What would yield the best performance gain?

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Go for the 9800 PRO (not XT, why add 5fps more?) or 9600XT and a Raptor drive.

I mean, you want to play Half-Life 2 at the best possible resolution without sacrificing quality right? Then go for the 9600XT or 9800 Pro.
 
AHHH! NO 5900!!! NOT A GOOD CARD FOR NEW GAMES!

Yes it's true, ATI wins the best performance and quality with DX9 games, DONT WASTE IT ON A 5900! I am warning you, you'll be slapping yourself in the head when HL2 comes out and you're stuck at DX8 since ATI offers full DX9 compliance and Pixel Shaders 2.1 :D

You've been warned. Check the benchmarks!
 
Originally posted by SubKamran
AHHH! NO 5900!!! NOT A GOOD CARD FOR NEW GAMES!

Yes it's true, ATI wins the best performance and quality with DX9 games, DONT WASTE IT ON A 5900! I am warning you, you'll be slapping yourself in the head when HL2 comes out and you're stuck at DX8 since ATI offers full DX9 compliance and Pixel Shaders 2.1 :D

You've been warned. Check the benchmarks!

Show me some of these benchmarks. I haven't seen any degrading the 5900 massively in all the research I did.
 
Nah, the benchmarks are gonna show these two cards nip and tuck with each other. The DirectX 9 thing, that could still be right tho. NVidia gambled and lost about which shaders Microsoft would implement in DX9. Might have been fixed with driver revisions, I don't know that. I did know some guys that really had heat issues with the nVidia tho. Card would get so hot it wouldn't do 3D at all, just 2D.

Anyway, good luck, and whatever you get, maybe you could do some benchmarks and post em' up. I think your gonna be really happy, specially with the Raptors...

Later....
 
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/aquamark3.html

From Half-Life2.Net:
If you want a superior DX9 gaming card, go with a ATI card.
DX9 graphics cards start with the 9500 model and up to the 9800XT.
128 or 256mb does not really matter much at all.

From my experience, you want the standard model (e.i. 9600) or a Pro (e.i. 9600 Pro). There are even XT which are even better but do not buy a SE model (e.i. 9200 SE) as you might as well buy the Pro from the lower model (e.i. 9000Pro).

If you are looking about the price range of the ATI Radeon 9200 or the Nvidia FX 5200 then I might look into the Gefore 4 TI cards (Not MX). They do not have DX9 but they have great performance.
The Nvidia FX 5200 is not worth your time.

If you are looking into OpenGL applications (non-gaming applications) or 2D performance then I might look to Nvidia's FX for that.

Or you could wait til the new cards come out this spring.

Also, I may be a little behind since I saw the benchmarks with earlier driver versions but in my personal experience I've found ATi to have the best quality.

For DX9 games, ATI seems to be winning right now and for earlier games there's practically no difference. The reason I am telling you to purchase a ATI card is because the DX9 performance is about 20-30% faster than Nvidia cards and because Valve stated that Half-Life 2 will be toned down (DX8) for nvidia cards until Nvidia releases a better chipset.

So, if you are shooting for latest games, it's ATI, earlier games, get Nvidia or ATI.
 
I still think I got the best video card. I won't be playing new games (HL2, Doom3 etc.) for a while now, and by then I won't care about the DX9 thing, or nVidia will release a new BIOS or drivers to "fix" that. I got the best video card I could get, I was severely limited in budget and I completely maxed out (actually went over :rolleyes: ). The only other video cards I could have gotten was a 9600XT or a 9700 Pro. I decided with the 5900 over the 9700 Pro because it seemed "newer" and I can soft-mod the 5900 to a 5950 Ultra, which is a (slightly) better card anyway. The Radeon 9800 (non-pro) was $260, and I paid $220 for the 5900. And, the reason I didn't want the 9600XT was it still was only 128bit.

Maybe if a brand as good as Gainward made ATi cards :)
 
ASUS has made some ATi cards, though I've read somewhat mixed reviews (most seem to be good).

Did you order your parts already?
 
the current crop of nvidia's cards DX9 problems will not be fixed by either a bios flash or drivers. ( though drivers can mitigate it to some degree.) that is because the problem is a hardware problem not a software one.
 
Originally posted by farmer
Ah agissi, but there is a difference if you're into benchmarking! The 9800Pro will blow a 9700Pro right out of the water. It's all relative...

[not flaming :p] but are you kidding? 'blow it right out of the water'?? I'd like to see some benchies showing that.
 
Originally posted by ---agissi---
[not flaming :p] but are you kidding? 'blow it right out of the water'?? I'd like to see some benchies showing that.

You are very right agissi, a bad choice of words on my part. I did have a 9700 Pro, and could never break the 20k barrier in 3DMark01. Sold it, got a 9800 Pro, and the same system, with some minor changes, hit 21k. Was it worth the $ difference? To me it was, for someone else, maybe not. To each his own with these machines, enough room for everyone I say...

Vehementi, hope you enjoy the upgrades...
 
Same here Veh, I hope you enjoy your upgrades as well because since you aren't planning to play next-gen games yet then you'll be perfect with what you bought :)
 
Thank you all :) And enjoy I will. I especially can't wait for the 74G Raptor. It is effectively 2x as fast as my current drive (read access time - 8.9ms to 4.5). Plus I get to play around and rearrange all my partition setups, which I do enjoy throughly. Hmm, 35G here, 10G there, 10G here and there...Soon I'll be running 1/4 TB
 
Originally posted by Scol
ASUS has made some ATi cards, though I've read somewhat mixed reviews (most seem to be good).

Did you order your parts already?

The ASUS cards I saw were incredibly expensive. I mean I would buy a good card for more, but, the bundled games were just so lame (a 6 in 1 pack of demos! Yay!) I couldn't.

And yea I ordered my parts, FedEx says they'll be hear Tuesday.
 
True, true... I got to admit, that bundle is not very impressive, to say the least, and ASUS definitely is quite expensive. But hey, to each their own. I'm sure you'll notice the difference when you plug in your new components.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your new toys. Have fun setting it up:D
 
Oh, Veh, let us know how truly fast the Raptor is. I'm planning to buy a 74GB version too....need to make sure it's worth it :D
 
Well the Raptors are fast, and Vehementi you are really gonna see a difference. I've had the 36G model since April, and consistantly score over 10k in PCMark memory. It really is a primo HD...

Later....
 
Benchmarks are Benchmarks, I want to know if you actually see I difference - not in numbers. Can you tell its faster? Or do the numbers just say it is.
 
Originally posted by ---agissi---
Benchmarks are Benchmarks, I want to know if you actually see I difference - not in numbers. Can you tell its faster? Or do the numbers just say it is.

Ok agissi, the numbers say it is, good enough? Seems I was wrong about the 9800 Pro, and now the Raptor HD. Glad you are policeing me here, since I'm giving such bad advice... :rolleyes:

BTW, do you run a Raptor?
 
Radeon 9800 Pro performance relative to 9700 Pro @ at 1280x1024x32 ...

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However, I don't feel you'll notice the difference in games, as even a 9600 Pro is fast enough for most games these days.
 
That is a fair difference, but do you think that extra 15% is worth the extra $100? I wouldnt.
 
As long as you're averaging more than 25-30 fps in games, then paying more for a better card is a waste, but nice if you can afford it.
 
Originally posted by Nic
As long as you're averaging more than 25-30 fps in games, then paying more for a better card is a waste, but nice if you can afford it.

Yup your absolutly right. Most of the time though I'll get a better card then whats needed, so games in the future wont make me go buy another.

The eye doesnt see any faster then 24FPS. So a card that does 60FPS is just as good in the game as a card that does 24FPS.
 
Originally posted by ---agissi---
The eye doesnt see any faster then 24FPS. So a card that does 60FPS is just as good in the game as a card that does 24FPS.
There is one small thing that you probably haven't considered. The way games work, means that any input from your game controller (e.g. joystick, mouse, keyboard, etc.) is only read once each frame. Higher fps means that games become more responsive to input devices, which may make a difference when fragging online. You'll have the edge over any of your opponents that have slower hardware, even though visually you won't notice too much difference. ;)
 
An edge? Yeah maybe, but not much. I think your ping will have a much higher toll on that edge then your hardware.
 
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