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Author Topic: Buying a new graphic card  (Read 1449 times)

Offline Seed_Of_Evil
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Buying a new graphic card
« on: January 27, 2004, 06:44:44 AM »
It\'s time to throw away my old Gforce2 and buy a new graphic card. This time it will be a ATI. I\'m really fed up with what nVidia is doing lately and I\'ve been thinking on purchasing a 9800Pro 256mb.

I\'ve watching specs, prices, etc and I really like the Asus Radeon 9800Pro/TVD. The problem is that I don\'t know very much about this manufacturer and I\'d like to receive critics about the reliability of this company. I know it by the mobos but nothing about its graphics cards.

The specs of the card are these:

Graphics Engine  ATI Radeon 9800 XT
Video Memory  256 MB DDR
Engine Clock  380MHz
Memory Clock  680MHz(340MHz DDR)
RAMDAC  400MHz
Bus Standard  AGP8X/4X/2X
Memory Interface  256-bit DDR
Max Resolution  2048x1536
VGA Output Standard  15-pin D-sub
TV-out put  S-VHS and Composite
Video-in put  S-VHS and Composite
DVI Output  DVI-I
2nd VGA Output  Yes



The card has a price of 399€ I know it\'s expensive but I want a card that lastes a min time of 3 years. I wanna play the latest games and not the bullshit I\'ve to play right now. I suppose I won\'t any problem to run HL2 in my system with this one.

Anyway, I\'m opened to new suggestions that are around 400€.
What do u think?
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Offline Paul2

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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2004, 07:49:13 AM »
If money isn\'t a problem.  Then go for it, but if it were me, i rather buy a cheaper one like the $100 since i don\'t play any computer games, except solitaire, and the such.  Because i know sooner or later, the price for the card is going to come down.
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Offline Seed_Of_Evil
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2004, 07:53:02 AM »
LOL, for solitaire my GF2 is more than enough, about 2000fps in the latest benchmarks :laughing:
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Offline THX
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2004, 10:07:04 AM »
XT is the latest and greatest 9800 card.  You can always go for a less expensive 9800 Pro or non-pro and flash its bios to Pro specs.

Asus is a very good and experienced card maker.  They use quality parts and have a good reputation because of it.

edit- check out this Tom\'s Hardware review  of the Asus 9600 xt/tvd.  Lotsa neat features and a decent software bundle.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2004, 10:09:13 AM by THX »
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Offline FatalXception
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2004, 11:55:34 AM »
I love my ASUS card.  No scrimping on parts, and I\'ve overclocked it about 20% with no problems.  The only complaint I have about ASUS is that their drivers are always a bit behind, and tend to have small bugs.  

I\'m back to the NVIDIA reference drivers now, for mine, because I couldn\'t get the VIVO ASUS drivers working.
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Offline Blade
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2004, 11:56:17 AM »
My opinion would be to wait just a few months more and make a real upgrade when ATi releases the first cards using the R4xx chipsets. 9800XT is the best you\'ll find today, but it\'s a R3xx card.

Respectable as hell, but if you\'re upgrading for the long-term stay away from it. Or, at least wait until the R420 and other variants emerge.. then get the 9800 Pro or 9800XT at reduced prices.

There\'s also the possibility of nVidia\'s new part taking back the crown, so watch for that. I\'m personally going to wait for HL2/D3 benchmarks using the next nVidia part and the R420 until I upgrade my GF3.
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Offline theomen
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2004, 08:15:27 PM »
I think I\'m going to throw a 9600xt in my new 3000+xp Barton system.  Then wait a while for the new cards to comeout and then upgrade.  But for right now I figure that a 9600xt should be damn good for a while.
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Offline Seed_Of_Evil
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2004, 04:38:43 AM »
I\'ve bought the Asus A9800Pro/TVD 256mb. Tell ya later how it is :p
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Offline theomen
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2004, 09:26:44 PM »
I think I\'m going to pick up a 9800pro tonight, I\'ve got about 10 minutes to mke up my mind...
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Offline theomen
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2004, 09:57:16 PM »
yup, got it for 200 shipped, not bad if you ask me.
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Offline Seed_Of_Evil
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2004, 02:22:01 AM »
128mb dude? what memory speed?
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Offline theomen
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2004, 02:09:03 PM »
damnit, the place I ordered it from just sent me a (\'m sorry but you\'ll have to wait 6 weeks as we\'re f*ck\'n understocked" email.  So instead I just picked up a nice little Nvidia Gainward 5900 ultra on newegg for 200 something.  Overclock that little bitch and I\'ll be flying.
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Offline theomen
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2004, 07:42:38 PM »
little update, I found that just using the installed software with the card you can OC this up to 480/950 MHz (a little higher than 5950 speeds) and still be covered by the Gainward warranty....sweeeeet

*edit
for those unfamiliar with this card here are the specs;

Chipset/Core Speed: GeForce FX 5900/400MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 128MB DDR(256-bit,2.2ns)/850MHz
BUS: AGP 1X/2X/4X/8X
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub)+VIVO+DVI connector
Support 3D API: DirectX®9.0, OpenGL®1.4
Cable/Accessories: VIVO&Power Cables, VGA via DVI Adapter, 3 CD, Manual
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536@85Hz
Retail Box (See pics for details)
NVIDIA CineFX 2.0 engine
NVIDIA Intellisample high-resolution compression technology (HCT) improves performance at high resolutions
NVIDIA UltraShadow technology enhances performance of bleeding-edge games that use complex shadows.
AGP 3.0 support for 8x and 4x and AGP 2.0 support for 4x, 2x, 1x

« Last Edit: January 30, 2004, 07:57:36 PM by theomen »
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Offline Halberto
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2004, 08:32:18 PM »
You guys ever go here to buy your stuff? It\'s so ****ing cheap

http://www.pricewatch.com/
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Offline theomen
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Buying a new graphic card
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2004, 08:52:46 PM »
yeah, that\'s where I went to get my 9800 pro, but f*cking customer support is SHIT.  Here\'s a horror story, I once had to wait 5 weeks for an item through a pricewatch affiliated store.

And the 5900\'s they had weren\'t 256bit versions but 128bit versions.  I think the diff between pricewatch and newegg was like 5 bucks or so.  Anytime I can get newegg anywhere near as low as pricewatch, I go with newegg.

*edit
just checked and the gainward through pricewatch was a TotalCost of $223.00.  Not bad, but newegg is worth the extra few dollars.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2004, 08:57:32 PM by theomen »
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