day. Its been proven to be smightly faster in most benchmarks although I could be wrong but this was since I last checked.

[The Undertaker]

Pretty much what he said. At $100 its gotta be SE which is very crippled. If you can't possibly spend anymore money your best bet will most likely be a GF4 Ti if you can find one.

[Evil Incarnate]

You could try looking at newegg. They have a 9600Pro offered for $126 US made by Sapphire Tech.

[Big_al]

Maybe the exchange rate is working in my favor, seen 9600 for what would be $100 once you've converted it from £
This is the card
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=55200


What's the improvement for the PRO tag?

[The Undertaker]

75mhz faster core and 100mhz faster memory. Using that alternative products list I found one (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=59147) just for a £1.18 more.

[Big_al]

Dam it's went up in price, when I saw it they had it for £49+VAT

[Abrax]

I was going to get a 5700U, but I changed my order to a Radeon 9800 pro, which I saw going for the same price as the 5700U.

[Dude345]

AM I DA ONLY GODDAMN ONE WITH A SIS?

[The Undertaker]

Teh Xabre i5 d4 b0mb
Shame that their Volari Duo cards didn't live up to the hype. Guess 2 bad companys doesn't make a good one.

[Tyberious]

damn, I wish there was an imbetween, I voted for ATI but now I would likie to vote for either neutral or nvidia but personally I am in between, glad I saw the light because it sucks being single minded.

[Mr. Chris]

I recently upgraded my gf4 ti4200 to a radeon 9800 pro, and am very happy with it. If you do go to an ATI, uninstall the video drivers THEN use 'driver cleaner' to remove the remains of the nvidia stuff on the machine.

[Doom2Hell]

i have always been a nVidia fan, their drivers have always been top notch, everything jsut WORKED with no hassle. But recently after buying a ATI 9600 256MB, and installing the agp drivers for the board i installed it with, everything went smooth as silk, and i havnt had a game yet that dint work first try, i vote ATI

[Tyberious]

I still vote for both although I swayed a tiny bit for Nvidia I am still neutral. I read onlike that ATI cards have more problems then Nvidia but the rate is generally very small to the point where it will effect those "lucky" people like me (my cards didn't work in my new motherboard form some reason, they kept grounding out for God knows what reason. Both cards are fast with good solid drivers. I say vote for whatever you perfer (I originally votes for ATI but now I like both companies)

[Abrax]

I just get what gives me the most amount of performance for the least amount of money, thats why I (finally) got my 9800pro, and can now run Risen3D (Hi Res textures, 3D models, particles etc @ a steady 250-400fps, and over 1,000fps on the titlepic. I did manage to slow it down with a ton of particles to 4fps tho ;) Gotta test it.