Another One Of These...

SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">What VCard should I buy??</div> So I've got a little over 300 bucks (canadian) to spend on a new video card, I figure I'll upgrade the old (and crappy, with broken fan) Fx5200. The question is what should I get?

I have a bit of an idea what is available in that pricerange, but I have little to go on, other than info I have gleaned off the age old ATI vs NVidia debate, which unfortunatly doesn't make my mind up for me in that price range.

I was hoping that I would be able to make my purchase from <a href='http://www.primetime-pc.com/' target='_blank'>here</a> (all prices on this site are in canadian funds), as they have a location that is about 2 blocks away from my house, and I have been very happy with purchesses I have made there in the past. But I am definatly willing to look elsewhere if it means a better card for my money.

So what do you think?
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Comments

  • IsamilIsamil Join Date: 2003-11-25 Member: 23552Members, Constellation
    Get a 9800 Pro.
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  • SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
    edited June 2004
    Its about a 50 dollars out of my price range.

    [edit] original overestimate fix
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  • ObstObst Join Date: 2003-03-12 Member: 14436Members, Constellation
    A 9800Pro is about 230$ US, adn my currency convertor tells me:
    300$ CAN = 230$ US
    So you should be able to get one o.0
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  • SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
    edited June 2004
    can you link me to a website that confirms that?

    The few canadian sites I've gone to price the 9800 pro at about 355 (which I would also have to pay 12% sales tax on), but it is most likely after markup if that is the case. I honestly can't touch a purchase figure above 300$ (before tax), and I can't afford to buy in the states do to dudy and shipping costs.
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  • Rage7Rage7 Join Date: 2003-12-02 Member: 23883Members, Constellation
    Try for a Radeon 9600XT, would be your best bet.
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  • SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
    Preformance wize, how much of a difference am I looking at between a 9800 pro and a 9600 XT? Isn't the pro a 128M card compared to the XP being a 256? what kind of a difference is that?
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  • ElderwyrmElderwyrm Join Date: 2003-04-07 Member: 15296Members
    Well and the 9600 only having half as many rendering pipelines.
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  • SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
    So it runs half as fast? or it preforms half as effectively? Speak in simpler terms, I know very little about the inner working of graphics cards <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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  • PulsePulse To create, to create and escape. Join Date: 2002-08-29 Member: 1248Members, Constellation
    <a href='http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031015/radeon9600xt-07.html' target='_blank'>Benchmarks</a> to the rescue.
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  • SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
    Awesome, so the 9800pro pretty much doubles the 9600XP in FPS, can I assume that means it renders better (higher quality) too? doesn't it have some special lighting features or something along those lines as well?
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  • TenSixTenSix Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7932Members
    9600XT is slower than a 9800 Pro... ATI has a very weird naming policy which they need to ditch. Don't think of XT verus Pro... think of it this way, the XT is a speedier version of the 9600 Pro. Only by about 10fps or so (I think the payoff is in higher consistent performance). The 9800 Pro is still faster.

    I would recommend you either:

    a) Wait until the 9800 Pro is about $30-50 cheaper... which should be too long once X800s get rolled out.

    b) Wait until whatever game you really need the card for is released (like HL2).

    Better to wait a month or two until you can get a card that will last you awhile than jump the gun and get one that will be in the bargain bin in 2 months.
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  • SwiftspearSwiftspear Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
    <!--QuoteBegin-TenSix+Jun 5 2004, 06:48 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (TenSix @ Jun 5 2004, 06:48 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> 9600XT is slower than a 9800 Pro... ATI has a very weird naming policy which they need to ditch. Don't think of XT verus Pro... think of it this way, the XT is a speedier version of the 9600 Pro. Only by about 10fps or so (I think the payoff is in higher consistent performance). The 9800 Pro is still faster.

    I would recommend you either:

    a) Wait until the 9800 Pro is about $30-50 cheaper... which should be too long once X800s get rolled out.

    b) Wait until whatever game you really need the card for is released (like HL2).

    Better to wait a month or two until you can get a card that will last you awhile than jump the gun and get one that will be in the bargain bin in 2 months. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I need to buy pretty soon as my FX5200 is on the verge of cutting out at any moment. I have hacked together a solution involving a 4 pin fan proped up on wooden rods sticky tacked to the floor of my case that blows into the heat synch.

    Unfortunatly the fan is blocking my PCI slots, and if I were to move it the old FX wouldn't be getting enough air to not burn up any more. Normally this wouldn't be so much of a problem, except that I need to get a sound card because my crappy onboard is crashing all the time and screwing up everything.

    I have just over 400 dollars at the moment and the sound card I'm going to get (after I a have a new video card) costs 50 dollars (before tax). Although... I do have a 25 dollar future shop gift certificate laying around somewhere, and I might be able to scrape around 50 dollars together doing back breaking chores.

    I'm running on a somewhat tight timeline here, as at the end of the summer I go off to school in Albereta (I live in BC), and I really need to deal with these problems before I go.
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  • ObstObst Join Date: 2003-03-12 Member: 14436Members, Constellation
    edited June 2004
    Well, here in germany I could tell you where to get it for 220$, for the US/Canada I need to rely on google....
    <a href='http://www.bizrate.com/marketplace/search/search__cat_id--405,keyword--Radeon%209800%20Pro,prod_id--7823888.html' target='_blank'>http://www.bizrate.com/marketplace/search/...d--7823888.html</a>

    But it seems to me that the 9800 Pro.s from Sapphire are very cheap everywhere ^^
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