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$200 to spend. What Video card?

D

Datajack

Junior Member
I am open to either nVidia or ATI, but if you recommend one over the other you better give me a good technical explanation as to why. I play flight simulators (Falcon 4, Jane's F/A-18, Flanker 2.5, etc...) 90% of the time. I'll play a military FPS (like Ghost Recon or Blackhawk Down) or an RPG (like Baldur's Gate) every once in a while.

Please let me know what you recommend and why.

Thanks!
Datajack
 
Thanks to all for the advice.

SickBeast,

In fact I did search. There were no topics that specifically discussed the best video card at $200 for a flight simmer. If you look at the button bar, you'll notice there is a New Topic button there as well. It's there for a reason. I'm sorry you have to spend hours searching through every post and reading the same thing over and over again. Maybe this is an indication that your spending a bit too much time in forums and not enough time doing other more productive things with your life.

And BTW, thank you for your productive answer. If your not going to be helpful, then don't post at all.

Datajack
 
I've been looking at prices at pricewatch.

Here are my options:


9600 Pro Ultimate = $189.00
9700 np = $216
9800 np = $196

The 9600 Pro Ultimate is this model:
Sapphire RADEON 9600 PRO ATLANTIS ULTIMATE 128 MB 256-bit DDR AGP 8X TVO/DVI Retail 1yr Warranty

The 9700 np is this model:
PowerColor ATI Radeon 9700 128MB. 8X AGP POWER BY PowerColor. OEM, NEW

The 9800np is this model:
ATI Sapphire Radeon 9800 SE 128MB DDR CRT/DVI TV out


Is the 9600 Pro the best value here? I thought the Pro cards were always better
than the np cards. I've been looking for a benchmark that compares these three
cards but I can't find one. Can someone tell me which of these is the fastest card?

Thanks!
Datajack
 
$190 is too much for 9600 pro, imo. A 9700 is definitley worth the $27 extra. And if you can, save another $20 and get a 9800np. Just depends if you want to spend $216 or $235.
 
A 9700 will be faster than any 9600, Pro or Ultimate or otherwise. Look into the 9700 (I've seen used ones go for $170!), but note ATi may have an issue in IL2.

ATi will have nicer AA than nVidia, but nVidia's AF may prove superior in flight sims. You'll have to ask ppl with more experience with that genre than I, though. Maybe check SimHQ.

Also note the following:
As far as compatibility is concerned, Flight Simulator 2004 owners will be disappointed to hear that the nagging issues ATI users have reported in numerous online forums with this title remain in CATALYST 3.7. Fortunately, nothing we witnessed could be classified as a showstopper, but the flashing menus were irritating to the eyes.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles also doesn?t work properly with CATALYST 3.7, the 3.7 release notes mention problems with this title: ?The Windows XP system not responding when attempting to launch IL2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles if the display resolution is set to 1024x768 32bpp is now resolved. This issue was known to occur on the RADEON? 9700, 9600, and 9500 series of cards.? Unfortunately, the issue we?ve encountered is somewhat different, the system responds just fine when we launch the game, but if we change the resolution to a higher setting than default (which is manually determined at install), the display is rendered incorrectly, IL-2 opens partially in a window. We?ve noticed this on all RADEON cards, not just the 9500, 9600, and 9700, and it?s a problem that first appeared in CATALYST 3.6. - FiringSquad
Click to expand...

OTOH, ATi's 9800P seems to be much faster than nV's 5900 in FS2004 and nV appears to enable AA improperly for now, both according to H|OCP.
 
Pete, that was a very helpful post. Thank you very much!
I'll be leaning towards an Nvidia card then, since flight sims are #1 on my list.

What's the best Nvidia card I can get for $200? Maybe a FX5600 Ultra???
Or maybe I should stick to the older Ge4 TI 4600?

Thanks!!
Datajack
 
Just as a comparion, my Ti4200 @ about Ti4600 speeds runs FS2004 with my own detail settings at 20-40 fps... depending on where I'm looking, etc. I also have 4X AF on, and I think 2X AA... whatever the AA setting in FS sets it to, that's what it's at. My dad uses it mostly... and he's very happy with it... and to be honest... much over 30 fps in flight sim is useless... things don't move very fast, so 30 fps looks perfectly smooth. Although I'm not particularly happy with my video card... he is... it's running at 325/650, which is slightly faster than a Ti4600.
 
Originally posted by: Datajack
Pete, that was a very helpful post. Thank you very much!
I'll be leaning towards an Nvidia card then, since flight sims are #1 on my list.

What's the best Nvidia card I can get for $200? Maybe a FX5600 Ultra???
Or maybe I should stick to the older Ge4 TI 4600?

Thanks!!
Datajack
Click to expand...

Ugh! Did you not read the snippet at the bottom of Pete's post about ATI being much faster in FS2004?

The gist of Pete's post was that between similar cards from ATI and nVidia, nVidia's perform slightly better with AA enabled. That means a 5900 is a bit better choice than a 9700/9800. However, a *considerably* slower card from nVidia (like any GeForce 4 or an FX5600) will get crushed by both the ATI 9700/9800 cards and the FX5900 card.

So, in the ~200 range, the best bet is either a Radeon 9700/9800 non-pro, or an FX 5900 non-ultra. The FX5600 will get slaughtered in any game by the Radeon 9700 or 9800. As will a GeForce 4. Only the FX5900 is competitive. Get it?
 
Jiffylube1024.

Yes, I understand that perfectly well. The most important consideration is driver problems. He mentioned that IL2 (and I've confirmed this on other forums) has issues with ATI cards. I also found out that Jane's F/A-18 has a couple of issues with ATI cards that don't manifest on Nvidia cards. All the FPS in the world are not going to help me if I have graphical anomolies when I run the game. Even though the Nvidia may be slower, I won't have problems running my flights sims with it, and as a previous post suggested, 30fps is more than enough for smooth playing in a flight sim.

So again I ask, what is the best Nvidia card I can get for $200.00?

Thanks!
Datajack
 
Originally posted by: Datajack
Jiffylube1024.

Yes, I understand that perfectly well. The most important consideration is driver problems. He mentioned that IL2 (and I've confirmed this on other forums) has issues with ATI cards. I also found out that Jane's F/A-18 has a couple of issues with ATI cards that don't manifest on Nvidia cards. All the FPS in the world are not going to help me if I have graphical anomolies when I run the game. Even though the Nvidia may be slower, I won't have problems running my flights sims with it, and as a previous post suggested, 30fps is more than enough for smooth playing in a flight sim.

So again I ask, what is the best Nvidia card I can get for $200.00?

Thanks!
Datajack
Click to expand...

a 4200 for $100 or a 5900 non ultra for 250, those are the only 2 nvidias to consider IMO
 
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