Radeon 9200 or 9600SE advice

[Meydey]

Alright, I have a $100 gc to Circuit City and they have the 9200 for $99 and 9600se (with HL2) for $129. They also have a PNY FX 5200 for $69 but I've heard bad things about them. Unfortunately, wife won't go for the 9600xt.

I am upgrading from a Geforce2 mx 400 Personal Cinema. I'm a casual gamer and don't need all the bells and whistles. Heck I just finished Halo at 800x600 with the gf2mx.

Pc is an Athlon 1.8, Epox 8kha+, 512 DDR, 80 and 30 gb hd, Antec box and ps.

Which card is the best deal? Thanks.

 

[Schadenfroh]

all suck, for less than those prices you can get a 4200 that will be better

 

[lifeguard1999]

This one is going to hurt me to say ..... Go with the 9600SE. Normally I am not a fan of the Lite or SE products, but the 9600 is much better than the 9200. While it is using different code paths (DX9 vs. DX8), you can see that the 9600SE gets 28 fps in Halo versus 16 fps for the 9200. THG Review Link

Personally I would find a 9600 somewhere rather than go with the SE version.

 

[Noubourne]

At that price range I too have to recommend the Ti4200 or Ti 4600 instead, it's just better performance. For about $44 more ($144 last I checked), the Radeon 9800 128MB will get you almost twice the performance of just about any of the chips you mentioned.

Seriously consider moving your price range up to $150, or wait another 3 months till the 9800 price comes down when the next gen chips are released.

I wouldn't trade my Ti4600 for a 9600 if you paid me.

 

[Peter]

$130 should buy you a plain 9600. Elsewhere.

 

[new2AMD]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
At that price range I too have to recommend the Ti4200 or Ti 4600 instead, it's just better performance. For about $44 more ($144 last I checked), the Radeon 9800 128MB will get you almost twice the performance of just about any of the chips you mentioned.

Seriously consider moving your price range up to $150, or wait another 3 months till the 9800 price comes down when the next gen chips are released.

I wouldn't trade my Ti4600 for a 9600 if you paid me.

since the question was which of the MENTIONED cards would I choose..I would get the 9600se with HL2 coupon.

 

[JCROCCO]

I too am in the market for a god gaming machine, and looking for the right video card.

Can anyone give me a good list and a bad list, so I know what to and what not to buy.

I do gaming, high graphics, flight sims, other sims, and want performance, better than my geforce2 mx400 4xagp gave me. I will be using an 8X agp adapter in my new system

any advice is appreciated.

 

[new2AMD]

just do a search in this forum for 9800 pro and start reading.

 

[high]

"For about $44 more ($144 last I checked), the Radeon 9800 128MB will get you almost twice the performance of just about any of the chips you mentioned"

Just wondering where a 9800 for that price can be had?

 

[jjyiz28]

trade in the wife, get the 9800XT. =)

 

[The Green Bean]

ti4800

 

[Leonsteward]

If you got a good cpu and ram get the 9600se everyone seems to hate it but it runs game amazingly on my pc and with high/highest setting graphics. I have an Athlon XP 2600+ with 512mb of ram tho so i guess that supports it but i think its good card myself.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: high
"For about $44 more ($144 last I checked), the Radeon 9800 128MB will get you almost twice the performance of just about any of the chips you mentioned"

Just wondering where a 9800 for that price can be had?

were ever you can get a 9800se, the performace claim is a little absurd though unless you are lucky enough to get one that softmods without issue.

 

[The Green Bean]

dun get ny SE ...they suk

 

[Meydey]

Okay, another question. A local shop has a bunch of MSI 128 mb Ti-4600's for $99. Should I dump the gc and get one of those?

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Meydey
Okay, another question. A local shop has a bunch of MSI 128 mb Ti-4600's for $99. Should I dump the gc and get one of those?

I don't know what gc stands for, but yes.

 

[jjyiz28]

Originally posted by: Meydey
Okay, another question. A local shop has a bunch of MSI 128 mb Ti-4600's for $99. Should I dump the gc and get one of those?

which shop?? im interested?? thats a very nice price.

 

[Meydey]

Shop is PC Recycle. Federal Way, Washington. No website and they require the printed ad. Found it in Computer Source Mag. Gonna call tomorrow.

btw gc = gift card.

 

[Cerb]

Go there tomorrow, $110 or so is still a great price for a *Ti 4200* 128MB, and while it loses in DX9, it doesn't really lose to anything, because there is currently no decent DX9 card in that price range.

 

[JCROCCO]

If you buy and install a card that doesnt have dx9, will it work on games that require dx9?

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: JCROCCO
If you buy and install a card that doesnt have dx9, will it work on games that require dx9?

...as a minimum spec? No. However, I don't know of any games out there, or that will be coming out within the enxt 2-3 years requiring dx9. Any that do will promptly die due to low sales. *Most* people are still perfectly happy with GF2 to GF4MX-level cards.
Not having a dx9 card, you just won't get quite the visual goodies and performance.
However, the 9600SE has such pitiful performance with the 64-bit memory that you won't want to use it anyway compared to a decent dx8 card.

 

[goot]

actually, isn't pixel shader v2.0 a DX9.0 effect?

Most games require pixel shader v 2.0 and above.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: goot
actually, isn't pixel shader v2.0 a DX9.0 effect?

Most games require pixel shader v 2.0 and above.

The requirements are almost universally for "compatible," not, "compliant."
Just like all these games (most out now) requring dx8.1 cards in the sys reqs work fine on a GF SDR. But being made with dx8 or dx9, you need drivers that can translate it all. Goin with a real dx9 card now will be worth it, except in the case of the super-cripples, like the 9600SE

 

[ruther]

Isn´t 9600 SE version worse than 9200(no SE) ?

 

[goot]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1933&p=2