video card

geforce fx 5900 or radeon 9700 pro? there are so many cards to choose from....any advice

anything NOT powered by nvidia = VERY good.....

9600XT is nice on the wallet...

search the posts in the smoking room for many other reviews of vid cards

I recently upgraded to a 9600XT and so far I've had nothing but praise for it.

[shockwave203]

go for the 9700pro. it has fallen a LOT in price, and it's still a card that can play all of the current PC games with high resolutions, high texture quality, and can get better FPS using AA/AF than Nvidia's top card. 9700pro is just a bit slower than a 9800pro, they can come pretty close to each other with the 9700 OC'd, so I would say go with that. Look for a 9800pro if you want top notch performance. no point in buying the 9800XT, it costs too much for the amount of performance increase over a 9800pro.

OR, if you can wait a few more months, get a nextgen Radeon card. They don't have a name yet (they are nicknamed 'loki', but they're a nextgen card, and expected to be MUCH MUCH MUCH faster than the 9800XT. people have estimated a 30% increase in speed, since that's what all the other nextgen cards have increased in speed by in the past)

You can get a 9800 pro for just over 2 bills.

9600XT is a fine card.

Here I found the thread I created when I upgraded, maybe it will have some more info for you.


http://forums.powervs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6573&highlight=updating

[-HaVoC-]

I'm current;y running a ti4600 and waiting for the 9800 prices to drop some more. All i have to say is ATI better not drop the ball and forget about driver updates like they've been known to do in the past.

200 for the 9800 pro is tempting. But the next gen cards should drive the price even lower.

[Chacal]

I think it's time for me to upgrade my video card too. I have a Radeon 8500 128, which is rated at 90 fps in SW. I'm looking at the Radeon 9800 pro rated at 210. I wonder if I'll see a difference? Should I also overclock? Here's my specs:

Asus P4S533
Intel P4 2.0 GHz
1 GB DDR 333
ATI Radeon 8500 128MB
Hercules Digifire 7.1

I have a 100$ rebate at Futureshop, they sell the 9800 Pro at 450$CAN (340 $US, sounds a bit high). With the rebate I'd get it for 264$US, off the shelves.
.

Chacal, YES!!! there is no wrong reason to buy a 9800pro....the card friggin ownz As for overclocking, are you referring to the card, or your system? The card CAN be o/c'd, but you'd probably want to chuck the stock HSF, and possibly put on Ramsinks. As for your system, that depends heavily on a few factors:
1. What P4 (p4c, p4b, etc)? The 2.0 P4C's are supposed to be able to regularly hit 3.0GHz on air-cooling. I believe JimmyTango has one.....
2. What brand of memory, and what timings (CAS 2.0, 3.0, etc)
3. Do you have the stock Intel HSF, or have you upgraded?

etc, etc.