which card should I buy?

[georgebeee]

ok, I've been surfing the web for the past few days and I've got it narrowed down to the sapphire 9600pro 128MB for $155 and the sapphire 9500pro 128MB for $178. not sure if the 9500pro is that much better.
any help is greatly appreciated

AMD 2000+(3000+ future upgrade), gigabyte 7va mobo, nvidia geforce 4 MX 440(ewww!!!), 256MB pc2700, soundblaster live, 52-24-52x cd-rw

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

They each have their strengths. I could show you benchmarks that favour R9600P and some that favour the R9500P. The R9500Pro is a GREAT card though, and for most thngs it will do very well. The R9500Pro <b>Usually</b> has a high resolution and high AA/AF settings advantage. There are occasions where the R9500pro walks away with almost a 70% advanatage over the R9600P, whwereas if the R9600pro beats the R9500pro it's by a smaller margin like 10-20%. The R9600pro tends to doe slightly better in more modern games with 1024x768 and 1280x1024, while the R9500Pro usually pulls ahead after 16x12.

The R9600Pro <b>CAN</b> have some overclocking prowess, but that isn't guaranteed for sure.

Most people will tell you the R9500Pro is the better of the two cards, I won't say that, because I OWN an R9600Pro.

The real question is if you think that it's worth the extra money. Check a few recent reviews (like Thom's R9600XT review) which include the R9600P and R9500P as a reference.
That may help.

As always, that's just my two frames' worth.


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[georgebeee]

yeah, thank you all for your input, but I've been thinking about these two cards and there's one more question I would like to put forth. a discontinued product like the 9500pro...driver problems in the not too distant future perhaps? unless the driver for the ati cards are similar to the nividia cards where all cards use the same driver? anybody got any ideas on that one? and since you think the 9600 does have some advantages I think I might have to lean toward that one maybe...
any input is greatly appreciated

thank you

 

[Crashman]

No, the 9500pro uses the 9700 chip, and he 9800 chip is only slightly revised from that. No forseeable driver problems.

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