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Do I need a new video card?

N

NHT

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2005
Messages
211
Im in the process of building a gaming rig but due to budget I have to use my old Radeon 9500 for video for the time being. I want to play Half life 2 and Doom 3 but just a bit concerned that this card will not be able to handle the games at a decent resolution. Taken into account with my new equipment, do you think that I could get away with using this card? If not, whats the best bang for the buck card that I can get that candle both cards? Thanks

3.4 P4
Abit VT7 mobo
1 Gig Kingstion pc3200
ATI Radeon 9500
260 gig storage
Onboard sound(for now)
 
get at least a 9700/9800 pro dude, you can find then on these boards for $120-$160
 
You could use it. It would be a travesty though. With that rig, spring for at least a 6600gt. 9800Pro min. Though I would recommend a 6800nu for best bang for buck, and with that you would have the least bottleneck.
 
dariob said:
You could use it. It would be a travesty though. With that rig, spring for at least a 6600gt. 9800Pro min. Though I would recommend a 6800nu for best bang for buck, and with that you would have the least bottleneck.
Click to expand...

Agreed there.
 
I will probably take your advices but Im going to have to save up for the 6600gt. But for now Im going to have to make the best use of the 9500. What are the tweaks that I can do with this card to improve performance?

GTpoomp....how do I unlock the four extra pipelines? THanks for your help.
 
You can flash the 9500 to the 9700 Pro BIOS. Pretty big performance boost :)
 
Im sorry. Im am still a novice user. How do I find this 9700 bios flash? Thanks
 
dariob said:
You could use it. It would be a travesty though. With that rig, spring for at least a 6600gt. 9800Pro min. Though I would recommend a 6800nu for best bang for buck, and with that you would have the least bottleneck.
Click to expand...

Quoted for emphasis

But even btter bang for your buck, is to save up for a month, and get an X800XL (If you have PCI-E)
 
Hate_Bot said:
Quoted for emphasis

But even btter bang for your buck, is to save up for a month, and get an X800XL (If you have PCI-E)
Click to expand...

Abit VT7 mobo is AGP :). PT800 or PT880...can't remember off the top of my head. I agree with dariob. The 6800nu if you can get it on sale for $250 or so is probably a good match for that setup (I got a BFG for $256 shipped from outpost.com). For the extra $50 over a 6600GT, it's worth it in my opinion. Of course, if you kept up with that logic you'd end up with a 6800 Ultra or something like it ($350 a few weeks ago from outpost.com...why didn't I jump on that????) :D . Definitely a 9800Pro minimum (the 256bit bus version).
 
kirbyrj said:
You could also try a softmod with the Omega Drivers.
Click to expand...
the softmod is a safer way to go and it does exactly the same thing, just download the radeon omega drivers from www.omegadrivers.net and when isntalling choose the 9500-9700 softmod driver option. reboot when the install it done and then go to your start menu and look for driver swaper or something like that and choose the 9700 driver and reboot again
 
Just curious, has he built the system yet? If not then I would suggest getting an 775 processor with a good 775 mobo with PCI-E, you tend to have more options with a 775 mobo, as well as a bit more futureproofing.

If you are not getting this sytem for a while, you could wait for the AGP XLs
 
Hate_Bot said:
Just curious, has he built the system yet? If not then I would suggest getting an 775 processor with a good 775 mobo with PCI-E, you tend to have more options with a 775 mobo, as well as a bit more futureproofing.

If you are not getting this sytem for a while, you could wait for the AGP XLs
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure he has built the system already....by reading his sig..but i could very much be wrong...but yes! try and softmod that 9500....if it mods successfully....I think he would keep it and forget about teh 6800gtt and wait for a whole new set-up anyways :) but that's just the way i think :)
 
Yes I have already built the system but just trying to tweak it until I can afford the 6600gt. I will try the soft mod tomorrow. So is the softmod the same as flashing the bios? If it is not compatible, then would there be compability issues? Thanks.
 
yeah, both softmod and bios will open up the other 4 pipelines, if you have "l" shaped memory, you'll basically just have a radeon 9700 then.

It shouldn't cause compatibilty problems, if you unlock the extra 4 and you get artifacts, then just go back to the 4 regular pipelines, bios fix is just more work than the softmod
 
I3roknI3ottle said:
to do the mod to a 9500 it has to have L shaped ram.
Click to expand...

Nope, it doesn't. The L Shaped ram just means that the RAM sits on a 256-bit bus, thus if you soft mod it, you have a ful fledged Radeon 9700. If it's on I Shaped Ram, it just means the RAM's on a 128-bit bus, so the RAM will be a bit slower, but if soft modded, the GPU is still a Radeon 9700 GPU.
 
Your should really get another graphic card like a 9800 pro, the prices of this card is pretty cheap, it is also 256bit.
 
NHT said:
Im in the process of building a gaming rig but due to budget I have to use my old Radeon 9500 for video for the time being. I want to play Half life 2 and Doom 3 but just a bit concerned that this card will not be able to handle the games at a decent resolution. Taken into account with my new equipment, do you think that I could get away with using this card? If not, whats the best bang for the buck card that I can get that candle both cards? Thanks

3.4 P4
Abit VT7 mobo
1 Gig Kingstion pc3200
ATI Radeon 9500
260 gig storage
Onboard sound(for now)
Click to expand...

Check your PM
 
so let me get this straight. I have to do a softmod AND a bios fix or will the softmod do the job?
 
Get a 9800pro or 6600gt. Pros go on sale eveyr once in a while. 6600gts are better though. 9600series isn't worth it now that newer cards for a similar price are out.
 
Ok Im going to take your advice and shop for a 9800 pro soon. I really want the 6600gt but that would mean saving a little while longer. How much better is the 6600gt compared to the 9800 and is it worth it for me to wait longer in order to afford it?
 
I think those card fair well against each other. 6600 is the better choice IMO and I love ATI.

Sell ur card for like 70ish, put some money on a used 6600 on ebay. That could work right? Or look around the forums for those looking to trade lower.
 
I have been playing Swat4 Beta fine with my piece of shit Sapphire Radeon 7000 64meg card. I use the Catalyst 5.3 drivers. My rig is in my sig, but incase I change it,

2.6Ghz AMD 64-bit
DFI nF3 250Gb
256Mb Corsair XMS C2 @ 3.1v 1T - 217 FSB 1:1
45Gig 75GXP IBM
80Gig Special Edition for Windows swap file
 
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