Author Topic: vid card question (Read 1069 times)

Mystic2 · « **on:** January 19, 2005, 08:22:06 PM »

I want to upgrade my vid card. I have an ATI Radeon 9200 128 meg. DDR. I am wanting to upgrade to either a Rosewill ATI 9600XT 256 megDDR, or Infotek 9600 Pro 256 DDR. Would either one of these be worth the trouble? I just need some advice.. thanx

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 19, 2005, 10:30:05 PM »

Heres the chart at Toms Hardware. The XT has a slightly faster processor and memory speed, but thats probably not going to make a noticeable difference. Brand doesnt really seem to matter much, except that the general consensus is not to trust the OEM drivers and to go with the ATI catalyst drivers from their website or the Omega drivers instead.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-02.html

I have no personal recommendation either way, as I dont use ATI cards. Hope this helps!

buzkill · « **Reply #2 on:** January 20, 2005, 12:40:17 PM »

check into sapphire ati cards....my 9600xt cost $135 and runs everything like buttah(even doom 3)....just wish it had 4 more pipelines like 9800pro

Skuzzy · « **Reply #3 on:** January 20, 2005, 12:45:53 PM »

The 9600XT will stomp the 9200. The 9200 is the old 8500, renamed, only slower! The 9600XT's real performance lies in the ultra conservative clocks ATI used. The core overclocks very well.

The 9600XT also supports later shader versions and runs them very well. If your CPU is in the 2Ghz range, this is a good card for it. Faster CPU's would benefit from a faster card, slower CPU;s would not be able to push the card to its limits.

buzkill · « **Reply #4 on:** January 20, 2005, 01:06:24 PM »

ya my core was at around 600mhz mem at 526mhz...it doesn't overclock very well, but it dont do any good with 4 pipelines

68DevilM · « **Reply #5 on:** January 20, 2005, 01:56:40 PM »

definately ati 9800 pro

eagl · « **Reply #6 on:** January 20, 2005, 01:59:35 PM »

Consider an nvidia 6600, 6600gt, or 6800. They're a whole generation ahead and if you run the newest games like HL2, doom3, etc. you'll see the difference even if you're using a slower cpu.

If all you're playing is AH and you're on a tight budget, like Skuzzy said a 9600XT would be great.

Mak333 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 21, 2005, 07:29:09 AM »

I am running a Radeon 9600XT right now. Works great with AH2 (when I played it) and with alot of other games. Just keep your CPU speed up and you should be a very happy customer. The price I believe is around 150 maybe even lower?? So definitely a good buy.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #8 on:** January 21, 2005, 10:30:00 AM »

eagl, just FYI, but NVidia has been having a lot of problems reported with the 6600 cards. It may have been a bad run of silicon, but I would recommend staying away from the 6600's for right now until it is all sorted out.

eagl · « **Reply #9 on:** January 21, 2005, 01:27:38 PM »

Good info skuzzy, thx. The only problem I'd heard was some manufacturer forgot to solder on a capacitor so buyers were finding an extra capacitor in the bag when they got the card home, but that was supposedly limited to one production run with one manufacturer. But if the rest of the 6600s are porked, then yea staying away is a good call.

FWIW I wouldn't personally buy a 6600 because it's either a defective 6800 that was good enough to pass as a 6600, or a 6800 deliberately crippled to make a 6800. I figure why buy crippled stuff when saving pennies for a bit longer lets you buy the real thing. That's why I have a 6800GT because it's the full-up card with just a lower clock speed than the 6800 ultra. But maybe I'm just weird that way.

Raider179 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 21, 2005, 02:34:53 PM »

6800 here get it if you got the $

Skuzzy · « **Reply #11 on:** January 21, 2005, 03:36:04 PM »

Or, if you have a PCI-E bus, you might want to wait for the ATI X800XL. List price under $300 ($299.00), and as fast (faster in some cases, slower in some too) as the 6800GT.

A shame they are not making it for the AGP bus, yet.

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #12 on:** January 21, 2005, 05:08:51 PM »

There's actually more of a diff. between the 6600 and the 6800 than just a slower chip. The 6800's architecture is vastly more complex than the 6600. Thats why the new Gigabyte SLI card with the dual VPUs used 6600s. The use of dual 6800 processors would have made the card so complex as to be unworkable. IIRC, the 6600 has half the pipes of a 6800. 16 vs 8 in the PCIe version.

The ATI X800 series cards are always going to be a little faster than the 6800's under hard usage. Because of ATI's optimization routines in the X800 series cards, they fudge the Trilinear optimizations for a halfway "Brilinear" mode, and then outright lie about it in their packaging and advertising. Independent testing has already proven it, they just have to admit it. Doesnt necessarily make it BAD, just makes it something different than what they claim. Their dishonesty is a big reason I dont use their stuff. Not that alone, since most businesses fudge words or numbers. But thats a big one.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #13 on:** January 21, 2005, 05:13:06 PM »

Star, you missed a good event a few months ago then. ATI had a full blown engineering discussion on the Internet about how they do what they do and why. ATI hosted it with a couple of engineers.
After all was said and done, everyone pretty much agreed what they are doing is actually pretty slick.

NVidia also does tri-linear optimizations as well. They were the first to do the bri-linear thing. ATI does it in a different manner.

The X800's are not always going to be faster. The 6800GT is better under load than an X800Pro, for example.

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #14 on:** January 21, 2005, 07:48:32 PM »

I never said what they are doing isnt a neat operation, matter of fact I think they should offer it as a step in between bilinear and trilinear, or as an optional series of cards for the value concious. What I object to is the fact that in the packaging they clearly state they use "true Trilinear optimizations" and when they ask people to compare their product to comparable Nvidia stuff, they tell you to turn OFF Nvidia's TO, basically claiming it isnt what it says it is. My issue isnt with their technology, which I think has its place. My issue is with their honesty about it. They make snide remarks about the other guy's cards, when they are the ones doing exactly what they accused them of doing.

Plus I just think Nvidia sounds cooler.

You are right, the 6800 SLI cards ARE better under a heavy load, especially at high resolutions. I was looking at data from the 6800 Ultra, not the 6800 U SLI or the 6800 GT SLI. So many versions of these new PCIe cards, makes my head spin.

Btw, for anyone who is interested in reading up on the tech, this is a pretty good article at Toms Hardware on the subject.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040603/index.html