Help... Which video card should I buy?

raid517

Hi I am building a 3rd PC for my home. It is a reasoably nice system, however I am running short of cash for a video card. I only have about £170 UK to spend, which is about $290 USD.

I have looked at two cards the Asus 9600XT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._Asus_137.html and the Hercules 3D Prophet 9800SE All-in-Wonder 128MB DDR - Retail (GX-027-HE) avalible from here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...cules_140.html

However I am deeply confused by the Hercules card. How is it possible to have a higher clocked card with a TV tuner and all those functions for that kind of money?

This card only has 4 rendering pipelines where I think the 9600XT has 8, but the question is, how much of a difference in terms of performance is this likely to make.

Which of these cards is the better card and why?

If anybody can offer any advice I would very much appreciate it.

Q

BetrayerX

Look at some benches around...compare prices an do a nice analysis on price/peformance before investin.g

raid517

Yeah I can't find any benchies on that Hercules card, which is why I thought I would ask the experts. Surely it isn't possible to get so much for so little? Where I wonder is the catch? Its actually cheaper than the 9600XT. What's the deal with that?

Q

Chaos

Sounds like that may be a good one to scoop.... I would think it may be a prime card for a soft mod also :P

tek

9800SE's are crap, if you really have to go for the 9600XT, otherwise buy the MSI GeForce4 TI4200 (scores 10k in 3dmark01, stock with XP2200+ also stock).

Great card, and the heatsink that comes on it is

raid517

I'm curious about what makes the 9800SE's crap though? That's a fair clock speed there. I wouldn't go with a Gforce 4 as need some degree of direct X 9 support.

If somebody can tell be though why I should avoid the 9800XTs I will avoid them like the plague. Its only till Xmas anyway when I will buy myself the top name card, whatever that might be at that time.

Q

TonyMonTana

9800se are surposed to be only using 4 pipes but it is possible to activate the other 4 pipes.Then you have a very good card for the price.

raid517

Ahh screw it... I've decided to wait a week and just go with a 9800 non pro. For a few extra quid (£204 as opposed to £170/£180) it seems like a worhwhile move. I wonder though, is it possibe to flash the bios on 9800 to a 9800pro? The card I'm going to buy is the Sapphire 9800 listed here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...phire_143.html

It would be very nice If I could do this as it would still be good value for money.

Q

MIG-31

certainly be nice if you can to save a few pounds.

no doubt somebody who knows will answer youre main question in time.

could be quicker if you start another post asking that question.

raid517

Hmmm, now I am confused there's am Asus 9600XT that isclocked wa times higher than the 9800 non pro... It can be found here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._Asus_137.html Which I wonder would be the better choice?

Q

MIG-31

i would still have the 9800np over the 9600xt.

9600xt still has 4 pipelines were the 9800np has 8 pipelines as result of better transfer rates.

9600xt stats:http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/9600-xt.asp

9800np stats:http://www.sapphiretech.com/VGA/9800proatl.asp

it fall down to the 9600xt and the 9800 has a different gpu.

i would stick to what you have ordered.besides i use overclockers as my main site when it comes to hardware & there after sales support are excellent.

the other point is if you have ordered the 9800 they are quite fast in completing orders.

raid517

Ok thanks... 9800 it is then. I did consider going elsewhere - and I know I can get a full blown 9800 Pro on ebay for about the same money. But I'm worried about returns and RMA. You can't do RMA on ebay. (Well maybe you can, but it's not so easy). Overclock.co.uk and Overclockers.co.uk ( two very similar sounding companies I know) both have an excellent returns policy. I got a full blown upgrade to a Pioneer 106 DVD-R drive from OC's after my 104 drive got fried. No hassles at all, very quick and very efficient. And then there's Dabs.com, they have the card slightly cheaper, but have no clue how good their retrns policy is.

Oh well, for the sake of security and peace of mind, I guess I'll just stick with OC's.

The only thing that concerns me is that I read this card uses Samsung memory which is limited to 300MHZ, which doesn't leave much scope for a decent OC... So flashng is probably out o the question too. But oh well... Its still good value at that price.

Thanks for all the input guys. You've been a great help.

Q

merry

On the other hand, the 256 bit mem/bus of the 9800 carries twice as much data per clock as the 128 bit bus on the 9600, so you will probably still have better vid-memory performance... I wouldn't know, I can't afford any of them, but the math seems right

Enjoy your card

Astec

the 9800se has a huge bandwidth advantage over the 9600 something like 19-20gflops in comparison to the xt 10-11.

thats why im getting one

a) its a bloody good bargin
b) performs decently
c) You can also try for a softmod

and theres my first post on DH

MIG-31

just wondering if you have that 9800 yet?

i just picked up myself a 9800pro @ 380/340(ddr) and am gob smacked at the performance over the 9600pro.

i use overclockers.co.uk my self great site and after service is good and fairly quick with advice over the phone before any need to rma anything not that i have rma'd anything from them yet but have had a small memory problem they helped me sort out.

as for dab.com that is a good site but haven't used them for a while as have found overclockers cheaper.no idea what there return policy's are like.

as for ebay that could be difficult as that is like an auction site and the goods sold are not theres to return so i understand your concerns about that when it comes to a considerable amount of cash.

Optimummind

Buy the 9600XT or FX 5700 Ultra.