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"Ti4800, FX5600, or Radeon 9600?"

I want unbiased, Spec-based judgements. what do you know about them and are they good value?

i have prices on them as:

128MB Geforce 4 Ti4800 -- £117
128MB Radeon 9600 -- £97
128MB Geforce FX5600 -- £117




They are the contenders, now all i want is hard facts - which has the least problems, most efficiency, Least memory restriction etc etc. don't forget i dont want biased judgements. Thank you all kindly, and if it turns out it's a bad choice, i'll hang you all.

I ordered an FX 5600 256mb yesterday, so I'll let you lot know how I get on with it. :)

It is only a slight difference so either way you'll get good performance.

Out of interest, and in case anyone else is facing the choice between a 9800 and a PRo version, I found this site which clearly details the difference between the 9800 and 9800 Pro, I checked the details elsewhere and it is correct.

http://phamcomputer.safeshopper.com/73/717.htm

Apparently the difference is in the memory used on the cards, the chipsets remain the same but obviously the 9800 PRO gives better performance as, quoting the website, "Radeon 9800 Pro uses Samsung 2.8ns DDR-I and operates at default speeds of 380MHz core and 680MHz (DDR 340MHz) memory" whereas Radeon 9800 runs at "325MHz for the GPU core and 580MHz (DDR 290MHz) for the memory, which are Samsung 3.3ns DDR-I."

I'm no tech but basically if I'd paid another 200 odd to go to a pro the only difference would be a performance increase that might not be all that noticeable anyway.

That's a ridiculous amount for the upgrade, what was the card in the first place? I just picked up a 9800pro for £280, retail boxed, I'm surprised an upgrade to it is quite so much..

Out of interest, anyone with a new ATI card had any problems with Vice City? Can't get it to load at all now since installing this card. Ah well, everything else is quite lovely :D

Seeing as I'm not a hardcore gamer I went for the simple 9800 because an extra 210 to make it a Pro seemed excessive, ordered all last night and got a great deal !

Microchips wrote:
> For the extra £150 (Bearing in mind it costs £80 to
> upgrade to 9800, and £230 to 9800 pro) you get 378MHz controller
> speed (Compared to 325MHz) and max resolution of 1920X1200 9Compared
> to 1600x1200).

There's more to it than that. I'm pretty sure the 9800 Pro has a higher fill-rate and faster memory bandwidth. Maybe 1-2 GB/s more. Dell doesn't mention memory bandwidth, and it's a more important consideration than core speed.

i already have, and the FX5600 looks like the one for me, although when i buy it im going down to the place to check it aint nothing like gainward or connect, as i have no idea what they're like, so i aint risking anything. i just want the plain old standards.

Urkie, look for reviews on the net, search around, etc etc. Everyone has already told you what you need to know. They've given you a head start, now go get some more info yourself! :)

Practical Magic wrote:

> Do they deliver very fast ?

3 days, and I could track it's every movement. I was able to buy it at the time where they had wo great offers- free double memory and free HD upgrade to 120Gb. It was cool.

SR are good, yes, and Maxx PC's look the Shiznit (Or whatever it is) but I like Dell.

Practical Magic wrote:
> Microchips wrote:
> Dell are good to order from, so, yeah, I'd reccomend them to you.
>
> Do they deliver very fast ? There is an offer for even more money off
> in PCFormat, so baring any sudden discovery of wonderful offers
> elsewhere it's going to be with Dell. Considered SR for a while but
> you have to pay extra for the TFT monitor and compared to Dell they
> are too expensive for me !


practical magic - *USER BANNED*

Microchips - *USER BANNED*