Nvidia 5700Ultra or Radeon 9600XT

What card do you guys think is better, the 9600 performs better in directx9 games i know.

The cards are probably about equal in Dx8 performance, but I haven't seen any benchmarks, so I can't be sure. For Dx9, though, the 9600XT should beat the 5700 Ultra fairly well. I'd say that the 9600XT is a better card. More future proof.

XI, like Cam said.. and from what I have heard Nvidia cards are sucking up a storm in HL2... And its not Valve being biased either... Nvida cut a few corners compared to ATi so a few things didn't work the way the should ahve and that led to some super slowdowns.

you basicaly answered your own question. do you want to play todays games AND tomorrows games? if so then the 9600. itss al about what you want.

well the 5700 ultra and 9600 XT broke even in a test of like 20 some games.... the 5700 Ultra and even the 5600 ultra Beat the 9700 pro and even the 9800 XT in Opengl games. Their Dx9 is lacking though the 5700 Ultra or 9600XT will both be good, im an ATi fanboy though so im goiung with the XT but id get whichever one comes with the better deal if i wasnt so biased.

the 5700u is a big improvement over the 5600u but it is still behind in dx9 and when aa/af are used.

get the 9600xt

As everyone has already said, the two cards are very close in DX8.1 and earlier games if no AA or AF is applied.

Once you enable AA and AF(And you will with these cards), the R9600XT is the best card of the two....and as you already know, it's DX9 shaders are far superior as well....

Despite the apparent raw speed from the specifications however I can’t help but think back to a conversation I had with a member of the graphics card industry recently, the comment that sticks in my mind was that as we advance in the industry memory bandwidth is becoming less important. The most important factor now is the core of the card and how well it performs in processing items like shaders. From our tests it is clear to see this is becoming more and more the case and the Radeon provides a far more efficient architecture for today’s and tomorrows titles. The FX 5700 Ultra is fast, no doubting that, and it is a huge improvement over the 5600 series, it has excellent OpenGL performance and in the most used benchmarks such as 3dMark01/03 and Unreal Tournament 2003 it even gives the 9600 XT some good competition, when not using AA/AF. If the conclusion/review stopped here we would be very satisfied with the card, unfortunately we have the issue of AA/AF performance on the 5700 Ultra. When we enable this the card just can’t keep up with the Radeon 9600 XT, UT2003 is an excellent example. The cards are almost frame for frame in 0xAA 0xAF but 2xAA and 2xAF creates a gulf in performance, this is something Nvidia need to address, if they can, and fast. End users who are spending between £150 and £200 on a card nowadays expect to be able to use AA/AF. Additionally they expect to be able to play the latest games at reasonable speeds, any 5700 Ultra user wanting to buy TRAOD would be sorely disappointed gaming would be choppy, even at 1024x768.

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From DriverHeaven FX5700U review http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/5700/index.htm

here's another review at firingsquad with very positive results for the 5700u.

5700ultra review

i say the 9600xt and the 5700u are at a dead heat in most benchmarks and either is a good choice.

*cough* HL2 with radeon 9600xt *cough*

i just dont trust nvidia right now....the 9600 xt comes with half life 2 and is just as good if not better in tests as the 5700 u...id go for the 9600 xt...just to be safe

It all comes down to pricing. Which is cheaper, and by how much.

5700ultra at Frys is 229us or 239us cant remember.

The XT is 199us at ati. So there is a difference in price. Id get the XT.

Harry

Are the 9600Xt's out? I haven't been able to locate one.

Honestly dont think so

November 1st maybe? Dunno, the local compusa and bestbuy dont have em yet. But they have 9800xt,s

Harry

They are shipping to resellers sometime in November

i'd say they're pretty much equal, but the nvidia 5700 at a extremely hair-thin disadvantage with the lack of shader effects support from looking at shadermark 2.0 scores..

with the recent drama, it seems like BOTH ati and nvidia are cheating in their own ways with their dx9 generation of cards, nvidia clued a few review sites off about ati's dimmer explosion effects etc etc....i cant remember most of it...

but in any case.... the way i see it, if you want to eventually own half-life 2....the 9600 xt would be the way to go, since it comes with the coupon code for the game..... which is like a $40 bonus

funko said:

which is like a $40 bonus

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Oh how i wish new games were only $40...especially ones with the HL2 rep, lol

Sadly, they are still $50

I really don't understand why anyone would choose the 5700 Ultra at this point over the 9600XT, and can't understand why the reviews have been mostly favourable for the 5700 cards. Like the others have said, the DX9 performance is still pretty shabby, and by now you're of course going to want to play some DX9 titles with this card as the games are already coming out. The HL2 coupon (and that the 9600XT will probably be cheaper) is just a bonus.

Furthermore, there are rumours that the 9600XT that will be shipped will be faster than those that were in the reviews. I'm not sure if this is true but I wouldn't doubt it because it's exactly what happened with the 9500 Pro when it was first reviewed (the actually cards that were released were much faster). This might explain why we haven't seen the 9600XT on the street yet.

Captain Hilts said:

I really don't understand why anyone would choose the 5700 Ultra at this point over the 9600XT, and can't understand why the reviews have been mostly favourable for the 5700 cards.

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I think reviews have been optimistic, not neccessarily favorable. I was curious about the card, and I have probably read 5 or 6 reviews by now. I guess my impression is this: Everyone feels that the 5700u is a significant improvement over that shabby and substandard 5600u. I don't think anyone here would disagree. It is faster, and there have been some core changes that give the card a boost beyond the simple mem and core clock upgrades. I have yet to read a review that says that the 5700u is "the" card to get. Rather, they pretty much state that the card is much more competative. A step in the right direction in other words.

However, I still think that Nvidia's DX9 issues cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, I have yet to see a released game that IMO fully represents DX9. Despite more games begining to use DX9 features (Halo and Tomb Raider are being used quite frequently to test now), I question thier validity in terms of full DX9 benchmarking. Both of these games could pretty much be written for DX 8.1. Instead they are basically DX9 enhanced (just additional DX9 shaders thrown in). HL2 may actually be the first that I would even consider to be truly indicative of what we can expect in terms of true DX9 performance.

Because of this, I think it's prudent to wait for the HL2 benchmark, if not the full game to be released before really investing in an expensive videocard. Unless the need is extremely pressing (if you have a GF2MX for example), one might as well wait. I'm as anxious to buy a new card as everyone else, but I honestly don't see any point until the games I want are actually released. In the end, I will get a better card for the money if I wait.