radeon 9600 pro or xt?

[Stug]

I need a new video card so that I can play KOTOR and HL2 this summer. I'll be starting college this fall, so I don't really want to spend that much money on a new card that I won't use for that long. I'm looking at the radeon 9600 pro and xt, but I can't decide which to go with. The pro can be had for about $130, while the xt is closer to $150. That said, it it worth the extra money for the xt? I'm not so sure how I feel about having to download hl2 from steam...

 

[LTC8K6]

The XT is not worth the money, imo.

Make sure you get a pro with the faster memory, there are 400mhz and 600mhz versions.

This one has the 600mhz memory.

 

[Triforceofcourage]

I have been running that Gigabyte 9600 pro for around 4 months now and it runs my game really well so far. The gigabyte 9600xt is only a few bucks more if I memory serves me right so why not just get that one. Whether the extra speed boost warrants the extra price I don't know but either one should not let you down because I am quite enjoying my 9600 pro.

 

[Bovinicus]

$20 isn't too bad for the performance increase it offers, but it sounds like you just go with the pro. If money is that much of an issue that you are questioning such a small difference, then cheaper is probably better in this case.

 

[Stug]

well, but if the xt comes with hl2, that might make up for the price difference... Do the xt's come with different memory speeds like the pros?

 

[Regs]

190-200 dollars for a 9800 pro remember.

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: Stug
well, but if the xt comes with hl2, that might make up for the price difference... Do the xt's come with different memory speeds like the pros?

Yes. A 9600XT is a certified over clocked 9600pro.

 

[LTC8K6]

Well, HL2 is already very, very, late. Folks have already been waiting an awful long time for those vouchers to be useable.

All of the XT's should be 500Mhz core and 600Mhz mem.

 

[SSibalNom]

Originally posted by: Regs
190-200 dollars for a 9800 pro remember.

possibly less, if your looking to buy a 9600p... a used 9800p from compgeeks can be ~$129.. if u happen to get in there fast enough when they come back before they sell out

 

[Funyuns101]

I just got that Gigabyte 9600 pro... for what it seems, my reason for getting a pro instead of xt... is that the perfomance increase that I get is already high enough from the original radeon to 9600pro. And then I can budget the extra $20 towards something else~
All in all, the 9600xt is nicer... but if you're gonna go that high, you might as well go all out and get the $180 for 9800 pro!

 

[ForceCalibur]

I tried playing KOTOR with a 9600XT. Could NOT get it above playable framerates with the lOWEST POSSIBLE SETTINGS AT 800X600!!!

Avoid the 9600 series like a plague if you intend to play new 3D games.

 

[LTC8K6]

Don't worry about what ForceCalibur just said. He has picked a game that even high end cards have trouble with to bash the 9600 series.

 

[jagec]

9500pro > 9600pro, just buy it used somewhere for ~$100 or less.

 

[LTC8K6]

Okay, I've been reading too many video card threads lately.

I'll have to agree with ForceCalibur here and take back what I said.

You are going to need a 9800pro at minimum to play KOTOR and HL2, the 9600's aren't going to cut it, particularly with KOTOR.

 

[Stug]

Whoah whoah. There's no way I'm going to spend the money for a 9800pro. Surely video game designers don't expect everyone to have the highest-end video cards or they wouldn't be making any profit.

I've mucked around on various review sites, and the gamespy reviewer used only a Geforce4 Ti4600 with the game and didn't mention any problems. However, apparently the game does have problems with the radeon 9600 series cards unless you download a patch. Edit: scratch that, he said there were problems at higher resolutions...

ForceCalibur: are you running the game out-of-the-box, or have you patched to the newest version?

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Stug
Whoah whoah. There's no way I'm going to spend the money for a 9800pro. Surely video game designers don't expect everyone to have the highest-end video cards or they wouldn't be making any profit.

I've mucked around on various review sites, and the gamespy reviewer used only a Geforce4 Ti4600 with the game and didn't mention any problems. However, apparently the game does have problems with the radeon 9600 series cards unless you download a patch. Edit: scratch that, he said there were problems at higher resolutions...

ForceCalibur: are you running the game out-of-the-box, or have you patched to the newest version?

First Halo, and now KOTOR. What is it about the process of porting X-Box games over to the PC that makes the games into such resource hogs? Neither one really seems to have the same level of eye candy that Far Cry has, so is the performance being held back by code that is just not that well optimized for the PC environment? Does the fact that the game was originally developed for the nVidia hardware on the X-Box totally cripple it when running the game ATi cards? It just seems like a definite pattern is emerging on these X-Box to PC ports.

 

[SSibalNom]

Originally posted by: batmanuel

Originally posted by: Stug
Whoah whoah. There's no way I'm going to spend the money for a 9800pro. Surely video game designers don't expect everyone to have the highest-end video cards or they wouldn't be making any profit.

I've mucked around on various review sites, and the gamespy reviewer used only a Geforce4 Ti4600 with the game and didn't mention any problems. However, apparently the game does have problems with the radeon 9600 series cards unless you download a patch. Edit: scratch that, he said there were problems at higher resolutions...

ForceCalibur: are you running the game out-of-the-box, or have you patched to the newest version?

First Halo, and now KOTOR. What is it about the process of porting X-Box games over to the PC that makes the games into such resource hogs? Neither one really seems to have the same level of eye candy that Far Cry has, so is the performance being held back by code that is just not that well optimized for the PC environment? Does the fact that the game was originally developed for the nVidia hardware on the X-Box totally cripple it when running the game ATi cards? It just seems like a definite pattern is emerging on these X-Box to PC ports.

from what ive heard, they didnt port halo to PC, and that was the problem, they redid the whole thing and did a crappy job w/ the engine, and as a matter of fact, halo works a lot better w/ ATi cards than Nvidia's, so it isnt that nvidia is used on xbox

 

[Hardtarget]

what the hell are you guys talking about? KOTOR runs amazingly well on my 9600pro. Don't listen to these guys. Fantastic card for the ammount of money it costs.

 

[LTC8K6]

At what resolution and quality?

I think some people are just used to some very slow cards, so that midrange cards seem really fast to them.

 

[LTC8K6]

In this review even the 9800XT has trouble with KOTOR, so I doubt a 9600pro did very well with it unless your expectations are low.

 

[viivo]

Originally posted by: batmanuel

Originally posted by: Stug
Whoah whoah. There's no way I'm going to spend the money for a 9800pro. Surely video game designers don't expect everyone to have the highest-end video cards or they wouldn't be making any profit.

I've mucked around on various review sites, and the gamespy reviewer used only a Geforce4 Ti4600 with the game and didn't mention any problems. However, apparently the game does have problems with the radeon 9600 series cards unless you download a patch. Edit: scratch that, he said there were problems at higher resolutions...

ForceCalibur: are you running the game out-of-the-box, or have you patched to the newest version?

First Halo, and now KOTOR. What is it about the process of porting X-Box games over to the PC that makes the games into such resource hogs? Neither one really seems to have the same level of eye candy that Far Cry has, so is the performance being held back by code that is just not that well optimized for the PC environment? Does the fact that the game was originally developed for the nVidia hardware on the X-Box totally cripple it when running the game ATi cards? It just seems like a definite pattern is emerging on these X-Box to PC ports.

The problem with KotOR is it uses the Aurora engine from NWN that was originally designed only for the PC, then shoehorned onto the Xbox, then ported back to the PC. The fact that the engine wasn't that great to begin with (huge resource hog when it doesn't even look that great) doesn't help. It's as bad as an English film translated to Japanese to French then back to English, despite the fact the Xbox might just be a glorified lowend PC.

Forgot to add KotOR plays "okay" on my 9800pro flashed to XT, but I think the engine is more CPU and ram dependent than video.

 

[NOX]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
In this review even the 9800XT has trouble with KOTOR, so I doubt a 9600pro did very well with it unless your expectations are low.

Also according to that review, the X800 XT did only 7fps better then the 9800 XT @ 1024x768 PS and 12fps better then the 9800 XT @ 1280x1024 PS and only 13fps @ 1600x1200 PS. That review also suggest, that nvidia cards wont work with KOTOR. :roll:

Oh, I also forgot to add that KOTOR runs ok on my 9600XT w/ overdive on, and 2xaa and 2xaf.

PS: Is this the only video card review on the planet which uses KOTOR?