I'm looking at Radeons at the moment and, as I don't know anything about video cards, I'm a bit confused about the numbers and letters involved. As an example, what would be the better choice considering they might both be about the same price: 1.) Radeon 9100 with 256 RAM 2.) Radeon 9600 with 128 RAM Does the model number mean more than the amount of RAM? What about the 9600s that are listed as 9600SE? I'm assuming that SE stands for Special Edition, but what does that actually mean? What is the best video card choice for running the game I want to run (Matrix Online) given my current system (see below)? I have a budget and I have no unrealistic expectations of running the game at max. quality. Please Help!!! Thanks in advance... Current system: Win XP w/ SP2 2.4 GHz 640 RAM On board Video and Audio
ok hi!!! intersting qstion!! first radeon cards denomination are: 9xxx series they go from 9100-9800 those numbers refer to the gpu (graphic procesor unit) the higher the better and faster video card!! the letters se,pro,powercolor,x,xt refer to the model for example a 9600se radeon has a gpu 325mhz (core) 128 ddr (392 mhz memory speed). a 9600xt has the same gpu but running at 500mhz the same 128 ddr but running at 600mhz is like having two porsche one with 100 pound turbo and another with 200pound same card with modifications. the memory size is just capacity not speed so model is important in speed.. ati also has the x series x300,x600,x700,x800 which are great video cards in agp and pcixpress. now for that game first your pc has a agp slot or pcixpress?? if you are running p4 2.4ghz socket 478 i think you might have agp 4x or 8x be sure of that!! for agp i recomend ati 9600xt or 9800 pro or xt (xt models are better) if you go for nvidia video cards which i highly recommend if you dont know much about video cards. nvidia video cards they have several models nvidias card are known as gforce gforce2,geforce3,gforce4,gforce fx and models are mx,ti for g3,g4 fx series go from 5200-5950. all agp 4x/8x and pcix. (sorry for all the writing iam a video cards fan) go for and nvidia gforce fx 5900 or gforce 6600 and if wanna spend more money go for the monster of nvidia video cards gforce 6800 gt (only comes in pcix 16x). hope i help let my know if your mobo has a agp 4x/8x
Hi, @Keppler I would steer clear of anyhting in the Radeon range less than a 9600pro. All the SE models lower than this are crippled by a 64bit memory bus and it makes one hell of a difference!! The 9600pro is a good entry card today. Alos consider what game you will play in the future beofre you buy as ATI are better than some nvidia in some games and visa-versa. You have a big choice of cards dependendt on your motherboard as Dr.xp ppointed out. You need to know if your looking for AGP or PCI xpress. @Dr.xp the monster would be the Ultra and they are both available in AGP...at least here they are (I'm in UK) Cheers guys.
