Radeon 9500 pro, 9600 pro or other?

[chssvl]

Hi! New to the forum. Anyway, I'm currently thinking of upgrading my existing Radeon 8500 64MB video card. I have several options. A friend of mine is offering me his used Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB. On the other hand I could go for a Powercolor Radeon 9600 Pro with 256MB or a 9600XT with the same memory but only if it's worth the extra money. I'm on a very VERY tight budget so anything above U$130 would be out of reach.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[PCfreak15]

The 9500 Pro is faster than the 9600 Pro in almost all benchmarks. When anti aliasing is enable the 9500 really dominates the 9600. The 256MB wont really benefit the 9600 because it is only a mid range card. I dont know about the 9600XT vs the 9500 Pro but considering you are on a tight budget I would go for the 9500 Pro.

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BBA ATi Radeon 9800 128MB (400/650)

 

[Dax]

I too, considered the 9600 and 9500, but when I checked out all the benchmarks, the answer was clear ... 9500 Pro. That's what I own now, it's great, plays all games decently, even Doom 3 with appropriate tweaks.

 

[daddywags214]

Sounds like the 9500 Pro would be the way to go of the three choices you have... but hey, if you're only upgrading from an 8500, maybe it would be smarter to wait until you could afford a 9800 Pro? Just a thought.

AHHH <b>MOTHERLAND!!!!!</b>

 

[Crashman]

Don't be suckered. The 9600 Pro with 256MB uses EXTREMELY SLOW MEMORY so it can be sold at a closer price to the much faster 128MB version! The order of performance.

9600XT
9500 Pro
9600 Pro 128MB
9600 Pro 256MB

The 9500 Pro is so close to the 9600 XT in performance they actually trade places in a couple benchmarks.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[chssvl]

Thanks for the replies.

I don't really use AA much (although I do use maximum anisotropic filtering always). I always use higher resolutions instead of AA.

I'm really not in a big hurry to buy a new card as I was able to play both far cry and Doom 3 decently enough. But I would want a considerable performance increase with a new card, particularly in newer games since my carddoesn't have full DX 9.1 support. I could wait until december or so to upgrade but I don't know if the prices of the Radeon 9800 could go down as significantly as I would need them to go.

Also, my motherboard supports only 4X AGP and I wont upgrade until I can afford a 64 bit AMD processor and that's still a long way off. Could I lose a significant amount of performance due to the 4X AGP?

 

[phial]

yea


and a 9500pro with a 350mhz core is about as fast as a 9700non-pro


(got one for sale, send me a PM, going cheap)

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<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A>

Brand name whores are stupid!

 

[Cybercraig]

The 9600XT with 256mb does a good job on Doom3 with only 4 pipes. No problems at 1024 X 768 High quality.

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[Crashman]

Funny thing about newer cards, as far as hardware goes:
9800SE=9500 non-pro
9800-128bit RAM=9500 Pro.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[GeneticWeapon]

HAY GUYS WHATS GOING ON IN THIS THR

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[JeanLuc]

I'm not sure what they are in $'s but in £'s the Radeon 9800 Pro can be brought for around £130.
Also bear in mind that it wasn't so long ago when the 9800 Pro was King of the Jungle.
Don't make the same mistake I made and buy an nVidia card like the 5600's 5700's. Ati cards from this generation are a lot better then there nVidia counterparts.

 

[phial]

i think GW must have been drunk or something loL!

-------
<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A>

Brand name whores are stupid!

 

[Black_Cat]

You might get a good overclocker in that 9500Pro. Read more about it <A HREF="http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9500_pro_overclock/" target="_new">here</A>.

You've tried and failed. The lesson here is, never try again. -- Homer Simpson.

 

[daddywags214]

(Agreed) GW YOU LAY OFF THE JD, YA HEAR!?!? That is, unless you want to share with me. Hahaha, actually, I'm only 17 and I don't drink anyway.

AHHH <b>MOTHERLAND!!!!!</b>