Many of you know I'm working on a new PC that will be water cooled. I'm putting a decent amount of cash into the hardware across the board. I'm looking for some graphics card advice though. I want to get one of the new ATI's just not sure which model as I have traditionaly bought mid stream cards because of the price. What I am wanting to know is how much better and longer with the higher end cards be/last. I love playing games and whatnot and the mid stream cards have done a "decent" job for me, they just don't seem to keep up with the game industy as well IMHO. Currently I am useing a Gforce2 MX400 32MB card that I got in 2001. Truth be told It was good with games for about 6 months and then I noticed I had to start lowering image quality. I'm still using it and it works good with lower image quality. So, I guess I'm just wondering how much longer say the 9800 Pro 128MB will be kicking strong vs. the 9600 Pro?

In the topsy-turvy world of video cards, who can tell? I would go with which ever best one I could afford at the moment.

Remember, only a small percentage of games are going to require that much horsepower. Just think how long it took for game makers to incorperate DX8 features. It will probably take even longer for DX9.

I would go mainstream one more time. I have a feeling that because of a couple of video games coming out this summer, the graphics card companies will coincide a new release that will run them better.

Id say go with either a Radeon 9500 or if you can go with a geforce fx 5200 ultra, dont get the regular i have it and its not to strong. If you have good cooling and overclocking then this card is good but the 9500 just kicks ass.

i personally say to hell with video card manufacturers pocketbooks, and go mid again, the more people keep paying for these high end jobs, the longer, and higher priced, those high end cards will be...and in case anyone hasnt noticed, they are ridiculous...

you can get an XBOX for less than a 9800 pro, and which do you think costs more to make?

thank you id, thank you Sierra, but no thank you, and ESPECIALLY no thanks to ATI and Nvidia...im almost prepared to go underdog on my next card just to make a statement versus the cost inflation of something that costs minimal to produce, yet demands premium prices just because they say so...

Feral,
I can speak for the 95-9700 ati offerings. Plenty of card and any where from 150-250 depending where you buy.Proven reliability
and quality that seems to be lasting.
DangerDen has got some new blocks out for them and you know I'm gonna have somthing trick out soon as well.
either way you can't go wrong. Have fun Bro...

Go with a a card from the ATi 95-9800 excellent line of GPU's
I have an ATi 9700 Pro and I could never go back to anything less then an ATi r300 core.
ATi Radeon 9500 Pro Review
I've had one problem with my card; the problem happens when you reboot it boots into currupt video and I looked it up on the ATi site, they suggest a more powerful PSU...I simply shut down then cap-flashed my PSU and its never happened since...
Do keep in mind that these 95-9800's can use upto 60w on full load

Good luck and go for built by ATi, ATi Support is more repectful when you do...and you know all these Tier 1 motherboard companies who make the card have horrible support

Power consumption is not an issue, I'm going to be running and Antec True Power 550... Can you say POWAaaaaa!?

Well, I guess I will be doing a comparision of the 9500 Pro , 9700/9700 Pro and the 9600 Pro.

or, you could go like MOT19 and enhance your computing experience with a S3 Trio 3DFX card, astonishing performance that works great as a smoked overclocked FX5200 replacement....no wait, yer not a TARD, you would never want OR need a setup like that...

Feral clean out ur inbox... tried to PM you back.

I like to go with the high end card (have 9700 pro... GREAT card). The last card I had was a g-force 3 (the first offering before the TI cards came out) and it lasted me 2 years before I started to notice its age. Mafia was really putting a beating on it, so it was time for an upgrade.

I myself am willing to pay the price every couple of years or so, so I can run @ high resolutions with 8X AA on, and top image quality all across the board... for me that is the only way to fly.

If you love gamming as much as I do, any thing from the 9500 and up qualifies in that area.

FUBAR cleaned out the inbox

Ok, after doing some reading up on the 9600 Pro, I'm now looking at getting either a 9500 Pro or 9700 Pro. Any suggestions on which manufacturer to go with on these cards other than the Built by ATI ones?

from what i've ready feral, the cards are pretty much the same from any maker, with the exception of the Tyan Taychon line of cards(the have buiilt in monitoring tools on some models) i'd look at the price and what come with the card....

Thanks Buzz!

Ok, two questions, are the Radeon 9500 Pro's OCable? And, is there any difference in the actual cards between OEM and Retail Box, or is it just that they are bought in bulk, dont have any of the xtras that come in the box and only have a 1 year warrant vs a 3 year warrant...?

9800 Pro is the way to go.
Oh, and always go "Built By ATI".

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Dunno about the 9500 pro, ask around.

Star, we don't even have to say it.

Go High End Man... if you are going pro, go all the way... I just got a Herc 9800 and it is sick as hell man! It kicks the pants off the OEM Board for OCability... go for the best, you wont regret it!

.....

Star STFU with the Britney Spears post's, we don't like the ugly jaded slut and neither should you. If you cant post on the subject without posting that slut, then don't post at all.
Didnt your parents beat you enough?

I know you have been here long before me but all the same.


Anyway, the 9500 Pro's are simply tweaked down 9700's, of course they are overclockable, here is some review linkage:

Review@:
The Tech Report
Digit Life
Beyond3D
AnAndTech
HardOCP
FiringSquad

He is not what anyone would call a reg.