Radeon or Geforce??

[willywonkaspiamp]

Hi i have just recently started puting together my comp. and have run into the problem of deciding a graphics card. This is a very critical part of my computer since i am a gamer. However i am a poor college student. And my budget is about 150 dollars. I have noticed that people are evenly torn between a Radeon 9500P and a GeForce 5600xt are those the best for my price range, or is there cheaper ones that are just as good???

 

[cleeve]

a 9500 PRO will kick the $hit out of a 5600 XT.

The cards you want to consider in the midrange, from worst to best (and most expensive in most cases) are:

Geforce4 Ti 4200
Radeon 9600 PRO
Radeon 9500 PRO
Radeon 9600 XT
GeforceFX 5900

If you're a gamer, I wouldn't recommend anything less than a Ti4200 for sure. And you can pick 'em up for $80, so there's no excuse to get something worse than that.
________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9500 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(hardmodded 9500, o/c 322/322)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>2600+</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 2400+ w/143Mhz fsb)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>4,055</b></font color=red>

 

[HardWareBoss]

Agreed on TI4200.

 

[xxaaqq]

I don't see why you guys would recommend a Geforce 4 Ti4200 over a Radeon 9500 Pro/Radeon 9600 Pro, unless you are seeing much better overclocking results. Even a Radeon 9600 Pro EZ (200Mhz DDR instead of 300Mhz on the PRO) beats a Geforce 4 Ti4600 in all DirectX 9 benchmarks, and is about tied in DirectX 8 and DirectX 7 benchmarks. The 4200 is a slower card with less memory than the Ti4600 (a little over half if I remember correctly.) Unless, of course, the 4200 is a good bit cheaper, then I suppose it might be a better option.

Synthetic benchmarks to back up my claim: http://www.neogodless.com/features/computers/benchmarks.asp (on Athlon 2100+, VIA KT333)

EDIT: Sorry I missed how you said it's $80... makes sense now But if you have the $150 budget, try to get a Radeon 9600 Pro... or Radeon 9500 Pro if you can find one!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by xxaaqq on 12/24/03 01:30 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[silverpig]

A 9600 series card. It does directX 9.0 which is important to you as a gamer.

Some day I'll be rich and famous for inventing a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

 

[addiarmadar]

9500 pro and thats my final answer...

Barton 2500+ @ 2200mhz (10x220 vcore @ 1.775)
Asus A7N8X Dlx 440 FSB
1gb Geil GD pc3500 Dual Channel (2-3-3-6)
Segata 80gb SATA 8.5ms seek
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro(420/700)