I know I'm asking for it but

[Gamingphreek]

Omg... the 5900XT with VIVO is like the exact same price and much much faster in everything imaginable!! Sorry dude i dont think that was a good choice.

-Kevin

 

[GeneralGrievous]

Omg... the 5900XT with VIVO is like the exact same price and much much faster in everything imaginable!

Actually, it's a bit slower in Half Life 2. And with inferior IQ too.

 

[BFG10K]

Do you folks think a 9600XT OC to 530/650 could run both games at at least 1024X768 and 30fps and maybe some AA and AF?

Possibly, when using the lowest possible game settings. But that's really not going to be too much fun.

The bare minimum these days you should consider is a 9700NP with a 9800 Pro or faster being preferable.

 

[Gamingphreek]

#1 that is a beta release of Half Life.

#2 It doesn';t even tell what drivers they are using for both cards.

#3 Seems kinda strange to me that a 9600XT 128bit memory 4 pipeline card beats a 256bit 8 pipeline card (yes i know 8 pipeline only applys sometimes 4x2)

Also where is that inferior IQ. I see no proof. The 5900 series USED to have inferior IQ when it came out but with any of the Forceware 60 drivers its completely fixed!

The 5900 is a way better choice and he shuldn't have gotten the 9600.

-Kevin

 

[GeneralGrievous]

#1 that is a beta release of Half Life.

And? This has been the case for the past year now.

#2 It doesn';t even tell what drivers they are using for both cards.

It does, here 61.34 drivers were used.

#3 Seems kinda strange to me that a 9600XT 128bit memory 4 pipeline card beats a 256bit 8 pipeline card (yes i know 8 pipeline only applys sometimes 4x2)

It's called shltty architecture.

Also where is that inferior IQ. I see no proof. The 5900 series USED to have inferior IQ when it came out but with any of the Forceware 60 drivers its completely fixed!

Keep telling yourself that. Or, read this

 

[Gamingphreek]

You do know that that isn't an issue anymore. We are not using the detonator drivers. Also the forceware 5xxx series helped this a lot and the forceware realease 60's did wonders above that. Nvidias IQ is just as good as ATI's sometimes better sometimes worse.

Also i dont think its bad architecture it was just poorly designed. It was designed for DX8.1 games still in mind which use multi pass filtering, which is when it would use all 8 pipes. However what they SHOULD have done was 4x2 OR 8x1 just like the geforce 6 series only more pipes on the next gens.

Also no sh!t ATI is gonna beat Nvidia they have AF filtering on. That is one test out of many... in 90% of the other tests the 5900XT will massacre the 9600XT.

I would also assume that valve would make things more "Nvidia friendly" or actually have optimizations for Nvidia in the final release.

-Kevin

 

[GeneralGrievous]

You do know that that isn't an issue anymore. We are not using the detonator drivers. Also the forceware 5xxx series helped this a lot and the forceware realease 60's did wonders above that. Nvidias IQ is just as good as ATI's sometimes better sometimes worse.

Did you even read the article? The low IQ is due to the 5xxx cards running a mixed mode shader path which loses out on a lot of directx9 features, and it essentially provides directx8 level IQ.

Also i dont think its bad architecture it was just poorly designed.

What's the difference?

I would also assume that valve would make things more "Nvidia friendly" or actually have optimizations for Nvidia in the final release.

Again, did you read the article? Nvidia already has a bunch of optimizations in place. Running pure directx9 code like the 9xxx cards didn't work out.

 

[Gamingphreek]

I did read the article, i read it when it came out too.

Yes back then it didn't work out. It still doesn't work out, however Nvidia has been able to mask it a lot because of recent driver updates at no loss of IQ.

-Kevin

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous

Omg... the 5900XT with VIVO is like the exact same price and much much faster in everything imaginable!

Actually, it's a bit slower in Half Life 2. And with inferior IQ too.

More skewed BS from the General.
Anand himself said the IQ on some games was better on a 5900 and some better on a 9800 in his IQ review.
Yes, the mixed mode that Far Cry runs in has worse IQ, as will Half LIfe, but there are other games in the world.
:roll:

 

[GeneralGrievous]

Yes, the mixed mode that Far Cry runs in has worse IQ, as will Half LIfe, but there are other games in the world.

There are, but the discussion was about Half life 2 specifically. I never made a statement about all games. So where's the skewed bs? All I said was that the 5900 XT is the wrong card to buy for HL2 performance.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous

Yes, the mixed mode that Far Cry runs in has worse IQ, as will Half LIfe, but there are other games in the world.

There are, but the discussion was about Half life 2 specifically. I never made a statement about all games. So where's the skewed bs? All I said was that the 5900 XT is the wrong card to buy for HL2 performance.

I suppose you have a (good) point.

 

[Paratus]

I decided on the 9600XT over the 5900XT (even though it was a great deal) because with the free HL2 coupon it knocks the price of the Asus card ~$30 to $50 below the cost of the 5900XT.

I do agree however that the 5900XT will mop the floor with the 9600XT in most games.

Besides one of the reasons to do your own build is to updgrade when you want. If this card doesn't cut it I'll upgrade in a year. I'm sure Rollo or the General can sell me their card then . As I'm sure you'll be updgrading then. (However I won't pay 700 for an X800XTPE )

 

[Johnbear007]

No fricken way. you can get a 9800 pro for 15$ more.

Personally after seeing the new doom 3 benchmarks, if I were you I would save up however long it takes and get a 6800 GT, or a 6800 fro 250$ the 6800 series is awsome for doom 3