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RPG Graphics Card

K

KaiserBasara

n00b
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
27
I'm looking for a graphics card that will handle role playing games and video files (mostly avi). SAPPHIRE ATLANTIS RADEON 9600 Radeon 9600 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail on Newegg got 50 5star reviews. But a couple people say get the SAPPHIRE Radeon 9600 Pro Advantage 100562L-GN Radeon 9600PRO 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail because it has better benchmarks, but it only got 4 stars from 32 pe ople.

I was afraid getting a new graphics card would screw up my computer so I called emachines and they say get 8x or 4x, but someone told me that doesn't really matter.
 
I'd tell you to get a GeForce 6200 (non-TurboCache). Otherwise, the 9600 is still good for RPGs, depending on what kind of RPGs you want to play.
 
KaiserBasara said:
The XT only has 128 MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102320
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102410

This has 256 mb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102320

This one has more reviews than the PRO, but less than the XT. Is it the best?

Sapphire is supposed to be better than regular ATI, and ATI is supposed to be better than Nvidia
Click to expand...

whoaaaa. ATI is considered the best manufacturer of Radeon cards since they designed the GPU and PCB. Sapphire is merely a third party manufacturer that takes ATI's designs, labels them with their name, and re sells them.

nVidia is a direct competitor to ATI, and depending on what cards you are comparing may be a better option, or not the better option.

The amount of the memory isn't often as important as how fast the memory and GPU are. The XT may have less, but its GPU is morepowerful and its memory is faster.

Can you tell us exactly what "RPG" game you are wanting to play better? I don't like recommending even casual gamers spend less than $100-150 and to get themselves at least a 6600GT or 9800PRO level card.
 
I generally agree with Menelmarar.

In particular, even the Radeon 9800 Pro level cards benefit little to none from having 256MB vs 128MB. In addition, the 9600 card you are showing is "plain jane", as in not even 9600 Pro. The 9600XT is a lot faster than the 9600, regardless of the extra memory.
 
But the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125124 says Gigabyte. When I search for ati radeon 9600 on newegg I get a bunch of third party stuff except the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Category=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0 but that only gets 4 stars

Hordes of the Underdark says it needs a 64MB video card with Hardware T&L support

Everquest 2 says Directx 9 compatible video card, Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader compatible with 128 mb of texture memory

Guild Wars says ATI Radeon 9000 or GeForce 4 Ti Series video card with 64MB of Vram

I won't be playing any computer games for awhile except for dungeon siege demos, I actually play avi files and occasionally other types of video files. It would also be nice if I could get a better resolution with dvds, because PowerDVD stretches the video out. So it's not as good as playing a dvd on my playstation
 
KaiserBasara said:
Hordes of the Underdark says it needs a 64MB video card with Hardware T&L support

Everquest 2 says Directx 9 compatible video card, Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader compatible with 128 mb of texture memory

Guild Wars says ATI Radeon 9000 or GeForce 4 Ti Series video card with 64MB of Vram
Click to expand...
Hordes of the Underdark is a fairly old game built on Directx* technolgies IIRC. The 9600 cards would suite you well.

I haven't played Everquest2 or Guildwars but their system requirements are substantially higher. The $83 9600XT 128MB will treat you better, but I highly recommend going upto a 6600GT level card such as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130220

Or an ATI card like this if you prefer ATI:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102286

What is your Videocard, CPU and system RAM or at the least the model of eMachine you have. Massive multiplayer games like Everquest often benefit greatly from increasing system RAM.
 
I play rpgs only.

This guy said a $30 Radeon 9200SE would be good for rpgs, but a 9600 is worth the extra money. Another guy said get the 9600 pro. I also heard I shouldnt get super latest cards because they'll just get out to date anyways

I probably won't be playing NWN again. I should get ready for NWN 2 and Dragon Age. And if Jade Empire came to pc, that would be cool

emachines T3025
3000+ AMD Athlon XP Processor
160 GB Hard Drive
CD-RW 48x Max Write
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU
DVD 16x Max Read
512 MB DDR SDRAM
10/100 Mbps Ethernet

Download speed: 4824 kilobits per second
Upload speed: 382 kilobits per second
 
A 128Mb 9800 Pro flies (30+ FPS) through NWN (SoU, HotU) at 1600x1200 with all the AA and AF turned up, and plays EQ2 very well (FRAPS sez 20+ FPS even through the busiest North Qeynos areas, 1280x1024, no AA, no AF, customized settings which are close to the "High Quality" settings with shadows off) with the latest drivers.

NWN is DX8 tech, shaders used on water only.

Hope that helps as a data point.

(edit: note: I have the same processor, but 1Gb of PC2700. Memory is your friend particularly when it comes to MMOGs)
 
While he's right that it's not worth it for casual gamers to shell out hundreds of dollars to get the latest high end cards, it is generally worth your while to spend what you can afford to get a card that you'll let you enjoy your current set of games, and any new games that come out in the relatively near future. If your budget is under $100, I'd go with the 9600XT. I wouldn't go for any of those other cards that save you just a few dollars, because you're simply not going to be getting as good of a bang for buck ratio. The 9200SE, for example, is a horribly strangled add-in card, barely better than the integrated chips. The 9600 is decent, but it's too close in price to the much better 9600XT. If you can see yourself playing games for the next 3 years, I strongly suggesting looking for a good deal on a 6600GT (AGP).
 
The radeon 9600 pros cannot use the extra 128mb of ram, meaning it doesn't have the power in the first place to render 1600x1200 6aa 16af that would fill up that card. If you want a Radeon 9600, get the XT and overclock it massively, because that's what it's good for.

I do also recommend the geforce 6600 though
 
dont always go witht he reviews on Newegg. Those are made by casual people and almost all items will have 5 stars no matter how bad the item is
 
Cancel your order asap, and get one of these two refurbed 6600's for $95

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121197R

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145112R

You really have to disregard the reviews on newegg. Some aren't even legit buyers. You can write a review for any product you wish.

Your best bet is to google the card name & the word review. Example, if you're looking to buy a 9600 vs a 9600xt, google the words "radeon", "9600xt", and "review". That should bring up a bunch of reviews that probably compare the card to similar performing cards. That's the best way to get info on hardware......and to look in these forums of course ;)
 
listen to sarbz, cancel the order... it aint worth the money ATM... theres just so many "better" deals areound... the geforce 6 series for example, and if you want to play EG2 at a decent setting youll NEED a good card...
 
I was going to post last night saying that he should consider a refurb 9800 pro or refurb 6600 gt, but I saw he was once again trying to get 256mb on a pretty low-end card, and I just gave up.
 
But a few people said 9600 xt is good. Certainly better than Pro or regular 9600

9600 xt should be good for rpgs, I heard

Everyone says different stuff about graphics cards. It's kind of confusing

But it's nice you'r'e helping me
 
Yes, the 9600XT is better than a Pro or regular 9600. We just think the extra 128MB of memory will probably just be a few wasted dollars. But otherwise, it's not a terrible, terrible choice. You'll be pretty happy with it for your current games anyway.
 
KaiserBasara said:
But a few people said 9600 xt is good. Certainly better than Pro or regular 9600

9600 xt should be good for rpgs, I heard

Everyone says different stuff about graphics cards. It's kind of confusing

But it's nice you'r'e helping me
Click to expand...

There is no such thing as a certain video card that is better for rpg's. An RPG is just a video game genre. No matter what game you are playing, you want the fastest frame rates possible, without sacrificing too much quality. The better your video card is, the higher you can crank up the details and eye candy, and still get playable frame rates.

A 9600xt IS faster than a pro, or non-pro. BUT....a geforce 6600 is faster than a 9600xt, and offers more features.

If you're on a budget, you want to get the most card for your money. That 6600 is a way better deal than the 9600xt. It will provide much better performance in current and future games, no matter what genre they are. The performance difference will allow you to raise the resolution, or enable some settings that you might have to disable with the 9600xt.
 
Well, I wanna play all my stuff at full graphix

When I played stuff on my current graphics card i had to turn allt he stuff off and crank it down to the bare minimum

But that 6600 is 150 dollars. I can't afford that
 
The 9600XT is $93. I based my decision off 1300 Pricewatch reviews and 50 Newegg reviews

Wouldnt the Chaintech be better than the Asus since it has 256 megs?

But it's refurbished. It's probably risky

I don't think i'm getting the card. My email said:

Dear...

Thank you for shopping at Newegg.com.

Unfortunately we are unable to complete the processing of your order because payment authorization to your credit/debit card has failed.

This means that your credit/debit card issuer has declined our request for authorization due to an invalid credit/debit card number, incorrect expiration date, exceedance of your daily limit, insufficient funds or perhaps some other reason.

Here is a summary of this failure...

We will re-try authorization of your credit/debit card again shortly. Your order will be cancelled after 3 business days if we are unable to authorize a charge to your account.

If necessary, please use this link to update your account...

You may also contact us at...for help resolving this issue. Please have your Sales Order number ready.

I didn't register for newegg

Maybe I can cancel the order, but would I get all my money back?
 
I know you mentioned you're on a budget but even for rpgs, I think a 9600 level card is just too old. They can handle games of 2003-2005 just fine but stuff coming out in the next year will bring it to it's knees. Elderscrolls:Oblivion will most likely need a 9600 level card as bare bones minimum (800x600 low quality). I would look for the low end cards coming in a month or two. Cheap versions of r520, and G80 should be along soon. The new line of budget cards will give more performance and features compared to the old cards. If anything, you'll be able to get a 6600gt card for around 100 in a few months when it's superceeded. If you have to buy something now I'd lean towards the 6600 regular.
 
You won't lose money if you cancel before it ships. Get the refurbed 6600 it will be a great card.
 
KaiserBasara said:
How do I cancel the order? Newegg faq doesnt say

The card is refurbished, so maybe it's risky
Click to expand...

It's not going to be risky. Most of those refurbs are for stupid reasons. I highly doubt the card is defective. If it's DOA, you can get your $ back anyway.
 
nvm, yes go with that one, the one i posted before was PCI-e.

[edit] nvm again, i'm not reading these cards well, that one was 64bit ddr
 
SomeoneWhoIsntMe, that was uncalled for, some people have budgets. Please be respectful.

Original poster, the card you posted (the 6600) is perfect I would go for it.
 
I went to Computer Builders' Warehouse today (an independent business) and they sold the 6600 for $400 and said they don't have anything refurbished.

The salesman said if I want to play rpgs, I should either buy MSI FX 5200 128MB DDR for $70, or MSI FX5500 256MB for $129. And he said they're gonna be good for the next few years

I think he's wrong. I didn't buy anything yet.

I showed him my emachines T3025 manual and he says buy a card that's AGP

Everyone says 6600 is the best, so it probably is. Right?
 
KaiserBasara said:
I went to Computer Builders' Warehouse today (an independent business) and they sold the 6600 for $400 and said they don't have anything refurbished.

The salesman sadi if I want to play rpgs, I should either buy MSI FX 5200 128MB DDR for $70, or MSI FX5500 256MB for $129

I think he's wrong. I didn't buy anything yet

I showed him my emachines T3025 manual and he says buy a card that's AGP
Click to expand...

They are trying to rip you off. Get the 6600 off newegg. Those two cards are like 2 years old and slow, even when they came out.
 
KaiserBasara said:
Are you sure the refurbished is safe?
Click to expand...

If it doesn't work you can return it in 15 days to newegg, after that you can RMA it to ASUS if anything goes wrong. It's should be safe.
 
KaiserBasara said:
I went to Computer Builders' Warehouse today (an independent business) and they sold the 6600 for $400 and said they don't have anything refurbished.

The salesman said if I want to play rpgs, I should either buy MSI FX 5200 128MB DDR for $70, or MSI FX5500 256MB for $129. And he said they're gonna be good for the next few years
Click to expand...

You must mean 6800 for 400. Lots of independent mom and pop computer stores have whacked out prices. They keep stuff in inventory for over a year and figure they have to get their money back somehow. Both of those cards are serious POS and the price they're quoting you for them is a joke. Tell him you don't appreciate them trying to take advantage of you. Selling an fx5200/5500 card to anyone looking to play games should be a crime.
 
KaiserBasara said:
I went to Computer Builders' Warehouse today (an independent business) and they sold the 6600 for $400 and said they don't have anything refurbished.

The salesman said if I want to play rpgs, I should either buy MSI FX 5200 128MB DDR for $70, or MSI FX5500 256MB for $129. And he said they're gonna be good for the next few years

I think he's wrong. I didn't buy anything yet.

I showed him my emachines T3025 manual and he says buy a card that's AGP

Everyone says 6600 is the best, so it probably is. Right?
Click to expand...

STAY AWAY FROM THAT STORREEEE YIKES
 
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