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GeForce 3 vs Radeon 9600 Pro

R

robertsnellman

n00b
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
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I have GeForce 3 cards exclusively. I have 3 machines and all have GeForce 3 cards. I am looking at jumping to a 9600 Pro for $110. Is this a good price for a 9600 Pro? Can anyone tell me if I will see REAL WORLD performance increases? Can I play BFV and BF1942 with everything turned on and set to High? How well does it play Far Cry? Thanks in advance.

Bob
 
Well "Bob" I jumped from a Geforce 3 TI500 to a 9500Pro two years ago (ok a little less then 2 years) and I noticed a huge difference. The 9500 Pro had MUCH better image quality and was also faster in every application. I also perfer ATI's drivers to nVidias. Not that it (geforce3) ever gave any issues "Bob" but I perfer ATI's releasing a new driver every month as opposed to nVidia's when we feel like it approach. I loved the switch, I was able to run games at higher resolution and with Anti-Aliasing enabled without a performance penelty. Now your question is if the 9600 Pro is a big jump. I would have to say, it to is a big jump, just not as big as the 9500 Pro was. BUT with a little bit of tender Overclocking ya 9600 Pro can acctually be faster then a 9500 Pro and even approach the 9700 Pro in terms of performance. Here's an article [H] did on the 9600 Pro Overclocking.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDY0

For $110, I think its a deal and will keep you happy and run FarCry very well. I built a system for a friend of mine using a Connect3D 9600 Pro. I got that card stable at 550/730(core/ram) and it breezed threw apps like nobodies bussiness. Infact it ran almost as well as my 9800 Pro in GAMES (not in benchmarks tho).
 
9500's were the best buy ever @ ati :D

Im hitting 13700+ 3d 2001 marks.
and 3900 in 2003. That for 150 bucks well spend in 2003
 
Would it make much difference in performance to spend $40 more and get a 9800SE with 4 pipes and 256bit DDR memory? I am just looking for a good leap but less than $150, if possible. Does a 9600XT actually perform noticeably better than a 9600Pro? Thanks in advance.

Bob
 
Yes, a 9600XT performs noticeably better than a 9600 Pro.

I'd say a 9600XT is better than a 9800SE.
 
So, with a 9600XT or 9600 Pro I could crank everything up on Far Cry without a performance hit? Or would I need something like a 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro? I am just looking for the best bang for my buck under $150 as I don't upgrade often, so it will need to last a couple of years. Thanks in advance.

Bob
 
Even the 9800pro bows down to farcry. Farcry loves 1gb of system memory and a 9700pro to give an excellent quality experience.
 
Get a 9600 Pro/XT, for sure. They're decent and elegant and easy to mod. Also get pretty good performance...
 
Originally posted by robertsnellman
So, with a 9600XT or 9600 Pro I could crank everything up on Far Cry without a performance hit? Or would I need something like a 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro? I am just looking for the best bang for my buck under $150 as I don't upgrade often, so it will need to last a couple of years. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

As has been noted a few times in these forums....there is no card currently available that can 'crank everything up on Far Cry without a performance hit'.

Naddah.

Not even a volt-modded, watercooled, overclocked 9800XT can do that.

Far Cry is both a beast and slightly inefficiently coded (expect both Doom3 and HL2 to perform substantially better while also looking much better).

From the 6800 Ultra reviews, it looks like that card will be the first with an offside shot at it.
 
Newegg has a Powercolor 9800np for $170 or so...

Since everyone else is suggesting a 9600XT, it seems, If you decide to move into the $150 price range, I'd spent the extra $20 in a heartbeat.

Just a thought.
 
Originally posted by robertsnellman
Would it make much difference in performance to spend $40 more and get a 9800SE with 4 pipes and 256bit DDR memory? I am just looking for a good leap but less than $150, if possible. Does a 9600XT actually perform noticeably better than a 9600Pro? Thanks in advance.

Bob
Click to expand...

bob, i'm pretty sure the 9800SE has 128-bit DDR memory interface, and even thought the 9600XT is probably noticeably faster, you could easily OC the 9600 pro to be just as fast (i did). i'd go with the 9600 pro.
 
I had a g3ti200 (still in my sig) it was overclocked a tad...and i recently snagged an AIW9600 pro for $100, considering thats what i paid for my G3ti200 over 3 years ago, i think that it served me well, and that it was a good investment for my 9600. BFVimproved gameplay significantly, higher resolution, 32bit color, graphics totally maxxed and it runs smoothe as a baby's behind, i was lucky if i could get a smooth game on low res low options with the g3ti200. The 9600pro is well worth it, i am going to look into overclocking it, not that it even needs it, i like to save that for a few years down the road then it feels like a new card again! good luck on your quest, if you think the 9700p will make that much a difference for the money over the 9600 p then go for it, the thread thats sticky at the top "AVG JOES BUYING DECISIONS" was a great help, and has been for several months when building systems for friends.
 
you have waited this long why not just wait another month or two and purchase one of the new ati or nvidia cards comeing out.
 
I went from a GeForce 3 Ti200 to a Radeon 9600XT and holy hell I was in heaven.

Then I got a 9800 Pro and heaven got better, hehe
 
Originally posted by Shane
you have waited this long why not just wait another month or two and purchase one of the new ati or nvidia cards comeing out.
Click to expand...

His systems would be bottlenecking the card.
 
Originally posted by TheAcorn
Newegg has a Powercolor 9800np for $170 or so...

Since everyone else is suggesting a 9600XT, it seems, If you decide to move into the $150 price range, I'd spent the extra $20 in a heartbeat.

Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Well, while we're moving up in price... I might as well suggest a 5900XT for $175. Plug & play since you already have Nvidia drivers installed(need fairly recent ones). I love my 5900 (non-ultra) 256-bit memory. They have like almost 30Gb/s memory bandwidth! Puts you in a total different class from the 5700 or 9600.

I hope you have 512+ MB of ram... thats the big problem with BF1942.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-135-138&depa=1 = $175

Check out my system/benchmarks with a 5900
 
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