Video cards nvidia FX VS Radeon ATI

by **Jase23** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 10:45 am

I need to buy a new video card....... I dont want the most expensive best one but more value for dollar type card. What are good cards people can recommend? Is ATI Radeon cards better then nvidia FX cards?

please help, im confused..... i need directx 9 gaming power!

by **cyanide** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 10:54 am

I'd be pissed off if the framerate sucks for NBA Live 2004 when I'm able to play NHL 2004 at pretty high settings.

by **Cameron** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 10:54 am

Uh oh... I feel BishiBashiBoy to the rescue! :lol:

I personally recommend ATI's... cheaper and more well known technology.

by **AznBBoyX** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:05 am

Didn't EA make a deal with Nividia or something this year so that the 2004 games will be more compatible?

by **Forky** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:18 am

Yeah, EA sort of support NVIDIA and vice-versa. However - if you are after a card that's not too expensive and has a mammoth load of features and excellent performance, then I'd go for an ATI Radeon 9200 (128 MB).

If however, you are a bit younger and don't have a huge amount of money to throw around (even though the 9200 isn't expensive comparitively) there is an NVIDIA FX (64 or 128 mb of memory) card out that sells for around $150 that is fully DirectX 9 compliant. It doesn't have the raw grunt that the higher end cards do (GeForce 5800 and the Radeon 9800 - or 9200) but only performs at around 20% less on most applications according to benchmarks that I've seen. It struggles very much with games such as Battle Field 1942 on full detail up at the higher resolution (and by default Half-Life 2), but will perform just as well (all detail high resolution) on Live even on lower end CPU's. Such as a P4 1.6 or an AMD 1700. Live isn't a particularly taxing program comapred to some of the first person shooters.

Hope this helps. I'll try to find the name of that card if you would like:?:

by **Jase23** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:21 am

Wow, so the 9200 is a good card? i thought it wasnt really a directx 9 level card... even though the name suggests it is?

The reason I am interested is im buying a new computer that comes default with the radeon 9200 ati, but was gonna get them to put another on in....... hence why i made this post... to find out what was good.......

by **bishibashiboy** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:26 am

Qweet wrote:Uh oh... I feel BishiBashiBoy to the rescue!

I'm here

I don't think the verdict is really out on which cards perform better in nba live 2004 when it comes to ati or nvidia. Like Forky said above, yes it is true that EA has signed with nvidia, so if that's true, I would EXPECT good performance with the GeforceFX cards; better than ati? not known yet.

Having said that, if you want "directx9" power in all games, as of right now, go with Ati cards. The new nvidia drivers are quite good, but in the end, they only put the nvidia cards on par or slightly less than ati cards. This is due to the complicated matter that nvidia cards are not completely true dx9 cards. Throw in the fact that ati cards are slightly cheaper and you can't go wrong with them.

If you want the best bang for the buck, go for the Ati Radeon 9600pro. Great card for the price (I've seen as low as $150USD). The 9200 is not a true dx9 card (it's dx8.1 since it's based on radeon 8500 tech) and is only good if you have a relatively fast rig and only run games at 1024x768 without anymore features (Antialiasing and Anisotropic filtering) since it is quite a bit slower than the 9600.

by **Superchunk** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:34 am

No the 9200 isn't DX9, and isn't particularly good. It isn't bad mind you, but it isn't very good either. It all depends on your definition and your price range I suppose.

I recently picked up an ATI 9800 non-pro, and I would have to say it is the best value on the market today in higher-end cards. It is very fast, overclocks very well (Mine is a Sapphire) and isn't very expensive. If you are looking for something that will hold you over for a year. The 9600pro and 9700pro are also good, but neither is as good a value as the 9800 non-pro. The somewhat slower and less featured 9700pro tends to retail for about the exact same price, and the 9600pro is not as fast as the 9800, and again within about $30 on the price.

If you post the specs of the system you are interested I'm sure we can help out a bit. It really depends on your budget. If the rest of the system is gonna bottleneck a 9800 or 9600pro, why bother right?

http://www.tomshardware.com/

That is the best hardware site on the net. Check out the components you are buying, do some research (including asking on forums) and you can end up with some fantastic deals, and you will also learn a bit about the hardware which can be nice knowledge to have after you get your system.

by **bishibashiboy** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:41 am

You bring up some good points Superchunk.
But in terms of best price/performance I don't think the 9800non-pro really is. It's almost $100 more expensive than the 9600pro. It's performance is excellent, but is definitely not the best bang for the buck at the moment unless you're willing to pay more.

If you can find a 9700pro or 9700non-pro still (very difficult other than ebay for me anyways), those are really good buys. Failing that, I think the 9600pro is a good choice.

by **endofanera** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:50 am

My Radeon 9800 Pro All-in-Wonder rocks

I would have to say ATI all the way. Nvidia is behind the curve at this point.

by **Superchunk** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:01 pm

Eh, whoops, I thought I had bought my 9800 for $289 canadian but i remember now it was $389

I would still argue on the value, but at that point its value at the higher end, not one the whole. You were right, I was wrong

Can I post some pics of my newly finished case mod in this thread without looking to out of place?

I'll link to em, they're big.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~superchunk/case/

by **bishibashiboy** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:06 pm

I wish i had the money to buy your card Superchunk. Although it's not the best buy overall, the 9800nonpro is what I would buy today too and I think it's worth the extra money. I spent $270CAD on my Radeon 9500pro when it first came out. It's good, but in hindsight I should have paid $50 more for the 9700nonpro.
If the EA team can make the game right this year, hopefully I can run the game at max details @ 1024x768 like every other game i play.

Your case looks like an Antec one that I want (other than the colors). Is it?

by **Superchunk** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:11 pm

I don't have a load of money, but I try to make sure I sell my old stuff before it isn't worth anything anymore. I sold my whole system and got a whole new system that was about twice as fast and the whole thing only cost me about $400 by the time I was done.

Where do you live? Bigger city?

The case is the Cheiftec Dragon, which is very, very close to the Antec one. I'm not even sure what the differences are. This is a sweet case, I built a fan bus and threw in only one extra fan (for a total of 7+2 in psu) and it runs extremely cool.

by **bishibashiboy** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:15 pm

I live in Vancouver BC.
Where do you sell your stuff off to?

Crazy case man

Guess you won't have any heat probs, but isn't it noisy? I find mine noisy already and I only have my psu, exhaust fan and Radeon fan going.

by **endofanera** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:20 pm

The case is manufactured by a company called Chenming, Chieftec, Thermaltake, Antec and the company I work for have the cases rebaged as our own as do many others They are very solid cases.

Is that case the Aluminium or Steel version?

Nice looking case mod....

Mind posting your specs? I'm a total hardware junkie.

by **Jase23** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:37 pm

The rig im looking at buying is a HP system:

P4 2.6ghz cpu
1 gig of ddr ram
160 gig HD
dvd burner/reader
cd burner/reader
15 or 17" lcd

The store has a 5600fx card in stock... so you guys think id be better of with a 9600 ati?

by **endofanera** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:46 pm

Thats a nice system. I would definately look into a 9600 over a 5600. The 5600 card is not much faster than a Geforce Ti4200.

If you have some spare time you might want to consider building your own system, you will get much better value for money. And better quality too.

by **endofanera** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:47 pm

Do you know whether the P4 is 800/533/400 Front Side Bus?

by **Jase23** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:48 pm

better quality?

by **endofanera** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:54 pm

Yes, off the shelf components are generally better quality parts than those you will find in Dell/HP/Gateway etc.

One component that is always never mentioned by these companies is the motherboard. Generally these systems have very poor motherboards. A good motherboard can make or break a system as far as performance/reliability are concerned.

If your looking to build a gaming system inexpensively this is a nice component guide.

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MVG ... hp/3090501

Something to consider

by **Jase23** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:55 pm

nope, what does front side bus mean? is it like bandwidth of the processor or something?

by **Superchunk** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 1:00 pm

Ah, thanks for explaining that endofanera.

My PC is noisy when I'm gaming, but I built switches for 4 of the fans (the green and red led indicate they are on) and i have a rheobus for the cpu fan and the powersupply fans, so if i turn everything down it is pretty quiet and still cool enough for web surfing etc...

Specs:

500w PSU
1 gig DDR400
Asus A78nX deluxe
Barton 2500+ @ 2.3 gig (aircooled with Thermaltake Volcano9 never goes above 40C)
Sapphire Radeon 9800np overclocked to stock pro speeds
80 gig wd, sblive 5.1
Klipsch Promedia 4.1

I'm loving this system, very fast and stable

by **endofanera** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 1:02 pm

It is the bus speed of the motherboard.

It sets the CPU speed. FSBxCPU multiplier=cpu frequency.

The other big thing that it effects is memory bandwidth. The higher the bus speed the higher the memory bandwidth.

Looking through those specs I am pretty sure that the 2.6ghz is 800FSB. Which is good. If you are buying a machine with 533/400 then you are buying old technology. So always check that out

by **endofanera** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 1:04 pm

Superchunk wrote:Ah, thanks for explaining that endofanera.

My PC is noisy when I'm gaming, but I built switches for 4 of the fans (the green and red led indicate they are on) and i have a rheobus for the cpu fan and the powersupply fans, so if i turn everything down it is pretty quiet and still cool enough for web surfing etc...

Specs:

500w PSU
1 gig DDR400
Asus A78nX deluxe
Barton 2500+ @ 2.3 gig (aircooled with Thermaltake Volcano9 never goes above 40C)
Sapphire Radeon 9800np overclocked to stock pro speeds
80 gig wd, sblive 5.1
Klipsch Promedia 4.1

I'm loving this system, very fast and stable

Nice system

Have you flashed the Bios on the 9800 to a pro Bios? I have a mate who did that and it gave him quite a speed increase at the same core/memory frequencies. Tighter ram timings I believe.

How many 3Dmarks are you getting?

by **Little_Big_Man** on Fri Oct 17, 2003 1:24 pm

I have the Sapphire 128MB DDR ATI-Radeon 8500le and its very inexpensive, I paid only about $90.00USD including shipping. Its a good card and plays NBA Live 2003 and Madden 2004 @ 1024x768 16 or 32bit and it plays smoothly. If price is a major issue go for the card i got, if not then aim at a more higher end card. I wouldn't recommend an HP Machine as they are not easily upgradable. Unless they do the upgrades you void your warranty by opening the case. Plus you pay more for the PC because of all of the extra software they preload that you never really need. Most of it loads in the startup which decreases your PC's performace because of all of the services running on startup. I owned an HP before and it sucked. I prefer a custom built unit that only comes with what I need. I'm a PC Tech so if need be I can recommend a place to get a great price on the parts.

Video cards nvidia FX VS Radeon ATI

Video cards nvidia FX VS Radeon ATI

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