Issues with your account? Bug us in the Discord!

Graphics cards

ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
in Zocalo v2.0
im considering getting a better graphics card at the moment, but i dont really know that much about these things. ive got a radeon 9200SE at the moment, but im wanting to get something a little more powerful, but i havent got that much money to spend on a new one at the moment.

so is it worth getting something like a 9600 at the moment, or shoudl i wait for the 9800's to come down in price?

cheers people

Comments

  • Alpha-1Alpha-1 Elite Ranger Germany
    what system do you have?
    cpu, memory etc?
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    yeah that info would probably help wouldnt it:

    AMD athlon 2800+
    768mb RAM
    K7S8X motherboard
    Radeon 9200SE 128mb

    anything else?

    i dunno, give me the parts and i'll build it no probs, but anything more...!:D
  • Alpha-1Alpha-1 Elite Ranger Germany
    i have no problems with my 9600 with 256 mb ram.
    of course its not the fastest card in thw world but i can play hl2 and CS:S and IFH. Doom3 also workd ok in 1024. Nexus works also fine and no Porbs in Farcry

    the only problem in hl2 is that it needs more Ram and it slows down on the points were the system is loading a new level or at autosave points.

    My System:




    Computer:
    Computertyp ACPI-Uniprozessor-PC
    Betriebssystem Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
    OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
    Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180 (IE 6.0 SP2)
    DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
    Computername ERICHSEN
    Benutzername Christoph
    SMTP E-Mailadresse [email]erichsen-grosssolt@t-online.de[/email]
    Domainanmeldung ERICHSEN
    Datum / Uhrzeit 2005-02-09 / 18:47

    Motherboard:
    CPU Typ AMD Athlon XP, 2000 MHz (15 x 133) 2400+
    Motherboard Name ECS K7VTA3 v5 (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio)
    Motherboard Chipsatz VIA VT8367 Apollo KT333
    Arbeitsspeicher 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)
    BIOS Typ Award (09/03/03)
    Anschlüsse (COM und LPT) Kommunikationsanschluss (COM1)
    Anschlüsse (COM und LPT) Kommunikationsanschluss (COM2)
    Anschlüsse (COM und LPT) ECP-Druckeranschluss (LPT1)

    Anzeige:
    Grafikkarte RADEON 9600 SERIES - Secondary (256 MB)
    Grafikkarte RADEON 9600 SERIES (256 MB)
    3D-Beschleuniger ATI Radeon 9600 (RV350)
    Monitor Siemens-Nixdorf MCM1705 (-K471-) (734867344)

    Multimedia:
    Soundkarte Creative SB0350 Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    thanks Alpha-1 for the info, i shall ponder a little further i think before deciding:) its also a toss-up between a new graphics card and a dvd writer
  • C_MonC_Mon A Genuine Sucker
    it depends on which Radeon 9600 you're talking about, the 9600SE is crap, but check out [URL=http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/index.html]this link[/URL] if you want to compare Graphics Cards.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    thanks for that! out of ignorant interest, what are pci interfaces used for?

    am currently thinking along the lines of a Radeon 9600 Pro
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    Uh:

    PCI is the standard adaptor in most system for expansion slots. PCI graphics cards are worthless if you have AGP or PCIx.

    AGP is Advanced Graphics Something-or-other and is what replaced the VEGA port about 5+ years or so ago. It is the standard graphics port on most systems (and would be on yours).

    PCIx (aka PCI Express) is the brand new standard that is replacing both PCI and AGP on motherboards. Only the newest motherboards have this so you won't be able to use it (unless you plan to upgrade your mobo also).

    -----

    Note that PCIx mobos with nVidia nForce4 chipset usually support SLI mode with (some) nVidia graphics cards which allows you to run 2 GPUs for one output - very fast - much faster then anything ATI has, but its also VERY expensive since you have to get two cards.
  • the_exilethe_exile Kupo!
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Alpha-1 [/i]
    [B]Doom3 also workd ok in 1024.[/B][/QUOTE]I can hardly run Doom III in 800x600 with my 9800, plus 1GB PC-3200 and a 2.4Ghz processor.
  • Alpha-1Alpha-1 Elite Ranger Germany
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by the_exile [/i]
    [B]I can hardly run Doom III in 800x600 with my 9800, plus 1GB PC-3200 and a 2.4Ghz processor. [/B][/QUOTE]
    i played it with medium details. also works ok in 800X600 with full details. ( no anti alaising or anisoztropic filter)
    "ok" means 20-30 fps
  • the_exilethe_exile Kupo!
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Alpha-1 [/i]
    [B]i played it with medium details. also works ok in 800X600 with full details. ( no anti alaising or anisoztropic filter)
    "ok" means 20-30 fps [/B][/QUOTE]Oh, that makes sense. I get 20-30 on 1024... I'd hardly consider it playable, though.
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    my desktop at home runs everything smoothly right now. Like half life 2 at 1128x764 graphics maxed in directx 9 mode.

    that computer is a:

    Soyo KT880 Dragon 2 Motherboard
    AMDXP3000+
    2GB RAM (Kingmax)
    GeForce FX 6800GT 256MB


    So yeah, a little overkill, but to be honest, my laptop runs HL2 just as good.

    Centrino 1.6Ghz
    1GB RAM
    Radeon 9600pro turbo mobility 128MB

    It really just depends on how fast you want to get. A decent Radeon card will run HL2 and any other game you want. But really you have to go with the 6000 series if you want an nVidea card, the whole 5000 line was shit, they didnt increase the pipelines the way ATI did.

    It all comes down to what you are used to. Personally, I still prefer nVidea because I trust their drivers more than I do ATI. But in all honesty, I think ATI has finally gotten that monkey off their back, and they do make some killer products. Right now, its a tossup between ATI's top card and nVidea's as to which is better, some say ATI cause it can squeek a few more fps, other say nVidea because it can run 2 cards in the new SLI rigs.
  • C_MonC_Mon A Genuine Sucker
    I wanted to get a GF6800GT but ended up with a Radeon x800pro vivo. why you might ask, because x800 pro vivo is easily soft modded into a x800 xt pe. :)
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    i think i'll wait till next month when i've got a little more money before deciding. it'll also give me a bit more time to do some research:)
  • C_MonC_Mon A Genuine Sucker
    Good idea. ;)
  • E.TE.T Quote-o-matic
    I wouldn't consider 9600 as worth of buying anymore.
    Also considering processor 9600 would be left as bottleneck.
    9800 would much more be in balance with CPU.

    And remember to stay away from SE, it means Slow Edition.


    RC, you forgot that using SLI would require much from PSU... neither forgeting how much heat it would produce.
    And neither is change to add second card later so blessing because it would have to be identical!
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    lol, thanks for that E.T. i'll definitly need to wait till next month to afford a 9800!:D
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by E.T [/i]
    [B]I wouldn't consider 9600 as worth of buying anymore.
    Also considering processor 9600 would be left as bottleneck.
    9800 would much more be in balance with CPU.

    And remember to stay away from SE, it means Slow Edition.


    RC, you forgot that using SLI would require much from PSU... neither forgeting how much heat it would produce.
    And neither is change to add second card later so blessing because it would have to be identical! [/B][/QUOTE]

    Well, there is the Gigabyte dual GPU SLI vid card - SLI in one :)
Sign In or Register to comment.