Upgrading on a budget. ~$200. Which shall I go with?

Nazo

Nazo

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I don't have it yet, but I'll have $200 in the near future I think. Especially if I can manage to sell this current card (going to put up signs at my local college, everyone else sells stuff, though usually they ask for rip off prices, I figure this is worth a decent amount.) I've been pretty impressed with the capabilities of this ATI card every since I switched from an untrustworthy (I think I overclocked it too much) Geforce 4 Ti-4200, so I'm thinking about sticking with ATI. I was looking and the Radeon 9800 Pro appears to be in this particular price range. What do you people suggest? And which brand? I noticed that even among the 9800 Pros there were a ton of brands. I know brand doesn't make THAT much difference, but, sometimes one of them actually is better by noticable amounts.

I know this kind of thing is asked a lot, and I'm sorry about that. But I couldn't quite find one recent enough that seemed to fall within this range.

EDIT: BTW, I'm curious about this X600XT. I know it couldn't possibly compare to the X800, but, is it any good? At all better than a 9800 Pro?

Oh, and I'm sticking with AGP8X for compatibility reasons. Not that there is likely to be any PCI-e stuff worth bothering with in that range I'm sure, just saying in case. I have no idea how long it will be until I have something capable of using that.

EDIT2: Oh, and I notice that the Gainward GFFX 5900 Ultra Goldensample with VIVO is in that same kind of pricerange. Is it comparable to the 9800 Pro or just a little worse? Gainward's goldensample cards seem to be pretty good quality (considering that goldensample is supposed to mean a slightly higher quality than usual with them anyway.) From the reviews I've looked at so far though, I'm not completely sure it's quite as good.

It's so hard to compare ATI and nVidia cards, they are like apples and oranges! Yet, they both have to fill up the same stomache. *sigh*
 
Nazo said:
EDIT: BTW, I'm curious about this X600XT. I know it couldn't possibly compare to the X800, but, is it any good? At all better than a 9800 Pro?
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no. it's the pci-e version of the 9600 xt (i think xt, at least). basically, ati decided to just give a new interface to an old dog and say that it's 'newer', just because it's PCI-e.
 
Thanks. Gee, I feel stupid now. d-: How did I miss that...

Well, technically that's better than a 9600XT I would presume, but, not as much so as a 9800 Pro should be. Heck, if I just voltmodded this thing it probably would have all the capabilities of the 9600XT.
 
If you stay at the $200 range...9800 pro is the best way to go...at least right now.
 
9800 pro is the best right now. However, you might want to hold out for the 6600GT.
 
Wait for the 6600GT reviews to be released in the next couple of days.
 
is the 6600GT basically the same thing as the 6800LE just a smaller core with just that number of pipelines, instead of disabled/broken pipelines turned off???
 
No. LE has 128-bit memory bus. GT has 256.

The GT is an 8 pipelined 256-bit card clocked at 425/----- [not sure].
 
6600GT has a 128-bit memory bus but the ram is clocked at 1ghz. Therefore performance should be quite fast, though perhaps not as fast as a 6800NU ($280).
 
Hrm, so a 6600GT WILL be better than the 9800 Pro? As for waiting, well, it will be a little while before I have $200. What kind of timeframe am I looking at? It won't be TOO long... Especially if I can actually find a buyer for this card for a decent amount.

EDIT: Are you sure that's AGP? Looks like people are saying PCI-e
 
They are all PCI-E. At least the GT's which are SLI ready. These are prolly going to be announced this weekend at Quakecon. I am so glad I will be there.
 
And does PCI-E work in a non PCI-E board? I said I won't be having one for a long time...

Sure, it's a nice card and all, but, if I can't use it, it's not so great. For the cost of getting a board that could do that, I could get an even better video card easily enough.


So, back to the 9800 Pro then?
 
Hrm, looks good from what I read about it so far. As one person said, if it has the same performance as a 9800 Pro, but newer functionality due to a newer NV core, why not get it. Hrm. Seems kind of promising anyway. Lol, looks like I'm just destined for low pipeline cards that still do pretty decently. This 9600 Pro isn't SO bad.


Just out of curiosity, do you think a Vantec Iceberq 4 Pro would fit on that thing? I know it has that big heatsink thing, but I like having a real copper heatsink on my cards. With my current card, I was able to boot into windows when I forgot to plug the fan in. Ok, it runs really cool to begin with, but, still, not bad since it was an active cooler minus the active part. These things aren't exactly made to work the best without the fan running... Heck, they are lapped so well it's as smooth as glass and you can see yourself in it (I could do without that part.) d-:
I noticed the part where the pins go seems to be roughly the same size as the GF4 Tis. At least, from what little I could tell from a picture. If nothing else, I'm still considering it for the memory heatsinks. It looks like this card ony has memory chips on the one side. Probably they were too cheap to get different chips so just only put half as many on there. Actually, I wish they would do that more often... Every kit out there but the seperate memory kit (which, btw, was not out when I got heatsinks for my current card) only includes enough to cover 4 chips... Lol, almost a shame to replace that heatsink if it looks anything like the one in that topic... Then again, I don't hate the look of shiny smooth copper entirely. Kind of reminds one of heavier golds.

EDIT: Looks like there is more memory than I thought. Lol, I should be more attentive. It's all around that thing... I notice it has a large marked off area and a lot of holes for one of those really big heatsinks that combine the GPU and memory together. Would one of those be better? I'm not entirely sure I like the idea of the GPU and memory sharing some tiny bit of the same heat though. When you oc to the max, things get pretty sensitive. I know different companies make the cards different ways, but, especially when they first come out they tend to more or less follow a reference standard.

EDIT2: I noticed GFFX 5600 Ultra listed on Vantec's website. Same size?


Any idea when I can expect to see this thing on newegg?
 
revan said:
Don't know if it helps, but it shows a $200 GFX carf that will whip most any last gen card
Click to expand...

Heh, not trying to be an ass or sound like a !!!!!!, but the X800 series of cards is basically a 9700 with a few more pipelines strapped on and faster core and memory speeds, hehe. Which isnt really what you meant, but it is last gen by my standards.
 
BlackCoffee said:
I Highly recommend the Sapphire ATi Radeon 9800pro. It's a sweet card for under $200.
Click to expand...

From what I hear, some people aren't to terribly happy with Sapphire. I guess I'm mainly thinking about getting the MSI if I do go with the 9800 Pro, but I'm not really sure yet. Or, if they still have thet refurbishes Hight Tech 9800 with the great heatsink that makes the card take up two slots, that one.

Probably the 6800LE is the best choice though. I like ATI, but I'm not dumb enough to pass up on the more powerful card. I definitely have time, and it sounds like it won't be long at all before the 6800LE hits the shelves anyway. Heck, in that other thread someone claimed they found them at their local Best Buy already.


Oh, about the X800. Well, first of all, we already know it just won't do for the purpose of this thread since it's PCI-e anyway (which is an advantage if you can use it actually.) Anyway, it's not exactly missing out on too many functions versus the newer cards is it? What can it not do that the 9800 Pro can? Perhaps there is something, but it must not be too important, I haven't heard anyone complaining yet. And it's not exactly as simple as just "strapping on a few pipelines." That can't be done overnight exactly... Either way, more pipelines helps IMMENSELY. That's the main thing holding my current card back in fact. If it didn't have half the pipelines of a normal card (I still honestly believe ATI originally wanted it to be a technology demo but it was too popular,) it would kick some serious nvidia butt. d-:
 
The 6600GT will most likely be released on AGP as well. Nvidia has the forsight to see this dilema, which is exactly why they went with the HSF Bridge route.

Bro, if you can wait a month or two, you should. We'll see how the 6600GT pans out.

If you can't wait...get a 9800Pro.
 
I can speak from personal experience, the reference HSF on 9800pro's suck balls in hot cases. I used to be unsure about my Sapphire 9800pro, but now that I have some airflow...

Basicly, with low case temps, my 9800pro with 1.5 slot-a Athlon HSF's is doing at least 440/363 in D3 w/o artifacts...and its quiter than the stock HSF.


Basicly, the 9800pro is very nice if you can cool it well. It does well in all games with AA/AF, and good in the newest games with quality settings fairly high. If you can save up past $250 and wait, go with a 6800GT - although if x800XT's are widely availible by then, there'll be a good chance at getting a x800pro that can be modded to use all 16 pipelines.
 
Unless I misunderstood a few things, the X?00 series is all PCI-e, no?

Anyway, definitely around $200. It's hard enough just to get to that much. I assume you meant to say LE, not GT Batman? I'm probably going to be getting that as it looks pretty darned promising from what I've seen so far. I don't think it will even take a month, but, heck, it may very well take me this long to get the money. Either way, this upgrade I'm going to do right, so if I have to wait a short reasonable period for a slightly better card, I will.

As for cooling, well, it is my intention to replace stock cooling with a Vantec Iceberq 4 Pro or non-pro depending on which card I get. And, of course, to stick heatsinks on those memory chips with epoxy (not that crappy tape.) In other words, whatever I end up with, it should be overclockable more or less to the max that the hardware will allow by the time I'm done. Those things are real copper, not that fake aluminum painted orange stuff that so many try to trick you with (be suspicious whenever they don't tell you what material it is.) Heck, those Iceberqs only cost around $12-13 or so. Even I have this much. That's part of why 250 is so hard though. It's hard enough because I'll have to get 200 + enough for the iceberq, but 250 + that is even worse. As tempting as it is, I'm not going to keep my current Iceberq if I can actually find a buyer for this card -- not only wouldn't it be fair to them to have to use that el-cheapo stock crap, but, it seems to me like I could get more for this card if I market it as being very overclockable. If I get the GFFX it won't matter though. Of course, it may well be that whatever I find has pretty good cooling on it. If so, I might not bother. And, I might just decide to wait until later anyway to upgrade the cooling.
 
Actually no, I did mean the 6-6-0-0- GT. If you're confused don't worry so am I. I'm not sure what Nvidia is thinking becuase they currently have 2 cards [6800LE and 6600GT] at the same price point. Rumours say the LE will be OEM only but that's not holding water with Robstar who got one of them from XFX as a replacement. Nvidia says the 6600GT is PCI-E only but if there is demand [and there will be] then it could end up an AGP product as well [Nvidia's brigded solution in all it's glory].

Ah well it's all hersay...we shoudl wait and see which of the two cards provides better performance. The 256-bit LE or the faster GT.
 
That doesn't make any sense at all. OEM only? Is that supposed to be enough to make it work that they put them in the same pricerange? That doesn't sound quite right. I mean, if you market a product as oem only with the intentions of making it really hard to get, is that supposed to be enough to compensate for whatever losses there might be by this?

Man, I see why you said that about waiting a month or so. This might take a while to sort out... But nVidia has been in business a while, they must have an actual reason for all this because they can't just be that stupid and still in business (excluding SEGA's example, and before anyone jumps at me, let me say saturn and dreamcast.)

EDIT: Wait, which TRULY would be better. The 6600GT or the 6800LE? Lol, the highest end of a lower model versus the lowest end of a high model. What a mess...
 
im thinkin of getting 128mb 9800pro hopefully most new one has r360 core.. do u think it would be better to get 6800le or 6600gt if i can find one?
 
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