Which card to buy? Confused user...

  • Thread starter Thread starter hairboy
  • Start date Start date
H

hairboy

My current graphics card died on me the other day, keep getting blue
screen, and XP keeps telling me it's the graphics card device that is
failing.
Time to get a new card.

There seems to be so many of them around, and I just can't choose.
I play a few games from time to time. I have GTR, Half Life 2, Need for
Speed Underground 2, and thinking of getting SWAT4 next. I wouldn't
mind spending a little on it, but not an arm and a leg. Probably £50-60
range. I have used ATI Radeon series in the past, and usually not had
any problems, so possibly keep with them.

FYI, my main PC specs are

P4 3.0g Prescott on P4P800 motherboard
1GB of Dual DDR memory
2 x 200GB SATA HDD running Raid

I am looking at possibly 9550 Pro, or 9600 pro which both
fit into the bill in terms of prices, and it seems to be coming up on
Ebay a lot. Are these cards any good? Not looking for breathtaking
performance in games. As long as it's good enough to play current
range of games without crash or slow down all the time, that will do me.
If anything else with good stability and reasonable performance can be
achieved, please let me know.

Thanks in advance
K
 
hairboy said:
My current graphics card died on me the other day, keep getting blue
screen, and XP keeps telling me it's the graphics card device that is
failing.
Time to get a new card.

There seems to be so many of them around, and I just can't choose.
I play a few games from time to time. I have GTR, Half Life 2, Need for
Speed Underground 2, and thinking of getting SWAT4 next. I wouldn't
mind spending a little on it, but not an arm and a leg. Probably £50-60
range. I have used ATI Radeon series in the past, and usually not had
any problems, so possibly keep with them.

FYI, my main PC specs are

P4 3.0g Prescott on P4P800 motherboard
1GB of Dual DDR memory
2 x 200GB SATA HDD running Raid

I am looking at possibly 9550 Pro, or 9600 pro which both
fit into the bill in terms of prices, and it seems to be coming up on
Ebay a lot. Are these cards any good? Not looking for breathtaking
performance in games. As long as it's good enough to play current
range of games without crash or slow down all the time, that will do me.
If anything else with good stability and reasonable performance can be
achieved, please let me know.

Thanks in advance
K
Click to expand...

What resolution you running at?
 
hairboy said:
My current graphics card died on me the other day, keep getting blue
screen, and XP keeps telling me it's the graphics card device that is
failing.
Time to get a new card.

There seems to be so many of them around, and I just can't choose.
I play a few games from time to time. I have GTR, Half Life 2, Need for
Speed Underground 2, and thinking of getting SWAT4 next. I wouldn't
mind spending a little on it, but not an arm and a leg. Probably £50-60
range. I have used ATI Radeon series in the past, and usually not had
any problems, so possibly keep with them.

FYI, my main PC specs are

P4 3.0g Prescott on P4P800 motherboard
1GB of Dual DDR memory
2 x 200GB SATA HDD running Raid

I am looking at possibly 9550 Pro, or 9600 pro which both
fit into the bill in terms of prices, and it seems to be coming up on
Ebay a lot. Are these cards any good? Not looking for breathtaking
performance in games. As long as it's good enough to play current
range of games without crash or slow down all the time, that will do me.
If anything else with good stability and reasonable performance can be
achieved, please let me know.
Click to expand...

9700s are going on ebay for £50-60, and offer most of the performance of a
9800. Much better than a 9600.

Ultra budget option would be a 9500/9500 pro. Certain 9500s can be
softmodded to 9700s, but don't hang your hopes on that as mine didn't.
 
I keep seeing a lot of Peak 9800 Pro. Never heard of
Peak but I assume they use the 9800 chipset. Is it
the number that's important? All 9700 I could find are
128MB. Are 9600 Pro 256MB no better, or am I missing
something?

Like I said, I don't know which one to get, but do different
brands, (non ATI Radeon cards, for example) make much
difference?

Thanks
 
hairboy said:
I keep seeing a lot of Peak 9800 Pro. Never heard of
Peak but I assume they use the 9800 chipset. Is it
the number that's important? All 9700 I could find are
128MB. Are 9600 Pro 256MB no better, or am I missing
something?

Like I said, I don't know which one to get, but do different
brands, (non ATI Radeon cards, for example) make much
difference?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Check out this article on Toms Hardware
http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html
the 9700 has 8 pipelines and 256bit memory bandwidth to the 9600s 4 and
128bit
which makes the 9700 a much better card - 128mb or 256mb of memory makes
very
little differance.
I run HL2 at 1024x768 high detail settings (by default) on my XP2400, 1gb
DDR, 9700
very sweetly. I dont worry about AA or AF or I'd buy a 9800pro.
 
And you'll listen to a machine ?

If I did that I'd replace the machine every few weeks. Try reseating by
removing and reinstalling the different cards and connectors. Short of a
meltdown most electronics are built for the long haul. It's probably the only
thing they haven't found a way to build in automatic obsolescence yet. Takes
awhile to do it, but it's a lot cheaper than a new card.

Doesn't mean the stuff doesn't fail, but it's 99% more likely a connector has
jiggled loose.

Only reason I mention it is because we have almost the same setup and my NEW
9800 failed weeks after it was installed. Reseated it and things were back to
normal.

If you didn't see a flash, hear a pop, or smell something burning.. You
probably didn't have a circuit board failure.
 
hairboy said:
I keep seeing a lot of Peak 9800 Pro. Never heard of
Peak but I assume they use the 9800 chipset. Is it
the number that's important? All 9700 I could find are
128MB. Are 9600 Pro 256MB no better, or am I missing
something?
Click to expand...

Onboard RAM seems (grasping for an analogy) something like a spoiler or a
set of alloy wheels. It makes the general public think the card is faster
than it is. The 9700 series are a great deal faster than the 9600s- in fact,
from what I can tell, the 64Mb 9500 outperforms a 256Mb 9600.
Like I said, I don't know which one to get, but do different
brands, (non ATI Radeon cards, for example) make much
difference?
Click to expand...

Yeah. You can't buy ATI branded cards in the UK unless imported. That should
narrow your choices down somewhat :)

Some brand cards have advantages- better cooling, faster RAM or whatever,
but this is mostly nitpicking. That said, Google Groups before you buy to
make sure a certain brand card isn't going to crap out on you.

Oh, and FWIW, Geforce cards pre-6x00 series aren't worth considering for new
games. Not even the FX series. (spoken like a true 6600GT owner :))
 
Try dusting off your old video card and see if that could be the problem.
If you want to go on the cheap then a 9800 Pro would be good .. if you want
cheaper then a 9600
NVIDIA 6200 cards are pretty good for their price range too.
 
Note; a 9800 will run nearly twice as fast as a 9600.

Expect to pay heaps for a decent card.

Of course you don't have to get the latest and greatest card to play
all the best games, any Nvidia 5700 or the much better IMO 9600
Pro/XL will run the likes of Far Cry with sea water so clear that you
can see the bottom and the tiny bubbles washing up onto the sand.

But if your prepared to give away a heap of quality, a cheap 5200
"will" run the same game just with less video options picked if your
system is up to it, the game will still play OK but you won't be
seeing the bottom of the ocean and mountains 1 mile away won't be
green until you get closer.

A 9600 Pro will do it and any other game and does not cost the earth,
just remember a 9800 is twice as good, literally.
 
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