My son got a game and it won't work because my GPU

[DAPUNISHER]

Deal of the day FS/FT forum, 9800Pro with AC Silencer for $70.

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

OK I Pmed the seller of DAPUNISHER'S link, we shall see

Will this work on a 4x AGP slot though? The reviews I read of some of the 9800s for sale on NE said it doens't work right unless your AGP slot is 8x

 

[Avalon]

Yes, it will work in an AGP4x slot. I was also going to suggest looking for a used 9700/9800, could find one in the price range of $50-$75.

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

Damn, Deal of the day was deal of the hour. Back to square one.

Should I be trolling FS/FT, eBay, or buy new?

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

One more question (sorry for all the posts, just want to get this game to work and learn a few things while I am at it)

I notice a lot of Radeon 9800 "360 Core" cards for sale on FS/FT. Will one of those work? (since I see some in my price range)

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: OfficeLinebacker
One more question (sorry for all the posts, just want to get this game to work and learn a few things while I am at it)

I notice a lot of Radeon 9800 "360 Core" cards for sale on FS/FT. Will one of those work? (since I see some in my price range)

They're fine. The "360" core is the later one (used in the 9800XT originally, but eventually ATI started using it in all the 9800s), and may overclock better.

Any of the following cards are DirectX9-compatible and will run any games (they may not run them *well*, but they'll run them):

RADEON 9500/9600/9700/9800
RADEON X300/X600/X700/X800
RADEON X1300/X1600/X1800

GeForce5 FX5200/FX5600/FX5700/FX5800/FX5900
GeForce6 6200/6600/6800
GeForce7 7800

(note: that includes any "LE" or "SE" or "XT" or "GT" or "Pro" variants or whatever; these just indicate varying levels of performance)

The following are DX8.1 cards and will run DirectX8 games (like the one you are having problems with), but may not run newer games:

RADEON 8500/9000/9100/9200

GeForce3 Ti200
GeForce4 Ti4200/Ti4400/Ti4600 (note that the GeForce 4 "MX" or "4000" is NOT a DX8 card)

Anything else is DX7 or below hardware, and will not run any remotely recent games well.

If you want to know about relative performance, THG does pretty good roundups of lots of cards.

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

Ok guys I found:

- ATI Radeon 9600 (BBA, bare) - $45

and

Gecube radeon 9800 Non Pro 65$

both shipped--what's the better deal? Worth $20 extra for the 9800?

Also no word on the memory size, but I assume 128 bit, 128 MB.

Or should I just go for the Sapphire someone posted

SAPPHIRE 100561L Radeon 9600PRO 128MB 128-bit for ~$70 shipped cos it's a Pro?

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: OfficeLinebacker
Ok guys I found:

- ATI Radeon 9600 (BBA, bare) - $45

and

Gecube radeon 9800 Non Pro 65$

both shipped--what's the better deal? Worth $20 extra for the 9800?

Also no word on the memory size, but I assume 128 bit, 128 MB.

Or should I just go for the Sapphire someone posted

SAPPHIRE 100561L Radeon 9600PRO 128MB 128-bit for ~$70 shipped cos it's a Pro?

That 9800 is a stellar deal and should easily last you twice as long as the 9600 would. Definately worth the $20 extra.

*edit* Is the 9800 Non-pro 128 bit? I was under the impression that all 9800's were 256 bit.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
That 9800 is a stellar deal and should easily last you twice as long as the 9600 would. Definately worth the $20 extra.

If it's a 256-bit card, that is a GREAT deal. The 256-bit 9800NP is not much slower than the 9800Pro, and is WAY faster than any 9600-based card. Definitely worth an extra $20.

*edit* Is the 9800 Non-pro 128 bit? I was under the impression that all 9800's were 256 bit.

Well... some manufacturers were a little... hmm... "unclear" with which cards had which memory widths.

It *should* be:

9800SE: Either 8 pipes and 128-bit memory or 4 pipes and 256-bit memory, slower clocks.
9800(NP): 8 pipes, slower clocks, 256-bit memory.
9800Pro: 8 pipes, higher clocks, 256-bit memory.
9800XT: 8 pipes, highest clocks, 256-bit memory.

(that is, the only difference between the 9800, 9800Pro, and 9800XT is the clockspeeds, and the 9800SE is the 'crippled' version)

Sapphire (and a few others) played somewhat fast and loose with this -- Sapphire was the worst offender, as they at one point had a "9800Pro" that only had a 128-bit memory bus (which killed performance). This got pulled and renamed after the backlash once people realized what they were doing.

You should definitely check on the card specs before buying.

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

Hey Mattias, great info. Hard to digest all that.

For this part:

RADEON 9500/9600/9700/9800
RADEON X300/X600/X700/X800
RADEON X1300/X1600/X1800

GeForce5 FX5200/FX5600/FX5700/FX5800/FX5900
GeForce6 6200/6600/6800
GeForce7 7800


Is that list from better to worse or vice versa (like by line, ie is X700 better than 9800? GeForce6 is better than GeForce5 presumably?

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: OfficeLinebacker

RADEON 9500/9600/9700/9800
RADEON X300/X600/X700/X800
RADEON X1300/X1600/X1800

GeForce5 FX5200/FX5600/FX5700/FX5800/FX5900
GeForce6 6200/6600/6800
GeForce7 7800

Is that list from better to worse or vice versa (like by line, ie is X700 better than 9800? GeForce6 is better than GeForce5 presumably?

Nope. He arranged them by familes only.

I don't remember the older ATI stuff real well, about where it fits in the comparative sequence, but you can always get a rough idea when you go to gpureview.com to set up the comparisons one pair at a time. I may get some of these wrong because I tend to trust nVidia drivers to work, and have often had trouble with ATI drivers over the past ten years or so.

Fastest on top GeForce7 7800
RADEON X1800
RADEON X800
GeForce6 6800
GeForce6 6600
RADEON 9700/9800
GeForce5 FX5800/FX5900
RADEON X700
RADEON X1600
RADEON 9600
GeForce6 6200 (128 Bit)
RADEON X1300
RADEON X600
alternate position of 6200/ 128 Bit
RADEON 9500
Slowest down here
RADEON X300
alternate position of 6200/ 64 Bit
GeForce5 FX5200/FX5600/FX5700
GeForce6 6200 (64 Bit)
Radeon 9250
GeForce MX 4000

 

[Sc4freak]

That's pretty much about it, but it needs a few revisions. The fastest X8x0 is faster than the fastest 6 series, and the 6200 should be shifted down below the X600 (X600XT > 6200 non-TC) but above the 9500.

The 6200 should sit above the 5200, I think.

 

[imported_Rampage]

I'd just get a Geforce 6200, get PureVideo and SM3.. someday even those games that dont require much horsepower might require SM3 since LegoLand is apparantly requiring PS1.4
Its more than enough to push that game, and a card with purevideo is a great card to keep around.

I'd probably get the PCI 6200 in my sig, personally. Because PCI cards are great extras to keep around for when you get a PC with PCIE and PCI only.

I'm using a PCI card in conjunction with a Geforce4 4200 to run 3 CRTs on a PC.. plus PCI cards are great extras to keep around to fix PCs with.

Yes, you can get better performance with the same amount of money that the 6200 PCI is.. but I like the versatility.. and it seems you keep cards around for a while.. any card under $100 is not going to rock anyway, and your PC doesnt sound like its ready for battlefield 2 in other areas..

i'd prob either go for a 9600 Pro or 9800 Pro, or a PCI 6200.

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

Thanks for the info. I wish I wans't so busy so I could scour the FSFT forum more closely. As it is I think I am going to get the 6600 non-pro but I will check for better deals.