PLS help. Im will buy a graphics card for my son

[bzkurb]

My son wants a new card for his birthday. I'm not into these stuffs. hope you can help.
which should i pick? he's into pc games...
i saw these products.
ati radeon 9600pro
Saphire ATI Radeon 9600xt
Inno3D GFX 5700 Ultra Edition
geforce fx5700le-8x 256mb128bit
Inno3D GeForce FX 5600 VIVO
which one should i pick? which one should i get? which one performs best?

 

[BenSkywalker]

Out of what you have listed the Saphire 9600XT is your best choice, but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

What is you current computer and how much are you looking to spend? I would hate to have you go pick up a board for your son's birthday and then it won't work in your machine, likewise I wouldn't want you to spend too much for what you are getting.

 

[nick1985]

whats the rest of his computer specifications? what is your budget? what kind of games is he into?

 

[bzkurb]

i'm not so sure about the specs but here it goes.
256mb ram (he says i should get another 512mb for the mainboard has 3 slots)
a gigabyte mainboard (not sure about the model)
pentium 4 2.0 G

is that enough?

anyway he's into those need for speed games and those rpgs

i wouldn't want to buy things that would disappoint him. what components should i get aside from the video card?

 

[Mloot]

Every son should have a father like you.

Aside from a video card, the extra RAM will definitely help smooth out the games he plays, along with making the pc run better overall.

 

[nick1985]

sorry to ask again, but what kind of budget are you looking at?

 

[bzkurb]

$400 including the ram but i'm not from the USA so cards here are limited to order. those are the cards that i saw.
by the way i also saw this
ATI Radeon GeCube 9550ee 128MB 128Bit

is the sapphire 9600xt still the best choice?

thanks mloot

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: bzkurb
$400 including the ram but i'm not from the USA so cards here are limited to order. those are the cards that i saw.
by the way i also saw this
ATI Radeon GeCube 9550ee 128MB 128Bit

is the sapphire 9600xt still the best choice?

thanks mloot

between the 9550 and the 9600XT the 9600XT would wipe the floor with the 9550, so, yes.

 

[m0s3s]

i was going to suggest the 6600gt in agp, but since your out of the US, im not sure if you can get them

 

[bzkurb]

is there a big difference in the performance between the GeCube 9550ee and the 9600XT?

 

[bzkurb]

someone in the shop told me that he is willing to trade in my existing graphics card for the 9550ee plus cash so i'm also looking at this one...

 

[BenSkywalker]

The 9600XT should be quite a bit faster.

Are you sure you have an AGP slot(not trying to be rude or anything, but if you don't then that changes things significantly)? You mentioned you already have a graphics card but I just want to make sure it isn't PCI based.

Which nation are you from? We may be able to point you in the direction of a good on line source wherever you are which may be better suited then the shop you have been dealing with.

 

[bzkurb]

i have no idea ben. i think our existing graphics card is geforce mx400 128bit 64mb.
what would that be?

I'm from the Philippines.

 

[klah]

Originally posted by: bzkurb
is there a big difference in the performance between the GeCube 9550ee and the 9600XT?

The 9600XT is about 50-100% faster.

Here are some examples.

Unreal 2
9550: 43fps
9600XT: 71fps

Half-Life 2
9550: 15fps
9600XT: 28fps

Far Cry
9550: 21fps
9600XT: 33fps

Those links also include figures for all of the other cards you mentioned.

 

[bzkurb]

I'm confused here. 9600pro is 256mb while 9600XT is 128mb. What does this imply? Why is the XT better than the pro?
sorry for the ignorance guys...

 

[bzkurb]

Wow! That really is way better than the other. Thanx for the info.

 

[klah]

Originally posted by: bzkurb
I'm confused here. 9600pro is 256mb while 9600XT is 128mb. What does this imply? Why is the XT better than the pro?
sorry for the ignorance guys...

That is the amount of memory each card has. At this level of cards there is no performance difference between 128MB and 256MB. The XT is faster than the pro because the gpu and memory run at faster speeds(MHz).

Also one thing to be careful in this range of cards is the "memory bus". You should only be looking at cards with '128-bit' memory. If it has '64-bit' memory it is rubbish.

 

[bzkurb]

sir kloh,

Do you have any idea about what my existing card is compatible with? Ben was talking about AGPs and PCIs.
I have no idea about this. Can my existing card tell you what my component is? (AGP or PCI)?

 

[Idleuser]

you can tell by opening up your computer since you got a gigabyte motherboard I would say the PCI are (white) while the AGP (is brown) in a standard motherboard.... The AGP slow is usually the First Slot in the PC (looking at your case from the back) the bottom would be the last while the top would be the First slot....

 

[bzkurb]

thanks. I'll check my son's pc later after work. btw, what should i look for? Should I be glad having AGP or PCI? Which one is better?
Does all Gigabyte motherboards have AGP slots and PCI slots?

 

[BenSkywalker]

AGP is better. All remotely close to current mobos have PCI slots, but not all of them have AGP slots. I'm not familiar off of the top of my head about retailers in the Phillipines but I'll see if I can find anything.

 

[gururu]

the 9600xt is the best option. hey guys, do all P4 boards use agp v. 3.0? I think the 9600xt is only compatible with later agp versions.

 

[bzkurb]

thanks man and for those who replied.
I hope I would not be disappointed with the motherboard my son has.

 

[BenSkywalker]

hey guys, do all P4 boards use agp v. 3.0?

The ones that have them should, 3V was an AGP 2.0 spec(most P4 boards are AGP 3.0)- a good deal of P3 mobos have the proper volts too IIRC.

 

[klah]

Originally posted by: gururu

hey guys, do all P4 boards use agp v. 3.0? I think the 9600xt is only compatible with later agp versions.

With a 2.0A he probably has an 845 board with a 4x/1.5V slot. Any 9600 should work

http://www.ati.com/products/ra...deon9600pro/specs.html