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IYHO: DX9 Vid Card with BEST Bang for your Buck

sd

Golden Member
ATI or NVIDIA, what do you guys recommend? Not looking to spend a lot, but lookin for a card that'll run strong for at least a 1-1.5 years.
 
ATI 9600 Pro

If you're an ATI hater, then you need to spend $50-60 more and get an nV fx5900 non-ultra, since the 5600 is weak and the 5700 costs almost the same as the 5900nu.
 
Ya think the features vs price of the 9800 series do not justify the price jump?

How is the FX5900 compared to the 9600 Pro? I read the article on Image quality of ATI vs NVIDIA, so that portion seems to be really close.
 
There are also many, many, *many* large and/or heated discussions on this in the Video forum.

Basically, for $150, the 9600Pro is the best you can get.

For $200, the GeForce FX5900 Non-Ultra is the best card available. Skip the 9600XT and 5700Ultra -- they perform only marginally better than the 9600Pro, and they cost a lot more (although the 9600XT does come with a coupon for HL2).

For $250 (or possibly less), you can get a RADEON 9700Pro or 9800Non-Pro (which perform almost identically). It performs similarly to the 5900NU, although it is much better at running with AA/AF enabled, and it's much faster at DX9 (although how much of an impact that will have on new games is debatable).

For $300 and up, the 9800Pro is the way to go. The 5900Ultra is also a possibility, but its weaker AA and DX9 make it, IMHO, likely to need replacement sooner rather than later. The 9800XT and 5950Ultra are not fast enough to justify another $100.
 
Originally posted by: sd
Ya think the features vs price of the 9800 series do not justify the price jump?

How is the FX5900 compared to the 9600 Pro? I read the article on Image quality of ATI vs NVIDIA, so that portion seems to be really close.
Read the AT benchmarking articles to see 9800 pro vs. 5900 ultra. Is the 9800 worth $300? That depends on whether you want your card to handle HL2 and Doom3 at 1024x768. If you don't mind 800x600, or will buy a new card next year, then get the 9600 pro.
 
9600XT.

I bought mine at ZipZoomFly.com for $188 with free shipping. If you consider the HL2 coupon to be worth $40-50, I'd say I actually only paid $138-148 for it.
 
For the rest of this generation of cards, the best bang for buck DX9 card, bar none is the 9700pro.
Your getting a DX9 card, that competes very well with the latest from ATI & nVidia, for the price of a midrange card.
 
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