Your Valued Opinion!

madmoe

Hey all,
I'm in the market for a new graphics card that will play most of today's games and still be good for at least 6-8 months down the line. I saw this on Komplett http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&AvdID=1&p=29883&s=ut&CatID=24&GrpID=1 , just wondering is it a good deal, must order before weeks end so any input/feedback would be much appreciated.

Merci buckets

Dingatron

Its a nice card but in November Doom3 is coming out which is meant to need some serious power. I got the Radeon9100 a few months back which isn't a bad card, but I was a little disapointed with the grapics in GTA Vice City. I built a machine with a 9700 and if you are willing to spend a little more this is an awesome card! Also ATI are releasing new drivers every other month which helps performance etc, but problably more noticable on the newer cards.

Raz

That's the one Komplett have in their offer this week isn't it?
It's one of the higher end cards which I think will definitely be good for the next 8 months anyway. With the 128MB DDR it'll play any game out there at the moment quite comfortably.
Maybe it won't be able to manage full anti aliasing, with anisotropic thingy-ma-jobs while quad pumping the tri-linear filter yokey but then do you really need it to be able to do all those things?
It's a good card and will play everything out now, older games in their full splendor while newer games will need to be damped down a bit.
I'm not too sure how good that price is, have a look at the GeForce 4 ti 4600's and 4800's. I think they're in pretty much the same range. Campare the specs and features you get for the prices and you'll have an even better idea.

Hope that helps.

jow

Hi All,

that card is indeed very good. It suits most of the games around and it will be able to handle doom 3!

It really depends what you want. What processor do you have?

In most games it is not only the card, it is the combination of the resolution/card/processor which makes the difference.

The performance of the card is comparative with the GeForce 4200-128MB. And for that the price it is fair.

I would say: If you do not need high resolution (over 1024x768)this card will last at least one year.

Regards

jow

weemcd

bear in mind 256mb cards will be out soon 128mb card prices will fall, and the memory speed will probably be increased to keep up it might be better to wait and see how the new ge-force fx's change things

Captain Trips

I'd say a 9700 Pro would suit your needs better. Regarding Doom 3, yeah it'll need horsepower but TBH one game is not enough to justify a remortage for the obscene 5900 prices. It'll be prob 12-15 months more like that software will be out that'll stretch a 9700pro system. Or so I am hoping. I think the 5900 is going for 600 quid or so at Komplett. There's a decent 9700 Pro for just 377.

The easiest way out of things if you a serious PC gamer is not to not kid yourself about saving money on a card that's cheaper because invariably IMHO you end up pissed that you didn't spend just an extra 150 or 200 quid at the time 6 months earlier and get something more top of the line.

At least that's what I go on recently. It's made a hell of a difference to the graphics in games. Before I got a Voodoo when Voodoo II came out. Was stuck at bottom of the line gfx. Then a TNT2 when the GF was out and a GF2mx when the GF3 was out and GF4 was imminent. Always paying around 150-200 quid for the card and never experiencing the top gfx of the day.

So it made sense to me to just buy a bloody 9700Pro for 500 quid and TBH it's absolutely excellent and maybe this christmas it'll be stretched buy likely by Doom 3 only. The like of TR:AoD, Galaxies, etc., or other big games won't push it over the edge.

Go and splash out. I genuinely believed that the money I payed for the 9700 was worth it considering the upgrade was from a GF2mx.

Dingatron

I'd say a 9700 Pro would suit your needs better. Regarding Doom 3, yeah it'll need horsepower but TBH one game is not enough to justify a remortage for the obscene 5900 prices. .

Agreed, but I reckon Doom3 is just the begining. The last 2 games I bought, UT2003 and GTA-VC are both very graphics intensive. Sure you can play them with some of the features turned off but when you see them on a 9700 it really makes the extra few bob worth it.
BTW: The Omega 3.4 catalyst drivers have a soft hack for 9500 =>9700 but you may need the PRO version.