Upgrade 8500le to 9600XT??

[mrzed]

I am considering upgrading to a "new" card. Obviously I'm not much of a gamer, and I am not much for spending money on computer gear. The 9600 is being offered at $60 (Canadian) and I can probably sell my 8500le for $15-20, so it's not a lot of money. This card will be going in a Mobile Xp 2500+ @ about 2200Mhz system. It will eventually be used for HTPC duties, so the low power draw of the 9600 is a plus. Also, when the HTPC gets set up, I'll eventually get a better desktop system if I decide I want to play games, so I'm not expecting too much out of the card.

My wonder is - given that both these cards are well behind the curve - is it even worth the trouble? I'll be running a 19" LCD on the HTPC, so being able to run fairly recent games at 12x10 would be nice.

 

[CraigRT]

for a mere $40 spent after the 8500 is gone, I'd do it. the 9600Pro is a capable card for the little money spent IMO. The only thing better would be finding a cheap used 6600GT or something, but that still becomes a lot more (although it's also 2x the performance almost)

I am in the exact same boat (and I do mean exact) as I have an 8500 in my 2nd system I need to upgrade, and also thinking of a 9600 Pro.. If that 9600 Pro is for sale somewhere (as in more are available) could you PM me with the details? if it's a FS/FT thing no worries.

 

[blckgrffn]

Yes, that will be a decent step up, I would hit that It's like going to a 9500Pro, which was/is a solid card...

Nat

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: mrzed
I am considering upgrading to a "new" card. Obviously I'm not much of a gamer, and I am not much for spending money on computer gear. The 9600 is being offered at $60 (Canadian) and I can probably sell my 8500le for $15-20, so it's not a lot of money. This card will be going in a Mobile Xp 2500+ @ about 2200Mhz system. It will eventually be used for HTPC duties, so the low power draw of the 9600 is a plus. Also, when the HTPC gets set up, I'll eventually get a better desktop system if I decide I want to play games, so I'm not expecting too much out of the card.

My wonder is - given that both these cards are well behind the curve - is it even worth the trouble? I'll be running a 19" LCD on the HTPC, so being able to run fairly recent games at 12x10 would be nice.

It's highly unlikely that you would be able to play fairly recent games at 12x10 on a 9600XT. You would need a minimum of a 9800pro/X700pro for PCI-e or a 6600GT in AGP or PCI-e to play at that resolution with moderate settings. When it come to fairly recent games, the 9600XT is a 800x600 to 1024x768 at mediocre settings at best. I would say 9800pro minimum to be at least "semi-comfortable" in recent games at the res you specified.

 

[blckgrffn]

Well, he said he wasn't expecting too much and would be moving the entire PC to HTPC duties soon, this card would be fine for all of that. Guild Wars would play nicely @ 1280*1024. Yeah, more power would be nice, but this will be a tangible step up from your 8500 LE, trust me Games like BF1942 and UT2kX will run *much* better and at 1280*1024...

Nat

 

[imported_OrSin]

I play both BF2 and Guild wars on 12x10 with no problems with my 9600xt. Settings are at medium, but even I put it to high I don't notice any slow down. I don't runb it at high much because I don't notice it looking any better. Most games are to fast moving for me to notice diffenent in looks from med to high, so it could just me that I'm blind.

But for 40 bucks its a good buy and will work in an HTPC much better. The thing you to owrry about fot the HTPC is if you need DVI. Not all 9600 have DVI connectors

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: OrSin
I play both BF2 and Guild wars on 12x10 with no problems with my 9600xt. Settings are at medium, but even I put it to high I don't notice any slow down. I don't runb it at high much because I don't notice it looking any better. Most games are to fast moving for me to notice diffenent in looks from med to high, so it could just me that I'm blind.

But for 40 bucks its a good buy and will work in an HTPC much better. The thing you to owrry about fot the HTPC is if you need DVI. Not all 9600 have DVI connectors

Really? Wow impressive. How does it perform at certain AA/AF setting at that res?

 

[blckgrffn]

I think that all of the XT's have DVI, actually...

I am guessing AA & AF in BF2 really eats it, as that would really beat the bandwidth to heck and really stretch the 9600XT's fillrate, even at 500mhz on that little core...

Strange to think that ATI may actually have 24 pipes spinning that fast, isn't it? That is 6x the fill rate! (I know, I know, maybe, but that is still cool to think about!)

Nat

 

[mrzed]

Well, I think I'm going to go for it. It will be also a big jump in 1-2 year old games. CraigRT: It's a FS/FT deal, but if for some reason I decide not to go for it I'll PM you the info if it's still around.

The other thing I like about it is AFAIK, there has yet to be a card produced that matches the 9600 for performance/Watt. It's the centrino of GPU's these days.