What vid-card to buy FX59xx or Radeon 9800 pro?

[AngelOfDeath]

I have read several reviews of vid-cards and it all comes down to choosing now which seems a little difficult to me. I'm looking for either a FX5900/5950 Ultra with 256mb memory or radeon 9800 Pro w/256mb memory.

I have only good experience with Nvidia and have currently a GF4400 from Asus which is good but I need more juice But Radeon seems to beat Nvidia this round so perhaps that's the choice, but what is your experience with Radeon vs. Nvidia? Can I expect much more from Radeon than Nvidia? There was a discussion about some compression Radeon used which made it's score higher, has that been revealed if it's true or not? What would you choose and should I make a clean reinstall of WinXP if I choose the radeon? Or is there a better choice in your opinion?

I'm a little confused and think I need the advice of the hardware community

Kind regards

AoD

 

[Lonyo]

I would get a 128MB card, probably a 9800Pro.
The 256MB cards are a waste of money, hey offer little to no performance increase over their 128MB counterparts at a large price increase, so it's worthless to buy one.

Get a 128MB card, either 9800Pro or GFFX5900U.
Look at benchmarks and see which performs the best in the games you will be playing and with the resolution/settings you're going to use.

I went from Ti4400 -> 9800, a boost, but not worth it unless you have the processor to match it (I got a nice boost going from 1900+ -> 2500+ @ 2.4GHz).

Your CPU will probably be enough to take advantage of the 9800 or equivelant nVidia card. Check out Anandtechs review of the FX5950/9800XT and see which card performs best in your choice of games, then choose based on that.


I did a fresh install of Windows when I upgraded, but that was because it was that time anyway. You should be able to get away with using Driver cleaner and making sure you remove all traces of nVidia drivers if you do decide to go with the 9800pro.

 

[Matthias99]

I also recommend the 9800Pro 128MB. The 256MB versions (of either card) offer little -- if any -- benefit for a large price increase. The 9800Pro has better performance with AA and AF features enabled, and roundly thrashes the 5900U at PS2.0/VS2.0 performance (not crucial at the moment, but more and more games are starting to use pixel shaders heavily). However, the 5900U is generally better at OpenGL games (such as ones based on the Quake3 engine, and possibly the upcoming Doom3), and is often a tad better at current DX8.1 games with AA and AF disabled.

 

[Rubicante]

get the 9800 pro from sapphire... the ultimate ed... no fan, just a big ol heatsink. \o/
...at least, thats what i picked... im all about the 'silent pc'

 

[Markfw]

9800 pro 128 meg version, another vote. I have two of them and a 9700 pro.

 

[Corporate Thug]

9800 pro 128

 

[Ardan]

If you are considering an nvidia solution as well, I would recommend the BFG Tech FX5900XT OC.
The default clock rates are 430Mhz and 735Mhz (normally 390Mhz and 700Mhz, i'm told) and it performs very well too. I hear it also has quite a silent fan too. The 128Mb 9800 Pro is a fantastic choice, but so is that board and i'm just letting you know of an excellent choice.

 

[Acanthus]

Only an idiot would buy a video card now.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The benchmarks showing the 9800 Pro beating the fx5900 ultra for titles using DX9 features used the 9800 Pro 128 MB not the 256 MB.

9800 Pro 128 and 256 are almost exactly the same speed except at 1600x1200 with AA/AF.

You only need to spend about $200, put the extra $100+ aside for upgrading later -- even the 9800 XT is only a little faster than the 9800 Pro 128 MB.

 

[blazerazor]

Unless you keep a tidy PC, get NVIDIA. They just work better. Never seen any my friends have issues with drivers. But I'm a ATI boy, own'd 3, still have 2. And I hate the nuicances that always crop up. And the picture is so close, only a anal retentive pixel inspecting snob would see the difference.

Test: Ask a 13 yr old boy which one he likes better. The he's playing his game on and winning.

 

[AngelOfDeath]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Only an idiot would buy a video card now.

What a clever answer...You really had the words in your power

@All: It seems that Radeon 9800 Pro it is. But I will wait and see if others have anything to say

 

[Conky]

Both are very good and I was an Nvidia fanboy too but my recent upgrade from a GF4-ti to a 9800Pro 128mb has been been a solid and reasonably priced upgrade. I had wanted the 5950Ultra but couldn't find any close to the $200 I paid for the 9800Pro. Count me as another vote for the 9800Pro.

 

[bluewall21]

9800 Pro 128, but I would wait too.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: AngelOfDeath

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Only an idiot would buy a video card now.

What a clever answer...You really had the words in your power



@All: It seems that Radeon 9800 Pro it is. But I will wait and see if others have anything to say

Even if you are going to buy the last gen cards... its still stupid to buy now, because the prices will fall dramatically upon the availability of the new cards.

 

[JBT]

9800 Pro 128MB if you need to buy NOW I would wait for the new cards from NV and ATI to be released my self.

 

[Gagabiji]

Originally posted by: shady06
9800 pro 128

If you really can't wait for new cards

 

[NFactor]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Only an idiot would buy a video card now.

He put it bluntly, but he is right. New generation cards next month and price drops on old cards when the newer ones hit the market make it really illogical to buya card now unless you desperatly need it.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Only an idiot would buy a video card now.

I concur.

 

[AngelOfDeath]

I was going to buy in may anyway I don't recall me saying when I was buying

I will surely go for Radeon 9800 Pro, which seems to be the right choice. I will not buy the new 68 from NV even though it hits hard on frames I simple don't have the right cash for that. Tx very much btw

 

[stickybytes]

I agree. A bad time to buy video cards now.

Do you guys have any idea how much the NV6800 Non ultra will cost when it becomes available? Any guesses?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: NFactor

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Only an idiot would buy a video card now.

He put it bluntly, but he is right. New generation cards next month and price drops on old cards when the newer ones hit the market make it really illogical to buy a card now unless you desperatly need it.

New cards coming in at $400+ are unlikely to exert any meaningful pricing pressure on cards currently at ~$200. IF the 6800NU shows up at some point (no release date yet), has strong performance (ie, close to the 6800U), and actually costs $299 (and not $399 as ATI's 12-pipe card is likely to), then yes, you may find 9800Pros for, say, $150. But I wouldn't count on it, and that may not happen for another 3-6 months anyway.

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Only an idiot would buy a video card now.

buy the 9800 pro just to piss off Acanthus

------------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon XP T-Bred B DLT3C 1700+ @ 2.3GHZ (1.775v) 400FSB = 3200+
Abit NF7-S V.2 (nForce2-U400)
Corsair TwinX XMS 3200LL 512MB @ 2-3-2-6 (2.6v)
Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
Antec TrueBlue 480W
Thermalright SLK-947U with 92mm Vantec Tornado @2800RPM
Antec PlusView 1000AMG
Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks THX 550 5.1

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: NFactor

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Only an idiot would buy a video card now.

He put it bluntly, but he is right. New generation cards next month and price drops on old cards when the newer ones hit the market make it really illogical to buy a card now unless you desperatly need it.

New cards coming in at $400+ are unlikely to exert any meaningful pricing pressure on cards currently at ~$200. IF the 6800NU shows up at some point (no release date yet), has strong performance (ie, close to the 6800U), and actually costs $299 (and not $399 as ATI's 12-pipe card is likely to), then yes, you may find 9800Pros for, say, $150. But I wouldn't count on it, and that may not happen for another 3-6 months anyway.

Exactly....The newer cards from both are coming in high to replace where the top cards currently have been falling from for sometime....I bet you wont see suppliers dropping the price on these cards initally at all, and will be slow from then on.

I say get the best you need for the price NOW, and see where things go by the end of the year. It seems the next generation of Nvidia cards have big increases and lots of technological advancements on tap. The bar may be really raising here as the new battle for supremacy begins....


I am an ATI fan but I have to agree Nvidia installs have always been a tad easier, but both are doable. I would never let that decide my purchase unless they were exactly the same price and performance level and then I could lean more towards a cool looking fan or color of the pcb!!!

 

[Oyeve]

I used to be an Nvidia fanboy. I still have a couple in some older pcs. The reason I went with ATI is because on some older direct3d games, like Midtown madness 1 and 2 plus others, I would get too MUCH clipping or skewed graphics. I thought it was one Nvidia card but it also happened on the GF3 and GF4. When I got my my first Radeon 64 DDR the problems never appeared. Ever since then I have used a 9500 pro and now a 9800 pro and never looked back.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Can I expect much more from Radeon than Nvidia?

It depends. For AA quality and performance ATi has nV bested fairly well comparing the R9800Pro to 5900XT. For AF performance ATi also has an edge, although their filtering quality overall is clearly inferior to nVidia's. Drivers ATi has gotten much better on, but there are still instances where a game you want to play will not work properly and ATi will refuse to do anything about it(Sacrifice as an example- been broken for closing in on two years for R3x0 parts).

For shader performance the R9800Pro wins handily, on the flip side from what we have seen in stencil ops the 5900XT wins handily.

Overall in terms of speed the R9800Pro is a bit faster, for 3D IQ I would say they are close with ATi having a decent edge in AA with nV having a decent edge in AF(and even base filtering for that matter).

I've been using a R9800Pro for a couple of months now and it's OK, but I wouldn't reccomend anyone to buy one at this point. There really are still driver problems(though nowhere near as bad as they were a year ago), the speed is killer and the AA is sweet but it isn't the kind of leap moving to one of the new cores will be.

Expect both the high end R3x0 and the high end NV3x parts to vanish relatively soon, they will flush the inventory of the 5950s and R9800XTs to make room for the NV4x and R420 parts so you may be able to pick up one of those in the $200 range in the not too distant future- but they may not be that good of a buy if the 6800NU x800Pro are sitting at a few bucks more retail.