Which ATI graphics card?

[npg]

I'm dying to play Halo and Max Payne 2 in a few days time but promised myself not before I upgrade, however I'm a bit confused as to which ATI card I should get.

I'm leaning towards a 9800 non-pro which I think will set me back about ?200 or a 9700pro which although hard to find these days still offers roughly the same performance as a 9800.

Does anyone own either of the above video cards or happen to know for sure if they will they at least give me a 3 years worth of gaming including Half Life 2 and Doom 3 in max detail and preferably at 1600x1200 with AAx4 turned on?

[Valken]

Even with a top of the line videocard you'll be lucky to get a decent framerate with that AA setting and screen size.

AA becomes less necessary the higher your resolution anyway. With a card like that you could probably play at 1024*768 or higher with *some* AA and all effects for a decent frame rate for Maz Payne 2 and probably Half Life 2 but 3 years gaming? Only if you can "cope" with medium details and lack of hardware support for inevitable improvements in Direct X.

[Rushy]

You won't get 1600*1200 with AAx4 on doom3 or HL2 with any of the GFX cards on the market not even the XT cards. Personally I would wait a short while seeing as both of those titles aren't out till next year, and by then the next generation of the next step up of cards may be available.

I persoanlly own the 9700pro and there isn't really a game to push it to hard out. I run all my games in 1024*768 at max detail and get superb performance out of all my games. Even the leaked (unoptimised) tec demo of doom I get a solid frame rate (and no im not touching the HL2 leak).

I said wait, or go for the 9800xt if your desperate to upgrade, as the xt is especially good with FSAA & AF at higher resolutions.

[H-Man]

With my 9700 pro I can play Max Payne 2 at 1280*1024, 4*AA with constantly high frame rate.

(Max Payne 2 is petty good btw - a good buy if u enjoyed the first)

[Ish]

I persoanlly own the 9700pro and there isn't really a game to push it to hard out. I run all my games in 1024*768 at max detail and get superb performance out of all my games.

Yup. I've found the same with the 9800pro I recently bought. Nothing even make it even stop to take a breath, never mind make it wheeze. As long as you don't bump that AA right up...

[Valken]

With my 9700 pro I can play Max Payne 2 at 1280*1024, 4*AA with constantly high frame rate.

(Max Payne 2 is petty good btw - a good buy if u enjoyed the first)

What frame rate?

[npg]

Rushy, I'd wait but my Geforce 2 pro just isn't cutting it anymore. I guess I should invest into something cheaper that will see me through until mid next year, but I need a card that for now that will at least allow me play some of the upcoming games like Far Cry, Stalker and Max Payne and Call of Duty.

A 9600 pro perhaps?

Aaargh!! another 100 quid just so that I can play 5-6 games. Keeping up with PC gaming is becoming too expensive these days..

[Valken]

Aaargh!! another 100 quid just so that I can play 5-6 games. Keeping up with PC gaming is becoming too expensive these days..

To that end I've given up... my current PC will be my last intel-based machine and I've got a few hundred quid of my next few month's pay earmarked for a Mac G5.

I only really use windows specific stuff at work and have been falling in love with OSX since getting an ibook a few months ago.

[nips]

When the new XT cards come out, expect the pirces of the 9800 and 9600 cards to drop... you may well be able to get the 9800 Pro, for the price of the 9800 now...

But I suppose you could wait a month for two forever as the prices are constantly changing... but if you could wait, you may be albe to save yourself a few bob, and get a better quality card for the future...

[H-Man]

Valken wrote:

'H-Man quote:
With my 9700 pro I can play Max Payne 2 at 1280*1024, 4*AA with constantly high frame rate.

(Max Payne 2 is petty good btw - a good buy if u enjoyed the first)


What frame rate?'

Usually around 70 - doesn't drop below 40 (except for when there's loads of fire)

[Valken]

you used the -developerkeys switch to get the framerate stats?

What are the rest of your system specs? It's just at that res with 4x AA I'd have expected poorer performance from your card.

[demon9k]

I persoanlly own the 9700pro and there isn't really a game to push it to hard out. I run all my games in 1024*768 at max detail and get superb performance out of all my games.

Yup. I've found the same with the 9800pro I recently bought. Nothing even make it even stop to take a breath, never mind make it wheeze. As long as you don't bump that AA right up...

My mate has a 9800 Pro and I will get one soon too. Basically he plays every game on 1600*1200 with settings at the middle settings in his graphics card options and it looks awesome on every game with abosutely no slow down. You can really save your GPU by bumping up the resolution cos you won't need as much AA too. I have a GeForce 4 MX 128MB (**** I know) but I play all my games on 1600*1200 apart from Generals. Don't know what my framerates are but I don't see any slowdown

[Super Stu]

Try star wars galaxies on that 4MX

[fasteasyfree]

I haven't managed to get Max Payne working since I upgraded to XP

[demon9k]

Try star wars galaxies on that 4MX

Shhhh

I can get UT2003 to run at 1600*1200 though

I will be getting a shiny new 9800 Pro or 9800 Pro XT. Depending on the money situation after xmas.

I haven't managed to get Max Payne working since I upgraded to XP

Have you had a look for a patch from the max payne website, usually there is a patch for games that don't work with XP from the developers. That should solve your problem.