«

Hey all,

I'm looking to spend ~$300 on a new graphics card. It should have TV out
and DVI, and be AGP. Apart from that, I'm just after good gaming
performance. What can people recommend? The Radeon 9800 is ~$100 more
expensive than the 9600 pro... is the difference in spec worth $100? My
system is a 1.5ghz Athlon XP, soon to have 512mb of RAM.. can I use
these cards to their full potential?

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:02:04 +1300, Nicholas Sherlock wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> I'm looking to spend ~$300 on a new graphics card. It should have TV out
> and DVI, and be AGP. Apart from that, I'm just after good gaming
> performance. What can people recommend? The Radeon 9800 is ~$100 more
> expensive than the 9600 pro... is the difference in spec worth $100? My
> system is a 1.5ghz Athlon XP, soon to have 512mb of RAM.. can I use
> these cards to their full potential?

If you're looking at the 9600pro, I would recommend that you make sure it
is a 400MHz/600MHz model preferably with 2.8ns DDR (ie Gigabyte
GV-R96P128DH or similar). I've noticed a few (particularly GeCube "Encore")
which are rated at a lower spec while being marketed as 9600pro's, and for
the minor difference in price, the full version offers better performance.

"#" <> wrote in message
news:8wiciduv8pmh.1wxc6njs75dsb$....
> On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:02:04 +1300, Nicholas Sherlock wrote:
>
>> Hey all,
>>
>> I'm looking to spend ~$300 on a new graphics card. It should have TV out
>> and DVI, and be AGP. Apart from that, I'm just after good gaming
>> performance. What can people recommend? The Radeon 9800 is ~$100 more
>> expensive than the 9600 pro... is the difference in spec worth $100? My
>> system is a 1.5ghz Athlon XP, soon to have 512mb of RAM.. can I use
>> these cards to their full potential?
>
> If you're looking at the 9600pro, I would recommend that you make sure it
> is a 400MHz/600MHz model preferably with 2.8ns DDR (ie Gigabyte
> GV-R96P128DH or similar). I've noticed a few (particularly GeCube
> "Encore")
> which are rated at a lower spec while being marketed as 9600pro's, and for
> the minor difference in price, the full version offers better performance.

And make sure you get a card with a 256 bit memory interface, not 128 bit.

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:42:34 +1300, JohnO wrote:

> And make sure you get a card with a 256 bit memory interface, not 128 bit.

I would assume you are referring to the 9800 series ie the 9800se?

"#" <> wrote in message
news:1cny5pjt1sont.1uk199j8jqkmo$... .
> On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:42:34 +1300, JohnO wrote:
>
>> And make sure you get a card with a 256 bit memory interface, not 128
>> bit.
>
> I would assume you are referring to the 9800 series ie the 9800se?

Well, it seems that sometimes you see suspiciously cheap 9800pro cards for
sale that don't mention se, le or whatever but in the fine print you see
'128 bit'.

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 21:42:20 +1300, JohnO wrote:

> "#" <> wrote in message
> news:1cny5pjt1sont.1uk199j8jqkmo$... .
>> On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:42:34 +1300, JohnO wrote:
>>
>>> And make sure you get a card with a 256 bit memory interface, not 128
>>> bit.
>>
>> I would assume you are referring to the 9800 series ie the 9800se?
>
> Well, it seems that sometimes you see suspiciously cheap 9800pro cards for
> sale that don't mention se, le or whatever but in the fine print you see
> '128 bit'.

Yes, I've noticed that particularly with the 9800pro 256MB versions. It
seems like the real ones (256bit) are currently all over the $600+ mark,
whilst the 256 bit 128MB versions are much more reasonably priced, at
around $400.

Can't see too many 256MB 9800pro cards being sold with such a huge margin
over the 128's, and also being in the same price territory as the higher
spec'd 256MB 9800XT's

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:42:34 +1300, "JohnO" <> wrote:

>
>"#" <> wrote in message
>news:8wiciduv8pmh.1wxc6njs75dsb$... .
>> On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:02:04 +1300, Nicholas Sherlock wrote:
>>
>>> Hey all,
>>>
>>> I'm looking to spend ~$300 on a new graphics card. It should have TV out
>>> and DVI, and be AGP. Apart from that, I'm just after good gaming
>>> performance. What can people recommend? The Radeon 9800 is ~$100 more
>>> expensive than the 9600 pro... is the difference in spec worth $100? My
>>> system is a 1.5ghz Athlon XP, soon to have 512mb of RAM.. can I use
>>> these cards to their full potential?
>>
>> If you're looking at the 9600pro, I would recommend that you make sure it
>> is a 400MHz/600MHz model preferably with 2.8ns DDR (ie Gigabyte
>> GV-R96P128DH or similar). I've noticed a few (particularly GeCube
>> "Encore")
>> which are rated at a lower spec while being marketed as 9600pro's, and for
>> the minor difference in price, the full version offers better performance.
>
>And make sure you get a card with a 256 bit memory interface, not 128 bit.
>



Not really needed, a 128 is all you normally need.

I have read a few reviews and it did not improve things at all.

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:52:20 +1300, # <> wrote:

>On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:42:34 +1300, JohnO wrote:
>
>> And make sure you get a card with a 256 bit memory interface, not 128 bit.
>
>I would assume you are referring to the 9800 series ie the 9800se?


the 9800se is a crippled version.

"Brian Mathews" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:42:34 +1300, "JohnO" <> wrote:
>
>>
>>"#" <> wrote in message
>>news:8wiciduv8pmh.1wxc6njs75dsb$.. ..
>>> On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:02:04 +1300, Nicholas Sherlock wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hey all,
>>>>
>>>> I'm looking to spend ~$300 on a new graphics card. It should have TV
>>>> out
>>>> and DVI, and be AGP. Apart from that, I'm just after good gaming
>>>> performance. What can people recommend? The Radeon 9800 is ~$100 more
>>>> expensive than the 9600 pro... is the difference in spec worth $100? My
>>>> system is a 1.5ghz Athlon XP, soon to have 512mb of RAM.. can I use
>>>> these cards to their full potential?
>>>
>>> If you're looking at the 9600pro, I would recommend that you make sure
>>> it
>>> is a 400MHz/600MHz model preferably with 2.8ns DDR (ie Gigabyte
>>> GV-R96P128DH or similar). I've noticed a few (particularly GeCube
>>> "Encore")
>>> which are rated at a lower spec while being marketed as 9600pro's, and
>>> for
>>> the minor difference in price, the full version offers better
>>> performance.
>>
>>And make sure you get a card with a 256 bit memory interface, not 128 bit.
>>
>
>
>
> Not really needed, a 128 is all you normally need.
>
> I have read a few reviews and it did not improve things at all.
>
>

Well, memory transfers are at double the rate!

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 23:10:44 +1300, Brian Mathews
< wrote:


Another week, another name...