Ati Cards!

[chris_3]

Would u guys say that the 9600xt is better than a 9800 or 9700??? what better by how much??? does anyone have a chart??? will hl2 be bundled with the 9600xt forever or is this just like a special 6 month deal or something??? Is the 9600xt out yet in canada??? Are these all my questions???? i dont know???? do u know???

 

[reed87]

Well Chris i'd say your best bet would be for you to wait until this next generation of games comes out (hl2, doom3, etc...) because it will raise the standard for video cards and prices will drop on all of the models that are out now. However if you are looking to buy a card now i'd recommend sticking with ati as they have higher quality cards and drivers in my opinion. To answer your question, no the 9600 XT is not better than the 9800 or 9700 there is about a 30-40% performance reduction in the 9600 XT. I do not know how long Hl2 will be bundled with the cards. ATI is based in canada so yes it is out in canada.

 

[chris_3]

My specs: ge froce 5600 non ultra, 2800xp amd, 512 ram.....

I bought a ge force fx 5600 non ultra without looking it up to see if its any good really so...... It turned out being crap. I bought it in july so now im thinkin since all the high end fps games like far cry, stalker, doom3 and hl2, are coming out in Q1 2004 i figured alright i guess i'll look for a better gfx card. I was lookin at the ati 9600xt and then found out it came with HL2 so i was like.... ok that means the card will only cost 220$(CAN). And i bet i can trade in my 5600 non-ultra for like 60 bucks so that makes me at 160$ for the card.

Now im just wonderin if far cry, stalker, doom3 and hl2 will run fine at 1024x, max/mid settings, 4xAA/8xAF or 2xAA/4xAF. Any comments on that???

 

[dawdler]

Originally posted by chris_3
Now im just wonderin if far cry, stalker, doom3 and hl2 will run fine at 1024x, max/mid settings, 4xAA/8xAF or 2xAA/4xAF. Any comments on that???

According to the benches with HL2, it should run fine. But concerning the others, no one knows... It depends on how they are designed. Some games have very high polygon scenes and effects with little performance loss (Max Payne 2 at 6xAA/16xAF/1600x1200) and some are just horrendous performers (Halo, 800x600 without AA/AF). Technically, Halo *should* be much better than MP2!!! So no one can say how they will perform.

 

[nsxownzme]

Chris, 9800 PRO is much better than the 9600 XT. Btw, nice name.

 

[chris_3]

but the 9800 pro also costs 560$ in canada :\

 

[TheRook]

depends on your budget... mid ranged cards (£150-180 dunno what that is in canadian or american tbh) 9600, 9600pro, 9600 256meg, 9600xt, 5600, 5700 (the 5600 and 5700 have ultra versions) are good performers... well the 5600 range aint great... but the 5700's arent bad but im gunna have to say due to poor directx9 performance of the geforce range of cards at the moment i am suggesting the 9600 range...

but it all depends on the amount of cash u wanna spend...


TheRook

 

[NSPIRE]

Look on ebay.com, newegg.com, or pricewatch.com for some of the best prices on all graphics cards that you can find... just READ carefully, sometimes you don't exactly bid on / buy what exactly you think it is. Buy at your own risk .