AIW 9600xt... a worthwhile upgrade from the 8500 aiw?

[Gareee©]

Augustus recommended this as a worthwhile upgrade from my 8500 aiw cards
here.

I noticed that it only has 128 meg of ram, and some of the newer cards have
256.

Is there anything else that's a downside to upgrading to these cards?

Our 8500s are still doing pretty well, but we play UT2004 most of the time
here, and I'm sure with Doom 3 hitting, that our older cards will be
ailing..

Feedback?

 

[boe]

It may not have enough umph for Doom3. I currently have the 9600 pro and it
works great for all the quake3 engine games I play. It is a little choppy
for Halo and is very choppy for far cry at anything over 800x600. The
question is are you buying to bide your time until you get something in the
x800 caliber at a more reasonable price? If so just get a cheap 9600 pro
for now like I have. I've decided I'll just have to wait until the x800's
come down to a resonable price before making my next purchase - probably
when the x900 or whatever ati will call them come out.

 

[Gareee©]

It may not have enough umph for Doom3. I currently have the 9600 pro and it
works great for all the quake3 engine games I play. It is a little choppy
for Halo and is very choppy for far cry at anything over 800x600. The
question is are you buying to bide your time until you get something in the
x800 caliber at a more reasonable price?

Not really.. The problem is I have to get them for 2 systems, and need the
all in wonder options.

The next thing better is like twice the price, I think, and I don't think
I'll get twice the value from them.

We'll put one of the old aiw 8500s in a third system we have, and probably
sell the other on ebay.

Our current cards are like 2.5 years old, and that always seems to be about
the timeframe for upgrades anymore.

 

[Augustus]

Augustus recommended this as a worthwhile upgrade from my 8500 aiw cards
here.

I noticed that it only has 128 meg of ram, and some of the newer cards have
256.

Is there anything else that's a downside to upgrading to these cards?

There are no games that need 256Mb RAM. There are currently only a couple of
games that show a small benefit from 256Mb vs 128Mb on the card. This may
change over the next year or two, but having a 128Mb video card is not
really a detractor, in my opinion. It's more important to have 1 gig of
system RAM for the more demanding titles. As you point out, the 9800 Pro AIW
is more desirable but lots of $$$. Friend recently replaced his 8500AIW with
a 9600XT AIW and he's quite happy. This on a non-overclocked Barton 2500
with 1 gig dual channel. His benchmarks are 14,000 on 3dMark01 and 4000 on
'03. Like you, he needed the AIW features and could not shell out the $400
Cdn for one. The 9600XT AIW was $270 Cdn. He's quite happy.

 

[Gareee©]

There are no games that need 256Mb RAM. There are currently only a couple of
games that show a small benefit from 256Mb vs 128Mb on the card. This may
change over the next year or two, but having a 128Mb video card is not
really a detractor, in my opinion. It's more important to have 1 gig of
system RAM for the more demanding titles. As you point out, the 9800 Pro AIW
is more desirable but lots of $$$. Friend recently replaced his 8500AIW with
a 9600XT AIW and he's quite happy. This on a non-overclocked Barton 2500
with 1 gig dual channel. His benchmarks are 14,000 on 3dMark01 and 4000 on
'03. Like you, he needed the AIW features and could not shell out the $400
Cdn for one. The 9600XT AIW was $270 Cdn. He's quite happy.

Thanks for the advise. I really *hate* buying a new video card every other
friggin year, but what are ya gonna do?

 

[Gareee©]

There are no games that need 256Mb RAM. There are currently only a couple of
games that show a small benefit from 256Mb vs 128Mb on the card. This may
change over the next year or two, but having a 128Mb video card is not
really a detractor, in my opinion. It's more important to have 1 gig of
system RAM for the more demanding titles. As you point out, the 9800 Pro AIW
is more desirable but lots of $$$. Friend recently replaced his 8500AIW with
a 9600XT AIW and he's quite happy. This on a non-overclocked Barton 2500
with 1 gig dual channel. His benchmarks are 14,000 on 3dMark01 and 4000 on
'03. Like you, he needed the AIW features and could not shell out the $400
Cdn for one. The 9600XT AIW was $270 Cdn. He's quite happy.

Oh! I forgot! How overclockable is it? Any idea? My aiw 8500 didn't
overclock much at all.

 

[Augustus]

Oh! I forgot! How overclockable is it? Any idea? My aiw 8500 didn't

overclock much at all.

The 9600XT is already clocked quite high, at 500 core and 600Mhz effective
memory. I've not owned one, and my friend runs his at 510/625. Totally
stable with the stock cooler like this. My 8500 128Mb was clocked at 290
Core and 580 effective memory. Any more than this and it would artifact and
lockup in 3D games.

 

[Gareee©]

The 9600XT is already clocked quite high, at 500 core and 600Mhz effective
memory. I've not owned one, and my friend runs his at 510/625. Totally
stable with the stock cooler like this. My 8500 128Mb was clocked at 290
Core and 580 effective memory. Any more than this and it would artifact and
lockup in 3D games.

A freind of mine just told me he runs UT2004 at full 1600 res, with all
eyecandy one, and gets 80 fps.. that triple what I'm getting now, with some
of the eyecandy turned down, so I think it'll be a worthwhile upgrade.

Thanks again for the info!

 

[Sunbow]

A freind of mine just told me he runs UT2004 at full 1600 res, with all
eyecandy one, and gets 80 fps.. that triple what I'm getting now, with some
of the eyecandy turned down, so I think it'll be a worthwhile upgrade.

Thanks again for the info!

--
Gareee©
Homepage:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/ellison/86/mainframe.htm
Custom Figures, Wallpapers and more!

overdrive on the catalyst drivers runs the core at about 525MHz and the ram
will run happily at 625Mhz plus with no cooling. Mine does....