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**Compgeek** · 12-06-2003, 04:45 PM

Get the 9600pro its a good card.

**rugbydude** · 12-06-2003, 06:09 PM

The different makes of ati and nvidia card can make a big difference. You see nvidia and ATI make the reference design , that basic card. Distributers then get the card and sometimes change them to make them better or sell them as they are. Different makes of the card may have better cooling for overclocking , or better software packages. They can also have different clock speeds that they have changed for one reason or another(remember the higher the clock speed the better). So my advice is to save up for the 9600 pro of even better the 9600 xt. The best make by far is the hercules as it is the nicest looking card with the best sofware package (comes with some games) and great cooling. :thumb:

**maximus7001** · 12-06-2003, 06:11 PM

Whatever you do, don't touch that fx5200 with a 10 foot/3meter pole. You said you got $100, I am assuming that it is us$ since you did not say where you are from.
The difference between these cards is the r9600 has 3 models, all 8x agp, regular, faster , and fastest. All 3 models are direct x9. The ti series is dx8.1 except for the pixel shader 1.1, true dx8.1 had ps 1.4(not a big deal).
The ti series originally came in 3 versions(speeds), all agp 4x, the ti4200, ti4400, and ti4600, all using the same technology with 3 different speeds. They changed the ti4200 to 8x agp and renamed the ti4400 to ti4800se w/8x agp, and the ti4600 to ti4800 w/8x agp.

Now as for the fx5200, it's real slow, not fast enough to use it's only new feature (directx9). The minimum card recomended in the fx series is a fx5600ultra, NOT the non ultra.

Don't worry about the 8x agp thing, it is a scam in general only yielding 1% increase at most.

Bottom line is, the ti4200 sounds within your pricerange and is a good card. With your setup, that card your setup will be faster in gfx than mine due to your slightly faster system. I have tested a p4 2ghz system with a 4x agp 64mb ti4200 and it beat mine in 3d mark '01 but not by much(about 500-600 points).

My card retails for $250cdn but it is hard to compare price since mine has video in, making it more expensive. I wanted a r9600 pro, but the only video in option is all-in-wonder, making it way too expensive for me.

Hope I helped you understand gfx cards a bit better.

**AsianBatman** · 12-06-2003, 07:27 PM

Let me see, you don't want to spend anymore than 100$. But all your selections except the fx5200 is over 100$. Don't go for the fx5200. I doubt you can get a decent card under 100$. So you should save up for a ti4200 if you don't want to spend alot. But i suggest you save alittle more and go for the ATi 9600 pro because it blows the other 2 out of the water.

**jack77766** · 12-06-2003, 08:33 PM

So everyone is recommending the 9600 pro I guess.

I saw it for 100$ US modified by powercolor with the folowing details - Power-Color ATI Radeon 9600SE (325MHz) (128MB DDR / CRT DVI TV-Out) (Retail)
Details:
Radeon 9600 128MB DDR RAM! Includes Low Profile Bracket!
Part - R96LE-C3S
Updated - 11/

Its on pricewatch.com

Is this a good deal, good card??
should I definitely get this one??

What kind f performance boost can I expect???

Thanks
Jack

**jack77766** · 12-06-2003, 08:39 PM

Sorry Maximus you said the Ti 4200 is better than the 9600 or are you recommending it because you think its lower priced???

This is the cheapest TI 4200 I can find

Inno3d - GeForce4 TI 4200 128MB 8X AGP DDR(4NS) Fast Memory. Value Pack.
Details:
GeFore4 Ti4200 8X 128MB S-Video connector and cable Included resolution to 2048x1536

its 97$ so only about 5$ cheaper than the 9600.

What do you think????

They also have other manufacterer makes like Jaton, gainward and ASUS

Thanks
Jack

**AsianBatman** · 12-06-2003, 09:09 PM

If it is only 5$ more than the ti4200 go for the 9600 because it is better and has directx9 support for future games. :thumb:

**AsianBatman** · 12-06-2003, 09:12 PM

Originally posted by jack77766

So everyone is recommending the 9600 pro I guess.

I saw it for 100$ US modified by powercolor with the folowing details - Power-Color ATI Radeon 9600SE (325MHz) (128MB DDR / CRT DVI TV-Out) (Retail)

Jack

Whoa..didn't see that, i think the 9600se is crap. I didn't know they had a seond edition for a budget card...Now i have no clue which is better..a ti4200 or a 9600 se...

**Mista K6** · 12-06-2003, 10:51 PM

Well, the info here is all great but I don't know if you got it all, seeing you are new to cards. Same thing happened to me when I bought my Ti4200, too much info, but thankfully I got a Ti4200 instead of Radeon 9100 (dif story, dont pay attention to that).

For what you need, there's basically three options, a Ti4200 or a Radeon 9600Pro or XT.

The Ti4200, is a great, solid card that has great performance for such a low price. I've owned one for close to 7 months now, and have been very happy with it. As you can see in my signature, I've overclocked it from its stock speed (250MHz GPU, 512MHz RAM, to 280/581) and it has held these higher speeds perfectly. Ti4200 cards run from $85-$140, depending on options. The cheaper models are usually less $ cause they only have 64MB of RAM, the more expensive ones have 128MB. Go with the 128MB. Also, some companies really make s****y cards, so dont buy them. I'd recommend either the Abit or Asus versions ($120 or so). However, these cards only support Direct X8.1 (older software), and are really being phased out of the market, few companies make them now. Ti4200's also over clock really well. You might have to add on some extra cooling, but they can really hold higher speeds well.

The Radeon 9600 is a great mid-range card. Powerful performance at a great price. They support Direct X 9 (which games are just starting to use, so you'll be buying brand new :D). The 9600 Pro is about $150, great card (400MHz core, 600MHz RAM) with 2.0 shader programs (new) and enough performance to play even the newest games well (Half-Life 2, Doom 3). The 9600XT is just an amped up version, for $167, you get a core speed of 500MHz over the Pro's 400. If you wanna save the extra $, buy a pro and overclock it to XT speeds. If you buy the XT, you can overclock that too and get some more performance.

The other cards just dont cut it. The 5200 essentially lacks the performance to play games well, rendering its Direct X9 capablity almost useless. Don't buy it. The 9600 SE is a cheapo version of the 9600. It doesn't have any where near the performance of the Pro or the XT, and, in my opinion, it's shoddy manufacturing. Don't get that either.

So, to sum it up, get a 9600 Pro or an XT. If you really cant get $150, even through waiting, then do get a Ti4200. It's a great card, but it wont be able to support newer games for much longer.

Hoped that helped you a bit, : peace2: Mista K6

**jack77766** · 12-06-2003, 11:08 PM

Ok 9600 pro it is!
One last question you think itll be cheaper in like a month or is it better to buy now???

Thanks for all the help guys

JAck

**Sovereignty** · 12-06-2003, 11:25 PM

Maybe but not by much.

**Mista K6** · 12-07-2003, 05:09 PM

Glad ya chose the pro, I would too :D . Typically, comp hardware just goes down at a steady rate, so ya, a month from now it'd be a little cheaper, but not a whole lot. I'd recommend the Sapphire ATI 9600 Pro, its a quality card and you dont wanna get stuck with a s****y company. They also overclock very well :D, just get some 3rd party copper heat sinks for the RAM. Anyways, cheers and good luck with your new card, : peace2: Mista K6

**maximus7001** · 12-08-2003, 06:08 AM

As I said before, it's hard to estimate prices without knowing location. Use the user cp button to add location and system specs so we know what we are dealing with and location. Notice how my specs are shown, so everyone knows what they are dealing with.

Sorry Maximus you said the Ti 4200 is better than the 9600

Nowhere did I say this. You said you had $100 to spend and the r9600pro is alot more.
As asianbatman pointed out, there is a se version(I did not know that). se versions are usually sucked out versions of a normal one. Rarely as with my ti4800se card, se does not mean that. It is a rename of a ti4400 after adding 8x agp. So I understand your general confusion about gfx cards.

So then there are four versions of a r9600, the r9600se(slow), the r9600(normal), r9600pro(faster, used to be the fastest), and r9600xt(fastest).

Some people have other considerations like the need for video in or nice software bundle(mine came with morrowind and rainbow6 blackthorn). In that case the choices are slimmer and more expensive. Like I said before, the r9600pro was what I wanted($280cdn, less now), but 3 months ago, xt's werent out yet and the pro all-in-wonder version was$365cdn, less now. I usually get 128mb 8x ti4200's for about $160-175cdn, $125-150cdn for 4x or 64mb versions. I payed $250cdn for my asus gf4 ti4800se vivo and am quite happy. If I was buying now, something like this ASUS RADEON 9600 XT-TVD /128MB DDR / 8X AGP / TV-OUT / VIDEO-IN / DVI / W/ ASUS SOFTWARE + COUPON FOR HALF-LIFE 2 / RETAIL
$299.95cdn
would be my choice now, but 3 months ago, asus never made ati yet.
Read THIS and you will understand gfx card performance and priceing better.

**AsianBatman** · 12-08-2003, 04:38 PM

The 9600pro and the 9600xt aren't that different, there basically the same almost.

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Need a new video card, but dont understand anything!!

Need a new video card, but dont understand anything!!

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