nVidia 6200TC or ATI 9550?

[simpsoholic]

Which one would you reccommend? I'm going to be running some fairly new PC games, eg. Black and White 2, Sims 2 ect.
This is quite a big upgrade from my old... really old MX 440.
Oh BTW, i found both of these cards for $100 (AUD) and they both have 256mb of memory.

 

[fliguy84]

doesn't the 6200TC only come in pcie flavor? but either way, stay away from it. the 9550 is so much better in terms of performance. plus, the TC has only like 16mb or 32mb on board memory and would take the extra memory from your system memory, which is undoubtedly slower

 

[simpsoholic]

thanks for the advice!

 

[Wentelteefje]

Yes, the 9550 is a better choice... Do keep in mind the B&W2 is quite heavy...

 

[InlineFour]

neither. how about a used 9800 pro, which would put both cards to shame.

 

[KBTuning]

if your gonna run B&W 2 you need some hefty hardware.... my friend was running his 5950XT and it still ran kinda slow... if you can pop a few more bucks go for a 6600GT... AMAZING card for the price.

 

[Nextman916]

You may to run b&w and a really low resolution with a 9550 even with a 6600gt it may push a little more than 20fps 1024x768 no aa/af......

 

[simpsoholic]

thats starting to get a bit higher than my kinda price range.
Unless..... the 128mb 6600 TD PE for $150. What kind of difference would that make?

Also, what about an X600 Pro? Is that any good?

 

[Wentelteefje]

Unfortunately, the X600Pro is worth nothing... A regular 6600 is pretty weak too... If you could find one in your price range, a vanilla X700 would be a rather good choice... When overclocked, it will perform quite decent...

 

[simpsoholic]

well i can see one for about $170 (256mb). That would be be better than all of the above?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje
Unfortunately, the X600Pro is worth nothing... A regular 6600 is pretty weak too... If you could find one in your price range, a vanilla X700 would be a rather good choice... When overclocked, it will perform quite decent...

I'm not thinkin so. B&W2 1024x768 max Quality 0xAA 0xAF

If this guy gets anything less than a X800XL/6800GT/GS, were talking 1024x768 with REDUCED settings in B&W2. Of course you can turn down everything under the sun and run 640x480 but what is the point?

 

[simpsoholic]

okay, i've now confired my status. I will NOT be running B&W2, at least until i can affford one of those $350 cards. But i still want an upgrade, so pretty much the 6200 9550 and x600

Which one is teh best

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: simpsoholic
okay, i've now confired my status. I will NOT be running B&W2, at least until i can affford one of those $350 cards. But i still want an upgrade, so pretty much the 6200 9550 and x600

Which one is teh best

Ok. What is the absolute most you can/want to spend on a new card? Then I'll suggest one from your price.

 

[simpsoholic]

hmm...probably about $150 at the most (AUD) I got all my prices from http://www.cpl.net.au/green_guide/974016402.pdf, its quite a good place

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: simpsoholic
hmm...probably about $150 at the most (AUD) I got all my prices from http://www.cpl.net.au/green_guide/974016402.pdf, its quite a good place

Ok. That is just over 112.00 US, so I would suggest this: 9800pro

I don't know if Newegg ships to Australia or not. But this is probably the best you can do for 112 buck US 150 AUD

 

[Wentelteefje]

Hmm, not much of an offer unfortunately... This isn't probably an online shop? I would definately try those ones, as they have prices that are lower than regular shops...

The best you could try getting with CPL, is a 6600GT, but those cost over $ 200, so that's not quite an alternative...

Do you know of a very cheap online store...?

BTW keysplayr2003, I was talking about a X700 in the price range of AU $ 150, where it would have offered a good value...

EDIT: I'm afraid Newegg doesn't ship abroad... I've looked it up myself (as I'm Belgian, and the hardware isn't that cheap here), but I could find anything...

 

[simpsoholic]

thanks for your suggestion, i think ill go with that, $140 AUD

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: KBTuning
if your gonna run B&W 2 you need some hefty hardware.... my friend was running his 5950XT and it still ran kinda slow... if you can pop a few more bucks go for a 6600GT... AMAZING card for the price.

the FX series and the word slow often appear together...in the same sentence. if B&W uses any DX9 then that FX card is just gonna bomb out.

avoid the 6200TC

possibly just avoid anything that used to be old mid-low end

i suggest picking up a used/refurbed 9800pro or something....these are great cards, one of ATI's most successful, still got some life left in them for sure.

 

[simpsoholic]

i change my mind, i decided i dont want the 9800pro. i found another card, 9600 Pro TD 256mb $139, at CPL.

 

[InlineFour]

a 9600 pro was still a midrange card. if you cant get a 9800 pro, the lowest card i'd suggest is a 9700 pro. anything less than that is not worth getting, especially refurbished cards.

 

[Wentelteefje]

Have to agree with InlineFour... A 9600 Pro wasn't a very good performer even when it was just released... The least you'd want to get are 9700 Pro's or 9800 Pro's... Refurbished cards will appear of high value if you're a little cramped with cash...

 

[simpsoholic]

okay, thank you everybody for your advice

 

[Kroz]

A 6200TC or a 9550, neither will play any of the games you have listed well. At least a 6600GT really.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: simpsoholic
Which one would you reccommend? I'm going to be running some fairly new PC games, eg. Black and White 2, Sims 2 ect.
This is quite a big upgrade from my old... really old MX 440.
Oh BTW, i found both of these cards for $100 (AUD) and they both have 256mb of memory.

Something I'm not sure was brought up here so far: neither the 9550 nor any 6200 has more than a 128 Bit bandwidth, and they run relatively slowly. In almost every case where extra video RAM beyond 128 might be useful, these cards have narrower bandwidth that makes the extra RAM requirte a faster card to get any use from it. I was also surprised by the specs for a 6200TC at gpureview, showing that while a regular 6200 (now a bit hard to find in the market) has the 128 Bit Bandwidth, the TC may have only 64 Bits?

What that means is that if you pay extra for 256 MB's instead of 128 MB's, you get no real benefit. The card manufacturers are using the extra RAM as a sales gimmick only.

Meanwhile, someone said that a TC16 has only 16 MB's of its own RAM, but it doesn't seem that gpureview's specifications database knows that. They are showing it with 128 MB's of RAM. I don't *know* what the TC-16 and TC-32 mean, but from that site's data, it doesn't seem to refer to total onboard RAM. The MX 440 wasn't at all powerful, even when first released as an MX400, so even the TC's would be some upgrade, but miles short of enough to handle a shooter of any kind, or an MMORPG.

But I don't think that the Sims, not any of the games of that sort, put much demand on the video card speedwise. Black and White may call for more. Nope. According to the official requirements, a 64 MB FX of any sort is enough, as is a 6200.

http://blackandwhite2.ea.com/good.asp?language=us

Incidentally, you don't want to visit that URL without broadband. It takes FOREVER to get the audio clips downloaded (well, I found a switch to turn sound off, but the site still drags badly on POTS).


:frown: