PCTech Forums

i was thinking maybe i should get a video card

my comp is maybe 2 years old and it has the slot for one, i was thinking about a

256 MB ATI RADEON™ 9600 PRO

on ebay, they usually go for about 100 i think


does anyone know if these could handle the newer games that are comming out, or if theres a better one for about the same price around?

Im personally not an ati fan,for those who are..Im sorry

I've had great performance,no trouble,no issues of any kind using nvidia cards.There a little less expensive and they run great.With that being said,



I would go somewhere along those lines to stay in the $100 range for a brand new card.

I do not EVER recommend buying a used part,especially a vid card.


Here is a new for just over $100

Yay Jim! GeForce is the way to go! You still hanging on to those graphics i made for you a while back for your website? lol.

I still have them,dont have the site up anymore.I've been working on some other things and kinda put that one aside for now.

Cool. Well heres my latest site.

www.Seventh-Column.com FINALLY GOT MY DOMAIN!! LOL!

aight thanks for the help

i think ill go with that wierd one with all the numbers...

I have an ATI 9800xt. I have been one of the lucky ones and haven’t had any trouble. But many, many people have had loads of problems with the ATI cards. And if I was in the market for a new one I would defiantly be buying an NVIDIA.

I have the 9600 pro, and I haven't had any problems with it. Works great for the price, I personally think it's better than the GEForce, which is what my brother and my roommate use, but that's just me.

Check out this review»

ive seen benchmarking tests that say the radeon 9600 is better than the GeForce FX 5900...

though i still go with the GeForce because its like every game i buy shows the nvidia logo on startup.. i dont know about this but i think that means its optimized for nvidia. means u get more with nvidia...

just my opinion...

I purchased the Nvidia GeFore 6800GT 256MB DDR3 Video Card.

I haven't used it yet, but in my past experience with Nvidia cards, I would have to say they are the best out there and definitly the way to go.

I disagree . Here are some numbers.

I wont say that it was a landslide though. NVIDIA is about to launch its new PCI express cards. They look tasty . Check the tests out here». I will say that NVIDIA will be going in my new machine. Specifically this one»

okay.. point 1.. if a game shows the nvidia logo on startup.. it's simply because the game manufacturer has some kind of deal with nvidia for advertising purposes... not necessarily that the game is optimized for nvidia cards..

ALL windows platform games us the DirectX standard when programming graphics.. and the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) that windows uses simply makes the game think that Jack's Nvidia card is exactly the same as Jills ATI card.. the days of games optimized for a particular video card went out with the 3Dfx cards of yesteryear..

put simply.. if all you want is pure 3d performance.. then buck for buck.. an nvidia offering will give you slightly better performance..

The ATI cards do not lack far behind the nvidias in terms of performance/dollar (or pound if you're in the uk).. however.. when it comes to things such as DVD/video playback.. and 2d business style usage.. the ATI's far outrank the nvidias.. ATI are more of an all round workhorse with good 3d performance.. the nvidia's sacrifice all round performance for an extra bit of 3d performance..

the choice is yours

I have a 9600 XT 256 mb, which is almost the same thing. The only difference is that the processor is a little faster. If you find an XT with 256mb around the same price, the get that instead. However, if it is 50 dollars more, it's not worth the price, cuz you'll pretty much get the same framerate. The 9600 Pro will be able to run games from 2002 or older on full graphics, and on newer games you'll probably have to do medium graphics, which is still good. I played Half Life 2 on medium graphics and it still looked really amazing. The card was popular a year ago, but now there are the X300s and X800s, which cost more but run faster, especially the X800.

if u wanting to play new games out id get 9800 ati or x800 as they are better hi end cards, as they say you get what you pay for... :S