Paid $129 for a 9600SE got a 9600PRO at BB

[PlaystAzn]

WARNING!!!!!!

My local compUSSR had 1 S/N = 180338XXXXXX and the rest S/N = 18034XXXXXXX

i thought...well...its 33...not 339..but it should be right....so i took the plunge.....dammit! passive heatsink....yup...got a 9600SE....so got stuck with lots of hassle and the 15% restocking fee....

beware!!! just because its 33 doesn't mean its good!....so looks like 336 and 339 are ok...but not my 338!

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: unknown
I have to agree with vanln on this.

HL2 will not be available until March '04.

I would assume we are going to be seeing a drop in video cards prices with the upcoming holiday season.

Why not wait a few months and see what prices are like then.

This might be OK for some, you can ALWAYS play the waiting game, and that is your choice.

However, those of us that have a GF2 or lower cards beg to differ. Getting a 9600 Pro for that amount is a good deal.
In 5 months, I can bet a new card will be out, and 2-5 months after that, another new card... so if you don't like this deal, then don't get one.

Sheesh.

 

[BuckNaked]

If anyone is interested, I checked the BB in both Carson City and Reno, and both had the 180340xxx range cards, so don't waste your time. I also checked the Reno CrapUSA and came up with the same range, and CC didn't have the 9600SE at all...

Dave

 

[nagibbs]

Snagged one of the 180339 S/N at the Best Buy in Greenwood Indiana. Was indeed a 9600Pro. Several more left on the shelf Wed afternoon (they also were mixed in with the 180034 S/N SE's).

 

[JungleMan1]

Originally posted by: Tung
this deal is warm at best even with the free game.

I agree. Not bad, but not amazing either.

Yes, yes the free game, but let's face it...so many of you people will get HL2 for "free" anyway... (Not that I would ever do such a thing...)

 

[Quixfire]

I went to my local Bestbuy last night and they had two 180339xxxx left, I grabbed the lowest number one and headed to the register. Paid for my card and when to the car, said a little prayer and opened the box.

I looked at the card for a momment before flipping it over and I saw...


Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB Baby!!!


Thanks to all you guys for helping the rest of us on finding this great deal.

 

[Stevem627]

For those people in the market now for a card like this, this is a good deal. I just wish my local BB had some cards. None of the SE's at all, nan d none of the 9600 Pro cards either.

 

[hummina]

Originally posted by: Pothead

Originally posted by: stockjock

not really at all.

Would the only upgrade be the DX9 compatible card??

Yeah...see for yourself Text

That link leads to a Tom's Hardware comparison of cards running Quake 3 Team Arena without antialiasing. First, that's a DX8 game. A difference will show up with DX9 games. Second, if you look at the Q3 Team Arena results with 4x AA turned on, the 9600 pro beats the ti4200 handily.

 

[nebula]

Picked up the last one at Maple Grove, MN last night for a coworker. S/N: 180339XXX, yep 9600 Pro. I only looked for 18033XXX so good thing I wasn't screwed as a PP had noted.

 

[Pothead]

Originally posted by: hummina

Originally posted by: Pothead

Originally posted by: stockjock

not really at all.

Would the only upgrade be the DX9 compatible card??

Yeah...see for yourself Text

That link leads to a Tom's Hardware comparison of cards running Quake 3 Team Arena without antialiasing. First, that's a DX8 game. A difference will show up with DX9 games. Second, if you look at the Q3 Team Arena results with 4x AA turned on, the 9600 pro beats the ti4200 handily.

dude, I gave a link so he could look at it, there are pages and pages to look at so f off retard. Stupid n00bie. 1st post and you go flame people.

 

[MPankau]

I got three at the best buy in niles, IL. All with 10339 serials.

MP

 

[daddyo]

Ann Arbor - Saline BB is cleaned out. I got the last one just now. Someone had hidden it in a large stack of Radeon 9000's. I'm glad I rummaged through the whole shelf.

There was a 9600SE with 18034 on the shelf still.

 

[chemist2003]

Originally posted by: daddy-o
Ann Arbor - Saline BB is cleaned out. I got the last one just now. Someone had hidden it in a large stack of Radeon 9000's. I'm glad I rummaged through the whole shelf.

There was a 9600SE with 18034 on the shelf still.

Thank you thank you. You just removed my last bit of temptation. I'm in Ann Arbor as well, was debating whether I want to get this. But since there is none left, I won't have to waste any more brain cells on it. Thanks.

What I really want is a radeon 9800 Pro (but that 9600 was cheap). But really don't want to spend more than $200 on a graphics card. Anyone got any ideas when the price will drop below $200?

 

[josedawg]

Just saw this thread, and I must say, nice deal. If anyone is interested, I can check a few BB's near me (one in Yonkers, NY, and another in NYC, NY) and I will sell them at cost + shipping. Not looking to make any money out of this, just helping out other ATers looking for a good deal. I'm a student, so my money is tight, so only people who were seriously looking for this card and came up short (the 18034's), and are willing to buy at same price + the cost shipping. Shoot me a pm. Will check out BB later tomorrow.

 

[DRS]

I thought I would just throw this into the mix. It's fun to compare benchmarks and all that but what it boils down to is the games. A couple of days before I got this deal I exchanged my 9800 NP for an Xbox. My thought process was basically after it was said and done spending $250 on a video card is, how should I say it, less than settling to me. It's not that I cannot afford it, it's just the principal of it. The moral of the story is some would have you believe that there is a day and night difference between the 9600PRO and the 9800NP/whatever, it's simply not true, twice the cost does not equal twice the performance. Point and case Unreal Tournament 2003 and the Halo demo. Playing U2K3 at 1600x1200 is not as silky smooth on the 9600pro as it was on the 9800 but at 1280x1024 there is really no discernable difference and quite frankly the difference in resolution is not that appreciable either. On the Halo demo the 9800 was choppy, granted not as choppy as the 9600pro but then again not enough to really tell. BTW I only mention these two because those are the ones that I could actually tell a difference on, every other game in my library played as good as the 9800.

Anyway I looked at it like this: $250 buys me a great video card with longer legs. For $60 more I still get a great video card upgrade but with an xbox too! To each his own, just thought I would share.

edited for a typo and an extra point.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

its always like that DRS. the high end guys care about the benchmarks and about having the best.

the midrange guys go with best bang for the buck. they can still play the games just fine.

 

[Trianon]

Originally posted by: PClark99
Best Buy Woodbridge, NJ 1 9600 SE left with a 180339. I snatched that up and yup it was the 9600 Pro. WOOT


Best Buy Holmdel, NJ, the are all 180040, so I had to pass.

Do you actually have to open the box or SN is visible on the outside somehow?

 

[XxParrotxX]

Was at the Lawrence, KS BBY and took the only one last night...

I can't believe there are so many "nVidia people" in this forum. The fact that you are telling people that a Ti4200 64MB, and a 9600Pro 128MB are the same thing is just ludicrous. Just let go... If you have Ti4200 64MB or any of the Ti series (for that matter, anything Ati was selling around that time), and are looking at playing the games that are coming out over the next year, it's definitely worth the upgrade. Especially for the fact that you are technically paying only around 80 bucks for the card, because the game would cost an honest person $50 when it comes out.

Sorry to the "nVidia people" if these are just jerks telling people that so that there may more cards for them to sell on ebay...

 

[XxParrotxX]

Trianon, it's on the top panel of the box, all the way to the right on a white sticker. Good luck finding yours!

 

[geecee]

Serial Number is on the top of the box. BB 86th & Lex in NYC only has the 18034's. :frown:

BTW, Trianon, love that system. Ah, the memories. *sighs contentedly*

 

[TekDemon]

lol dammit...I use a laptop now. I still own 2 towers but they're back home(at dorm now) so I can't use them, plus they're already pretty decently equipped for gaming anyway and nobody even USES them for gaming which is the worst part. Damn.

I have a 9500NP that I couldn't hack without artifacting and got stuck with, plus a Ti4200. *sigh* I think the 9500NP is enough for HL2 though right?

Gonna have to drag my tower back up...if only I could get the 9500NP to work with my Antec TruePower 550 PSU...it keeps spazzing out in that machine and it took me like two days of swapping things in and out to finally get it to boot(it seems to cause the MB to shut down by itself as soon as I hit the power button), but then when I moved the PC home I guess the BIOS settings got erased and the stupid tower didn't boot anymore, and I was just too tired to go deal with it's incompatibilities so I swapped the cards with my AMD system(oh this is my P4 system) which had a 350Watt Enhance PSU and it worked just fine...probably the stupid Epox motherboard is the issue too since it has too many f'ing onboard features(onboard video, sound, raid, usb 2.0 controller, etc.) that probably caused some horrible incompatibility with the ATI. *sigh*

 

[dandan]

Just got back from the west side store in Madison, WI with one.
there is still one on the self with tthe correct s/n as of 12:20pm.

1) the card is a pro and the s/n checks out as a 9600pro at ati's site.
2) the half life 2 card is in the box.

great deal for my wife's computer, now only if i can get her to use it.
she was not realy using the gf2 gts that she had.

dan

 

[randomlinh]

now the question is... 9600 pro, or ti4600 (gainward golden sample, not OC).....

 

[CrackRabbit]

Webster, Tx CompUSSR has only 18034xxx cards and the Best Buy is sold out no dealy for me.......



CrackRabbit

 

[Elixer]

I went to BB again to pick some other stuff up.... (Like the damn adapter for the SVideo that they should have included...) anyway, they had 3 boxes of 9600SE that were all "open box" slapped on them. Looks like people are buying them, checking and then returning them.

Anyway, they didn't have a SVIDEO->RCA converter, and the ATI site wants $5 (not bad) but shipping of $10? Um, for a part that small? Ouch!

Anyone know of a good place to get a converter?

P.S, while playing with the card with the 3.8 drivers, I can see that ATI drivers still have issues. I got 3 "recover" alerts when it crashed, and 2 system lockups, and some games don't want to display anything but a black screen, oh also some .avi's crashed the system also, and even a screen saver caused a 'recover' crash. So I reverted to 3.7, those games I had issues with work OK now, as do the .avi's, and I haven't had a "recover" crash yet.
So it seems the 3.7's are more stable than the 3.8s. (But I still have 4 monitors listed, when in reality I only have 1. Saw info on this, and it is supposed to be fixed in 3.9 whenever those come out).