Radeon 9500 pros are discontinued by ATI and replaced by the (slightly slower but cheaper to
manufacture) 9600 pro. they are difficult to find new, but you can have a look for second hand ones
on
www.ebay.co.uk and search for '9500 pro'. going rate seems to be 50.00 (they were - and still
are - a good DX9 card, and that coupled with low availability seems to have kept the asking price
up). dont know about linux though.
Sensible entry level (as in 'will work ok with this years games' with lots of eye candy switched
on') now for a Radeon is the 9800 pro, which has come down a *lot* in price, so you may consider
that instead if you want a new card. Its what I run with at the moment. Because 9500 pro rarity is
keeping second hand prices up, you might also consider a new 9600 pro. Typical benchmarks for high
end games (far cry) showing the ATI range here
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/far_cry_ati/page7.asp from my own experience of both cards
(using the far cry demo), 9800 pro is good, but 9500 pro is not too shabby if you drop a res or do
without AA. Never used a 9600, so couldnt say for that.
finally, I have a 9500 pro sitting in my cupboard of PC bits... unlocked for OC and with an artic
cooler installed. If you are still adamant it has to be a 9500 pro and have no luck getting hold of
one, drop me a line offlist.
S
