video card... looking for advice
 

I'm in the market for a new video card. Right now I have a Xtasy 6564 GeForce3 Ti200, which is ok for the games I play (BF1942, Call of Duty) but I'm looking for something that will work well with HL2 and Doom3.

I know I've seen topics for this before but with no search I have to ask again. Sorry.

Anyway, I'm looking to spend up to $200. Thanks

You can get a Radeon 9600 XT for about $170 on Price Watch. That's a good mainstream card. I run a Radeon 9500 Pro and everything is playable for now. For another $50 or so, you can get a 9700 Pro. That's what I would do. I'm going to get a 9800 Pro soon. Good luck.

I think I'll just dish out the cash for the ATI Radeon_ 9800 Pro 128MB. It seems to be the best card available and gets the highest benchmarks for HL2, and it's "only" $299 at Circuit City right now.

I'll probably head to the store later this evening, so if someone wants to try and talk me out of it... you best hurry :)

Thanks

I won't try to talk you out of it, but I'll save you some cash. Get it here for $278 and free standard ground shipping.

The Radeon 9800 Pro is a very good choice. An alternative is a GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. They're about the same price. The GeForce does better in Doom 3 benchmarks right now, and the 9800 does better in Half-Life 2 benchmarks. :) Your choice!

-Lasereth

I have both that Lasereth mentioned, and the 5900 is so much easier to live with than the Radeon.

What kind of problems do you have with the Radeon? (I haven't purchased anything yet)



I have another question for all you guys. These are my system specs:

Athlon XP 1700+ @ 1.47 GHz
512 MB of RAM

Do you think it I would get a major boost in performance (during games) if I upgraded my processor? Is it worth it?

Yes, while 1.4 is "good" think 2.4 is better. Will you notice the difference? Yes. Will the difference be where you think it will be? No. I do not have the time to explain now, but I will get on later to explain more in detail, and if anyone else wants to tackle this, feel free, while upgrading a CPU is good, (I assume your bus speed now is what 233, 266?) upgrading your Mobo would be better, 333 is good, but 400 is fast becoming the standard. (the importance of bus speed: http://www20.tomshardware.com/mother...sspeed-01.html)
~Crack

Get one of these, whatever you can afford :

RADEON™ 9800XT
RADEON™ 9600XT
ALL-IN-WONDER® 9600 PRO
RADEON™ 9600 SE (I wouldn't recommend this one, as it is supposed to be crap)

According to http://www.atihl2offer.com/ , you will get a free copy of Half Life 2 with it.

First off, how much are you willing to spend? Are you willing to buy a new motherboard to upgrade your processor?

If you can upgrade your motherboard and CPU, then yes, it is definitely worth it. That Athlon XP is a nice CPU, but a decent upgrade would put you in the "ok zone" for games for the next 1-2 years.

Your current motherboard will probably hold a 2.0 GHz Athlon XP 2600+ at 266 MHz FSB. If it supports 333 MHz FSB, then a whole new series comes into play: the Bartons.

So: do ya wanna spend money on a new motherboard and CPU, or just a new CPU? Secondly, what motherboard do you have?

-Lasereth

I have owned a Radeon 7000, an Nvidia ti4200, and now a Radeon 9800 Pro. I don't really have a preference among card companies, but right now ATI does have the advantage in drivers.

The XT line of Radeon's don't offer a sizable performance advantage over the 9800/9700/9600 pro's.

I personally think the Radeon 9800 pro is the best deal out there now given the cost and performance.

I wanted to reply earlier, but I was having some problems with my keyboard. Anyway...

<b>Lasereth</b>: Yes, I do plan on replacing my mainboard if it would be a wise decision to upgrade my CPU. Actually, I was thinking about this setup:

- Intel Pentium 4/ 2.4C GHz 800MHz FSB, 512K Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - Retail

- Asus 865PE Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU, Model "P4P800 Deluxe" -RETAIL

Would it be worth it? Will my XP 1700+ hamper the true abilities of a Radeon 9800 Pro?

Yeah, that old 1700+ would bottleneck a 9800 Pro very badly. That 2.4 C core will do very well. Another option is an Abit NF7-S motherboard with an Athlon XP Barton. You'd save some money and get about the same performance gaming-wise.

Today's games rely more heavily on the videocard instead of the CPU, but you have to have a CPU to keep up with it. The P4 will work great, but any of the AMD Athlon XP Bartons would do great as well. Hell, a 2600+ XP at 2.0 GHz would be perfectly fine. That 2.4 C core P4 is the best deal that Intel has on the market -- it would be a damn good choice.

-Lasereth

radeon 9800 > gf fx 5900
only reason why the gf appears to be faster than the radeon in doom 3 is that doom 3 uses a lower precision mode for the gf card

* pixelshader 2.0 games are faster on the radeon significantly

Benchmark tests have shown that in games and pure benchmarking programs (3D Mark) the 9800 and 5900 are shoulder to shoulder. The FX wins in half the tests, and the 9800 wins in half the tests. It simply depends on which games you want to play. Either card is a good choice, but the fact that you can find FX 5900's for less than $200 is definitely a strong point for NVIDIA. I think ATI will begin selling the Radeon 9800's at $200 pretty soon, they've been falling in price!

-Lasereth

The 5900 just runs. The 9800 needs attention once in awhile. Granted, it is an AIW, but it just makes too many demands and requires too much attention. I still don't see the Catalyst as being very nice.

Benchmarking aside, and flying by the seat of my pants, says my 5900 Ultra is a smoother operating, lower maintenance card even though it did cost more than my 9800 pro AIW.

for dx8 you'll prolly find the geforce slightly on top, but when it comes to dx9 stuff, radeon wins.

I just was wondering, what do you mean by "maintenance"? I have had my TNT2 for a while, and yes, while it sux assss,
i still have never tended to it, other than those remote driver updates...

What specifically are you talking about?
I have a 9800 pro... I don't have to do give it any special attention other than updating drivers.


Messy- That setup is pretty similar to mine:
ASUS P4P800 DELUXE
Pentum 2.8C Ht
Radeon 9800 pro
1 GB of Corsair XMS 3200

This gets me about 44,000 on Aquamark without overclocking and 5400 on 3DMark 03 (3DMark doesn't like my comp for some reason).

Let's see some 3D Mark 2001 scores! :)

-Lasereth