I'm looking to buy a ati9600

[cardriver]

hey guys I'm looking to buy a ati 9600xt and an audigy2 ZS. was curious if any of you had these or had any opinions on them? and hell, I guess if you're looking to get rid of them or have a spare hit me up with a price... would rather my cash go to some great forum members instead of some large retail company.

[FastGame]

I have both in one of my PC's

The ATI 9600xt is a good card. I think you would be much better off spending an extra $50 or so for the 9800pro. The 9800pro is more powerful and will last longer (performance wise) with newer games than the 9600XT. The 9800pro will crush the 9600XT in games!

I think you should wait a bit for the new cards to come out and you'll get a better deal on the 9800pro.

Question, do you play alot of games ? if not then you don't need a gaming card, it would be a waste of $$$ to surf around the Net & in Office with either card.

Audigy2 ZS ? hey what can I say other than go for it, you won't regret it..... ;)

BTW as soon as the ATI 800XT comes out, my 9800pro moves over a box & the 9600XT becomes homeless..........

[rik]

So FG, isn't that the new PCI express offering?

[cardriver]

you know I was thinking about the 9800pro man, but I decided I just want a above average card for this new system I've built. then when I go ahead with the amd64 option next year I'll get the 800xt with the pci express board that I'll have with the setup.
when is the 800xt due out on shelves. I'd like to help take that 9600 off your hands for a reasonable price if need be.

BTW - I'm going to be a rather heavy gamer. up until now I havn't had a system that could handle the applications. however I just ordered CoD, BF1942, U2k04, and a few other games that I got a deal on with these ie, tiger woods golf 04, roller coaster tycoon2 stuff like that. oh and also bought rise of nations.

[FastGame]

So FG, isn't that the new PCI express offering?
No and thats the problem, I really don't want to upgrade untill PCI-X and the new AMD 64 939pin cpu and boards come out.......what to do :confused:

@cardriver, the 9600XT will work fine at 1024x768 but the 9800pro is well worth the extra, even if you still want a card to hold ya till next year. I run all my games @1600x1200, everything turned on at highest settings & 2xAA/8xAF. Games like Painkiller and Far Cry bring my 9800pro to its knee's in certain spots (alot of spots :p) ;) 9600XT wouldn't stand a chance...........
I'd like to help take that 9600 off your hands for a reasonable price if need be.
Sorry cardriver, I don't sell my stuff, I give it away to TZ members :cool: but it goes in the TZ lottery so maybe you'll win :) or maybe whoever wins it will sell it to you and I will ban them from future lottery's :p

[cardriver]

hmmm... well I'll look into the 9800 pro then... I guess your right whats another $50... definetly want my system to work flawlessly so thanks for the tips!!!

do you think they will make some sort of an adapter from agp to pci-x once the boards start to come out... maybe that's something I could take a stab at trying to design.

[cash_site]

Ohhh... another FG lottery YAY :D Perhaps we need a by-law that states previous winners can't enter... I need all luck I can muster :p

Now, Cardriver, 9800Pro would be the Bee's Knees, and of particular good value since it has exceptional performance levels.

I dont think they will make adapters for PCIx to AGP, since PCIx has increased BAndwidth requirements, but importantly higher Voltage levels. I think it has an independent 5V line instead of PCI v2.2 3.3 volts. Your PCIx video card would have shocking performance running in AGP mode.

Sounds like you will be having several hours of Gaming ahead of you... Good Luck :D

[z3n]

O.K I think Fast_Games has you covered on this, I just thought I'd put in my two bobs worth due to the fact a few friends who own 9600 Radeons have had some serious application rendering hassles. So definatley go the 9800 if your'e going Radeon.

I'm currently running the NVDIA FX ULTRA 5600 and had nothing but joy - but an upgrade is definately imminent. It's cheap and works a treat, but if you have money or patients, follow Fastgames advice and sit it out.

Whatever card you get just make sure it is DirX .9 compliant :p

[cash_site]

Well to throw another stone in the pot, my cousin is considering upgrading Vidcard too, only mid-budget, but cant decide on Asus 9600XT-TVD 128mb or 128mb Sapphire 9800SE ?? Err... soft-mod may be looked into as well ;) Let me know what you guys think.tx

[FastGame]

IMHO I think everyone should wait a bit till the new cards come out, see what happens to the prices....

When it comes to ATI, I think anything that has SE after the name should be avoided.

[SupaStar]

No complaints with my 9600XT!!! I LOVE it! :D

[cardriver]

yeah I think that is now going to be my plan of purchase here... wait till 2 months after the new cards are oput and see where the prices settle...

[zipp51]

No and thats the problem, I really don't want to upgrade untill PCI-X and the new AMD 64 939pin cpu and boards come out.......what to do :confused:

@cardriver, the 9600XT will work fine at 1024x768 but the 9800pro is well worth the extra, even if you still want a card to hold ya till next year. I run all my games @1600x1200, everything turned on at highest settings & 2xAA/8xAF. Games like Painkiller and Far Cry bring my 9800pro to its knee's in certain spots (alot of spots :p) ;) 9600XT wouldn't stand a chance...........

Sorry cardriver, I don't sell my stuff, I give it away to TZ members :cool: but it goes in the TZ lottery so maybe you'll win :) or maybe whoever wins it will sell it to you and I will ban them from future lottery's :p

I thought the boards were out.I can get this Asus SK8 V 940 pin for $174

[FastGame]

I thought the boards were out.I can get this Asus SK8 V 940 pin for $174
Yep but in my post its the 939 pin not the 940 pin Athlon 64 FX, also no PCI-X yet. The 939 pin doesn't require registered ram like the 940 does :)

[zipp51]

Yep but in my post its the 939 pin not the 940 pin Athlon 64 FX, also no PCI-X yet. The 939 pin doesn't require registered ram like the 940 does :)


Thank FG,the specs don't mention that.I believe that would save a few bucks on ram.Is the higher price the only reason you would go with the 939?Right around $40 difference for 1GB is what I see out there.I've got my eye out for a 64bit system,but like I always do,I wait for the bargains and fall behind a bit on the "newer" additions.By the time Intel comes out with their answer to AMD64,the prices will be falling,I hope. :D

[FastGame]

I don't know what I'm going to do, sure would like to see what PCI-X does before I decide on what MB & CPU.....

My PC is pretty darn fast now and could hold me for a few more months :p but those new GFX cards coming out ? man I would hate to buy one then a bit later the PCI-X cards come out..... :eek:

[Conan]

I don't know what I'm going to do, sure would like to see what PCI-X does before I decide on what MB & CPU.....

My PC is pretty darn fast now and could hold me for a few more months :p but those new GFX cards coming out ? man I would hate to buy one then a bit later the PCI-X cards come out..... :eek:

But you already have your CPU right?

[egghead]

i am without my ati9700 pro and i'm really sad
but i think the x800 xt is very nice and what i should get.


but the 9600 is a nice card for the money

i miss the liquid graphics of my pro


:(

[FastGame]

But you already have your CPU right?
No, I sold it to a kid in town but I still have the OCZ ram :)

[hotmale]

Are you serious about the lottery FastGame? No, really I'm not joking. Please tell me without any sort of sarcasm.

[FastGame]

No, really I'm not joking. Please tell me without any sort of sarcasm.
Don't tell me you can't handle sarcasm ? Yes I've been known to give my stuff away when I upgrade :)

[hotmale]

No, I don't mind sarcasm when I'm talking face to face because only then you can tell whether its sarcasm or not, unlike reading posts which is confusing!

I have a question for you though:
I’m not a hardcore gamer but I like playing games around one hour everyday unless I’m busy doing other things. And I don’t run games at high resolutions; I’m fine with 800x600. Do you think I should get ATi Radeon 9600XT, 9800 pro or would an nVidia GeForce do?

[FastGame]

I think any of the mid level cards (ATI or Nvidia) would do fine. There's no reason to spend a bunch of money on the PC unless there comes a time when your not satisfied with your gaming performance.

[hotmale]

Mid level cards like what? Any examples?
P.S. I posted 2 similar posts by mistake. Sorry!

[Conan]

Mid level cards like what? Any examples?
P.S. I posted 2 similar posts by mistake. Sorry!

ATI 9600 XT, Nvidia FX 5900 XT or FX 5700 Ultra.

[hotmale]

Thanks Conan! I'll buy one of them soon unless I'm lucky enough to win FastGame's lottery :D

[egghead]

my opinion is for the ati 9600

ati has better quality gtaphics over ati in many tests

nvidia is also power supply hungry and runs hot

now the only reason to fork out the extra bucks for the 9800 is if your computer can handle sending the data to your videocard fast enough

a high bus speed and 2ghz minuimm is needed as well as fast memory bandwidth to allow the card to acheive its potential

if your computer can't handle it you will get awful stutter


my honst recommendation is to look through any used merchandise magazines and see if you can find a 9500pro. these cards are very fast and ati discontunued them to release the slower 9600 when it appeared nvidia's new cards on the market weren't that fast.




update:

just saw benchmarks and the 9600xt is just as fast as the 9500 pro

memory clock speeds really make a difference

check this out hotmail
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/9600xt/

vga benchmark roundup
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html

[SupaStar]

just saw benchmarks and the 9600xt is just as fast as the 9500 pro


I dont want to beat a dead horse, but I recently bought a 9600XT and for the money I spent, it really is a great card. My CPU is only an Athlon XP 1800 (266) so spending big on a better card probably wasn't worth while.

My concern at the time of purchase was whether or not my PC would struggle to keep up with the graphics card. It looks like a found the perfect match because although the card is probably not running at its full potential, games run stutter-free and at quite decent resolutions on a 19" screen. :D

For the record, here is my fancy new card: http://au.asus.com/products/vga/r9600xt/overview.htm

[hotmale]

Thanks egghead for recommending the ATi 9600XT, I believe that’s what I’ll be going for. Anyway, here are the details of my PC. Do you suppose it can handle the 9800 pro? I’ll think about the 9500 pro, but I don’t like to buy used stuff.

CPU: Intel P4 2.4GHz / Full Cache / System Bus 533MHz (is this the bus you mentioned egghead? If not how can I find it?)
Motherboard: Gigabyte P4 Titan / Intel 845 chipset / Socket 478 / FSB 533
RAM: 256MB DDR*
Graphic Card: nVidia GeForce 2 64MB*
Hard Drive: Seagate 40GB/ 7200 rpm

* can’t wait to upgrade!

FastGame, Remember when you forecasted the price upsurge of RAM? At that time, I thought I still had one month or more on hand, so I went after two weeks only to find out I was too late! Do you have any idea when RAM prices will go down?

[Conan]

Thanks egghead for recommending the ATi 9600XT, I believe that’s what I’ll be going for. Anyway, here are the details of my PC. Do you suppose it can handle the 9800 pro? I’ll think about the 9500 pro, but I don’t like to buy used stuff.

CPU: Intel P4 2.4GHz / Full Cache / System Bus 533MHz (is this the bus you mentioned egghead? If not how can I find it?)
Motherboard: Gigabyte P4 Titan / Intel 845 chipset / Socket 478 / FSB 533
RAM: 256MB DDR*
Graphic Card: nVidia GeForce 2 64MB*
Hard Drive: Seagate 40GB/ 7200 rpm

* can’t wait to upgrade!

FastGame, Remember when you forecasted the price upsurge of RAM? At that time, I thought I still had one month or more on hand, so I went after two weeks only to find out I was too late! Do you have any idea when RAM prices will go down?

If you can afford the 9800 Pro, I think your system is capable of handling it. Just make sure the memory is 256 bit as I've heard of this cheap model with 128 bit memory.

[SupaStar]

If you can afford the 9800 Pro, I think your system is capable of handling it. Just make sure the memory is 256 bit as I've heard of this cheap model with 128 bit memory.

I agree with this, P4 2.4 should be fine with a 9800 Pro. Just stock up on RAM like you are planning. :D

[Big Booger]

I dont want to beat a dead horse, but I recently bought a 9600XT and for the money I spent, it really is a great card. My CPU is only an Athlon XP 1800 (266) so spending big on a better card probably wasn't worth while.

My concern at the time of purchase was whether or not my PC would struggle to keep up with the graphics card. It looks like a found the perfect match because although the card is probably not running at its full potential, games run stutter-free and at quite decent resolutions on a 19" screen. :D

For the record, here is my fancy new card: http://au.asus.com/products/vga/r9600xt/overview.htm

I have the exact same card SS. Did yours come with a Half-life 2 coupon? Mine didn't and I was rather livid about that. Also my TV out S-video is strange, it doesn't fit my cable for some reason... I think I need an adapter or something.

[hotmale]

I'll wait and see how prices change in the coming weeks

[SupaStar]

I have the exact same card SS. Did yours come with a Half-life 2 coupon? Mine didn't and I was rather livid about that. Also my TV out S-video is strange, it doesn't fit my cable for some reason... I think I need an adapter or something.

Yep, I got a Half-Life 2 coupon (as advertised on the box). I only purchaced mine a few months ago, so perhaps this is why.

With regards to TV-Out...did you get a purple adapter that you you plug into the back of the card? This is what I have The adapter is a short cable that plugs into the card at one end and has four plugs at the other...two RCA plugs (one in, one out) and two equivalent S-Video plugs. S-Video is a standard, so I dont see why you should need an adapter :confused:

[hotmale]

Here’s a list of specs used to compare graphic cards, but it’s really long. What are the 5 most important features?

Chip Technology
Process
Transistors
Memory Bus
Memory Bandwidth
Pixel Fillrate
Max FSAA Mode
Triangle Transform Rate
AGP Bus
Memory
GPU Clock
Memory Clock
Memory (on reference board)
Vertex Shader
Pixel Pipelines
Texture Units Per Pipe
Textures per Texture Unit
Vertex S. Version
Pixel S. Version
DirectX Generation
FSAA Modi
Memory Optmization
Optmization
Display Outputs
Chip Internal Ramdacs
Chip External Ramdacs
Bits per Color Channel