Radeon help

[Moshenokoji]

I'm currently running an ATi Radeon 9600XT 128mb and i'm thinking of upgrading to a 256mb 9800 PRO or XT all retail with the box and the cables etc. I've looked at three cards and i'm not sure which one would be the best one to get, two of them are Sapphires, one being a Radeon 9800 PRO 256mb ( $159.99) and the other a Radeon 9800 PRO 256mb Ultimate Edition with GDDR2 memory the one with te clunky heat sink ($194.99), not to mention this one comes with Wolfenstien and Soldier of Fortune - but i'm looking at power to run Everquest II so bundled games are kinda on the back burner. The last one is made by some Tiawanese company named Jetway, it's a Radeon 9800XT 256mb card ($179.99).
SO, i was wonder if any of you could lend out some friendly advice by looking at the cards and telling me what you think is the best deal and/or more reliable.

9800XT 256mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814153020

9800 PRO GDDR2 256mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102294

9800 PRO 256mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102511

[Shoeberto]

My best recommendation would be to get an nVidia card

Look up reviews and stuff. Find the middle ground between good reviews and within your price range.

[Yamaneko]

You will get more bang for your buck with a Geforce 6600GT at roughly the same price as a 9800Pro.

I'll move this to Help.

[Moshenokoji]

I don't think i'll ever buy a nVidia card after the last one i had died on me after a short period of time. ATi makes a better product, none of them have died on me lol. Alot of the 256mb 6600GTs are PCI-Express, i don't have that.

[Samuraid]

Sorry that you had a bad experience but you still should consider nVidia. ATi cards are great, but nVidia's at least as good and better deal speed-wise. The key is to buy a card from a reputable manufacturer, such as Gigabyte, eVGA, ASUS, MSI, etc... (not a bad brand like Chaintech)

[Moshenokoji]

I've been looking at the 6600GT's. they have some real speed to them that's for sure. And the price on the 128's is really good, but i need a 256mb for Everquest II, and the only one i can find in AGP 8X is like 230 bucks, i'd rather not go over $200. the GeForce i had last time was a Gainward FX5200, i think it was victim to crappy cooling since they only put a lil cheap heat sink on it that was blistering hot after like 20 minutes of gameplay. If i can find a 256mb 6600GT for around 200, i'll probably get it. If not i'll probably get one of those 9800 PROs, that Jetway 9800XT doesn't look to safe, since most 9800XTs you see have a fairly large heat sink on them...that one..doesn't and it just doesn't look safe.

[Samuraid]

From everquest2.station.sony.com:

What are the game's requirements?
-Operating System: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
-Processor: 1GHz or greater
-RAM: 512 MB
-Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible. Pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 64 MB of texture memory
-Sound Card: DirectSound compatible audio hardware

64MB+ should be adequate.

[Moshenokoji]

lol, that's the minimum requirements. i'd hate to see how that game would play with a 64mb card, and 1 GB of ram is recomended. high graphics requires a 256mb VRAM and the "maximum graphics settings" requires 512mb VRAM, atleast that 's one the game says in the graphics settings while you're setting them ingame. i have it set on medium right now cause my card is 128mb, and it runs pretty solid and looks decent. Basicly the more ram you have the better off you'll be.

[Samuraid]

Ah, I see. Max quality graphics look amazing in a lot of the newest games.

EDIT: I just looked at prices, and the best I could find was a GeForce FX 6600 (non GT) with 256MB VRAM for around 150$ USD. The GT edition was $230 USD minimum. (XFX card, AGP 8X, not too sure about how good XFX is)

If you have your heart set on Radeon, go with this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102361

[Yamaneko]

VRAM isn't as important as how fast the GPU can push data through the card and into other parts of the system. High clock and memory speeds (500/1000 MHz on the AGP GDDR-3 model) and eight data pipelines give it the edge over the 9800 Pro. The 9800 Pro may use 256MB of VRAM, but it uses the DDR-II standard which is not GPU specific. The 6600GT uses 128MB of GDDR-3 RAM which provides for better power management and higher memory speeds than DDR-2.

The ironic thing is that GDDR-3 was developed by Ati, but they didn't start using it until the X800 came out. Meanwhile, Nvidia has been using it since the 5700 Ultra.

[Samuraid]

Well said.

[Moshenokoji]

So the 6600GT can push more through than the 9800PRO? hrmmmm... I was actually considering the Sapphire ultimate Radeon 9800 PRO cause it didn't need power ran to it seperatly to run the fan, i'll have to get a power splitter to get a fanned one, but that's probably worth it. The ATi card you posted has a dude that plays EQ2 on there and he says it's awesome for that game, i'll probably get that one, thanks for the advice, i didn't see that one earlier while i was searching

[CloudSquallandZidane]

No such thing as a Geforce 6600GT 256MB i think. Because then why would any1 buy a 6800???

ATI makes a faster card... this is true... BUT Nvidia 6 series provides more quality, as the X series is WAY overpriced and it only comes with Shader 2.0, but the 6 series offers shader 3.0, which as Lost Coast, a half-life extenstion is going to prove, it will be nessecary to manage High Dynamic Range Lighting(HDR).

If i were u i'd consider waiting to get a whole new board and go for SLI. My 2 6600GTS are magnificent, the 128 memory still holds them back a bit, so if u want Antialiasing and Antriscopic filtering, u should go with the X700, but if u dont notice it... i dont... then the 6600 256MB or the 6600GT should be fine and last for WAY longer than he 9800 pro is gonna be around for.

[Yamaneko]

The Lost Coast level was designed for Ati users using the 9800 Pro or higher. And I agree, Ati's 800 series is a big waste of money. Benchmarks prove that it only has a slight advantage over the Geforce 6800 non-Ultra. As for SLI, wait on using it. The 6600GT in SLI mode isn't that great. You might see a 10-20% increase in performance, when you could just get a 6800GT with the money. Dual 6800GTs work great in SLI mode, though, but I really doubt you'd like to spend $800+ on video cards.

If you must, get the 9800 Pro, it's still a good card. But I have to recommend the 6600GT for looking into the future more with it's pixel shader 3.0 support.

[Samuraid]

They do make FX6600GTs with 256MB of VRAM, but not many. I only found 1 or 2 available.