Which Gfx Card?

I'm thinking of shelling out on a mid-range gfx card and need advice.
Gainward GeForce FX5600 256Mb 5ns - £108
PowerColor Radeon 9600 Pro EZ 256Mb - £109
Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro Fireblade 128Mb - £124
(Example prices)

1. Are these worthy choices or is there better value available?
2. Is the Sapphire worth the extra cash?
3. Should I look for a s/hand Radeon 9500 Pro instead?

9600 pro is the card to get at the moment, If however you can find a 9500 PRO then snao it up

yea i would get the 9600pro for the price. Bundles are important to me so i would spend a little more for a good software bundle

Quote:

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Originally posted by Vimeous
I'm thinking of shelling out on a mid-range gfx card and need advice.
Gainward GeForce FX5600 256Mb 5ns - £108
PowerColor Radeon 9600 Pro EZ 256Mb - £109
Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro Fireblade 128Mb - £124
(Example prices)

1. Are these worthy choices or is there better value available?
2. Is the Sapphire worth the extra cash?
3. Should I look for a s/hand Radeon 9500 Pro instead?

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Amazed no-one else has grabbed the burning issue of buying a mid range card with 256Mb of memory on it...put simply, both the ATi and Nvidia offerings with 256Mb in the midrange use far slower memory speed, and don't perform as well - destroying the future proofing you thought you'd got from the extra.

Evidence here

9600 Pro(that sapphire card should be excellent), unless you can find a 9500 Pro.

9500Pro's can be found, for a lovely $202.

What's the difference between 9600PRO and PRO EZ?

Also, is a regular 9500 better than a 9600PRO if the price is a just a smidge less?

$202 = 120 sterling approx.

If you get up to the $200 price point. The 5900 (non Ultra) is the way to go. I got one (eVGA) 5900 clocks are 400/850 default. I run it at 450/900 faster than a 5900 Ultra. And its not based on a crippled architecture like the 5600, 9600, etc..

9500 pro for $205
5900 (regular) for $205 <--- better choice (IMHO) best buy
5700 Ultra for $200

now at $300 the 9800 Pro is the way to go

at $140-150 price point I'd probably go with the 9600 Pro unless the 5700's come down in price to match.

this place is getting more and more international :D :D :D

i guess the whole point of the tinternet

Galant i am in the same situation as you.. iam not entirely sure which card to go for at the moment = /. Iam leaning hard towards a Hercules 9700 pro for about 255 USD.. or Gettting the 5900 non ultra. But in my case i have to think about the physical size of the cards. I just want to take my time and get a card i will be happy with for at least 6months. i think iam gonna get the 9700pro.

:cool: evildoc614 if size is important to you then the Radeons are definitely the way to go, 9600PRO's run very cool, don't need an external power plug and are pretty short (shorter than 9700/9800 IIRC). If you want the extra perf you could look to the 9700/9800 which are still a fair way shorter than the GF-FX cards. FX5700ULTRA do look promising but they're using the same fundamentally flawed FX architecture so you may do well to stick with ATI.

:D As said 256MB is a gimick and pointless esp when you factor in cost and the chances of getting slow RAM. Knowing Powercolor the 9600 PRO EZ it's probably a 9600nonPRO or a 9600PRO using 64bitDDR or something, definitely best avoided! So out of the ones you list the Sapphire 9600PRO 128MB is easily the best choice. 9600PRO or 9600XT are the best of the current selection of cards but you may find a good deal on the superior 9500PRO or 9700 series which are no longer produced ;). Brand generally matters little, price and bundle are the biggest concerns so long as it is a true PRO.

imo get a 9800 SE AIW - comes with AIW goodies and very good performance, also may be possible to open the 8 pipe lines and get 9800 performance! all for £131 - check the Bargain Hunt for the link :)

People need to say their budget when they ask which card is best. B/c at different levels its often differen brands/models/etc.

Ex:
no budget: 9800XT or 5950U
$300: 9800 Pro
$250: 9700 Pro
$200: 5900 non Ultra
$150: 9600 Pro
$85-100: GF4ti4200
Anything under $80 sucks!! :)

With regard to the memory timing issue Gainward also offer:
Gainward GeForce FX5600 256Mb 3.6ns - £145

£125 is breaking the bank for me so I'm left with 2 options:
1. Hunt for a 9500 Pro
2. 9600 Pro

However how much performance difference is their between an FX5600 plain (with better than 5ns mem timing) and 9600 Pro?
And what is an FX5600XT?!

Ok rather then starting a new thread ill just take over this one = ) is it worth 10 more bucks for the Hercules 9700PRO vs the ATi 9700pro ( the hercules is 255 and the Ati is 245) both are retail i cant find whats bundle with either.. thnx

:D evildoc614 either are believed to be top cards so you win either way.

;) Vimeous check your PM. FX5600 is SLOW with capital S.L.O.W. The FX5600ultra has a few different versions all much faster but is still very much inferior in every way to the Rad9600PRO. Not that I'd advise it but a Rad9600PRO_64MB is better than the FX5600_256MB. If you do want to consider an FX card the FX5700ULTRA is the only one to go for as anything lower is poor (and over-priced) while anything higher costs loads more. Really 9600PRO is the smart price unless you can get a good deal on a 2nd hand card like the 8 piped 9500PRO.

PS. There is no FX5600XT, XT is the motif used by ATI Radeons to effectively denote the PRO version of a PRO card.

I found the FX5600XT on Komplett where they've listed one of the Creative cards that way. Reckon it must be a typo.