ti4800se or 9600w/256mb

[z a m i c u s]

Hey all,
I just mistakenly won 3 ebay auctions, and i need to figure out which card to keep.

I have the following:
"HIS Excalibur Radeon 9600 256mb" ATI Radeon 9600 256mb (not pro, xt, or anything)

"MSI ti4800SE 8x 128mb" nVidia GeForce 4 ti 9800SE 128mb

"Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/750...XP VIVO Golden Sample" nVidia GeForce 4 ti 9800SE 128mb (vendor site doesn't seem to have relevant info).

It's of these three, no others need apply, unless you wanna buy one
so, which one to keep?

TIA!

 

[bamacre]

Well, the 9600 Radeon is the only one of the three that supports DX9, so I'd keep that one.

 

[Sonic587]

Welcome to AT!

How do you mistakenly win 3 auctions?

I'd choose the Gainward. 2.8ns RAM will be great for OCing.

 

[IvanAndreevich]

9600 is very slow. Get a 9600pro 128MB instead if you can.

 

[z a m i c u s]

ok, so 1 for the gainward, 1 for the 9600. So far i'm leaning towards the 9600, since the 4800se's numbers seem inflated (relying on the agp8x) and i only have 4x :-(

9600 is indeed 4$$ slow, but unfortunately i can't really afford more than about $100 including shipping at the moment for the "final solution" to this problem.

old v-card burned out, and good riddance (geforce2 gts / 64mb)

 

[Acanthus]

Id say the 9600, but its very close...

 

[z a m i c u s]

the accident was execting them all to go over $70

 

[Sonic587]

8X AGP does jack squat. There will be no difference between using a X4 slot or a X8 slot. Don't worry about it.

However, the 4800SE's numbers ARE inflated. In reality it is a Ti4400 with 8X AGP. With 2.8NS RAM it has a good chance of OCing to 4600 levels, though.

As for the 9600, don't base your choice to go with it on DX9 or 256MB or memory. To quote other members...

DX9 supported != DX9 ready
&
More RAM != Better videocard

 

[Schadenfroh]

the 4800SE is a 4X2 archetecture and the 9600 non pro thingy is a 4X1, so i would imagine that they would be close to the same, expecially if the 4800SE can hit 4600 levels. I would go with the 4800SE out of those 2.

 

[z a m i c u s]

schadenfroh, the gainward or the MSI?

doh, i just threw in the 9600

 

[MDE]

I'd take the Gainward.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: MDE
I'd take the Gainward.

ditto

 

[RussianSensation]

Either 4800se card will get to 4600 speeds.
In that case i'd take the 4800 series card because it has a slightly faster performance in CS: Source Here

This could also mean slightly faster performance in HL2. Nvidia cards are somewhat faster in Doom 3 as well. It wouldn't really make much difference since these cards are all slow. But generally GeForce 4 4200 is considered to be of around equal performance to a 9600Pro without AA/AF enabled. Since you have 4800se vs. 9600 non-pro, i'd have to give a nod to the Geforce 4 card.

I personally prefer MSI for their quiet fan. But both cards are decent. In this Review the MSI card overclocked to 315/685 so it is not a bad overclocker either.