Which Video Card?

[CagedApe]

Alright I need some help deciding on which video card to buy.

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Memory: 128 MB
Core clock: 380MHz
D-SUB: 1
DirectX: DirectX 9
DVI: 1
Max Resolution: 2048x1536@85Hz
Memory Clock: 680MHz
OpenGL: OpenGL 1.5
SLI Supported: No
TV Tuner: No
TV-Out: S-Video/Composite Out
Price: $129.99 + s/h

Or

nVidia GeForce 6600
Memory: 256 MB
Core clock: 300MHz
DirectX: DirectX 9
DVI: 1
Max Resolution: 2048x1536@85Hz
Memory Clock: 500MHz
OpenGL: OpenGL 1.5
PixelPipelines: 8
RAMDAC: 400 MHz
TV Tuner: No
TV-Out: S-Video Out
Price: 135.00 + s/h

[Butters]

I have the 9800 Pro, it kicks ***.

[CagedApe]

Edit: should have added this before. The 9800 Pro has 128 MB memory and the GeForce 6600 has 256 MB memory.

I have a Radeon 9200 128 MB card now so whichever one I choose will be a HUGE improvement.

[Coppertop]

ATI, for sure.

Allow me to share with you a little story of nVidia:

Once upon a time, there was coppertop. He was a happy fellow who after deciding to upgrade his video card, managed to get his hands on a GeForce4 MX 440. He gleefully installed his new videocard and the driver and all was well. That was, until his driver aged a bit. And then it caused instability. Coppertop figured that it was just because the driver was a bit old, so he upgraded - and that's when everything really went into the ****ter. Instability grew instead of shrank, and there were display errors galore. Coppertop was dumbfounded - aren't drivers supposed to generally backwards compatible for a certain period of time which I was most certainly not out of? Apparently not. After much investigation Coppertop discovered that the sonsa*****es at nVidia aren't big fans of backwards compatability and that there are only two or three drivers of the many that are out there which can support his card even a little bit. Coppertop exploded in violent rage. After mucking around trying to find one of the elusive three, he finally managed to find one of those drivers which he has had to live with, unable to play 3D games, or use 3D applications. Photoshop takes twice as long to do anything. His refresh rate has dropped below 60hz, and scrolling is choppy.
Coppertop asked around, and he could easily count at the very least ten of his tech friends who also had troubles with nVidia and/or their drivers.

So learn a lesson little kiddies, nVidia is not your friend.

[Butters]

Get the Radeon 9800 XT Pro 256mb, that's what iv got, never had any problems, runs any game / program.

[kirupa]

From the specs you posted, the 9800 Pro seems to be faster than the 6600 in core speed and memory. Extra memory is good, but for *most* of today's games, you would rather have your card prefetch and display data faster than being able to store more textures in memory.

[CagedApe]

Get the Radeon 9800 XT Pro 256mb, that's what iv got, never had any problems, runs any game / program.

I found one for $180, but I don't have that kind of money. the $135/$130 is really scraping my limit.

[Ryall]

ATI all the way... read K-Man's post, he speaks the truth - you want speed over mem. Also coppertops testimonial speaks volumes: who wants hardware from a company that produces new drivers that are not backward compatable?!

Peace

[CagedApe]

Well I bought the 9800 Pro. If I decide to get the 256MB Pro then I'll just sell this one on eBay ;)

[Templarian]

9800
(a 6800 GT is what i have runs any game/ program on the market currently.)

[McGuffin]

I have to disagree with everyone here, and say go with the 6600, depending on which model and make. Reference (http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050404/geforce_6600-30.html). The 6600 models float easily around the 9800XT marks, in which the XT is much better at performing than the Pro model you are looking at. Not only that, the 6600 supports PS3.0 while the Radeon x700 (a generation FURTHER than the 9800 cards) still only supports PS 2.0 extended.

Seems like a no-duh situation to me. The 6600 performs better, gives you more bang for your buck, and will perform and look EVEN better than any model of 9800 you get once games start using PS3.0 more extensively.

[kirupa]

Colin - regarding the benchmarks you posted, they don't test the regular 6600. They 6600 variants they show are the GT and Ultra versions which have much higher clock speeds for the core and memory than the regular 6600 and the Radeon 9800 Pro. The average 6600GT runs at 500MHz clock and 1000MHz memory, but it also is more expensive. The cheapest I found on newegg was for 169.99.

:)

[McGuffin]

Ah, ran a search on Tom's Hardware and thats what came up. Crappy search engine + not fully reading = problems :)

[Maxtr0sity]

Also look up on if these cards are unlockable, some cards are bounded by the manufacture but infact a higher grade is the same card with things unlocked. Look into it, saves you money.

[Ryall]

There's always the overclocking option to boost your cards performance (kiss your waranty good bye though).


Peace

[Templarian]

dont over clock a vid card, its not a good idea its not worth it burning out, note some cards have fans like the 6800 which are fine to overclock (i dont becuase i dont see the point).
and i think hes going with the 9800

[Maxtr0sity]

O/C is definitely useful, I underclock mine most of the time to minimize heat output and crank it up when I need it to do it's job.