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9600 256 MB question

A

Artifice

n00b
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Messages
2
Is there any reason I shouldn't buy this (not looking to spend a lot with PCI Express coming soon) and just overclock it to say 400/400 (that's 9600 pro levels, right)?

Sapphire Radeon 9600 256 DDR - $105 Retail

I have an aging system that I'm looking to extend the life of. I've maxxed out my cpu (Athlon 2600+ - the 2.13 GHz 266 FSB one), and I dont think my KT333 board does AGP 8x (just 4x). I think I fried my Ti 4400 the other day. Now, everytime I play 3D games (BF 1942, etc), I either freeze or crash/reboot following a nasty sounding blue screen. I'm running XP Home, Forceware 53.03, latest BIOS, etc.
 
I feel that the Radeon 9600nu is a step down from your current GF4 Ti4400 in performance. And even when the R9600 is overclocked to R9600 Pro levels, it's barely competitive with the GF4 Ti4200 in performance. (Although, the R9600 does have an edge over the Ti4400 when playing any games that take any advantage of DX9 shaders.)
 
I would not bother with a 256 mb model. That much ram is only useful when using really high resolution and high aa which this card will not do anyway.
 
A 128mb Radeon 9600pro runs at 400/600, which is a huge difference to 400/400. Pretty much all 9600 cards with 256mb ram suck ass.
 
I agree that the 9600nu kinda sucks in both 128MB and 256MB versions. Both versions from Sapphire actually run at a default 325/400 GPU/memory speed. At that setting, it's noticeably slower than even the GF4 Ti4200 in most games. And the extra memory is definitely wasted in a card that's this slow.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

To tell the truth I'm a little miffed at Soyo, my motherboard mfg'er. I went without a machine for over 2 weeks waiting for their "express service" (extra $$) to RMA repair my motherboard which had a faulty DIMM 1 slot. I think I shorted/fried my Ti4400 reinstalling it (there's a first). At this point, assuming MSI (ti4400) will grant me an RMA, I'd hate to go another couple of weeks without a machine.

I'm thinking then that I'm going to pickup something from a local store to tide me over during the RMA process and test to see if it is indeed my ti4400 causingt he problems.

Any suggestions on what I should get, just in case I get stuck with it? I've heard that the 5700, even the ultras, offer disappointing performance. The 5900 is just too expensive, as are the ati 9800's.
 
I got a used 9600pro for $60, but that might be kind of hard to find. You could get like a GeForce 2 if you're only going to use it until MSI returns your card, or a used product.
 
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