Help with new vid card.

[Pipewrench]

I think after my other thread I am going to buy another video card.

I'm just hoping someone can point me in the right direction.



I was thinking of an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro because it seems to be a good card for the money. I can get one for like $100.

With speeds of 400MHz and 600MHz it seems to be much better than an NVidia FX5700.

I was also looking up some stuff on pipelines. It seems that the 9700 is a kick butt card but they don't make it anymore. It also seems that It would be better to get a 9600 Pro than a plain 9800. Am I wrong?

I have to say that the research I've done seems to say that ATI is the best around these days. Unless you want to take up 2 slots and have a LOUD fan

Also would any other cards be halfway decent?

Any websites that you can list to point me in the right direction as far as video cards go would be great.

Thanks,
Pipewrench

[SaulTurnedPaul]

At this point in time, I wouldn't recommend getting a 9600. They are just too slow, and the performance is practically unnoticable when compared to an FX5700. I would suggest that you either pick up a 6600GT when they are released on the AGP platform. It'll run $200. That's how much a 9800P costs right now, and you get better performance. If you want to get anything mainstream for around $100, I'd still wait and see what develops.

Concerning pipelines, a great reason to choose something like the 9700P or 9800P over a 9600P for instance is the pipeline increase. The 9700 and 9800 series have 8 pipelines. A 9800 is better than a 9600P because though it isn't a pro, it still has 8 pipelines compared to the 4 of the 9600P. Check out THG's new video chart.

[d94]

a 9600 pro is a great card
someone on another forum is selling it for $75 shipped...
pm me if interested

[Martin_89]

if you were going to get a 9600PRO then id recomend spending a little extra for the 9600XT which has an extra 100MHz core speed. mine handles doom III at 1024X768 with settings at high. it also handles Far Cry at 1024X768 with the settings pretty high.

but then again the 9800PRO isn't that much more eather