ATI Graphics Cards

[Ish]

Ok. With Homeworld 2 and Half Life 2 on the way (nearly upon us) I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card (I'm currently running on a trusty old GeForce 3).

I'm thinking of going in the ATI direction this time round but I'm struggling to work out the differences between the various 9800 and 9700 cards.

If I'm going to upgrade now I reckon I need a card that supports DX9 pretty well. But whats going on here?

You've got 9800 cards running from 200 to 350 quid. 9700 cards not much below.

Aaaarrrrghhh. Its all too much for my febal brain. Help please!

[Adam]

the 9800pro is the daddy. fully dx9 compatible and it cains any Nvidia card in the recent Half Life 2 benchmarks. That's what I'm getting 8)

[Shimmyhill]

Ok this is order in terms of raw power

BEST top

9800 Pro
9800 non pro
9700 pro
9700 non pro
9500 pro
9600 pro
9500 non pro
9600 non pro

All cards are DX9. Value for money goes to 9600pro - around ?120. (9500's are not made but if you can get a 2nd hand card they are good)

Basically its down to how much money you want to spend !

[replicant]

i love my 9800 pro. Spectacular card. Remember the 9800xt comes out on the 30th. Its apparently running slightly faster than the 9800p with a gpu speed of 415ish. However not a concern as my 9800p ocs to that speed anyway without any issues.

[Ish]

Thanks for the help guys!

But **** it. I was hoping someone would talk some sense into me and persuade me to buy a 9700.

But resistance truly is futile.

I've just bought a 9800 Pro. Its mine. All mine. My precious

Social life on hold for a month to pay for it.

Now for Half-Life 2 .

Still I reckon it'll be needed for Rome: Total War too (whose engine is being used in that Time Commanders series on BBC 2 and is looking amazingly sexy) so its an investment. Honest.

[Adam]

I've just bought a 9800 Pro. Its mine. All mine. My precious

Git, I gotta wait a month 'till I get mine What games you tried it on mate, how's it working for you?

[Ish]

Buy bought I mean ordered online. Just did it an hour ago.

Hopefully be here Tuesday.

I'm shifting from a GeForce 3 to this card. I'll post feedback on how I get on once I've tried it. The only thing I've got that'll even remotely push it right now is going to be Unreal 2 I guess. Awful game. But nice eye candy - it chugged on my 3, it'll be interesting to see how it does on the 9800. I can't wait .

I'll be picking up Homeworld 2 on Friday though and hopefully that should look very pretty

[tankplanker]

is their much of a step up from a 9600 to a 9700 to a 9800 (all pro)?

[nips]

Apparently the 9600/9600 pro is a dream to overclock. It is meant to be simple to get it running over 20% more effective/faster... I can't find a linky yet though.

It may be something worth investigating if you want a good gfx card but have little money!

[eghamninja]

Apparently the 9600/9600 pro is a dream to overclock. It is meant to be simple to get it running over 20% more effective/faster... I can't find a linky yet though.

It may be something worth investigating if you want a good gfx card but have little money!

Shame it gets cained by its older and discontinued brother (9500/9500pro). I have seen some benchmarks of HL2 on the 9500pro and they are almost equal to the 9700 in resolutions up to 1024x768.

[replicant]

nice buy ish. Hope you got a good cpu and memory coz your 9800p will like that alot

As for the 9500p that was a definate star.

[Spatial]

.

I've just bought a 9800 Pro. Its mine. All mine. My precious

Social life on hold for a month to pay for it.

Now for Half-Life 2 .

Yay !

Me too !

Ordered mine on Friday and I'm hoping to get it sometime next week so it'll be all ready to go when HL2 hits the shelves

What with the Radeon, a new processor and a new motherboard, this has been an expensive month !

But, I know its going to be worth it !

[nips]

I was going to update my graphics card, but after analysing my current set-up, I realised, I may as well update the whole bloody machine.

I bet that with a flippin' 9800Pro, I'd still only get around 8,500 on 3dmark2001!

Ah well, that's another project and a good few pay cheques!

[manah]

What with the Radeon, a new processor and a new motherboard, this has been an expensive month !

But, I know its going to be worth it !

Now that sounds very familiar and much like what I keep telling myself.

But your right, it is going to be worth it.

[Moodmon]

Bit late, but there are two versions of the 9800 Pro. One with 256Mb and the other with 128Mb. Bob all difference unless you're at absurd-o-res with 6x anti-aliasing.