Which graphics card is the best ?

[Halcyon]

Can someone advise me on which is best to go for out of these two:
(Click for details)


Radeon 9600XT 256MB DDR AGP


or this one:


Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR AGP RP DVI VO


Which is the best to go for ?
They'l be run on a P4 3.4Ghz 1Gb Ram.

Thanks.

Tim.

[Tristan]

Deinitely the 9800 Pro

[Halcyon]

Even though the other is 256mb over 128mb ?

[jamesclarke555]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Even though the other is 256mb over 128mb ?

Yep

9600 Series = 4 Pipelines/128-bit memory interface
9800 Series = 8 Pipelines/256-bit memory interface

The extra memory won't do the 9600XT any favours when compared to the 9800 PRO.

[Graham M]

Why didnt anyone tell me that before I bought my 9600XT !? Anyway im pleased with my 9600XT, rox the sox off my old GeForce MX 440

Even if it has 128MB memory, I wouldn't count on it using all that up. Even if it does, it will use the AGP memory in your system memory to take over.

[dilli-theclaw]

I'd definately get the 9800pro as well

[keithwalton]

i think this will be unanimous in favour of the 9800 (thats another vote in its direction btw), solidly fast cards, used to be a high end card with all the bells and whistles and has now slipped into mainstream level and is still kicking on strong due to native pci express cards taking over the mainstream sector they are actually not going to be replaced. Instead they're gonna keep on kicking them out for a while yet.

I would look out for a 256meg version pro (was allways quite rare may not exist anymore) of an xt which will be about to take another price tumble as the x700's and nv 6600's start to show up (slightly quicker than a 9800xt but pci-e only so far)

It allways used to be whatever had the most memory was inherently the faster in the days when amount of memory was really important (8meg vs 12meg voodoo for example). This ended in the era of the gefroce 4 ti when the 64meg version shipped with faster ram than its 128meg brother and in quite a few cases was faster in raw pace, but fell back when aa and af were involved. Suprisingly alot of people still base there card decision on amount of ram on it, mainly big manufacturers do it to claim they have an **mb video card in there system. The 256meg ati 9200 (i think) was born for this exact puprose

K

Edit - Just checked, the ati 9550 256meg is the current weapon of choice for high amounts of memory but lame performance. It has 256megs of 400mhz ddr memory on a 128bit bus, and a 4 pipeline gpu running at 250mhz.
This is geforce 3 ti 200 speed memory and ti 500 speed core, ooo it must be fast :-\

[Gareth]

Also, look out for 9800SE which is a cut-down version of a 9800 but which can be soft-modded to unlock the 4 dormant pipes and magically turn it a full-blown 9800. These are a lot cheaper than a normal 9800 ....bout £90 at ebuyer, iirc.

You can find loadsa info on these cards by Googling

[Gareth]

OK, ebuyer quickfind code thingy is 56695 and it retails at £90.46 inc VAT (I really need to get out more )

I believe that Bifta is the resident graphics card connoisseur I'd wait for his opinion

[keithwalton]

Aha, strangly enough the 9200 256meg cards have been discontinued, here is a link to one of the product pages for one of them,
http://www.tul.com.tw/global/product...cat2=7&cat3=14

That really must be made to jump off the shelf into the hands of someone not quite upto speed with graphics tech (saying that they are doing there best to confuse everybody and its working)
It has though been replaced by the 9250, same card same ram, slightly updated core that now supports dx9 features but isnt any faster

[jamesclarke555]

Originally Posted by GDW1975

Also, look out for 9800SE which is a cut-down version of a 9800 but which can be soft-modded to unlock the 4 dormant pipes and magically turn it a full-blown 9800. These are a lot cheaper than a normal 9800 ....bout £90 at ebuyer, iirc.

You can find loadsa info on these cards by Googling

Yes, but not all 9800SE cards are the same though. As a general rule of thumb, the cards with L shape memory (256-bit memory interface) will mod to a 9800 PRO. However, the cards with I shape memory are limited to a 128-bit memory interface and will only mod to the equivalent of a 9500 PRO (but with R350 core)

[Richard M]

I have a 9600XT in my Athlon 3200+ machine and a 9800 Pro in my FX-53 machine, the 9800 is a lot better although the 9600XT is still a very fast card.

[Bifta]

I don't really need to make any comments, I was only going to add something about non pro 9800's having a 128bit memory interface, but I've been beaten to it. I've no experience of a 9600XT so can't really offer an opinion. On a similar note though, I've not overly impressed with the X800 series, I don't know if it's my CPU speed hampering it but I see only minor performance increases over my old 9800 pro.