Should I upgrade from ti4200 to 9600pro?

patch

Hi guys,
I decided to upgrade to the powercolour 9600pro from my ti4200.
However, after looking at a few benchmarks, there doesn't really appear to be much between them apart from DX9.
Would HL2 run well enough on the 9600pro?
What would anybody reccomend? I'm keeping the price as low as I can.

BloodBath

Depends on your other system specs whether half life 2 will run well or not.

You can pick up the sapphire radeon 9600xt for e160 on http://www.jescomputer.de. Slightly better than the pro version with your copy of half life 2 free with it.

If your processor/ram/mobo are decent you should be able to run it pretty well.


BloodBath

unkel

Hi patch. I did exactly the same late last year and changed from creative ti4200 64MB to powercolor 9600 Pro EZ (cheaper version with slower memory). Performance is significantly better, but don't expect miracles. My upgrade (selling old card and buying new card) cost me €45 so that was well worth it

If you're more into gaming than I am, I would strongly recommend you'd fork out €220 for a Sapphire 9800 Pro. This is amazing value for money atm. That would be a major upgrade with matching massive jump in benchmark performance :cool:

patch

Originally posted by BloodBath
Depends on your other system specs whether half life 2 will run well or not.

You can pick up the sapphire radeon 9600xt for e160 on http://www.jescomputer.de. Slightly better than the pro version with your copy of half life 2 free with it.

If your processor/ram/mobo are decent you should be able to run it pretty well.


BloodBath

Thanks for that.
I've just picked up this board and memory.

Abit BE7-RAID mainboard S478/533mhz
I845PE, ATA/133, ATX, USB2.0, DDR333
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512 MB CL2,5 ECC( DDR-PC400MHz)

I'll be using my trusty P4 1.7 256L2, which should overclock to at least 2gigs handy enough. That boards agp is only 4* which is another factor I'm considering.

BloodBath

Well the 9600xt is backwards compatable with 4x agp.

It should run pretty well with that setup. I think the min specs processor wise is 900mhz so your almost double that. Again it's hard to tell how well HL2 will actually run until it comes out.


BloodBath

patch

Thanks again Bloodbath.
Unkel, I'm in the same mind as you were, the ti4200 is only really letting me down on the dx9 front.
I'd love to splash out on a 9800pro, but chances are I'll be able to get one in 8 months for my usual 70 euro outlay after selling the present card.

To get back to my main question, am I as well off keeping the 4200 till I actually NEED to upgrade.......?

Also, checking revies there it seems the powercolour 9600 pro ez may be a better overclocker than the sapphire radeon 9600xt. Does anybody know better?

Cheers guys,

Pat.

BadCharlie

Have the geforce 4ti4200 my self. Me thinks its a very good card and dont plan on buying another card for some time.
But if i was going to buy a card i would get the 9800pro for the 220euro. Just an extra 70/80euro on the 9600pro/xt and you get a far far better card. You would not have to upgrade that card for sometime to come.

unkel

Originally posted by BadCharlie
But if i was going to buy a card i would get the 9800pro for the 220euro. Just an extra 70/80euro on the 9600pro/xt and you get a far far better card

My thinking exactly

Originally posted by patch
chances are I'll be able to get one in 8 months for my usual 70 euro outlay after selling the present card.

I doubt that very much. The ti4200 second hand is going down fast. Got €85 for my low end AGP4 64MB 2 months ago here on boards. Now worth €55. I don't expect the 9800 pro to drop to even €150 in several months time. It could well just be dropped like the 9500 pro and 9700 pro, that are still worth a lot second hand

Why don't you go the extra €60 now and get a much better card?