Holy crap (video card)

Asus

Asus

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9600GT 512MB card for $150 ($110 after rebate) - until April 30th
I was looking at video cards to buy and I noticed that these guys are getting CHEAP!
The cheapest 8800GT I saw was for $200 (180 after rebate).

Anyways, I was wanting to add a spare 17" CRT to my setup and hook up a 19" TV for previewing videos before I throw them on DVD. Need a 2nd video card to use the extra displays and was debating between a cheap display card or demoting my X1900GT 256MB.

I think I"m just going to upgrade but gaming is only half of what I'm going to be using it for. Sadly the 9600GT or 8800GT is off my list because of the other uses.
Need something without any overscan issues when using a TV (8800 and 9600 can have issues). And Folding@Home will soon update their software to use HD3000 cards.

Opinions?

EDIT
Or maybe I'll get both a cheap display card (ATI to avoid overscan issues) and the 9600gt...
 
Personally, id wait til 9800s get cheaper under 300ish then id get that
 
ktimekiller said:
Personally, id wait til 9800s get cheaper under 300ish then id get that
Click to expand...
A 9800GTX? Granted $300 isn't that expensive (that is what I paid for my ATI 9800Pro years ago) but the lower priced cards give a lot better value. If I can get similar performance from a card that is just above $100 (after rebate) than why spend $300?

The 9600GT performs like a high end card. It is not in the same performance bracket that other *600 cards had in their series (e.g. 6600, 7600, and 8600).
The 9600GT is just a couple frames off compared to the 8800GT (512MB) in this review (Crysis).
And in this 9800GTX review you can see the 8800GT 512MB is not terribly far behind.

That's why I was surprised to see the 9600GT for such a low price. I'm really starting to think I should just take out my X1900GT and put in a desktop card and a 9600GT for less than the 3870. (I'm thinking as I type and going back and editing with other ideas if you can't tell.)
 
damn $110 each for a 9600gt. i might consider getting a couple and SLI these bad boys. ive been wanting to upgrade my 7900gs. even though the card is fugly its still not bad at all.
 
wow should of waited a couple more months to by my VC but im happy with my set up
 
OK I'm there. Which one should I get?

I have to say loud fans really annoy me so the 9600 wins there.

It's $60 cheaper and runs cooler

but unfortunately it sounds like it blocks two PCI slots?

I have an audio card in the furthest one, and a wireless card in the closer one. The wireless card is very small though, so it might not get in the way of the heatsink fan on the 9600GT.


So... it blocks two PCI slots? WTF that's all I've got on this mobo.


Right now I'm using a 1900GT and it pretty much sucks. They say either of these cards is roughly twice the performance.\

I guess if I want to have an audio card, the 9600GT is out of the question?
 
Asus said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?Image=14-261-002-04.jpg 2 slots
It's all because of the quiet cooling. Bigger heatsink allows for a slower fan and a vent in the expansion slot to let hot air out and not stay in the case.

There are other 9600GT cards that are almost as cheap and are single slot.
<$165 ($133-140 after rebate)
Click to expand...

Oh, I don't mind if it takes two slots, but will it block all my PCI slots? I have a mini ATX board. I need help. I like it because it is dirt chip, and twice as good as my card. Then I can take my 1900 and use it for my 2nd PC (that isn't finished built yet)

after the PCI express, I have a mini PCIe slot, then 2 PCI slots

I really kinda need both PCI slots for cards.

You know what, I think it's going to fit. The wireless card is quite small and flat.


In the photo you showed, it doesn't show the heatsink fan on the 9600. I'm afraid it sticks out further than the 2 slots. I looked at another angle, and it doesn't seem to. It's about flush.


I guess what I'm saying is. I thought it blocked two PCI slots as well. Is that wrong?
 
Asus said:
It takes up 2 expansion slots. Not only does the cooler hang over the slot below the 16x PCI-Express card but the expansion slot plate for the card is a double. Check the picture.
Click to expand...

OK, as long as it doesn't take up more than the two slots (my PCIe and My PCIe mini)




then I still have two PCI slots for my wireless card and my audio card.



From the reader reviews, I was confused and thought it would block 2 PCI slots as well. (I only have 2)


Nvm Im stupid.


OK, I'll order it.


Thank you Asus. :D


BTW a couple of those guys were saying that it was much faster than their old 8800GT. Is that right?
 
Just bought a 40" Sony KDL-40V2500 tv (1920x)1080P. Definitely going to need a more powerful video card than an X1900GT to power games on that guy.
 
Asus said:
Just bought a 40" Sony KDL-40V2500 tv (1920x)1080P. Definitely going to need a more powerful video card than an X1900GT to power games on that guy.
Click to expand...

Heya Asus. I've not ordered the card yet. I'm worried something better will come along in a month or two, for roughly the same price.

What do you think? Will the 8800GTX get in the $150 range soon too? $160 for the 8800GT now..


Do you think getting the 9600GT over the 8800GT is a mistake though? It's 50% cheaper and is quieter and cooler.

I would really like to play oblivion maxed out, and someone said that the 9600GT wasn't quite enough, in the reviews on newegg. The 8800GTX can do it maxed out you think?

Grats on the HD TV BTW. :)
 
the 9600gt should be able to play it well with settings on high at 1680x1050 with no AA. the 8800gt is slighty faster then the 9600gt but either is a good performer. 9600gt is SLI kicks the Ultras ass though. also i highly highly doubt that the 8800gtx will ever be 150 unless bought on ebay a year or two down the road.
 
giant384 said:
the 9600gt should be able to play it well with settings on high at 1680x1050 with no AA. the 8800gt is slighty faster then the 9600gt but either is a good performer. 9600gt is SLI kicks the Ultras ass though. also i highly highly doubt that the 8800gtx will ever be 150 unless bought on ebay a year or two down the road.
Click to expand...

I just want 1280x768 (or something like that).

Not too pressed on having AA but I do want HDR and hopefully bloom. This Nvidia card can do both right? I remember Nvidia cards couldn't do bloom and HDR simultaneously, back in the day. Is that only for the older cards?
 
bloom is a cheap way of doing HDR and you can only have one or the other. what you are trying to say is that you want to run AA and HDR at the same time. that is possible to do only on the geforce 8 series and up as well as the radeon x1xxx series and above. you can however run bloom and AA at the same time on any card.
 
giant384 said:
bloom is a cheap way of doing HDR and you can only have one or the other. what you are trying to say is that you want to run AA and HDR at the same time. that is possible to do only on the geforce 8 series and up as well as the radeon x1xxx series and above. you can however run bloom and AA at the same time on any card.
Click to expand...

oh wow was I misled.


OK.


So the series and up... but the 9600GT is a lesser card than the 8800GT so ...

without making things confusing, I guess I can use a search engine, or maybe you can tell me

Can the 9600GT do AA and HDR at the same time?
 
yes it can.

when i say 8 series and up and mean 9 series as well.

if it has pixel pipelines then it cant do AA+HDR(exception of source)
if it has stream processors or on some ati cards it will have pixel pipelines and pixel shader processors then it can do AA+HDR
 
giant384 said:
yes it can.

when i say 8 series and up and mean 9 series as well.

if it has pixel pipelines then it cant do AA+HDR(exception of source)
if it has stream processors or on some ati cards it will have pixel pipelines and pixel shader processors then it can do AA+HDR
Click to expand...

Ok that makes me sound stupid, I know 9 > 8, but I think the 8800 is a much better card although the performance isn't much different since games don't use that much shaders right now.... OR Something like that.

Thanks.

So I guess Stream processors are going to eventually replace pixel pipelines.. yeah that makes sense since pixels would be better for 2D I would think and stream better for full motion video I think.
 
Asus said:
I was checking out the 8800GT instead of the 9600gt since I was thinking I might need more performance to run my TV. 1920x1080 40" TV vs 1280x1024 19" LCD.
Saw this MSI card for $210 (180 after rebate)
BUT then I saw MSI's 8800GTS 512MB card for $230 (200 after rebate). Think I'm going to buy that guy tonight. Opinions?
Click to expand...

Hmmm for extra $20 i'd go for the GTS simply for psychological reasons, if you get the GT you'll have a horrible nagging feeling 'i should have got the slightly better one' !

The extra performance (3-5%??) is probably 'worth' the 20$ (10% cost) if you feel you need it.

Just do an extra hour work or whatever (i know nothing about your employment/financial situation!) then it is justified!
 
Both of the come with The Witcher, so I guess that is a good deal.

personally, I'm thinking of going with the 9600GT for 110. It's so cheap, quiet, and cool, and is nearly as good.
 
I would go with the 9600GT if it will run the games smooth at 1920x1080. That is my big concern with the higher resolution that I'm looking at now. For my 19" lcd I'd go with the 9600GT easy. Would perform @ 1280x1024 flawlessly.

Like in this review the 9600GT 512MB is at half FPS compared to the 8800GTS 512MB @ 1920x1200.
Although mine would be 1920x1080 instead of x1200.

stalker would be playable with the GTS (again, looking @ 1920x1200)
Yeah, I think I'm just going to order the gts. Glad xbit has a lot of games in their reviews. Harder to get an overall picture beyond the top 4 games from other sites. :\

edit:
If it wasn't for the memory speed the MSI 8800GTS OC would be basically a 9800GTX but less $100+.
stock 9800GTX: 675/1688/1100 (core/shader/memory)
MSI GTS OC: 675/1728/970
stock GTS: 650/1625/970
 
I hooked up my PC to the TV via VGA (DVI->HDMI adapter being shipped). The TV's vga port only supports 1360x768. Tried some TF2 and it was down around at 40fps often. Going up to 1080p would drop the frame rate quite a bit. It does look nice and sharp but since it is only x768 vertically windows on the desktop don't have as much space.
 
Hmm, Now I'm think of waiting a little while longer, and just getting what I wanted all along.

8800GTX when it's cheaper.

Besides, I really need to upgrade my CPU, RAM, and Mobo really badly. I'm still using a Celeron D, and it's not able to keep up with the multi-tasking that I do.
 
sea said:
Is that with the new card or the old one?

I wouldn't expect blistering framerates if you plan on playing on an HDTV, unless you're playing games from 5 years ago. Team Fortress 2 seems to be the worst of the new Valve games, performance-wise.
Click to expand...
It's with the x1900gt 256mb. I just ordered the new card so it won't be here until Friday. I'm not expecting very high FPS but I'm aiming for near 60fps with the new card.

VirusType2 said:
Hmm, Now I'm think of waiting a little while longer, and just getting what I wanted all along.

8800GTX when it's cheaper.

Besides, I really need to upgrade my CPU, RAM, and Mobo really badly. I'm still using a Celeron D, and it's not able to keep up with the multi-tasking that I do.
Click to expand...
Why not watch the 8800GTS's price (G92)? It has a few less ROPs and memory bus width is less. But memory width didn't help the older 8800GTS cards (320mb and 640mb). That's why it was cut. GTS has faster core and memory clocks which help to make up for the lower ROPs. Plus, "...the GTS 512 even surpasses the GeForce 8800 GTX in texture filtering capacity and peak shader arithmetic. That bodes very well for its performance overall."

It's die is smaller @ 65nm so it runs cooler and less power.
 
Got the video card today. Those devils at newegg/fedex are always so fast! Packed, shipped and delivered in 2 days.

Tested UT3 demo and TF2 and it's a good thing I upgraded.
@ 1920x1080 4xaa/4xaf my 1900gt was pulling 35-45 FPS on my own TF2 server (no network, no players).
@1920x1080 for UT3 it was doing 20-30 (no bots). The 8800GTS was 50-90 in TF2 and 62 flat for UT3. I didn't bother disabling the frame cap in UT3 but it never went lower than 61.*-62.

My tv has a 'full pixel' option which gets rid of overscan so it works well with the Nvidia card.

Now I need to buy stalker...
 
I just made a server and jumped into a map. No players, no bots, no packets going over the internet. A bare map.
A64 x2 4600+ (2.4ghz)
 
running at 1024x768 doesnt surprise me....your not using the full power of the gpu.
 
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