Hi, I am going to upgrade by old Nvidia 6800GT
 
 I have a crossfire compatible motherboard,  and have been told that the 9600GT will beat 2 HD 2600XTs in crossfire (i can get either of these for the same price)
 
which of these should i get?
or is there an entirely different card i should be looking at (my price range is 120-150$)
 
(if this is helpful)I want to play Bioshock, Age of Empires III and a little bit of COD4
 
Thanks

Oh yea, that 9600GT will definately beat those two paththic cards. It is a very good buy, and when overclocked, arguably is the proce/performance champion. It will perform more than adequately in those games listed.

Get one better than 2

Get the 9600GT or an 8800GT if you find a good deal. I don't play the first two games, but COD4 runs fine on my 9600GT on max at 1680x1050 without Vsync or AA. It should be able to run AA as well, but not Vsync, as that causes slowdowns at random times, although triple buffering might stop that, I haven't tried. All I know is COD4 in multiplayer and vsync (without triple buffering) = 1:4 for your kill : death ratio.

Between the 9600GT and the 8800GT it's a toss-up - they are very similar price/performance.
 
I recommend getting a dual slot 9600GT (like almost any of the overclocked models) and overclocking it even more. It will perform almost as well as an 8800 and be MUCH quieter

http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/02 [...] up/?page=8

9600gt use g94 core, which is basically half a 8800gts g92 core overclocked. 64 stream processors compared to 128 stream processors. It's amazing that 9600 performed so well despite using essencially half the hardware.

indeed, whats the secret. I heard it has a new ROP design which allows it to do AA with better performance.

Driver optimization, especially in sli, which almost match 8800gt in sli.

very interesting, so Nvidia purposefully withheld drivers for the GeF 8s to make the 9s look better, not surprised.

You really don't want to mess with Crossfire until you reach the HD3850.  Same with SLI, 9600GT or above.  

the 9600GT is only a fair price at ~$130 ~$140 ~$150. at 160 or so the 8800GT is way better.

I've seen the 9600GT for $110 AR.  
 
edit: Actually, let me be more specific, I bought a Palit 9600GT from ZZF for $110 after $40 rebate.
 
It was this one and came with Tomb Raider anniversary in the box:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814261002
 

Thanks for your replies
so if nvidia is releases new the new driver optimizations the 8800gt will only get better from a price/performance stand point
 
will a 9600gt w/ a passive cooler over clock as well as a dual slot one?
 
will 2 HD 3850s beat a single 8800GT or a single HD3870?

512MB 3850s in CF will definately beat those single cards. In fact, AMD is soon to release the 3850X2 soon.

*Sign* It's AMD now... Remember ATI?

indeed, AMD is such a wack acronym, i know, i cant believe I actually didnt say ATI, weird, its not like we were married to it anyway.

The only passive 9600GTs have massive dual slot heat pipes.... Its an ugly sight... MASSIVE!!
why do you want passive cooled ones anyway? a small fan can make a huge difference  
http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id- [...] rsion.html

Ahhh, it will always be ATI to me.  As long as they keep it on their boxes and/or use the Radeon name.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  There are games where two HD3850 256MB can match an 8800GTX even. 512MB's would be even better.  
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3151&p=10
 

But games which scale poorly (*cough* crysis) will show much better performance with a single higher end card.