Need help on chosing mid-range video card

[aakerman]

Hey.

I need to upgrade my old GF3 Ti200, because I think I'll be playing a lot of doom 3 from the
13th of August and onwards.

Now, within my budget are these three cards:

nVidia 5900, with 128mb ram
nVidia 5900 XT, with 128mb ram
Radeon 9800 Pro, with 128mb ram

Which one, is the best? It has to be able to run on the measly 300W psu that came with my
Aopen HQ48 midi-tower - The psu is currently powering two hard drives, and two optical drives.

I hope you can help!

 

[memories2002]

9800Pro, make sure you get the 256 bit version. They usually cost arnd 200$.

 

[aakerman]

Yep, it's the 256-bit version I'm looking at! Or so it says

 

[Lonyo]

I have a 300w PSU with a 9800NP @ 405/640.

(Abit NF7, Barton 2500+ mobile @ 1.65v, 2300MHz, 1GB PC2100, SB Audigy)

However, I need a new PSU, as I am running only 11.67v on the 12v rail and the PSU used to do 12.05v or so before I upgraded, so the PSU is on the edge.
Be wary and don't blame any issues on the card when it may be the PSU whichever card you get (they all have broadly similar power needs IIRC).

 

[Gamingphreek]

Jeez, any of the cards. Its all personal preference. But the 9800 does edge out a bit in more games than not. However Nvidia benefits more from OCing. Either way you really cant go wrong.

 

[aakerman]

I heard that the 5900xt runs cooler and uses less power though, is this true?

 

[Dman877]

Originally posted by: aakerman
I heard that the 5900xt runs cooler and uses less power though, is this true?

Doubtful, the 5900 series get just as hot/hotter then the R350's IIRC. If your psu is a namebrand quality unit, don't worry, you'll be fine running just about any card. My 300 watt antec is running a 6800GT/P4C 2.8 system just fine.

 

[GeneralGrievous]

9800 Pro > 5xxx

 

[BFG10K]

Definitely the 9800 Pro, especially that we now know that Doom III has an ARB2 path in it.

 

[aakerman]

Thanks.. I'm not all that big on render paths though, could you explain quickly what that means, and how it affects the choice between nvidia and ati? =)

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous
9800 Pro > 5xxx

 

[BFG10K]

Thanks.. I'm not all that big on render paths though, could you explain quickly what that means, and how it affects the choice between nvidia and ati? =)

The ARB2 path is the one that uses SM 2.0 functionality, functionality that the R3xx series is much better running than the NV3x.

 

[thegimp03]

BFG10K - D3 is opengl though, and historically haven't nvidia cards performed better? I know ATI is trying to change this now though....

 

[Gamingphreek]

Your correct. Doom III is OpenGL however it does have a SM2.0 path for ATI cards so it will be a very close call.

-Kevin