• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

what card should i buy? (sorry... you guys are advice giver pro's)

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

-N-

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2002
Location
so.ca
yea.. another one of these questions :(

so I'm a sad poor college student right? prety much with a tight budget.
I feel kinda bad that I'm upgrading my card since I just bought it last year LOL.. believe it or not... back when it costed me $105.

Anyways... Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 are kind of persuading me to buy a new card. I had a plan to always buy the current graphics cards that are priced around ~$100. So as of now.. that would probably equate to a Radeon 9600, right? But i dunno... I'm thinkin of getting something that will last me a longer time, of course not a Geforce 6800 Ultra or anything. The most I'm probably willing to dish out is $150. What would be the best card for me? thanks!!
 
You want a 6800 for $150? Me too. :)

A 9600Pro should definately be able to play HL2 since they did package HL2 with the video card....quite a long time and its still not out yet..... :/

I would aim for a 9700pro over a 9600pro though... But if you look hard enough you might be able to find a used 9800pro for $150.
 
i believe they stopped bundling hl2's with 9600xt? isn't it only 9800xt's now? oh well, i have a 5200 plus and it plays doom3 fine on 800x640, on high quality settings. i know this card sux, i had a 5900xt but it started acting up on me. although my friend has a 9600xt and he plays doom3, not sure what settings he uses though.
 
is there a big difference between 9600xt, 9700 pro, 9800 pro?
I obviously know 9800>9700>9600 lol.. but is THAT big of a difference in performance to justify the cost increase?
 
does 256 bit vs 128 bit make that much of a difference in performance? =/
 
9600xt <<< 9700pro < 9800pro
128bit <<< 256bit

if that thing about the 9700pro for $157 at newegg is true, then hop on that immediately. if not, your other options are...

1) if you're more into doom 3 than HL2, check out nvidia's cards in your price range
2) if you're more into HL2 than doom 3, check out ati's cards
3) if you don't have a preference, check out ati's cards in your price range (ie 9600xt)
 
-N- said:
yea.. another one of these questions :(

so I'm a sad poor college student right? prety much with a tight budget.
I feel kinda bad that I'm upgrading my card since I just bought it last year LOL.. believe it or not... back when it costed me $105.

Anyways... Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 are kind of persuading me to buy a new card. I had a plan to always buy the current graphics cards that are priced around ~$100. So as of now.. that would probably equate to a Radeon 9600, right? But i dunno... I'm thinkin of getting something that will last me a longer time, of course not a Geforce 6800 Ultra or anything. The most I'm probably willing to dish out is $150. What would be the best card for me? thanks!!

Why not go for the 9800SE at newegg.com
OR you can save up 40 bucks more and get the 9800PRO :sn:
 
hmm... i just noticed this:

what's the difference between this and this?

cause they look exactly the same but one's $20 cheaper... so I don't really see a reason to get the more expensive one... but it's sold out :temper:
 
they look the same to me, but either way, $157 for a 9700pro is a fantastic deal, provided it works as advertised. i don't have any experience with refurbs
 
-N- said:
hmm... i just noticed this:

what's the difference between this and this?

cause they look exactly the same but one's $20 cheaper... so I don't really see a reason to get the more expensive one... but it's sold out :temper:

The second one is an ATI clone. That's the exact card I have. Just noticed that it was refurbished, sorry.
 
LtBlue14 said:
9600xt <<< 9700pro < 9800pro
128bit <<< 256bit

if that thing about the 9700pro for $157 at newegg is true, then hop on that immediately. if not, your other options are...

1) if you're more into doom 3 than HL2, check out nvidia's cards in your price range
2) if you're more into HL2 than doom 3, check out ati's cards
3) if you don't have a preference, check out ati's cards in your price range (ie 9600xt)


i believe the 9700 Pro is better then ANY 128 bit 9800.
 
shard said:
umm dude
the 9700 pro is NOT better then a 128bit 9800 pro, the 9700 is 128bit!
Actually, the 9700s are 256-bit cards.

128-bit 4 pipe = 9500np
128-bit 8 pipe = 9500pro
256-bit 4 pipe = N/A (though if you find a 9500 with L shaped RAM [they do exist], that's what this card would be)
256-bit 8 pipe = 9700


JigPu
 
256-bit 4 pipe = N/A (though if you find a 9500 with L shaped RAM [they do exist], that's what this card would be)
Umm, the 9800se?

Go for that 9700, you will probably be happy that you did. I bought 1 videocard there, but it was crap untill I got around to modding it.
 
Back