Advice for buying new videocard.

R

René

Dear fellow subscribers,

Some time ago, my Ti4200 with which I was very happy, died. Looked like too
much overclocking, strange because I never do that. However, since then I
have been able to borrow a GF2 from a cousin, but I would like to give that
back and buy a decent modern video card myself. I really wanted to get a
9800 Pro, and decided to wait untill it would go below 200 euro. Most places
have prices like 229 euro for it now, but no place here in the Netherlands
seems to have one in stock. Is this chip going to disappear?

As I am getting a bit sick of having to ask all the shops for news every new
week (they all very stubbornly leave it on their websites, but well, I hate
computer shops, don't trust them and wouldn't expect anything else from
them), so I decided to widen my view a bit. This is where I would like Your
opinions.

The list I have made is the following (just chipsets with the prices of the
cheapest cards, mostly Asus and Sapphire).

9600 Pro, 256 MB 115 euro
9600 XT, 256 MB 175 euro (how much would this one differ from the 9800 pro?)

9800 Pro, 128 MB, with fan: 229 euro but nowhere available
9800 Pro, 128 MB, ultimate edition without fan: 269 euro still available.

Geforce 6800 LE, 128 MB 199 euro (in fact I don't like "light" versions of
cards, I think it is like buying a Ferrari with wooden tires, instead I
prefer to buy a card that is a bit older but "full flavour", so I don't like
this LE card very much)

Geforce FX 5700 128 MB, 135 euro (for that little extra money I'd prefer the
next one)
Geforce FX 5700 256 MB, 149 euro (how is this one compared to the 9800 Pro?
I thought I remember that the 5900 was the top-FX and that that one was
still below the 9800 pro, is that correct?)
Geforce FX 5700 128 MB, DDR3-RAM 195 euro (does that faster memory make the
card so much faster?)
Geforce FX 5700 SILENT (no fan I presume), 256 MB 225 euro

Geforce FX 5900 XT, 128 MB, 209 euro (A Gainward "Golden sample" card,
whatever that may add to the card's specs)

Geforce 6800, 128 MB 309 euro
Geforce 6800GT, 128 MB 359 euro (in fact this one is too expensive, the
previous one is about the maximum I would like to spend)

I'd rather not spend much more than a big 200 euro's. If all of You say that
the cheapest non-LE 6800 is far better than all the rest, I might consider
that, but that would definitely be the much. Rather would I keep some money
in my pocket and buy a cheaper one. Funny thing is that I do not very often
play the latest games (in do not very often play games anyhow), but I do
have some kind of "fetish" (that is a bit of an exageration but You'll get
the point) for a good video card. I also would like a card that will not by
old-fashioned when santa claus arrives, but which will last a bit longer
than that (though I know that a long-lasting videocard is sort of a
"contradictio in terminis" ;-).
How much would the 5900 XT and the 5700 differ, and how would they come out
when compared to the 9600 XT, 9800 Pro? How much "higher" would that non-LE
6800 be?

I remember a site on which all the available chips were listed in order of
speed, there were benchmarks made with many, many different benchmarks
program and games. I seem to have lost it. Off course there are many other
sites, but very often "one looses the view of the trees because of the
thickness of the wood" (litteral translation from a Dutch expression). If
anyone else might know where I saw that list (it was from the time the
9800XT was at the top, but probably it has been updated), that would be more
than welcome as well.

Any hints, comments, opinions are more than welcome.
I would like to thank everybody for the effort that merely reading this long
message must have been!

Yours sincerely,
Rene

P.S. Please forgive me the errors I make in my English, it is not my mother
tongue but I do my best.
 
H

huLLy

René said:
Dear fellow subscribers,

Some time ago, my Ti4200 with which I was very happy, died. Looked like
too
much overclocking, strange because I never do that.

You don't mention the rest of your system. Processor speed?

I would go for a Leadtek 5950 Ultra, with 256M of RAM. Good enough to play
most games now and not rediculously overpriced.
 
I

Inglo

Any hints, comments, opinions are more than welcome.
I would like to thank everybody for the effort that merely reading this long
message must have been!

Yours sincerely,
Rene
I'd say your two choices are a 9800 Pro or an nVidia 6800 standard. I
have a 9800 Pro, paid $200 USD 6 months ago, it's a wonderful card, but
I really, really wish I'd waited a couple of months and bought a 6800
for $300 USD.

As a die hard ATI user I heartily recommend the nVidia 6800. I have a
friend who's system and mine are nearly identical except for his 6800,
and I'm envious of him.
 
S

Shawk

Inglo said:
I'd say your two choices are a 9800 Pro or an nVidia 6800 standard. I
have a 9800 Pro, paid $200 USD 6 months ago, it's a wonderful card, but I
really, really wish I'd waited a couple of months and bought a 6800 for
$300 USD.

As a die hard ATI user I heartily recommend the nVidia 6800. I have a
friend who's system and mine are nearly identical except for his 6800, and
I'm envious of him.

--
"Coming soon: Meatspace spyware, little men who live in your cupboards and
watch what you eat and then try to sell you timeshares in Toronto."

Steve ¤»Inglo«¤
www.inglostadt.com

Hi Inglo - what have you noticed as the biggest difference between your
friend's and your PC's now? Have a 9800Pro myself and just curious. Ta,
Shaun
 
D

DaveL

Don't buy an FX card. Either get the 9800 pro or the 6800. The 6800LE is
not too bad either. It is on par with the 9800XT (even beating it in many
games like Doom3) and also supports shader 3.0 . If you can wait a month
you might be able to choose from a 6600GT or a X700XT.

DaveL
 
I

Inglo

Hi Inglo - what have you noticed as the biggest difference between your
friend's and your PC's now? Have a 9800Pro myself and just curious. Ta,
Shaun
....It's faster. I suppose the thing is, the 6800 is really worth it.
It costs about 40% more and it is about twice as fast as a 9800 Pro
given the settings I would want to run at, namely 1280x1024 with 2x AA
in Doom3. I want higher resolutions and faster speed with extra stuff
turned on.
I can tell you another thing, I almost certainly won't be getting a
6800. The next thing I buy is probably going to be a nice flat panel
monitor which will knock me out of buying another video card for a
while. I went from a GF3 Ti500 to a 9600 Pro to a 9800 Pro in less than
a year, so the 9800 Pro better be good until 2006.
 
S

Shawk

Inglo said:
...It's faster. I suppose the thing is, the 6800 is really worth it. It
costs about 40% more and it is about twice as fast as a 9800 Pro given the
settings I would want to run at, namely 1280x1024 with 2x AA in Doom3. I
want higher resolutions and faster speed with extra stuff turned on.
I can tell you another thing, I almost certainly won't be getting a 6800.
The next thing I buy is probably going to be a nice flat panel monitor
which will knock me out of buying another video card for a while. I went
from a GF3 Ti500 to a 9600 Pro to a 9800 Pro in less than a year, so the
9800 Pro better be good until 2006.


--
"Coming soon: Meatspace spyware, little men who live in your cupboards and
watch what you eat and then try to sell you timeshares in Toronto."

Steve ¤»Inglo«¤
www.inglostadt.com

Lol - sounds familiar GF3 Ti200 - Sapphire 9600Pro - Sapphire 9800 Pro in
around 18months. Like you any further upgrades will have to wait. Thanks
for the info though. Shaun
 
L

Lachoneus

If you're coming from a Ti4200, don't get an FX 5700-series or Radeon
9600-series card or you won't notice much of a performance improvement.

I went from a Ti4200 to an FX 5900XT, and I'm a little underwhelmed. At
least I got the new card for under half MSRP on eBay--it certainly
wouldn't be worth paying 200 euro for one today, when you could get a
6800LE that would absolutely decimate it for the same price.

My choice out of the lot would be a 6800 LE. It has just 8 pixel
pipelines compared to the non-LE's 12 and the GT's 16, but still,
nothing else under $200 comes close (and I have psychological problems
spending more than $200 on a video card).

The GeForce 6600 and Radeon X700 cards also look very promising, but the
6600 is not available in AGP (yet), and I don't think the X700 is
shipping yet at all.
 
M

Mirek Fídler

9800 Pro, 128 MB, with fan: 229 euro but nowhere available
9800 Pro, 128 MB, ultimate edition without fan: 269 euro still available.

Geforce 6800 LE, 128 MB 199 euro (in fact I don't like "light" versions of
cards, I think it is like buying a Ferrari with wooden tires, instead I
prefer to buy a card that is a bit older but "full flavour", so I don't like
this LE card very much)

I think you should reconsider 6800LE. In most benchmarks it is much faster
than 9800Pro (in Doom3 more than 50% faster). In fact, it seems to be the
cheapest card to run Doom 3 at high quality settings. Plus, chance of
unlocking it to full 6800 is about 80% according to digit-life stats....

Mirek
 

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