What are my Vid Card options.

[basslover1]

Hey guys, I'm lookin to go the DIY route here and I'm not really sure what to look at for video cards.

1) Obviously, I don't want to spend a lot here.
2) I don't play very many games...most extensive as of recently was Soldier of Fortune.
3) I have no clue what to look at.
4) I'm either going with an A64 3200+ or 3000+ and can't decide which one. If I go with the 3000+ I could probably spend a little more on the vid card, but if I go with the 3200+ I'd like to keep the budget below $150. Would it be more benficial to go with a faster CPU and mediocre vid card, or a slightly slower CPU and a slightly better vid card?

Remember, I'm not gonna be playing anything like Doom3 or Far Cry, so 6800NU is even not an option...too much $$$ and would be a waste IMO.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cawchy87]

9700pro by far is the best new under 150

EDIT: oopse! newegg varies their prices too much, can't keep up.

A used 9700pro will run you 120-130 shipped. probibly your best option unless you can find a cheaper 9800pro.

 

[basslover1]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87
9700pro by far is the best new under 150

EDIT: oopse! newegg varies their prices too much, can't keep up.

A used 9700pro will run you 120-130 shipped. probibly your best option unless you can find a cheaper 9800pro.

Cool, that's kinda what I was thinking...But I've also considered just going with something like a 9200. Because I'm starting to question if I'd even get use out of something along the lines of a 9700 or 9800 pro.

 

[iversonyin]

9800SE from newegg

most definitely

 

[Delorian]

go to a used Geforce 4 ti before a 9200, you can find those >100

 

[Cawchy87]

Originally posted by: iversonyin
9800SE from newegg

most definitely

Risk outweighs the reward. When you can get a 9700pro that proforms 85-90% as good garenteed and over clock that.

Originally posted by: Delorian
go to a used Geforce 4 ti before a 9200, you can find those >100

9600pro's are going for ~90 dollars, i would pick one of those up over a gf4.

 

[basslover1]

Ok, lets refine this down a little bit...I know it's not much, but what can be had for under 100-120 that is still worth while?

 

[hugobomber]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87

Originally posted by: iversonyin
9800SE from newegg

most definitely

Risk outweighs the reward. When you can get a 9700pro that proforms 85-90% as good garenteed and over clock that.

Originally posted by: Delorian
go to a used Geforce 4 ti before a 9200, you can find those >100

9600pro's are going for ~90 dollars, i would pick one of those up over a gf4.

lol but gf4s are faster

ti4600 was the 9700 pros rival. so 9700>9600pro. the 9500pro>9600 pro too.

a used ti4600 can go for $70 on ebay. not bad.

 

[iversonyin]

he said he dont need top of the line gaming card and for $144 you get a SE with the potential of pushing to 9800PRO without any risk, softmodd has no risk as far as i know

even if you don't softmod it, its still a good card for the value.

why bother with 9700 PRO, they are used or refurbished everywhere for $120-130, its jus not worth it

 

[Cawchy87]

If you don't inted to play farcry, doom 3, or any of the newer games on high resolutions or with anything higher than medium settings (if that) then you should be good.

I would say the best value would be a 9700 non pro which you can pick up for a little more than a 9600xt but it is way better. Really tough finding them however.

85-90 - 9600pro

100-105 - 9600xt

115-120 - 9700pro

150-160 - 9800pro, np, 5900 that flashes to pro or 5950

those are what i at least would catagorize as the best cards for the value.

 

[basslover1]

Awsome, you guys are great...really freaking quick at responding too.

I've considered the 9600XT before...so maybe I'll go with that, but I'm still not sure, and probably wont be sure untill I buy the stupid thing and then I'm stuck with it.

 

[Cawchy87]

Originally posted by: iversonyin
he said he dont need top of the line gaming card and for $144 you get a SE with the potential of pushing to 9800PRO without any risk, softmodd has no risk as far as i know

even if you don't softmod it, its still a good card for the value.

why bother with 9700 PRO, they are used or refurbished everywhere for $120-130, its jus not worth it

First, without any risk? Here it shows a non softmoddable 9800se is below the 9500pro and just above the 9600pro.

Second softmodding has quite a bit of risk. Softmodding allows the 4 unused pipelines to be opened thus haveing an 8 pipeline card insted of a 4 pipeline. The highest softmod percentage is in the Powercolor 9800se C3 and that only has a 67% success rate. Also, unlocking the other 4 pipes creates more heat and a need for a better cooler if you are going to over clock/flash to pro speeds.

Why bother with the 9700pro? Because it proforms almost up to 9800pro standards (within 5-10fps) for at least 30 dollars cheaper than the 9800pro. On a tight budget that is a great savings. Also, in your last sentance you demonstrated how good of a deal they are but then said they aren't worth it... hmmmm... Are you implying that because a vid card is cheap it isn't good?

 

[Cawchy87]

Originally posted by: hugobomber

Originally posted by: Cawchy87

Originally posted by: iversonyin
9800SE from newegg

most definitely

Risk outweighs the reward. When you can get a 9700pro that proforms 85-90% as good garenteed and over clock that.

Originally posted by: Delorian
go to a used Geforce 4 ti before a 9200, you can find those >100

9600pro's are going for ~90 dollars, i would pick one of those up over a gf4.

lol but gf4s are faster

ti4600 was the 9700 pros rival. so 9700>9600pro. the 9500pro>9600 pro too.

a used ti4600 can go for $70 on ebay. not bad.

That is a pretty pathetic rival. http://graphics.tomshardware.c...unreal_tournament_2003

9700pro beats it in every benchmark and some (like this UT2003) by a lot (30fps in this one).

70 shipped would be a good deal for the 4600 tho.

And you are absalutly correct on the 9500pro being better than the 9600pro. My bad

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87

Originally posted by: iversonyin
he said he dont need top of the line gaming card and for $144 you get a SE with the potential of pushing to 9800PRO without any risk, softmodd has no risk as far as i know

even if you don't softmod it, its still a good card for the value.

why bother with 9700 PRO, they are used or refurbished everywhere for $120-130, its jus not worth it

First, without any risk? Here it shows a non softmoddable 9800se is below the 9500pro and just above the 9600pro.

Second softmodding has quite a bit of risk. Softmodding allows the 4 unused pipelines to be opened thus haveing an 8 pipeline card insted of a 4 pipeline. The highest softmod percentage is in the Powercolor 9800se C3 and that only has a 67% success rate. Also, unlocking the other 4 pipes creates more heat and a need for a better cooler if you are going to over clock/flash to pro speeds.

Why bother with the 9700pro? Because it proforms almost up to 9800pro standards (within 5-10fps) for at least 30 dollars cheaper than the 9800pro. On a tight budget that is a great savings. Also, in your last sentance you demonstrated how good of a deal they are but then said they aren't worth it... hmmmm... Are you implying that because a vid card is cheap it isn't good?

Not exactly, The % is more towards about 80%, more than that if you count those who could underclock a little bit to get the artifacts to dissappear. Also unlocking the other 4 pipes does not create much more heat and doesn't necessarily need a better cooler than any other retail card with a crappy stock HSF. Also if you get the Powercolor you just mentioned it already comes at 9800 pro speeds - 380/680 - no need to overclock or flash. Look at my sig - with Stock cooling the card is almost at XT speeds and runs beautifully.

9600 pros are going for around ~100 or so not ~90 (provide a link if so). You can get a used GF4 Ti for ~70 thats a savings of 30 bucks or 30% for a card thats just about the same exact performance. Plus GF4Ti's are wonderful OCers, better than most 9600 Pros, so if you consider the end result after OCing the two, the GF4 would probably be faster and cheaper.

 

[Concillian]

I got a 9700 non-pro from eBay for $103 shipped.

THe only way to beat that value is to get a 9500 that can be softmodded without artifacts, but those are sometimes priced higher than the 9700 non-pro cards. I have been able to overclock my card to near 9800 Pro speeds (370 core/340 memory).

 

[Cawchy87]

9600pro for <=90:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...ey=y&amp;keyword1=9600
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...ey=y&amp;keyword1=9600
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...ey=y&amp;keyword1=9600
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...ey=y&amp;keyword1=9600

Has the percentage of softmods changed since this post?

Originally posted by: Delorian
That specific 9800 SE will NOT softmod to a 9800 Pro with out overclocking it. It's speeds are 325/580 unlike the pro or other SE cards which are 380/680. And thats a big push on the overclock (55/50) at least without some serious cooling. My suggestion is the 9800 SE that's 380/680 &amp; 256-bit (softmods around 85% of the time) which is what I did or get a 9800 pro. Both excellent deals.

hmmm. I remember seeing a thread just about the 9800se here, but can't find it now. That is where i got my percentage from. Where did you get yours from?

 

[Delorian]

Not a bad deal for the 9600 pro, though I'd still probably save the dough and get a gf4ti. Either one is probably worth your while OP.

I remember seeing the % on OCFaq.com, the % of people completely unsuccessful was around 15 - 20%. Granted some of those had to underclock a bit to keep the 8 pipes open, but that's still a lot better than a 9800 SE with 4 pipes at stock speeds. Also newegg's customer reviews if you add em up are about 80% (talking about the R98SE-C3 Powercolor version specifically).

 

[reallyscrued]

hahahah who said ti4600 was 9700pro rival! hahahahahha, are u crazy? do u remember anything from that time? it was fx5800 vs, the 9700pro. the reason people were still using Ti's is becuz that nVidia took so long to bring the FX series out. too bad the even numbered FX endings cards still suck.

 

[reallyscrued]

oh, btw the answer to the question. 9800SE by FAR. becuz it benches close to the 9600pro, but u have a great chance of softmodding it. that means a 200 buck card for 60% of the price. i think the yeilds of softmodding is more than 50%.

 

[Cawchy87]

It really is up to you, since you say you don't play newer games then then you will see no differance between the 9700pro and 9800se/pro

 

[Blastman]

New 9600XT?s are available for $133 on Newegg ?

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=14-119-126&amp;depa=0

I would try for that over any Ti4200-4600 card. You will get usable AF, which IMO is really essential for good IQ these days.

 

[iversonyin]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87

Originally posted by: iversonyin
he said he dont need top of the line gaming card and for $144 you get a SE with the potential of pushing to 9800PRO without any risk, softmodd has no risk as far as i know

even if you don't softmod it, its still a good card for the value.

why bother with 9700 PRO, they are used or refurbished everywhere for $120-130, its jus not worth it

First, without any risk? Here it shows a non softmoddable 9800se is below the 9500pro and just above the 9600pro.

Second softmodding has quite a bit of risk. Softmodding allows the 4 unused pipelines to be opened thus haveing an 8 pipeline card insted of a 4 pipeline. The highest softmod percentage is in the Powercolor 9800se C3 and that only has a 67% success rate. Also, unlocking the other 4 pipes creates more heat and a need for a better cooler if you are going to over clock/flash to pro speeds.

Why bother with the 9700pro? Because it proforms almost up to 9800pro standards (within 5-10fps) for at least 30 dollars cheaper than the 9800pro. On a tight budget that is a great savings. Also, in your last sentance you demonstrated how good of a deal they are but then said they aren't worth it... hmmmm... Are you implying that because a vid card is cheap it isn't good?

i'm not saying because its cheap its not good.

first off the 9700 on the market is used and left over compare to getting a brand new card for just $20-30 more.

http://www.techpowerup.com/softmod/faq.php

and according to this guy, there almost no risk at softmodding. if you fail, you jus roll back to regular driver and run 4 pipeline

jus to hav the potential of softmoddin it to 9800PRO which yield 30fps difference with 9700PRO is worth the money and risk

and even the card don softmod, it still a decent card for its money.

also, i hav to mention the risk of dealing on ebay, although most of the time you can tell from their feedback, there always a chance that something might happen

dealing with a reputable vendor or ebay dealer?

i'll pick newegg in an instant

the alternative such as GF4Ti is not worth it because the Ti is direct 8x base.

i think the 9600XT is worth a look for $133, but it doesn't left you much room to push the card unlike the 9800SE and a used 9700PRO

 

[basslover1]

I think I forgot to mention that I don't plan to 'softmod' or overclock anything...I'm just gonna plug it in and run with it. With that being said, is the 9800se still worth my while, or would I be better off getting the 9600XT?

 

[Blastman]

Originally posted by: basslover1
I think I forgot to mention that I don't plan to 'softmod' or overclock anything...I'm just gonna plug it in and run with it. With that being said, is the 9800se still worth my while, or would I be better off getting the 9600XT?

9600XT is faster than the 9800SE's.

 

[Cawchy87]

and 9700np and pro are faster than both of those.