Yeay another "what card should I get thread"

[FishDog3]

I am thinking on snatching up one of the FX 5600 Ultras, but its debatable between getting that or grabing a 4800 instead. Any recomendations? they are both pretty much in the same price range (around $150-160), and my logic is why not get the newer tech because, well, its new.

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Edit: Oh and does anyone have any favorit brands for those cards?
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Thoughts?

Oh and I have an old GF2U that the memory heatsink fell off, and was wondering if anyone has some good recomendations on cleaning off the thermal epoxy so I can reattach it. I have heard that using acetone on the memory chips will obliterate them, which I imagin is true, acatone is pretty caustic stuff. But I seem so remember hearing that someone used acatone to cleen the memory off and the card started having a totaly screwed up display, and artifacting, dead card.

 

[zabomb4163]

will you not consider ati ?

 

[funnyperson1]

Both Acetone or Rubbing Alcohol should clean it decently well and are safe.

The 5600Ultra isnt really that great of a card. If you had the choice between a 4600/4800 ( you do know that there is no difference between them except AGP4X and 8X) and a 5600Ultra, I would get the 4600.

look at some benchies:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1812&p=4

The 5600Ultra is barely faster than the Ti4200 which can be found for around 100-120$ nowadays. If you dont mind getting an Ati card, for the price the 9500Pro and 9600Pro are much better choices for the money imho, much better for the money than either the 5600Ultra or 4600

 

[baqai]

going for a dx 8 based card now days won't be a good idea i suggest you go for ATI Radeon 9500 Pro atleast .. IMO they are best bang for the buck right now

 

[Yuriman]

Nother vote for 9500, in many benches kills the 4600, which kills the 5600. PERSONALY THOUGH, i would wait for the nv35, which is what I personaly am doing.

 

[pip]

go for a 9500np from www.allstarshop.com these can be fully softmodded including the memory

 

[Captain Hilts]

9500 Pro is the answer to almost every "what should I get" question these days. When they're off the shelves, the 9600 Pro will become the new answer.

 

[Wam]

You will be extremely lucky to find a 9500np that can be soft modded as they are no longer being made on the 9700 PCB. As everyone else is stating, the only mid range card to consider is the 9500pro.

 

[FishDog3]

I actually am perfectly open to ATI and I know they produce a much better all around card, but there is a known issue with the 9500 drivers *i think* where the card has major frame rate issues with the Half-Life engine. And being a serious Counter-Strike gamer the possablility of sub par propformance on that engine is unexceptiable.

Im in a hurry right now, going out to dinner, but I'll check back and read some more bneches and make a dicision, thanks for the help!.

 

[SpoonMaN]

dont worry about CS on a 9500 pro dood
i also play the game ALOT and this 9700 works great it almost never drops off the max of 99

 

[funnyperson1]

That is more of an issue with the 8500/9000 series of cards, but I have heard of people with 9500s having the problem. If CS is that important to you, then here is what I suggest you do.

The 5600Ultra. Doesnt really deserve its newness. The 4400 is an overclocked 4200 and the 4600 is an oced 4400 and the 4800 is a 4600 with 8X agp and the 4800SE is a 4400 with 8X Agp. Out of all those I think the best choice is the 4200. You can get a 128mb 4200 from newegg for 120$ while 4400s still sell for 170 and 4600s a bit more expensive. Get a 4200 and do some decent ocing and youll be very happy with it without bursting the bank.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

9500 Pro and flash it to a 9700 PRO - end of story

P.S - Half Life 2 is out this week i beleive - gamespy already has reviews out on it.

 

[FishDog3]

What is soft moding? sorry I o/c and keep up on hardware, but I don't pay attention to vid cards for some reason.

And having always used nvidia chips I don't know anything about ATI brands, does anyone have sugestions on brands for the ATI chipset?

Oh and, if I were to get a 4200, I (of course, who of us wouldn't) will o/c it like a hell bent tweaker *wee* so are there any good cooling solutions that really outproform the stock hsf/mem sinks, not including a waterblock... still a few $$ away from investing in water blocks, but I am sure it will come soon

 

[snyper1982]

im going watercooling on my setup! lol, im cooling the cpu, nb, and gpu.

 

[Supertrucker]

9500 non pros have a chance of being on the right pcb to mod, and if you get the right pcb there is a chance that the mod will get 0 artifacts. 9500 pros have never benn nor are they now moddable to anything. however with a bios flash you can overclock them. and in that price range i would go for the 9500pro

edit: and cs plays smoother on my 8500le based system than on my brothers ti200 based system, but then, im an overclocker and like to tweak my stuff. he isnt

 

[Wam]

The only Catalyst driver problem that I know of with the Half-life engine is something to do with the Esc key. That has now been fixed in the soon to be released 3.4.

@ Mr.Guvernment
9500pro can not be flashed to 9700pro. They have the 8 pipelines but only 128bit architecture as opposed to 256 of the 9700/9700 pro. It can be overclocked quite well in most cases.

I totally agree with funnyperson1. If you must get an Nvidia card then unless you can get a ti4600 cheaply then ti4200 (128meg) is your best bet.

For more info on Half-life issues with ATI cards pop over to Rage3D forums. There's a guy called Catalyst Maker who (funnily enough) helps write the Catalyst drivers. You can PM him if you want factual anwers or just do a search for Half-life to find out peoples issues with it. It would be worth the effort because once you start using AA X AF the Ti4200 can't hold a candle to the 9500pro. I've had both.

 

[Oni]

My advice to you: Do some research for yourself. Visit some reputable hardware sites, read benchmarks, look at image quality, performance, overclockability, and anything else you want in a video card. Then make your choice based on those data.

In the end, it boils down to a price-performance issue. The current king of that would be the Radeon 9500 Pro. Very overclockable, easily softmodded (assuming you can find the right PCB), and cheep. But do the research yourself. You could wait and see what nVidia has to offer in the was of cards, too. That would allow you to come to a different conclusion, possibly

 

[FishDog3]

Is there any way to determin what the correct PCB is to be able to soft mod a 9500np?

 

[Da_Beeblebrox]

I believe the memory chips need to be in a backwards L shape near the external power connector.... And the pcb must be red. Thats what mine looks like, and i have been told it is the right one...

But it doesnt hurt to try to softmod, because you can flash them back i believe... someone correct me if i am wrong.

P.S Mine is a sapphire

 

[kfunk]

I spent $100 for each of my two TI4200s. Overclocked and works flawless. Best $100 I spent on video card.

Lot of people like ATI cards. I personally like NVIDIA because that's only cards I've used and never had problems w/ it.