best manuf. of 9600 pro cards?

Caliden

can any1 tell me what manufacturer is the best when buying a radeon 9600 pro graphics card.
also any1 know where i can get one for cheap. i was thinking ebay but again not sure on manufacturer.
i dont know much bout graphics cards but from wat i've read and heard the 9600 pro is a good card for its price.


any info would be gr8 thanks

Col_Loki

Saphire are pretty good , and one of the biggest. There cards are also very good on price.

Try www.komplett.ie for good graphics card prices.

In short about the 9600's

9600se -> Budget
9600 -> regular
9600 pro -> Faster & better
9600xt -> fastest 9600.

If you tell us what your budget is then it'd be easier. ATI cards are prob the best choice at the min and the 9600pro is a good performer for around €140.

Creamy Goodness

i have a sapphire and they good, but almost all manufacturs are good.

powercolor would be the worst from komplett#s site but they still good for their prices

Caliden

maybe €120->€160 at the most + p&p after that.
looking at komplett now and im as confused as ever with all the different types of 9600 pros there are.
any advice?

joePC

Heres what you want

Radeon 9600 128Mb

Radeon 9600 Pro 128Mb

You may need to click the links twice.

Thanks joePC

seanos

I found hercules cards always to be the best for performance.

Dempsey

Originally posted by Sinnocence
I found hercules cards always to be the best for performance.

And they look class in through a side panel. Ya pay a little extra over the sapphires though

quarryman

My one

comes with hardware monitoring chip and overclocking features as standard. looks very nice with some blue cathodes or l.e.ds. great performer for the price.

Col_Loki

Well for €129 PowerColor have a 9600pro .... theyre a cheaper brand that komplett stock but they are pretty decent and a nice price.

For €160 the next step up is the Sapphire 9600pro , pretty much the same performance as the PowerColor just a better name.

The cooling on the PowerColor mightnt be as good as other cards, which means you might have to buy a new cooler if your going to be overclocking. If it was me id probably get either one of these (leaning toward the PowerColor due to €30 saving). The 9600pro is a great performer and by far the best card for this price range.

Best of luck anyway ,

Loki

[edit] PS click twice on links

unkel

Agree with COL_LOKI that either of those cards would be your best options within your budget

About the Powercolor:

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
theyre a cheaper brand that komplett stock but they are pretty decent and a nice price.

Yep by far the cheapest 9600 pro around. Have one myself

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
The cooling on the PowerColor mightnt be as good as other cards, which means you might have to buy a new cooler if your going to be overclocking. [/B]

Nope, mine is overclocked to it's very max, no extra cooling required, HOWEVER:

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
pretty much the same performance as the PowerColor just a better name.

All 9600 pro's have a core clock speed of 400Mhz. The Powercolor is not that cheap for nothing. For this model (EZ) they use cheaper memory which is clocked a good bit lower than the Sapphire. The powercolor runs at 200Mhz standard and the Sapphire at 300Mhz.

The core on mine clocks 540 which is very decent but the memory tops out at 265. Both of these are software OC'd without voltage increases, etc.

So it depends - are you prepared to spend 25% more on the card that's maybe 5-10% faster?

Col_Loki

Cheers for clearing that up unkel, was under the impression they skimpt on the cooling a bit ..... good to know it works .

Interesting about the Ram , im always too lazy to go into that unless im just about to buy the card..... so many little differences tiz shocking !!

I take it your happy with your PowerColor then yea? Have seen the 9800pro version and it looks pretty sweet, performs very well too.

unkel

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
I take it your happy with your PowerColor then yea?

Yep quite happy - very good value for money. Obviously if I were a serious gamer, I'd have a 9800 pro by now

Caliden

wow. thanks for the great feedback people.
you have all been a great help. have no idea how to overclock a graphics card so either one is good for me.
thanks again

unkel

Originally posted by Caliden
have no idea how to overclock a graphics card

You just download the overclocking utility (Rage 3D Tweak) from the ATI website. Install it like any other software and then run it and move the slides up or down - that easy