Upgrade advice anyone??

[TheRealShaman]

Hello guys!

I'm currently running on a Hercules GeForce2MX400. I've overclocked the hell out of it with heatsinks, extra fans and stuff so it's now running at 220/210 but I get a feeling something is missing (fps maybe???). I heard DirectX9 is out and it's here to stay so, call me crazy, but I'm thinking that upgrading would be a good idea - since there is no softmod out there to turn my trusty GF2MX to a 9700pro...

I can spend up to about $170. Point is: Should I wait for the new ATI and Nvidia mainstream cards or would I be better of grabbing a 9500pro while I can find one??I'm asking because there's word that the 9600pro may actually be slower than the 9500pro (and also because it's hard to wait when you have money to spend!!)..What about the Nvidia FX offering at that price range??
Any advice is most welcome!!

Sincerely Yours,
Shaman

 

[Schadenfroh]

i heard that geforce4 tis have gotten below 100 dollars. why not pick up one of them to hold you over to nv35 in a few months

 

[J5im8yo]

If your getting a card that so you can run the upcoming games with full support don't get any of the Ti's. Get at least a card that you will want to have Direct X 9 support. For budget get 9500 Pro >$180 or get a 9700 for >$220 then overclock it. I really don't see the point in buying a 9700 Pro when you can just overclock a 9700 into its Pro version.

Just remember if you chose to oc your 9700 do yourself a favor and save some bucks buy the OEM version since you will void your warranty anyway.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I'd wait and see how the 9600 turns out. But I too feel that the 9600 will perform slower than the 9500. The one thing I feel it will improve is on a lower drop of FPS with AA and AF.

 

[policy11]

I'd go with the 9500 pro.

 

[J5im8yo]

I've realized that pipelines are more important than anything else in a graphic card. Of course you need sufficient memory bandwith and clock rate. However, at this point of time as far as how fast the card can go people's system usually bottlenecks anyway so why not go with 9500 Pro and its excellent 8 pipelines or just wait for 9600 and its 4 pipelines.

 

[greyhavns]

definately the 9500 pro. Direct x 9 compatible. Very versatile and you should last you a couple years at least.

 

[TheRealShaman]

Thanx for your replys guys!Do you have any information about the performance of the Nvidia mainstream solution??(It'll be called FX5600 I think)
Also will I be able to find the 9700 or 9700pro at a lower price as soon as the new models come out??I heard ATI is probably going to remove all R300 products from the market since they don't want any in-house competition..