Video card advice...

[VivienM]

Well, shortly after I decided that I wasn't going to replace my VisionTek GF3 Ti500 yet (it plays all the latest games I've tried @ 1600x1200 Good Enough for me...), I learned that NVIDIA, in their great wisdom (same wisdom that created the dustbuster 5800?), decided to break my DVD playback in their 41.09 and newer drivers. Since I do occasionally (hey, it took me months to notice this) want to play DVDs, this isn't really acceptable, so that puts me in the market for a new card that I'd be buying at some point between now and mid-August.

I was (before I decided not to replace my card) going to likely go with the FX5900, which seems to be great for performance, etc plus there's NVIDIA's reputation for quality drivers... However, I'm so angry at NVIDIA breaking my card's functionality that I'd rather not reward them by buying their new high end ultra-expensive product. And it's not available now, either...

That means, despite my hesitance over their drivers, that I'd be looking at ATI... I'd love to have the video/TV/etc features on the All in Wonder cards, but the AiW 9800 Pro isn't shipping yet. The AiW 9700 Pro is widely available, and has dropped quite a bit in price (no doubt due to anticipation of the 9800 Pro), and would probably be Good Enough - but paying CAD$530 for something knowing it's yesterday's technology does bug me a little. OTOH, the 9800 Pro would like be CAD$650 or more on release... a big price difference, and is the performance different worth it?

I could also get a straight 9800 Pro, too, and forget about TV/video... but I read rumours of a 9900 coming out real soon, and since I don't really need the card right this second...

Any advice?

 

[Corporate Thug]

9700 pro has a good price/performance ration, i would get it over a 9800 pro

 

[prometheusxls]

If the ti500 was good enough for you, why upgrade to the higest end thing? What kind of games are you into? Most of todays games are fairly well cpu limited. You might not notice much improvement if you were doing jsut fine with what you had.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: prometheusxls
If the ti500 was good enough for you, why upgrade to the higest end thing? What kind of games are you into? Most of todays games are fairly well cpu limited. You might not notice much improvement if you were doing jsut fine with what you had.

 

[VivienM]

Originally posted by: prometheusxls
If the ti500 was good enough for you, why upgrade to the higest end thing? What kind of games are you into? Most of todays games are fairly well cpu limited. You might not notice much improvement if you were doing jsut fine with what you had.

Hmmm... Well, that logic is why I had figured I'd wait before upgrading... possibly until Doom III or something that killed the Ti500 came out. But this DVD business is encouraging me to look for something this summer...

As I have a native 1600x1200 LCD, I pretty much want to play all games at that resolution... something like UT2003 is playable at 1600x1200 with the Ti500, but very, very, very, very barely. GTA3 was a touchy issue: if it was raining in the game, then frame rate would drop to close to unplayable, but otherwise it was pretty much fine. I figured I'd need a new card for GTA:VC, but somehow (they optimized the engine since GTA3?) VC doesn't have those issues and plays smoother than GTA3. Rise of Nations (with that handy dancy frame rate monitor) can get unplayable in a big battle situation, though I'm not sure if my 1.9GHz P4 or the Ti500 is the bottleneck giving me 2-3fps instead of the usual 20-25 or so. Other games have reasonable performance, though since I haven't played them on a 5900, 9700, or 9800, I don't really know what I'm missing

The other thing is that I'd _love_ the All in Wonder-type functionality. At the time I got the Ti500 (I think mine was one of the first sold in North America), I don't think ATI had anything like a competitive AiW card around, and I've had my share of troubles with ATI and drivers before, so I preferred staying on the safe (read: NVIDIA) side. These days, I hear lots of really good things about ATI's drivers, and meanwhile NVIDIA has disabled my DVD playing ability.
And I have to admit the AiW 9700 just makes me drool... I came close to impulsively buying one a few months ago, but didn't because I a) the regular 9800 Pro was already being reviewed and stuff and I guessed correctly that ATI would soon announce an AiW 9800, and b) continuing driver concerns about ATI (but of course, it turns out that my beloved NVIDIA drivers ended up being the ones biting me in the ass...). That, plus I had always planned to replace the Ti500 with an NV30 - that is, until NV30 showed up and turned out to be a massive disaster (before that, I'd never really looked at the 9700/9800). Sucks to be an NVIDIA fanboy these days, doesn't it?

Games I'm into? Pretty much anything that's single player (me + Quake-type thing multiplayer == me turning into free frag for all) except sports-type things... Last two games I got were VC and Rise of Nations, before that SimCity 4 (biiiiiiiiig disappointment, though the latest patch helps things... I haven't played it much with the latest patch though), Age of Mythology, UT2003 (I actually preferred the original, though the graphics in 2003 are gorgeous, and no doubt would be better with that FSAA and anitropic filtering stuff I read about but haven't really bothered to understand), etc. I recently got a good deal on an MS Force Feedback joystick, so I'm looking to get a few flight games (probably FS2004 when that comes out, maybe Combat FS3, or does anyone have any recommendations)... oh, and some new driving games (any recommendations for some of those?) wouldn't hurt for my wheel.
Doom III will most likely be joining my game "collection" as soon as it comes out, too... and somehow, I doubt the Ti500 will be happy about that.

If I wanted to look at less high-end cards, what would you suggest? There's an ATI AiW 9000, but that's not a DX9 card... There are FX 5600 cards, but those are NVIDIA and no TV stuff... There are always GF4s, I suppose, but they have the same nVIDIA issues. If I don't want the TV stuff, maybe the ATI 9500 and 9600s? (I'd prefer a Built by ATI card...)