which video card to get

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Darth Farter
geforce fx series have bad dx9 support (worse then ati 9600+), less then stellar dx8 performance(again worse then the gef4 ti series), perform very bad, bad image quality, and too high prices per performance.
I have one... and it sucks ass big time.....

with your system a 6600GT AGP or a little bit worse the 9800XT/PRO 256bit will perform best as you get the best bang/buck. radeon 9700 and lower are not that great value and FX 5xxx should be avoided like the plague.
try to get the extra 60 dollars and get the 6600GT (it will outlast everything else and has the best features (dx9c, hardware vid-encoding/decoding, HDTV out etc is very handy for a HTPC later on if coupled with an older processor) I suggest the leadtech/msi ones.

You are full of it.

Yes, the NV3x based cards have abysmal DX9 performance but their DX8 and 8.1 performance is good. It is not worse than the Geforce 4 series... do you have any proof to back up your statement.

They do not have any worse IQ than the 9x00 line does. They used to because of crappy drivers but now there IQ is pretty much on par with the nod towards ATI.

The NV3x cards should not be avoided like the plague. THey are good cards with one huge glaring flaw (DX 9 performance) Other than that they are decent cards. I would NOT recommend a 9600XT over a 59--XT. THe 9600XT beats it on two "games" 3dMark05, and HL2 (In DX 9 mode) other than that 5900XT is far ahead. 9700 and 9800 are still VERY nice cards as are the NV3x.

I do agree however that the 6600GT is the best bang for your buck out there right now. It will beat any of the last gen cards and has more features. If you dont have that kind of money than then look for a used 9700 or 9800. 5900XT is also a nice card but the 9700 and 9800 are better.

-Kevin

 

[VIAN]

9700 or 9800 aren't better by much to the warrant in higher price. Maybe like 10 to 20 bucks more, but I won't bother spending more than that over the 5900XT.

 

[tfinch2]

There is a local place here that sells 9700's for 89 dollars. I talked to the guy he said some are pro's and some are vanillas.

http://www.sa-pc.com/current/current.html take a look at the ad.

 

[Jeffyboy]

ATI and Nvidia both make good cards... normally when you plug them in, they work..either AGP or PCI or PCIe. Really justs depends on how much performance you want ;-)

You can't go wrong buying either current technology.

Jeff

 

[m4ch0dude]

Originally posted by: GoodDad

Originally posted by: RadeonGuy
Stay away from GeForce5xxx series

why?

Because they have image quality problems, like stuff not diplaying correctly.

 

[rudeguy]

up up and away

 

[Pete]

Not withstanding the 9600XT's far greater performance in DX9 mode in Half-Life 2, I'd have to recommend a 5900SE/XT over any 9600. It's got the same number of pipes at about the same core speed, but it has twice the bandwidth. Yes, its AA looks worse, but it has other benefits (mainly speed) that have been recounted time and again in the many, many, many threads on this same subject. If Rollo weren't "on vacation," he'd be all over this thread. You can see how a 5900XT handles a 9600XT here, among other places. Just read some 5900XT reviews.

And you can always just suffer through HL2 in DX8.1 mode with a 5900XT (a 9500P is about as fast as a 9600XT, for reference). As you can see, a 5900SE in DX8 mode will be as fast as a 9600XT in DX9 mode without AA, and will be faster with AA (thanks to the 256-bit memory bus). The big difference between the two modes is water reflection, and there's a patch out there that enables it in DX8 mode with supposedly not much of a performance hit.

(FYI, 5900XT = 5900SE; different names for the same cards, whose default clocks are 390/350MHz core/DDR mem.)

A 5900XT should be faster than a 9600XT in everything except DX9, though there are always exceptions. The only ones that spring to mind are Thief 3 and Deus Ex: Invisible War, though, both of which use the same (apparently somewhat unoptimized) engine.

Edit: Anand's HL2 article details the IQ and performance differences b/w DX8 and DX9 modes on many cards very well.

 

[ribbon13]

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-08.html

Whoever said $20 isn't worth DOUBLE the framerate has some serious issues.

 

[Acanthus]

Id say 5900, its clearly faster in everything but shader heavy DX9 (Half life 2, thats about it, and its not like you cant play, you just run DX8.1).

 

[uOpt]

I played through HL2 on a 5900XT with the DX9 for GeForce FX patch.

Apart from some very minor annoyances like visible color grades on small puddles it looked great.

I new started to re-play with my 6800 Ultra and to be honest my memory is not good enough that I'd say it is much better now. Of course I have more resolution and AA/AF - and noise

 

[blindtothagame]

9700pro/9800pro. You won't find a 6600GT agp for anywhere near $150.
And if so please tell me where b/c i've been lookin w/o any luck

 

[Blastman]

When the FX came out they took a much larger hit when using AF than the R300?s. In THG VGA3 the 9600XT beat the 5900XT in 2/3 benches with 8AF and was just as fast in the third one (UT3), 9800pro was MUCH faster with AF. So NV started some aggressive AF opts ?

xbit

GeForce FX 5700 ? aggressive anisotropic filtering optimizations.

THG

It is nothing short of frightening, how far NVIDIA has reduced the filtering quality of the FX 5950 U over the past few months.

I don?t have a NV3x in front of me but I think it?s fair to put a question mark above the 5900?s IQ. In older games the 9600XT was actually very competitive with the 5900XT using 8AF in DX games, the performance of the 9600 can be bumped up nicely by using Performance-AF whereas the 5900XT already has some aggressive Bilinear opts.

In newer games ? THG-VGA4 the 9600XT was faster in Farcry, FS 2004, Joint Operations and (DTM) Race Driver 2 -- half the games benched (without 4AA/8AF) -- 4/6 ? DX games. The 9600XT is taking revenge in a lot of newer games that have a heavier shader load even if it?s DX8 (the 9600XT was faster in HL2-DX8 over the 5900XT). The 9600XT seems to handle a heavier shader load as good or better even if it?s DX8.

Considering the shader use, DX9 + lots of DX8.1 we can expect in the next 2 years I don?t think the 5900XT is looking any better than a 9600XT. The 5900XT is going to get clobbered in any DX9 game because NV will unlikely be optimizing anymore for the FX?s.