??? pardon my brand favouritism here, but The Geforce FX series of cards were vastly inferior to Radeon 9000 series cards, hence why most people I know of who bought a card that generation bought the Radeons. The drivers weren't great, but the GeForce ones were worse. There were several game compatibility issues I seem to recall, and there was, most importantly of all, the 3DMark scandal. An FX5900 would pull like 15,000 marks in 3Dmark for whatever, and a Radeon 9800 would get 12,000 - this fooled people into buying the FX thinking it was faster, when in fact the drivers were heavily optimised for 3dmark numbers, and the cards were way inferior performance-wise, some cards achieving only 60% of the speed of the rival ATis. It's market abuse like this that made me prefer ATi stuff, as I knew they could be trusted with more of the promises they made. Don't be fooled into thinking I'm an anti-nVidia guy though, far from it. In the $100-$150 price bracket, there is no card that can equal a Geforce 7600GT, and a rightly-priced 7800 can also perform quite well, but the GeForce FX/Radeon 9000 series line was not a good time for nVidia. Likewise the Geforce 6/Radeon Xx00 series line was not a good time for ATi, the 6600 being by far preferable to the inferior X600 and X700 series lines. X800s could take on 6800s, but in the midrange market nVidia left ATi in the dust. that situation hasn't changed a great deal in the US now. In the UK, an X1800GTO is the same price as a rival 7600GT, so guess which one I recommend... However, now US prices have gone crazy and the X1800 is 60% more than the 7600, I recommend the other.
the ati 9800 was no worse than a 5200thats around the same time proid right? the fight between ATI and GF ,GF started out alittle better then ATI cought up then ATI was in the lead then GF cought up ,so it dosent matter witch you like they top each other every other year *L* its almost liek intel and adm now days.
They are forever topping each other, you're right, but to compare a 9800 to an FX5200 is just laughable. A 9250Se is more powerful than an FX5200, let alone a 9800XT.
sammorris AS I said I had a normal 9800 AIW,it could run Q4...barely *L* Had it a year or so ago,my friend still has a 5200 *L* still the GFs started at 4000/5000 right? the 9800 is probly more in line with basic 6000? sorry I forget *L* Al I know is don't be mislead by Mhz
sammorris AS I said I had a normal 9800 AIW,it could run Q4...barely *L* Had it a year or so ago,my friend still has a 5200 *L* still the GFs started at 4000/5000 right? the 9800 is probly more in line with basic 6000? sorry I forget *L* Al I know is don't be mislead by Mhz
Your friend is obviously less concerned about Quake 4. Neither of those cards are suited for playing it well, but the 9800 should fare a bit better. Bear in mind that back then, cards were designed with certain games in mind. Quake 4 and Doom 3 were deliberately designed to run as poorly as possible on ATi cardsbecause they were developed by nVidia, to force people to buy more ATi cards. Despite "runs best on ATi" games that countered it, none were programmed to force out the opposition. Later ATi cards aren't victim to this disgusting marketing tactic, but earlier ones are. Compare the 9800 with your friend's 5200 in a different game, like farcry, and then see what happens! You're right on the mhz, the series and model is far more important, but the GeForces did in fact start with a Geforce 1, and a Geforce 256. The Geforce 2 and 2MX followed, then the 3 and 3MX, then the 4Ti4200, 4Ti4600 and 4MX400,440 and 4000, the 4600 being the cream of the crop then. At around that time ATi had the 8000 and 8500 Radeons out. After that point, the FX5200,5500,5600,5700,5800,5900 and 5950 cards were brough out to combat the Radeon 9000,9200,9500,9600,9700 and 9800 cards. Unlike generation 4/8, ATi were the winners this time around. When the GeForce 6200,6600 and 6800 came out to rival the X300,X600/700 and X800, nVidia cards were often seen as better, especially midrange. When the X850 came out, the balance swung back to ATi until the 7800 series was brought out along with the 7600 and 7300. ATi's response was the X1300,X1600 and X1800, which were all a little underpowered compared to nVidia, until the X1900 came out which gave them the edge in the same way the 850 did. The 7900 series was brought out to settle the score, but now they're about even. That's how I understand the story anyway... A lot of this is irrelevant though, as for people who care about image quality and video options go ATI as that has always been an ATi-led field.
i have an fx 5200 and playing a simple game like nhl 06 got choppy on 1024x768, so i had to play on 800x600. its a really bad card. i tried battlefield 2 once, and it worked, but looked like crap and i had horrible framerates. and as for canadian prices; they are pretty high, but if you look in the rite places, you can find really great deals. just today, i found teh arctic freezer 7 pro cheaper on a canadian site than on newegg, not even considering teh exchange rate. i really feel sorry for the uk'ers who have really high prices. however, no matter how hard you look, on average, the us is the cheapest.
sammorris *L* down boy this was like 2 years ago or so,and hes not one to upgrade for games never am I,I got the 9800 because I was hoping it would be a ok game card and a decent converter to put game consoles on the monitor. Bad choice but it did me ok till it fried ,95 with shipping on ebay lasted a year or so not to bad since retail they were 150+,I like my BFG 6800 its solid enough to last acouple more years. My friend is putting a new comp together and I tell him the 7200 or 73000 hes looking at wont last a year if that for gaming,he needs at least a 7600 that will keep going for a year at least,a 7600 GT even better. I am on AGP so theres no point in upping my card.Unless I can upgrade to a 2 core 4400+ or so + new mobo + 2GB 400+mhz ramm under 200 I aint worrying about it *L*
A 5200 to any 6000 or 7000is a jump up :3 Man,back in the day I put 200 into a Voodoo 5 and there was no ifing diffrance between it and a TNT 2 64MB card 0-o least not on dues ex *L*
sammorris had odd driver issues with every over game,it did do with some,I still have that input box for it somewhere was hoping the Svid would give a clearer image from the PS2 but no ;_; oh well in order to get as good as TV input or better for gaming you need a newer TV card type. At least I don't expect a bargain bin card to run Top heavy games *L*
Well no, but a 9800 is hardly bargain bin. It doesn't sound like you tried very hard to get an optimised driver, just like you thought it was rubbish and left it... My X1900XT wouldn't run any Need for speed games until I updated it to the latest version of Catalyst and now it's fine.
*rollseyes* I used it for a year before it DIED,I had troubles with new games but after a update or 2 most things worked fine. I loaned my balls to get a 6800GT *L* and had not been regretting it ^^ well the whole agp thing I am *L* Its amazeing what you get with selling the faimly jewles now I need to save the other for a wife..mmm mabye a GF even ..or a car...ooo shiny 0-o LOL BTW have yo read the article somewhere about external Video cards?
Interesting, isn't it? Bad luck about the card failing, but that's not all that common an occurrance. One of my mates had an iffy X800GTO, but then another of my mates had a faulty 6600GT, so it's just down to luck. Both companies make decent products quality-wise, although it's recommended to stick to decent board manufacturers. I sometimes wonder about the quality of some brands like Powercolor (especially since the heatsink also wasn't fitted properly on Arvin's X800GTO, it had like a whole tube of thermal compound under it, and since they fit their own custom extra-cheapo heatsinks, there's no excuse for it), hence why my ATi cards have all been Sapphire. So far touch wood that's been a good decision.
I stayed away from shappihe thinking they'd be a cheapo brand but hell now days the big brand names are cutting quality back to far its a dime toss to what you get 0-o
BTW when I said update a card to games I meant Buy a new one each year have you heard about the possible move to external Vid cards?if they can make a PCI E card that can transfer data thru4-6 foot of cable as fast a card in the slot it could happen and make for some interesting advances don't you think?
Sapphire a cheap brand? Where did you hear that? They are to ATi as XFX are to nVidia, a premium brand offering a little more than other manufacturers. I heard about external video cards but I'm a little sceptical. The concept of external power sources for graphics cards is old, the first dual-GPU-on-one card was a Dual 7800GT card that used an external power brick to give it extra power. That and 5 1/4" Power supplies offer a real opportunity to power cards. The problem with external cards is that despite the fact that they are external boxes, they'll still need a backplate into the PCI express slot to provide the connection, so they can't be plugged straight in like a USB drive until such backplates are made standard. And what if you wanted an internal graphics card like most people? It's possible but it has an air of gimmick about it.
last time I hunted alot for cards 1-3 years ago I saw alot of cheap Sapphire stuff guess that did it *L*. altho at that time the bigger brands were not "cheap bastards" >< WEll as I see it a external card would do 2 things you wont need a 1000watt PSU for dual cards and then heat dispensary would be a bit better,the way I see it its its own connection type that plugs into the card thats plugged into the PCI e slot where a "normal" card would go,and external cards wont make normal ones wont go away its just a option.
My concerns regaring that are going to be an extra cable to have around, and the heat. Dissipating heat from a card in a big case is hard enough, but in a tiny little box? There'll need to be a huge vent at the front and a huge vent at the back to enable sufficient cooling, especially if the power draw is to be as big as we expect.
ya I see it the size as a USB box for HDs just with more fans *L* altho worth it if you want to drop internal temp by 5 or 10 *L* was sleveing my PSU last night http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/zippydsmlee/sleeved.jpg I love the 2 10$ temp sensing fans I put in it ,heck damn thing was 25 when I got it last year or the year befor.
