Graphics Cards

ATI Radeon 9800 is the latest version out there, although it really isn't that much better than the 9700. If you want to pony up the extra cash, though, be my guest.

Personally, I use a Radeon Mobility 7500 with Omega drivers, and it works well with most anything I throw at it (Halo, Battlefield 1942, Freelancer, Raven Shield), so you may also want to consider a 7500.

Personaly I use the Radeon 9800 PRO, Its $400 but Money WELL SPENT!!

One thing tho. Avoide the Geforce fx 5200... Totaly sucks with anything mid 2002 or later

Originally posted by Pablo
ATI Radeon 9800 is the latest version out there, although it really is not that much better than the 9700. If you want to pony up the extra cash, though, be my guest.

Personally, I use a Radeon Mobility 7500 with Omega drivers, and it works well with most anything I throw at it (Halo, Battlefield 1942, Freelancer, Raven Shield), so you may also want to consider a 7500.

First off 9800 is not the latest, or as some my think as mike said 9800 Pro is not either. ATi Radeon 9800XT is the latest and has a massive performance boost over the 9700 Pro, although attached to it is an extravagant price tag at $495. I am quite happy with my 9700 Pro, got it after my 7500 and it was quite impressive.

Secondly getting a 7500 would be one of the worst things to do right now. The only reason I would suggest getting a 7500 is if you only had pocket change, literally. An ATi Radeon 9200 128MB costs about $20 more than the 7500 running for $60. Even for a laptop now 7500 would be bad, you can get a Mobile 9600 in new laptops now. Another bad thing for a 7500 would be is that it has no hardware for DX8 or 9, resulting in poor graphics, slow processing and low resolutions to balance speeds.

Depending on how much cash you have I would suggest on getting a Radeon 9600XT or a 9800XT. If you have plenty to blow go for the highest. One recommendation for not doing would be to get something from nVidia. Although their previous GeForce 4 series was quite superior to ATi's Radeons, the FX series is quite horrible. Incomplete compatibility with DirectX 9 is one thing that they did wrong with them, so upcoming games have to optimize their game code just for nVidia's mistakes in order for it to run fine. The only experience I have ever had with nVidia's newer cards is the FX 5200, it ran somewhat decent on low resolutions and when I went up higher with Anti Aliasing on it did not turn out too well.

Incase you have a limited supply of money I would definately get a 9200 128mb for approximately $60. It is pretty sufficient and anything lower than it in the Radeon series is not worth the price for the power it produces. One thing about the 9200 I am not completely sure about is whether or not its DirectX 9 compatible. 9600XT series outperforms 9700 Pro in some aspects. I would suggest that if you do not want to go out all the way and get the top. It runs for about $175-200. For the top of the line 9800XT it would cost about $495.

Some places if you plan to get it cheaply I would check out are

NewEgg
PriceWatch
Froogle
ZipZoomFly(Formally known as GoogleGear
Monarch Computer Systems

Personally I do most of my shopping at NewEgg, and at Reseller Ratings they rank quite high, even if they do not get perfect scores, for having so many people review them.

I'm running the ATI Radeon 9800 now. It's great. Buy it. Now.

And as for the difference between 9700 and 9800, there is none. I have a 9700 on my other computer, and there is no difference whatsoever.

http://www.bjorn3d.com/_preview.php?articleID=349&pageID=495
http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030930/index.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031015/index.html

The 9800XT is 15-20% better than the 9700 Pro. You can get a 9800 for ~$167, 9800 Pro for ~$300, and 9700 Pro for ~$300. Same price, better quality and faster speeds. As I have said before the 9800XT is ~$500.

My roomate just got a Radeon 9600 PRO, and so far he has been more than satisfied with it.

Ehh...I personally prefer nVidia cards, but I still say that the FX Geforces are crap. Stick with the ATI stuff.

Currently, I'm running on a Radeon 9600 PRO. It's cheaper than the 9800XT, and is MORE than enough for anything that'll come out for a while.

*sigh*

Will any site out there ship to a POBox? All the ones I've checked say they don't, which is really beginning to annoy me. I might just have to go to CompUSA after all, and pay like 50% more...

I hear ya man, I need a new one myself, lags so much on good graphic games. I also need more Ram, only got 96....😞

Originally posted by Cloral
*sigh*

Will any site out there ship to a POBox? All the ones I've checked say they don't, which is really beginning to annoy me. I might just have to go to CompUSA after all, and pay like 50% more...

Actually, I got a friend of mine to do this for me already. Thanks for the offer though.