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Should I bother with a 5950?

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dwcal

Senior member
My friend just upgraded and wants to sell me his 5950. It's last generation's top of the line, but now just keeps up with a mid range 6600 non-GT. Weighing the pros and cons, the 6600 has no AGP version yet, but saves a lot of power over the 5950. The XP3200+ and 5950 would use 150W just by themselves. I'm running a good quality 350W PS and I have a cheap 480W PS that came with the case. That's close but should be ok.
Should I get this or not? He's asking $150 which is fair compared to the 6600's.
 
I suppose so, though I recomend staying away from fx cards in general. I'd much rather have a used 9800pro for the same price.
 
I think you are better off waiting the month or so until the 6600 comes out. The 6600 should be around 160 or 170, so if you're willing to pay the extra ten or twenty dollars, you can have a more future-proof card then the 5950. Also, you should look into ATI x700 and see how that's priced come november... But all of this depends on what you plan on using your computer for...
 
Thanks for the the suggestions. As long as price-performance is close, I'd rather stay with NVIDIA because of the better Linux drivers. I do my gaming in Windows, but I want it to work in Linux, and NVIDIA still has the edge there.

Is there that much eye candy difference between the GF5 and GF6? I'm upgrading from a Ti4200.
 
i say spend the extra 50 or so and get a 9800pro or, just save up a bit more and get a 6800, is there a game that you currently can't play up to your standards?
 
Originally posted by: James3shin
i say spend the extra 50 or so and get a 9800pro or, just save up a bit more and get a 6800, is there a game that you currently can't play up to your standards?
Click to expand...


Well, he didn't ask about other more expensive cards.

True enough though, if you start spending more you'll get more.

 
Originally posted by: Rollo
Originally posted by: James3shin
i say spend the extra 50 or so and get a 9800pro or, just save up a bit more and get a 6800, is there a game that you currently can't play up to your standards?
Click to expand...


Well, he didn't ask about other more expensive cards.

True enough though, if you start spending more you'll get more.
Click to expand...


Yet he would be buying used anyway, and a $150 used 9800pro is not hard to find at all.
 
Originally posted by: TheSnowman
Originally posted by: Rollo
Originally posted by: James3shin
i say spend the extra 50 or so and get a 9800pro or, just save up a bit more and get a 6800, is there a game that you currently can't play up to your standards?
Click to expand...


Well, he didn't ask about other more expensive cards.

True enough though, if you start spending more you'll get more.
Click to expand...


Yet he would be buying used anyway, and a $150 used 9800pro is not hard to find at all.
Click to expand...

LOL

OK so as not to be unclear:

Jameshin:
Yes, if he wants to spend $50 more on a new 9800Pro, it's a marginally better card. Is it worth $50 more to someone that $50 is a lot of money to? Not IMO.
$120 more for a 6800NU? That's a better upgrade than a 9800P by far. Worth $120 to someone buying $150 video cards? Probably not, as it's almost twice as much?

Snowman:
Why yes, a used 9800Pro is a marginally better buy for $150.. However; he didn't ask about used 9800Pros, he doesn't have a friend selling one, and buying a used 9800Pro from FS/FT might be somewhat riskier?
"I flashed the bios to make it into an XT, then OCd it 13% more than that, it was starting to artifact, so I figured I'd better un-do this and dump it quick!"

I suppose I could give my opinion of other cards that might be had for $150, but I had a crazy thought he had asked about 5900Ultras, which are a good buy for $150..

I have exactly one DX9 game, Far Cry. By the end of the year, I'll likely have two. For me, owning a 5900Ultra or 9800Pro would be pretty much a wash. I consider both ill-suited to play DX9 PS2.


 
The price seems nice enough. I think its performance is similar to the 9700 Pro under it's worst conditions and the 256MB of VRAM is a nice plus.
 
Spend more to get more is correct. The question is do you need a 5950U(good card at a good price) or a 6800 for your games?

For 150 dollars it's not bad. It's sadly what those things are trully worth compared to their marked-up MSRP price.
 
I'd offer him $130. I value the 5xxx series of cards much lower then the 9xxx series just because of their lack of ps2.0 shader perfromance and the increase in shaders in today's upcomming games. Its worth around $130 to me, but not much more. I'd save for a 6600 rather then have a 5950 if the prices are the same.
 
Originally posted by: VIAN
I think the FX line is too crippled to be worth anything.

The price seems nice enough. I think its performance is similar to the 9700 Pro under it's worst conditions and the 256MB of VRAM is a nice plus.
Click to expand...

If you were able to speak with the hundred thousand plus people who bought FX5900xx, I'm sure you will find that they were very happy campers with the exception of FarCry. I was perfectly happy with all my 5900's. Had 3 of them. 2 non ultra's and one Ultra. 5900's offered great performance despite it's lacking PS2.0 power. And I have to say, after the patches for FarCry came out, my performance improved in both framerate and IQ.

Now don't interepret this as me saying they were better than the R3xx series. I am not. Just want that on record. 5600's were mediocre at best and 5200's just blew.

 
While the 5950 Ultra was a good card, there is one glaring feature that the 5 series never full grasped: DX9 performance. That is why everyone here is recommending a 9800 Pro for that amount. The Radeon 9xx series overall had much better performance in DX9 games. Seeing as how almost all games are now DX9, that might be a good idea 😉 Depending on what resolutions you want to play at, get either a 6600 or 6600GT for the value side of things. Do the 6600GT's come with 256MB RAM at all? If they do, I would definitely do that. GL
 
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