Not sure if this is the right section or not to post this, but I need to upgrade my video card--I'm thinking about the Raedon 9600xt. I previously thought that I might get the 9800, however its pretty darn expensive and I cant warrant buying one considering my computer is a 2.2ghz. Basically I want to be able to play halflife2 and some other more current games. I currently have a geforce2 mx which is prehistoric. I've read some reviews and ati is recommending people get the 9600xt for hl2. Please keep in mind that I am not a hardcore gamer--I used to be, but now that I am in graduate school, I just want to get something to play games with a decent framerate. Thanks for everyone's input.

 

the 9600xt is a very nice video card and will most likely run the HL2 settings at LEAST decently, however, I hear you can get the 9800 (NOT the PRO version) for around 145ish if you shop around *cough* www.pricewatch.com *cough*. If I were you, Id spend the extra 10-15 for a better video card that will last you ALOT longer than the 9600.

 

Also, you can get a 9700 or 9700pro on ebay for $100 or a little more. the 9700 is basically the same as the 9800, just lower clock speeds.

A 9700pro is about 2x faster than a 9600pro when you compare fill rates and memory bandwidth.

In the price range here, nothing from Nvidia is worth anything for HL2. Even the 5900s choke in HL2 if you use all the DX9 features.

 

So, even if the 9700 has less memory than the 9600xt, it will perform better? Also, what brands are worthwhile? The ATi cards are significantly more expensive--I didnt know if some of the generic brands were as good if not better--I remember back in the day that asus geforce2 cards were considered the best performers.

If I look at the 9800, what model would you get of the cheaper ones?

 

the cheaper of 9800s are the SEs which are like MXs, sucky sucky. Sapphire is the best brand for ATi. Just get a 9700 or 9800, worth the small amount of extra money.

 

dude go with the geforce 6800 if you can't afford it just wait until you can because the difference is nearly double the frame rate of the ATi card discussed here except the 9800pro which stinks anyway becasue it's an ATI and too many game makers don't support it oh and yeah do you want to take the chance that ATi will once again not upgrade their drivers when Microsoft releases the next OS? Not me I'll never ever own another ATi, they FVcked me over once and I'll never let it happen again. Bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for everyone's input--I just got a 9700pro. After reading reviews, I felt this was the best choice.

 

uh, game makers support ati plenty, dude. I think you're a little out of touch with the current state of the industry. ati and nvidia are close on share in the market that concerns game developers (actually ati has a higher share on the uber-gamer part of the market).

ati didn't update the drivers for their old-ass rage cards. big whup. it takes a lot of manpower to update drivers for old hardware like that. no gamer would use them, anyway. as far as i know, ati supports win98 and up. so they don't have the newest drivers for win95? so, what, no games support it now anyway!

"So, even if the 9700 has less memory than the 9600xt, it will perform better? "

yes, the amount of memory matters to an extent, but the speed of that memory matters much much more. In order to take advantage of 256MB of RAM, you'd have to run 4x antialiasing at 1600*1200...and the 9600xt can't do that...even the 9800 can't really do it and still be playable. Lots of ram on low end cards is a gimmick meant to get those who don't know any better to buy it.

 

Uh no dude you're so wrong!

No dirext X 10? Please that company is crap!




ATi couldn't even be benchmarked on at least 20 games in the past year on tomshardware because ATi was not supported by the game makers!

Sure several months later ATi fixed some of the reported problems but who wants to wait a few months for new drivers right after you purchased that new game!

How about the problems they STILL HAVEN'T FIXED TO THIS DAY!

EVEN ON THE X800PRO!!!!!!!! $600 -$299 and it still doesn't work on some games!

They don't care about their customers, don't hold your breath to see the fixes ever. read and learn.

Don't talk to me like I'm out of touch. I'm fully aware of just how bad ATi treats there best customers.

Show me one time just once this year that nVidia wasn't supported, you won't find it, but if you did it would be fixed within a week, why? nVidia is on top of there $hit and they remember why ATi had lost there full head of steam in the late 90's, the f'ed there customers.

The only thing ATi is good for it 2d destop applications and I still wouldn't buy another one. They keep tring to scrammble to get back into high performance and they have made some good performing cards but without adhearing to standards that both the gaming and application makers use.

They are too streatched out to make and update drivers (very poor customer service) and I'm not talking about win 95 or 98.

Since your obviously mis-informed and/or too young to remember.

Back in the day (1998) I bought a brand new computer but 98 wasn't yet available 3 months later I got my upgrade and a constant plague of errors , spontanious shutdowns and the famed blue screen of death. ATi FVcked everyone. When we changed from 95 to 98 Ati left everyone out in the cold my video card was 3 months old! So dude spend over $200 on a video card and then throw it out 3 months later because they decided they were never going to support 98, what a bunch of asses! After enough people bitching and threats of class action lawsuits they finally sent out new drivers, too late I bought a new on within a week of 98 coming out. Can you imagine it took over a year before I could give that card away to anyone running 98.

Dude more than a few game makers STILL don't support ATi cards to this day because of how they F'ed everyone. I don't know one game maker that doesn't play on nVidia I think you need to read up a little yourself. I'll find a link for you to see just a few examples of game makers that do not suport the Ati800pro.

I did mis-speak earlier I wouldn't buy anything less than the x800pro but then again I'd just buy the 6800ultra anyway because if you look at all the stats it typically wins and when longhorn comes out I can't seem nVidia leaving us out to dry for over a year I doubt they will leave us out in the cold for even 1second because they're a responsible company and probably actually developed the new drivers off of the beta already unlike ATi .


ATi is far less supported than nVidia, read and learn.

This is the best website to investigate Video cards
Tomshardware

ATI SUCKS!

 

No direct X 10 support on any of their cards? Butmunchers!

Just how bad is ATi? Read and learn, this is only the tip of the iceberg

Proof of just how bad ATi Sucks



ATi kept quiet last month after NVIDIA launched its very impressive GeForce 6800 Ultra and the NV40 graphics processor that will become the foundation for NVIDIA product lines in the future. Indeed, information about the Canadian company's latest design was a rare commodity. The inevitable rumors about ATi's design pervaded chat rooms on the Internet, many of which cited "reliable" sources and ended up transforming misinformation into outlandish fairytales.

Today, ATi introduces its new line of high-end graphics cards, called the Radeon X800. This family of cards is based on ATi's youngest graphics processor core, codenamed R420. The "X" in the product name may raise hopes of DirectX 10 support or something of the sort, but this is not the case. Instead, the X stands for the Roman numeral 10. It seems that after the Radeon 9800 line, ATi simply ran out of product numbers within the 9xxx range that would sufficiently differentiate the new card. So, the logical next step was to bump up the product number. Besides, the leading number of the product name has not always been an indicator of a card's features. As you may recall, the Radeon 9000 and 9200 only supported DirectX 8.1 in hardware, for example.


An early design of the "Built-by-ATi" box

From a technological perspective, the new R420 core seems to bring only moderate improvements. Instead of taking NVIDIA's route and implementing new DirectX features such as the Shader Model 3.0, ATi has instead chosen to further optimize, improve and scale the tried and true R3xx architecture. The recipe is simple - more vertex shaders, more and improved pixel shader units, as well as small tweaks and improvements to the memory controller and the FSAA implementation. R420 offers only one real new feature, which is support for Normal Map compression, called 3Dc.


While the company is not pushing the envelope with respect to features, ATi remains true to its historical course performance-wise. ATi promises that the top model X800 XT Platinum Edition, which is the most powerful model for the time being, offers twice the performance of a Radeon 9800 XT and even beats NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 Ultra. Beyond that, the company is confident that even the smaller model, called the X800 Pro, will be able to cause NVIDIA's flagship major headaches - all the while consuming less power and using a simpler cooling solution.