ilovehooters1385

i got a 9600 SE and im going to return it for a better card.. i didnt mean to get that one... is there any brands that you would recommend... i dont want to spend to much money.. and i dont really play that many games... is a 9600 XT good? its 140... i dont know if thats a good price.. any help would be awesome.. plz im me on marc91385 or just reply thanx guys

~Marc

Supahobnobba

9600 XT for the short term ~ $140
9800 XT for mid term to long term ~ $350
x800 xt for a hole in your pocket and an uber fast machine ~ $500
Something to make you all pimped out and get a name for yourself here on pimprig?
~ Priceless

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Spectrum

Powercolor 9800SE, softmod it to Pro, all for $150.

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Kage

Spectrum, I've been hearing some bad stories about those 9800SE's lately so you might want to take that back. Perhaps all those 9800SE's need are better cooling on them, or just a superb coating of Ceramique, but whatever the case they haven't been as softmod friendly now.

Dakas

personally, i'd recommend the nvidia 5900xt over the ati 9600xt. it's about $30 more, but they're not at all equal cards, no matter what the claims are.

but, $140 for the 9600xt is a good price, and a good card, and since you don't really play that many games, i think you'll be quite happy with it.

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Red02

As far as brands would go, I would stay away from PowerColor. I would say, go with Built By ATI or Sapphire Tech.

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konai_konai666

Alright, enough of this, I can't trust Powercolor after reading horror stories about thier SE's ( Let alone i would be getting a refurb failed pipeline). I'm getting a Gigabyte 9700Pro ( With stock mem hs' and decent'er hsf). It only has a R300 Core but will softmod to a 9800Pro with no problem.

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Chrome_Rust

Quote: Originally Posted by konai_konai666 Alright, enough of this, I can't trust Powercolor after reading horror stories about thier SE's ( Let alone i would be getting a refurb failed pipeline). I'm getting a Gigabyte 9700Pro ( With stock mem hs' and decent'er hsf). It only has a R300 Core but will softmod to a 9800Pro with no problem.

not too sure where you got your information but a 9700 pro dosent mod in to anything. you can just overclock the snot out of it. i pulled over 20k in 3dm01 witn a 9700 Pro AIW. stock cooling (added as5). but again since it is a R300 core the best you can get from it is overclocks. no soft modding there......

BUT if i am wrong and you can show me where you read that....i will retract my statement. But i know my ATi videocards....

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Spectrum

Quote: Originally Posted by Chrome_Rust not too sure where you got your information but a 9700 pro dosent mod in to anything. you can just overclock the snot out of it. i pulled over 20k in 3dm01 witn a 9700 Pro AIW. stock cooling (added as5). but again since it is a R300 core the best you can get from it is overclocks. no soft modding there...... BUT if i am wrong and you can show me where you read that....i will retract my statement. But i know my ATi videocards....

Yeah, the 9700 doesn't softmod. Take a look at this.

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konai_konai666

Here: http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=178&p=1 Technically its not really worth it as the R300 is a tad slower than R350, both cards perform within a 4FPS margin of oneanother, so this mod optimizes some parts of the CAT drivers for the 9700Pro but not all ( IE: In conclusions: "The ATI 9700 PRO to ATI 9800 PRO softmod teased us with the promise of free performance. This appears to be true for 3DMARK 2001 SE but not worth the effort for the rest of the tests." ) I'll be using the Omega's v2.5.58 I already downloaded for it and won't be supprised to see better performance compared to the less-tweakworthy standard ones.
EDIT: The trick may or may not be worth it depending on the version of CAT driver I use.

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Spc. Forces Bob

i may be mistaken but the new omega drivers i belive give you the choice to softmod 9700 to 9800...

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konai_konai666

Huh?

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Spectrum

Quote: Originally Posted by Kage Spectrum, I've been hearing some bad stories about those 9800SE's lately so you might want to take that back. Perhaps all those 9800SE's need are better cooling on them, or just a superb coating of Ceramique, but whatever the case they haven't been as softmod friendly now.

Yes, there is a rougly 33% chance it won't go, but then you RMA. Better cooling is definately needed. I've got ramsinks and an Iceberq 4 on mine.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spc. Forces Bob i may be mistaken but the new omega drivers i belive give you the choice to softmod 9700 to 9800...

I think there is an option, but I can't double check because I don't have the install here and the website seems to be down.
[Edit] Saw this.

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blackfire

I was thinking the 5900xt or the 9800pro. I know the 5900xt will overclock like crazy, but I think its only got 4 pipelines right? Where as the 9800 pro has 8? There both within 2 dollars of eachother at new egg, so which is better. By the way Im not jacking the post the original post was made by my brother for me.

blackfire

I was also looking at the x600xt its also within 6 dollars of the the other 2 I know its got 4 pipelines but I understand that its the newer card technology with more features and stuff.

konai_konai666

Darn, no more cheap 9700Pros at newegg, and after reading enough I think $110.00 + a $20.00 Arctic VGA silencer might jsut be worth the gamble for a 9800Pro-like card.

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Spectrum

Yep, go for it.

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konai_konai666

Thanks, this will be my final choice until problems or better yet, trustworthy performance will make it the last card I need to buy until the PCI-X cards are firmly established in probably a few short years, then i'll stay behind as usual and buy a GF6800Ultra or an older PCI-X card as there should be one by then.

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