I am upgrading from a Radeon 8500 LE 64mb, and was wondering if I will notice a big performace gain going to the 9600 xt. I came home today still planning on getting the 9700 Pro, but my 40 year old neighbor who has a sweeet computer and who I am go to for computer advice a lot, told my mom to get the Radeon 9600 Xt in stores. When I came home I was pretty happy about the card but I really wasn't sure after looking at some benchmarks that I would get a good performace gain. I had wanted the 9700 pro because I was sure that it would give me a good performace gain. But when I talked to my neighbor later, he said that the Radeon 9600 XT is going to work for your computer better since your computer has only 4x AGP capability since your motherboard is the Asus A7V333, plus, he said with the new cpu I am planning on buying for my motherboard, that it would run in conjunction faster than the 9700 pro. So should I return the 9600 XT and look for a 9700 pro?? He really convinced me about things like memory bandwith and things associated with that because he said I had some limitations and the only thing that affects your speed isnt going to be just that video card. Thoughts??
Radeon 9600 XT vs. Radeon 9700 Pro
- Thread starter DragonSword
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GTaudiophile
Lifer
- Oct 24, 2000
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9700 Pro > 9600XT. AGP really has little do with anything; your neighbor is smoking something. The 9600XT is newer and is built on the .13mu process with Low-K, but it has half the rendering pipelines and half the memory bandwidth. I bought the 9600XT simply because that's all I need to last me a year and I wanted the HL2 coupon.
Actually, isn't AGP 8x faster than 4X by a lot when you have the right settings and everything? Also, for the cpu, my main budget was 300, and the saphire radeon 9700 pro is 238, and then the barton 2500 xp which is the cpu I plan on getting, is 90 bucks. So I never really mentioned that I could go over to my neighbor. But would the performace gain that I would gain a little more be more really more significant and worth it than the upgrade to the 9600 XT?
GTaudiophile
Lifer
- Oct 24, 2000
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Trust me, AGP 8x vs. 4x means squat. And yes, if you start turning on the FSAA and AF eye candy at high resolutions, the 9700 PRO will squash the 9600XT. If your budget on the videocard is $300, you should get a Radeon 9800 PRO from ZipZoomFly.
But will I get all the performace gains and abilitys with my old motherboard the Asus A7V33, my average cooling, my 512 mb of pc2700 memory, and some other components as compared to getting the 9600 xt??
But will I get all the performace gains and abilitys with my old motherboard the Asus A7V33, my average cooling, my 512 mb of pc2700 memory, and some other components as compared to getting the 9600 xt??
I understand your confusion about these two products.
I think what you are seeing is a bit of the fallout from ATI's marketting strategy. I think ATI realized that the price point of the 9800 Pro and 9700 Pro were too high for most people. So they needed something just below that. And they were ramping up their new process. Hence the 9600 Pro and 9600 XT. They kept the 9800's for the high end, and pulled out the 9700 Pro to streamline their product lineup. That being said, you can still get 3rd party 9700 Pro's or old stock that is still being sold.
I personally think they should have continued producing the 9700 Pro, but alas. You can get a feel for the rough differences between the two by going to the ATI website and comparing the AIW 9700 Pro v. the 9600 Pro v. the 9600 XT. That will give you the basics. After that, there are plenty of reviews on the web of the 9700 Pro. You just never see them side-by-side with the 9600 XT since ATI stopped production.
So... short answer. 9600 XT is a very nice card at a good price. And getting Half-Life2 for free makes it all the more attractive. And it being on the lower micron process is a definite plus. But if you are just asking which would I take given the choice... well if you look at the benchmarks, you should see that the 9700 Pro is the winner. DVI + VGA + speediness = good stuff.
A lot of ATI powered companies give you a coupon for Half Life 2 when purchasing the radeon 9600XT. Ii just wanted to make sure... is this coupon for a free copy of HL2 or is it only a discount... like 20% off the regular price of HL2... ???
what if they only have one hand =\
without a doubt, the Radeon 9700 Pro is smoking. They tried to hype the 9600 XT. even a high exec at ATI was claiming the 9600XT was gonna be faster than the 9700 Pro. pft ...
9700 is better but the 9600 TX will be all you need, I guarantee it. That card is much better than what you have now.
GTaudiophile
Lifer
- Oct 24, 2000
- 29,767
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The coupon gets you the full version of the game for free. I think, since HL2 was delayed, they also let you use it to download all previous STEAM sofware for free.
Although this is not related to the topic, I'd like to ask how much performance gain I might see in HL2 when I upgrade from a ti4200 to a radeon 9600XT or 9800 Pro.
Listen if u really want half life 2 just wait and but it ureself when it comes out in 2009. Until then, 9800 non pro.
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