Video Card Q's for HL2

[th3Phallex]

I want to upgrade my vid card to an ATI Radeon.


Which performs better:

- Radeon 9600 XT w/ 256mb RAM

or

- Radeon 9800 Pro w/ 128mb RAM

?
(looking for first-hand examples, not reviews)


They're around the same price -- I just want to know which will be better in the long run?


Thanks for any constructive input.

 

[The Brick]

Rad 9800pro 128mb, no doubt. It's like 50% faster

 

[subtlesnake]

The 9800 Pro by a long way. The amount of memory really isn't significant.

 

[th3Phallex]

The amount of memory really isn't significant.

Oh, ok.

The last time I bought a card it was important.


Anyway, what's the difference between the actual ATI brand ones, and the 3rd-party ones, like Sapphire/Power Color/VisionTek/etc ... ? (besides price)

 

[The Brick]

The cooler is the biggerst difference. Not that it overheats with some brands. It's just the ammount of noise they make.

 

[th3Phallex]

The cooler is the biggerst difference. Not that it overheats with some brands. It's just the ammount of noise they make.

So, therefore, ATI would be the quiet-est, since they know how to make their own product??

If that's the only difference, I might as well get the cheapest one, since my PC is loud already.

Can anyone recommend which one NOT to get because it's too loud (if that's the case with any)??

 

[The Brick]

ATI's cards and Sapphire's cards are the same. Since Sapphire is cheapest as far as I know. I'd go for that.

 

[hmmmmm]

More video ram will serve to future-proof the card. However, 128MB is just fine for the current generation of games, so I would consider the 9800Pro.

 

[hmmmmm]

BTW.... th3Phallex, your avatar rocks!

 

[subtlesnake]

And the 9600XT doesn't have the performance to run those future titles, anyway.

 

[th3Phallex]

Well, I found a place in town that's selling the Power Color Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb for $239!

I think I'll go get that one now.

 

[The Brick]

No don't, I heard that the ones with 256mb of ram have slow ram. So lower preformance.

But I might be wrong. Someone else can tell you more about that.

 

[[w0f]Oblivion]

go with the 128 mb, not the 256
moer bang for buck, the extra 128mb of ram really doesnt do much in this day n age.

 

[Stonecat]

No don't, I heard that the ones with 256mb of ram have slow ram. So lower preformance.

But I might be wrong. Someone else can tell you more about that.

Nope - the 256 has a slightly slower core than the 128 but only really when it comes to max overclock

there are a couple different types of ram on the 256 depending on how new it is - the newest ones have 'hynix' ram and it is the best - it can be overclocked much higher than the 'samsung' ram which is standard on slightly older cards and most 128s i believe

another advantage to the 256 is that the newer cores are R360 chips while the 128 is an R350 chip - this means there are slightly better pixel shaders with the 256

the 256 can also be given a bios flash to make it an XT which will increase the default core and ram speeds but also give the automatic 'overdrive' feature and temp monitoring in the ati control panel - for overclocking you turn the overdrive off and just use radclocker or similar to turn it up as high as you can get it

you can also volt mod the 256 with the very simple pencil trick, but will need extra cooling as a result

for all these reasons i would recommend the 256 over the 128

 

[kingthebadger]

id thought it was obvious which is better, clown

 

[corkscru74]

Sweeeeeet - My Rad9800 Pro 256 is under the tree....I can't wait!!! Only 2 days 4 hours and 4 mins to go (for me atleast).

Woot Woot

 

[bosox188]

Hey wait don't buy that 9800 pro yet. You said the 9600xt and 9800 pro were around the same price, how much was that 9800 pro, and send a link. If it's around the price of a 9600xt chances are it's a fake 128-bit one and is nowhere near as good as a normal 9800 pro.

 

[th3Phallex]

Well, you are too late.

I got the 256. It only took me 10 minutes to drive over there and buy it, and even less time to install.

But I'm one of those people who doesn't notice "pixel shaders" and I won't ever overclock anything -- too much work.

I'm sure I'll be satisfied with this one for awhile.

 

[Phisionary]

256 mb of RAM is mostly useful for running at high resolutions with max detail (1600x1200 doom3 or something). Since neither of those cards has enough horsepower to run that high of a level anyway, get the 128.

...And, if you haven't, consider the nvidia 6600GT. It's about the same price as a 9800Pro, but I think might run slightly faster.

 

[MajorPayne]

But I'm one of those people who doesn't notice "pixel shaders" and I won't ever overclock anything -- too much work.

Yeah, I didn't notice pixel shaders too.... Until they bit me in the ASS!!! I bought one of the FX series of cards from Nvidia right when they first came out, and were touting it's ability to do DX9. When I got my 1st DX9 game as a gift (Halo -- sucked too), I was all exited to see how DX9 games ran until I tried, and learned the hard way that the FX series could do some things in DX9, but others (especially Pixel Shader 2.0) it could not do at all. I could barely play Halo at 20FPS!!! And I had a great system. I was able to fix it by getting a radeon 9600XT, but Nvidia's pixel shader 2.0 "oversight" really screwed me. I had to buy a new video card only 1 month after getting my old one! So it sometimes DOES help to pay attentio to pixel shaders -- I wish I had researched them before getting my FX card. And now, there is a similar dilemma with ATI products, in that all of the Nvidia 66XX and 68XX cards support pixel shader 3.0, but no ATI card does (that I know of). Hopefully lack of pixel shader 3.0 support will not affect users as much as lack of pixel shader 2.0 support did.

 

[bosox188]

Well, you are too late.

I got the 256. It only took me 10 minutes to drive over there and buy it, and even less time to install.

But I'm one of those people who doesn't notice "pixel shaders" and I won't ever overclock anything -- too much work.

I'm sure I'll be satisfied with this one for awhile.

Wait what card did you get, the 256mb 9600xt? Oh well either way you got a good card, but which one was it? The 9600xt was fine and the 256mb memory can be useful in some games like Doom 3 which needs lots of memory.

 

[th3Phallex]

did you get the 256mb 9600xt?

Nope.

Power Color Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb -- $240.

A comparison

Should be sufficient for awhile.
:naughty:

 

[bryanf445]

Nope.

Power Color Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb -- $240.

A comparison

Should be sufficient for awhile.
:naughty:

oh it will be.....

 

[Stonecat]

256 mb of RAM is mostly useful for running at high resolutions with max detail (1600x1200 doom3 or something). Since neither of those cards has enough horsepower to run that high of a level anyway, get the 128.

i'm running the 9800-256 (flashed to XT) at 1600 X 1200, high detail plus some AA and AF no problems in HL2 but admittedly i had to tune things down a bit for D3

 

[th3Phallex]

i'm running the 9800-256 (flashed to XT) at 1600 X 1200, high detail plus some AA and AF no problems in HL2 but admittedly i had to tune things down a bit for D3

Yeah, I probably won't ever be playing Doom³ anymore.

The same w/ UT2003-2004.


Now, nothing compares with HL².


~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ -

On the topic:

Do video cards run at different speeds on separate brands of processors/mobos??

Like if you had a Pentium 4, 2 Ghz, and an AMD equivalent.
They both would have the same amt of RAM & HD.
Would the cards run faster on a certain brand?

 

[bosox188]

Nope.

Power Color Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb -- $240.

A comparison

Should be sufficient for awhile.
:naughty:

Oh ok well when you said in the first post that the 9800 pro was close to the price of the 9600xt that would mean it would have to be about $150 which would mean it was a fake, but yeah you just got a sweet card there. Have fun, I'm supposed to be getting a 9800 pro All In Wonder for Christmas, though mine's not a nice 256mb one like yours. And 256mb on a 9800 pro won't slow it down.