9600 Pro manufacturer

I'm helping a firend build a new system. He wants a 9600 Pro and I was looking for advice on what brand to get. Wasn't sure if Saphire, Powercolor, built by ATI or somebody else made a good card.

Thanks for the input.

if i were u id avoid the 9600 altogether...... get a 9500 and flash it to 9800 or get a 9800 and flash it to pro..... unless your friend doesnt want you to mess with the card...

its not that easy to flash a 9500 to a 9700. More likely you will get a bad card than a good one. You have to be one of the lucky ones to get a 9500 np that flash to a 9700.

I have a gigacube 9600 pro lv which clocks to 485/351. Gameve has a gigacube 9600 pro(not lite version) for $136. I expect that one memory would probably overclock a little faster.

if u flash the 9500 ull have 4 more pipelines..... wont this improve performance more than an OC?

though idd u have to b lucky to have those 4 pipelines intact..

of course 4 pipelines more are better than an overclocked 9600 pro , but you have to be lucky to unlock the extra 4 pipelines without any artifacts or checkboarding. You need to look at that, most likely you would have a card that failed the softmod.

Of course the 9500 NP with 256bits interface is still a good buy if it doesn't softmod, but they are not easy to come by and would most likely cost a lot.

idd.......

since indeed the 9500 is a damaged 9800....

:/

the 9500 isnt bad, you can try the softmod, and flash it back if it wont work to good i believe...... though i wouldnt get a 9600...

9500 is still cheaper than 9600 and 9700, though they are HARD to find, i guess ati has improved the way in which they build the 9800 core

9500 is a damaged 9700.

9600 Pro are getting cheaper now, if you look good, you can find them for like $136.

The cheapest 9500 L shape i saw was for 149. Stock to stock, the 9600 pro beats the 9500 256bits memory interface, but someone on this forum said, when overclocked, the 9500 gives you more performance than an overclocked 9600 pro.

Right back to the original question::

The best 9600pro would be either Built by Ati or Sapphire
both come with 350mhz memory which means its 50mhz underclocked!!!!!! some other cards are good but ith these two you are more or less cirtan to get a good one. My sapphire will o/c to 490/385 and is a very good card.

Make sure you dont get -

one with 256mb memory
one with a suffix (eg. 9600pro LV)
or a powercolor or gigacube etc.

The 9500pro is slightly better than the 9600pro but the 9500 is a huge gamble and eaven if it does soft mod your 99% sure to get artifacts.

PowerColor.

Unless you want to spend more (180$) on a Gigacube with 2.5ns samsung memory.