Stuck inbetween ATi and Nvidia

[Deadly Dude]

i am after a new graphics card, but cannot decide which way to go.

i am a diehard nvidia fan but from wat i am seeing ati is kickin there butt at the moment.

the choices i am looking at are fx5900nu, fx5950nu, 9800np and 9600XT

not sure on wat budget i am working off, but i am a bang for ya buck kind of person.

thanks

DD

[Yuriman]

The 9800np will kill all those other cards, with the 5950 in a distant second, followed by the 5900 and then the 9600xt. If you have the cash, definantly get the 9800np. Otherwise, I cant say whether I'd get a 9600xt or a 5900, but I think I might lean in the direction of the 9600.

[eli]

I have the 9800np right now, modestly overclocked past XT speeds. :) Best bang/buck, right behind the 5900nu.. that was my other choice.

[snvpa]

it depends on the 5900 version. if it is a true 5900 for less than a 9800 np then get it but if its a se then bypass it. I recommend the 9800 but then i'm also running a 9800 pro @ 475 core clocks everyday for games so I'm a little biased.

[Bulwark]

With what's out on the market at this time, I'm on the ATI bandwagon. But it also depends on how much money you have available and if there are any good deals in your area.

[tweaker]

A T I :D

[Andy71600]

get the 9800np! There is no doubt that it will take out any of those other cards

[Th0r]

I have to agree with people here... ATi is the best people to goto at the moment... That might change when the new Cards get released around February....

[supergenius74]

Well from what I can tell the best bang for your buck right now is the 9600XT or the FX5700. IF you want the best that money can buy I would say the 9800XT but that somewhat depends on what you play. THe XT definitly has better DX9 and AA performance but it seems that the FX5950 is better at OpenGL rendering and although alot of games now are DX9 like HL2, Doom3 will be OpenGL. Its been a crazy year in video cards, we have seen ATI come from being the underdog to being equal or better than Nvidia so I'm gonna wait a while longer, let DX9 mature a bit more and see how things are on the next generation of cards.

[Evnas]

Originally posted by supergenius74
Well from what I can tell the best bang for your buck right now is the 9600XT or the FX5700. IF you want the best that money can buy I would say the 9800XT but that somewhat depends on what you play. THe XT definitly has better DX9 and AA performance but it seems that the FX5950 is better at OpenGL rendering and although alot of games now are DX9 like HL2, Doom3 will be OpenGL. Its been a crazy year in video cards, we have seen ATI come from being the underdog to being equal or better than Nvidia so I'm gonna wait a while longer, let DX9 mature a bit more and see how things are on the next generation of cards.

The same problems with DX 9 are also there in the new OpenGL (IE: Doom 3). They both use PixelShaders 2.0, which is where nVidia has the problems. Carmack has had to have Doom 3 revamped for nVidia cards to get competing performance

[Sentential]

Thats very true, you also must remember how in-efficient the NV cards are. Sure you may get 1.2GHZ on the RAM and 700clock, but it will still get thrashed by a 9800XT / OCed 9800pro/non, in a traditional DX9 game.

If you want somethin future proof get a 9800 pro/non and an Arctic Cooling VGA silencer. Lets see a 5900 take on a 9800 clocked @ 500mhz (clock)

[shortyes]

Well my advice to you is too see what cards you can get at what price. If you have the money get the 9800XT

If not then think about getting the 9800NP if you can find it cheap aka around 200. If you can not get the 5900 series, the SE/XT version is a good bet

DO NOT buy the 9600, it is crap nor buy any Nvidia card below the 5900 series aka 5700, 5600, and DEfinitely not the 5200

[snyper1982]

i think you are confusing the 9600 with the 5600. the 9600 has decent performance, it is far from crap.

[shortyes]

No, I think the 9600 series is crap. I had the pro version for a month and I hated it. It was one of the cards I picked up and tried. It did horrible compared to my 9500. I have used every single Radeon card they have ever made except for the XT series. I think the 9600 is crap.

I loved the 7200, 8500, the 9500, 9700 and the 9800
I hate the 9600

For Nvidia
I love their GF 1-4 series, 5900
I hate their 5200, 5600, 5700 and 5800

[Bulwark]

Well the 9500 is better than the 9600, but I think saying the 9600 is crap would be being overly harsh on it. Based on what you can get retail, and it's theoretical price niche, it's a decent buy. In Canada a BBA 9600 pro is about 200 CDN w/o taxes while a BBA 9800 pro goes for about 400 CDN without taxes. If you got the cash, go for the 9800 pro. If you've got a smaller budget to work with, but don't want to compromise your gaming experience then the 9600 or nvidia's 5700 is probably what u're going to be looking at.

This is pretty much based on the prices that are available in my region of Canada. So what I said above may not be correct depending on your area.

[Aslan]

Yep, agreed with Bulwark. In many stores, the price of the 9800 Pro is sometimes $500 or even $600 CDN, and only now has the price begun to drop a little, with the lowest being $360 @ www.sonexpc.com (of course, this price, with taxes, equals around 420 for me :p ).

Also, the 9800np is pretty much impossible to find now in Canada, and even if you do, it will still be practically the same price as the Pro.

The 9600 Pro is a pretty decent buy, but IMO, it's only really good if you upgrade every 3-6 months; if you upgrade annually, or even bi-annually, the 9800 Pro is a much better choice.

[Deadly Dude]

ok i was looking at prices before and the cheapest for those cards are

9800np - 400 aud
fx5900nu - 400 aud
fx5950nu - 500aud
9600XT - 300aud

and another spanner in the works the fx5700 ultra - 355aud

i'm tending to go for either 9600XT or fx5700 ultra

[Tithulta]

I've a quick question to ask that I'm hoping to get a quick answer to here instead of starting a new thread...

Currently I'm running a GF3 Ti200 I want to upgrade to an ATI card. What is a GF3 Ti200 equivilent in ATI's lineup? Just so I know where to start looking at. Likely $$$ range is $150~ give or take a few.

[Evnas]

Originally posted by Tithulta
I've a quick question to ask that I'm hoping to get a quick answer to here instead of starting a new thread...

Currently I'm running a GF3 Ti200 I want to upgrade to an ATI card. What is a GF3 Ti200 equivilent in ATI's lineup? Just so I know where to start looking at. Likely $$$ range is $150~ give or take a few.

Well the 8500 was ATi's competition to the GF3 Ti500 (and it did very well too, once it got its drive issues fixed).

In the $150 area, pick yourself up a 9600 Pro or 9600XT for a bit more

[Bulwark]

I'd probably say the 9600 Pro, unless u can get a really good deal on an XT that makes it equal to or less than the price of a pro.

[Falcon-K]

i would agree with evnas iwth the 9600 pro but if u are planning on getting hl2 then for $20 more grab a xt.

[blurry]

Best bang for the buck is the XFX Geforce FX 5900 128MB DDR AGP with TV-out & DVI for $194 @ gameve.com.

[Tithulta]

Thanks everyone :)

[Bulwark]

If you do decide to spend $20 more on an XT for HL2, make sure that it actually has it. I've been hearing about HL2 coupons are only available for those purchased before december 31st or something like that. I read it in a threat some where, but I don't remember the exact details, just that someone bought an XT which didn't have an HL2 voucher and had to request one direct from the company.

[Steven4563]

id just get a 9800np the all the 9600's are bulls***

[Deadly Dude]

from wat i have been reading the fx5700 ultra is about on par with the 9600XT, it is a little more expensive, but i still tend to like nvidia over ati.

[Alacritan]

Depends upon you're budget. A 9800 will kill any 9600, but it's also AT LEAST $100 more. That's right. A 128MB 9800 (OEM non-pro) is $250 and a retail Sapphire 9600XT is $155.

There are no Nvidia cards worth buying right now. A lot of people will say the 5900 (non-ultra) or SE, but for the price ($40 more than a 9600XT) you get slightly better performance in the majority of games, and worse image quality. And when DX9 games start to come out (this spring) you'll see why you shouldn't have bought an Nvidia card. Nvidia sucks at DX9. Horribly. You'll have spent more for a slower card.

Since you're looking at 9800's, you probably have a pretty good budget. So my vote goes to the 9800 non-pro. It's not nearly as expensive as the Pro or 9800 XT, but still comparable in performance. The 9700 Pro is a decent deal, but it doesn't have DX9 feature support, so despite being plenty powerful, it won't be able to display all the cool next generation effects. Plan for the future and get new technology. On the cheap end, my vote goes to the 9600XT, on the high(er) end, my vote goes for the 9800 non-pro. You can always overclock it to 9800 Pro speeds anyway. Whatever you do though, if you want to play any game released this coming year, don't buy an Nvidia board.

[SlipperyToy]

COUGHCOUGHATICOUGHCOUGH!!!!!!!

[USAPGAPRO]

You will just be wasting money if you buy Nvidia, please get an ATI.

[Kenshiro]

The 9600 series are definitely not crap. But the downside is that on DX7 and DX8, they will be outperformed by the 9500 pro.

9800XT is not recommended even though it is the most powerful gaming graphic card right now. The reason is because you can get very similar performance with a much cheaper 9800pro. Microcenter is having a sale and they are selling the 9800 pro for $239.99.

I won't recommend any nvidia cards right now because of their poor performance with DX9 games. The only card that i will recommend from them is the 5900non ultra. Go to newegg.com and you should be able to find a good deal. They cost around $200. I did own a 5900non ultra and I just upgraded to the ATI 9800 pro. 9800 pro kicks ass and there is no way the 5900 nu can match up to it's performance.

[Kenshiro]

Sorry, kind of left this comment out.

Go to microcenter.com and get the 9800pro. This card should last you a very long time. By the time you need to upgrade from this card, you will have to change your whole mobo because of PCI-Express.

[tom10167]

Microcenter is out of 9800 pros. :(

[silentfire]

i have to agree with USAPGAPRO go with ati. U said it yourself Deadly Dude, ati is killing just about everything right now

[Axis]

I actually have the FX5900 128meg and the ATI 9800pro 128 meg cards.

Point blank the ATI card is wayyy better. Not only in image (AA and AF) but mainly in performance.

And I ain't talking just benchmarking but in real world useage in games like DAOC, SWG, SW Knights of the old republic, Halo (especially Halo), Max Payne 2, the Matrix, Unreal 2, UT2K.... (an ah maybe even the beta versions of 2 ahh anticipated games too ;-)

The only thing the FX ever seemed to be better at is rendering volumetric shadows in SWG (image quality was still worse). That's it.

I only have both because I bought the FX too fast and was angry because of the DX9 performance.:D

I talked the wife into letting me build her a PC and yes she now has the FX in her rig.

The 2 pc's in my house are not bad for a quick 2 person lan frag fest! :cool:

[SpaceyWilly]

If you feel like mortgaging your house and selling all your posessions, then go ahead and get the 9800 pro. Otherwise, my advice is get a 9600xt or a 5700ultra, then upgrade again in like a year when it starts getting slow (the 9600xt performed fine in all the half life 2 demos, so you might even get more than a year from it). Avoid the 5900 series like the plague. The 9800np is, imo, too expensive for the level at which it performs. But if you've got the cash, then go ahead and buy one.

[SpaceyWilly]

Originally posted by snyper1982
i think you are confusing the 9600 with the 5600. the 9600 has decent performance, it is far from crap.

Yeah, whoever says the 9600 is crap is basing their opinion solely on benchmarks. It can play every game currently available and most if not all games that will be coming out in the next 6 months. And considering it's literally half the price of the 9800s and 5900s, it's definitely the best bang for the buck atm. About as far from crap as they come.