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ATI 9700 Pro or an nVidia Card??

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Viper69

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2003
I have an unlocked Barton XP2800+, Asus N7 deluxe rev. 1.04 mobo, 1 Gig of Corsair XMS RAM....

What video card would be good in the nVidia world. I play games like Sim City4, Total War Shogun and Medieval, various FPS's such as the first unreal, then Jedi Knight of course

Let me know your opinion please.
 
It depends. If you are interested in future games without patches/hacks to work properly I would recomend a ATi 9800np. If you want to take a risk and save money go with Nvidia.

If you're goin Nvidia get a 5900F, I wouldnt consider a -5700FX or under unless youre strapped for cash.

If youre goin ATi get a 9800np(non-pro) or a 9600XT, if you dont have the cash
 
why 9800 over the 9700Pro

what's a 9800np...meaning what's the np mean? non pro??

The 9700 has 8 rendering pipelines just like the 9800series.
 
The 9700 Pro will do very well. Theres not much you can buy from nVidia that will equal it, and it is a damn solid card all around
 
The 9800 usus updated codecs and has a higher clock speed / memory speed. Plus it has better overclocking potential.

Yes 9800np = Ati 9800 non-pro

A 9800np is the best bang for $$$ right now, it terms of longevity and performance.

The close second is the 9600XT or 9600 non-pro.
 
Sentential said:
The 9800 usus updated codecs

Well, it doesnt use updated "codecs". The differences are these:

SMARTSHADER 2.1 - Which gives the 9800 Pro beyond DX9 specs which ATI is calling DX9++ (DX9++ is just a move against nVidia's "DX9+" Beating them at their own game so to speak). An F-Buffer has been introduced in the R350 core which allows long shader programs to be run much faster then previously and also gives unlimited pixel shader support allowing for a true OpenGL 2.0 compliant VPU

SMOOTHVISION 2.1 – Which is the AA/AF component of the 9800 Pro. This newer version has hardware enhancement of the memory controller for improved AA/AF performance at higher resolutions.

HyperZ III+ - Which is their Z-Culling technique. The Z-Cache has been enhanced to better handle stencil buffer data for features like shadow volumes.

And core tweaks to allow for higher stable clock speeds.
 
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