An unwise purchase

  • Thread starter Thread starter Martin Francis
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Martin Francis

Having just got back into upgrading after a very long hiatus, and without
doing a great deal of research before hand, I rather impulsively bought a
Hercules Radeon 9600SE (for those who don't know, a cut-down 9600 with
200MHz RAM). As I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer- I only just
discovered the first Max Payne- I don't fancy going out and buying a heavy
duty 9800 type. In fact, until I get a new HD and more RAM I don't plan
replacing my card at all. As a replacement for my aging GeForce MX200 it's a
relative Godsend.
However, I still feel pangs of buyer's remorse. Before I start saving
for an XT, i'd like to know if anything can be salvaged. How far can these
9600SE cards be improved, through overclocking and softmodding and the like?
Consider me a complete newbie to GFX overclocking.
 
Martin Francis said:
Having just got back into upgrading after a very long hiatus, and without
doing a great deal of research before hand, I rather impulsively bought a
Hercules Radeon 9600SE (for those who don't know, a cut-down 9600 with
200MHz RAM). As I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer- I only just
discovered the first Max Payne- I don't fancy going out and buying a heavy
duty 9800 type. In fact, until I get a new HD and more RAM I don't plan
replacing my card at all. As a replacement for my aging GeForce MX200 it's a
relative Godsend.
However, I still feel pangs of buyer's remorse. Before I start saving
for an XT, i'd like to know if anything can be salvaged. How far can these
9600SE cards be improved, through overclocking and softmodding and the like?
Consider me a complete newbie to GFX overclocking.
Click to expand...

They can be overclocked, but...the 64-bits memory buss makes any
overclock worthless in a way. Because the bottleneck is not the
memory, it's the memory buss.

Except for the Memory buss problem it's not a bad card, yes do go for
a nice XT or Pro card...with 128bits or even an 9800SE wtih 256 Memory
bus. But untill you have the money, the 9600SE will... function nice!

Ofcourse if you just bought it a week ago you may be able to get back
to the shop and pay...20 bucks more for a 128-bits memory bus model
;-)
 
Having just got back into upgrading after a very long hiatus, and without
doing a great deal of research before hand, I rather impulsively bought a
Hercules Radeon 9600SE (for those who don't know, a cut-down 9600 with
Click to expand...

That hurts... hence impulse buys are not good... usually.
200MHz RAM). As I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer- I only just
discovered the first Max Payne- I don't fancy going out and buying a heavy
duty 9800 type. In fact, until I get a new HD and more RAM I don't plan
replacing my card at all. As a replacement for my aging GeForce MX200 it's a
relative Godsend.
Click to expand...

Don't need a $250 9800Pro... but prices are falling. The 9600se is a
lot better than the mx200, but by current standards- its quite low.
But its not as bad as the mx200 when it was new... which was never
usable for gaming.
However, I still feel pangs of buyer's remorse. Before I start saving
for an XT, i'd like to know if anything can be salvaged. How far can these
9600SE cards be improved, through overclocking and softmodding and the like?
Consider me a complete newbie to GFX overclocking.
Click to expand...

Nothing can be done. Return the 9600se for a refund... spend an extra
$30~50 for a card that is about 2x~3x faster. A plain 9800 is about
as cheap as a 9600xt....
 
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