Upgrading Graphics card

Tazz T

Yep. I know... another thread requesting advice on upgrading a graphics card, but I know sod all about them.

Budget limits me to either

MSiFX 5200 128mb

or

Powercolour Radeon 9200 256mb

Maybe can splash out the extra 40 euro for the 9600pro - is it worth it?

Thanks for the advice folks.

joePC

Get the 9600 Pro its well worth the extra €40 the 9200 is gona strugle with high res games etc.... Also stay away from low spec FX's there really bad.

Thanks joePC

swiss

Just to say again that the GeForceFX are quite bad at the moment unless you're going for the high end ultra cards (GeForceFX 5700 ultra being particularly good IIRC - for nVidia). Thier DirectX 9 handling is pants, and the supposedly 'lower' spec GeForce 4 Ti range of graphics card often beat those FX cards hands down.

Yes, the Radeon 9200se will struggle a little on the higher res. On komplett it's only €50 euro, so you pay for what you get. It's a little confusing with the 9600Pro. It's a better card, certainly, but the 9500Pro seems to outperform it. Anyway, what I would suggest is trying to pick up a GeForce4 Ti second hand if you can. Old they might be but they are still good. Consider something like €70 - €80 for a Ti4200, and slightly more for the 4400 and 4600.

Col_Loki

Yea what joe and swiss said. Also the 256mb Ram isint usefull (its just basicly marketing), 128mb is the one to go for unless its the same price....... but sometimes the 256mb models come with slower Ram which means you take a performance loss.

Rough guide 9600se < 9600 < 9600pro < 9600xt etc....... At the very least get a 9600 but if you can stretch to the 9600pro price then do !!

ArthurG

Also thinking of upgrading the old graphics card..... not keeping up with these things as much as I used to, can anyone indicate if its worth holding out for a month or two, for any new products coming down the line from ATI/nVidia??

I'd be looking to spend 2 or 3 hundred on a card, so would be it better to hold fire a while?

Thanks!

BigEejit

Theres all sort of stuff coming in this year ... new case type (BTX - Balanced Technology eXtended), which will take new type motherboards, which will have a new slot type (PCI-Express) for graphics cards and later for other used-to-be-cheap-pci-but-now-they-are-pci-express-so-we-will-treble-the-price and new cpu slot types for prescott and Amd processors as well (I think) .... LOTS going on ... but if you arent upgrading box and mobo keep an eye out for Sapphire and Powercolor (hate the way that word is missing a u) 9800pro 128MB lite rtl boards .. they are normal cards, just no games or fluff, they come with cables alright though ... wicked fast and overclock quite nicely ... they dont stay in stock long though ... I got my one for €199 on Komplett

Col_Loki

The powercolor one comes with games like tomb raider etc , also has all the cables software, manual .....

The sapphire (lite version) as BigEejit comes with everything except the "frills" (basicly games).

Have heard a couple of stories around the overclocking forums that the lite version came with crappy ram (for overclocking) and has an older PCB (like the 9700's). The powercolor 9700pro i have comes with HYN (or something) ram which is dreadfull for overclocking (bout 5mhz) but the core will go to 400mhz (mabye more). Data on the boards has a 9800pro powercolor and has the much better samsung ram and seems to be getting a good overclock with standard cooler. I know that infinion ram is also fitted and aint great either.......... luck of the draw i think, both fantastic cards.

If komplett are out of stock or price goes up (it will monday) then you can get it for €216 from www.jes-computer.de .

Sir Random

Originally posted by ArthurG
Also thinking of upgrading the old graphics card..... not keeping up with these things as much as I used to, can anyone indicate if its worth holding out for a month or two, for any new products coming down the line from ATI/nVidia??

I'd be looking to spend 2 or 3 hundred on a card, so would be it better to hold fire a while?

Thanks!

Yeah, definitely hold out!
ATI & Nvidia are both launching their new chips, NV40 & R420, before the end of March (probably much sooner). Cards based on these chips will be a significant improvement over current DX9 cards, not only being much faster, but also adding new pixel and vertex shader technology PS3.0/VS3.0 which means you'll be futureproofed for another 18 months.
There are already demos out, showing the PS3/VS3 technology in action. Realistic cloth movement is just one example of the new capabilities (which won't be seen with an FX5950 or 9800 Pro/XT)
Some demos here:
http://www.pvrdev.com/pub/PC/eg/h/Cloth.htm

I've been waiting since Sep '03 (HL2 postponed) and I've managed to resist the wave of cheap 9800s on the market now. They're getting cheaper for a reason, they'll be "last-gen" technology in a few weeks time.