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schi0249 - Jul 19, 2003

		schi0249		Jul 19, 2003
			Right now I'm using a 32mb Geforce 2 MX. I'm looking to replace that with something more highend. My budget is around $150, give or take a few. I need a better one for some of my future purchases: (Doom 3, WOW, Half Life 2, etc.). What would you all recommend? I am not partial to ATI or NVIDIA. My mobo supports AGP 8x. I'm wanting to move up to 128 MB.

		Curtis		Jul 19, 2003
			I'm not really sure what US prices are at the moment, but the latest batch of Radeon cards seem to kick arse. All the benchmarks I've seen show that the Radeon 9500Pro outperforms the 9600Pro, so if you can find one it's probably a good buy. The 9600pro still offers very good performance/price. Anandtech's review of the 9800Pro... indicated that is was capable of 100+ FPS in Doom 3 already, so if that is within your budget go for it. Practically every G/C these days is at least 128Mb - 256 is starting to become more common too. I don't know much about the Geforce FX series cards, though I hear they don't really compete with the new ATi cards.

		Gallstaff		Jul 19, 2003
			do you know if the geforce 4 ti 4200 is capable of 100 fps in doom 3?

		dnguyen800		Jul 20, 2003
			http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030...fx_59... there's no radeon 9500 listed in the benchmarks, that's probably because the 9600 is supposed to be the replacement for it.

		Scared0o0Rabbit		Jul 20, 2003
			the 9500 and 9700 were pulled because they performed just as well if not better than the 9600 and 9800...... and were selling for less money. Face it, no matter which company you like, they're all money grubbing bastards (on a lighter note I like ati cards). Rumor has it that the 9500pro and higher radeons beat the snot out of the geforces, but below that the geforces are better.

Curtis

Jul 20, 2003

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by Gallstaff@Jul 20, 2003 @ 09:42 PM



 do you know if the geforce 4 ti 4200 is capable of 100 fps in doom 3?

Not with the same image/scene quality as the 9800Pro... given that the Radeon card is so far ahead of the 4200. Probably if you drop the resolution and lower the scene detail you'd be able to crack the 100 fps barrier.

		Alexvrb		Jul 20, 2003
			Don't aim for 100 fps with a GF4 Ti 4200, in Doom 3. I'm not saying the card is crap, its a respectable performer even today (and can be had for very cheap). However, Doom 3 is going to require top-end cards to do that at decent resolutions. That doesn't mean you can't play at a decent res, just dont expect incredible framerates. ANYWAY, for around 150 dollars you can get yourself a 9600 Pro. As others have pointed out, its not always as fast as a 9500 Pro, but the 9500 Pro is harder to get ahold of and is subsequently more expensive. I think that the 9600 Pro is your best bet. For example, for $156 (including shipping) you can get a Sapphire Atlantis 9600 Pro 128MB (w/ VGA + DVI + S-Video out) at www.newegg.com....

		Gallstaff		Jul 20, 2003
			could the 9600pro get 100 fps in doom 3 or hl 2?

		Curtis		Jul 20, 2003
			See my answer above. At the moment (and with the build the guys at anandtech tested with), only the 9800 scored that well. Maybe it'll see some optimisations before release, but 100+ is alot to be aiming for with such a cutting edge game.

		Gallstaff		Jul 20, 2003
			Hm yeah but I thought doom 3 was released around the 9700 not even that card could get 100 fps in it?

		schi0249		Jul 20, 2003
			So if I manage to find a Radeon 9500 Pro in my range, $150-180, would I be better off picking that up or am I safe picking up the 9600?

		Curtis		Jul 20, 2003
			I'd go for the 9500 Pro if you can find it within your price range. Like I said, all the benchmarks I've seen show it outperforming the 9600 Pro in real-life applications (ie, games).

Curtis

Jul 20, 2003

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by Gallstaff@Jul 21, 2003 @ 09:53 PM



 Hm yeah but I thought doom 3 was released around the 9700 not even that card could get 100 fps in it?

Doom 3 hasn't been released, unless you are refering to the leaked E3 alpha demo. Of course that didn't run well - it wasn't intended to - it was intended to work for the purpose of wowing people. I'd be very surprised if they haven't improved the overall framerate since then

		Curtis		Jul 20, 2003
			NEWS FLASH!!!! I got it all wrong! Wow - that never happens. This... is the set of bench marks I was refering to, and when I went and found them they go and tell me it is the Nvidia FX5900 Ultra that was getting the 100+ figures, not the 9800 Pro. Oops. Anyway, I stand by what I said about the 9600/9500 - by these scores you can see that even the 9600 does a fairly decent job with a modern game.

		Jurai		Jul 21, 2003
			Since yor on a budget, id go with the 9500, its additional pipelines allow it to outperform the 9600 and its cheaper, the gffx series do not compete with ati unless your looking at 5800ultra or higher, in which case raw fps beats all ati offerings, except in 4x fsaa tests, tho imo, fsaa is useless in new games cuz the fps lost is too great in multiplayer gaming

		schi0249		Jul 21, 2003
			Thanks for all of the info. I found a few places still selling the 9500 Pro. If I can squeeze the extra funds, I'm gonna pick that up. Otherwise I'm gonna get the 9600 Pro.