[Hudzy]

Well it's not so much of a choice as far as what to get. Already made up my mind on the FX5900. I can't make a decision on the manufacturer. I've looked around a bit and found five different ones. Since I've never actually bought one before, I have no idea as to which company makes the best.

Asus: http://www.asus.com/products/vga/v9950u/overview.htm#

Creative: http://uk.europe.creative.com/estore/product.asp?prod=476&page=6

Gainward: http://www.gainward.com/c-1.html?id=97

Leadtek: http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a350_ultratdh_myvivo_1.html

MSI: http://www.msicomputer.com/product/vga/vga_detail.asp?model=FX5900U-VTD256

The Gainward card seems a bit overpriced just to have water cooling and a bunch of extra pci cards which I don't really need. That one's up near £600. I think I've already decided against that one. If this stuff justifies the cost feel free to try and change my mind.

The others all seem to retail at between £300 and £400, which looks slightly better.

Maybe if someone more technically inclined than myself knows useful stuff to help advise me what to go for here they could reply. I'd appreciate it. It would be quite an expensive mistake to make if I got something that was going to underperform or something. Also any past experiences with any of the said companies would be useful. And finally any other manufacturers that anyone knows of and can point out, that would be helpful as well.

I don't really know too much when it comes to this sort of thing so I'm out to widen my knowledge base here basically. Over to you guys.

[Liberator]

I haven't ever bought one either, but from what I've read MSI has a reputation for providing the best value as far as bundled components are concerned.

[Black Ace]

Well... first of all, if I were you, I'd wait a bit until ALL those prices come down... unless you are loaded... in which case, go for it...

I have a leadtek card, and the fan died on me within 2 months... tech support was ZERO help, and not many of them spoke english apparently.... anyways, I hear leadtek makes great cards, but had a little trouble with mine, so while I'm not bashing them, I'm not recommending them either...

What was said about MSI above is true, good all around deal for them most of the time.

Gainwards are awesome cards, IMO, but you already know where I stand on the price issue. Again, thats you're call...

AFAIK, Creatives are teh suck... but thats an uneducated assumption... It is an interesting note that the gainward, MSI and creative are virtually identical in their product images.

Asus make great, reliable (most of the time) mobos, so I would THINK they make good vid cards too, and their tech support is usually A+ which often plays an important role in my decision making.

So which one? I dunno... just wanted to throw in my two cents...

[Hudzy]

Thanks for the ideas so far. Food for thought.

[Rictor]

This may be a good place to ask:

I'm looking to upgrade within the next month or two. Right now, its a toss up between a Radeon 9600 Pro and a Radeon 9800 (no pro). The difference between the two is about 75-100 bucks.

Can anyone tell me their experiences with a 9600 Pro, since thats what I'm most likely getting?

[Ryx]

Originally posted by Rictor
This may be a good place to ask:

I'm looking to upgrade within the next month or two. Right now, its a toss up between a Radeon 9600 Pro and a Radeon 9800 (no pro). The difference between the two is about 75-100 bucks.

Can anyone tell me their experiences with a 9600 Pro, since thats what I'm most likely getting?

If you live in the US, maybe this could be of interest:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=302333&pfp=SEARCH&tabtype=rb

[Admiral LSD]

I know it probably hasn't happened before and been fixed so it most likely won't happen again but I'd be extremely wary of buying anything from Gainward after all that crap they had with their Ti4200's a year or so back...

[Black Ace]

Originally posted by Ryx


If you live in the US, maybe this could be of interest:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=302333&pfp=SEARCH&tabtype=rb

 Sweet!

[Rictor]

Originally posted by Ryx


If you live in the US, maybe this could be of interest:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=302333&pfp=SEARCH&tabtype=rb

Nah, Canada. 300 US would be about 250 Canadian, and thats a bit too much. A Radeon 9800 would cost me about 380 + tax to get right now, so I'm hoping the price will come down, since anything over 400 is ridiculous, atleast for my financial situation..

[Black Ace]

Originally posted by Rictor
Nah, Canada. 300 US would be about 250 Canadian, and thats a bit too much. A Radeon 9800 would cost me about 380 + tax to get right now, so I'm hoping the price will come down, since anything over 400 is ridiculous, atleast for my financial situation..

Is this in English?

[Fury]

Originally posted by Black Ace


Is this in English?

Seems like so. I can understand it fine though...

[Black Ace]

Originally posted by Rictor
Nah, Canada. 300 US would be about 250 Canadian, and thats a bit too much. A Radeon 9800 would cost me about 380 + tax to get right now, so I'm hoping the price will come down, since anything over 400 is ridiculous, atleast for my financial situation..

Hmmm... I just mean.. that website shows the radeon 9800 pro at $300 US. And thats a bit too much... but then he goes on to say the Radeon 9800 is $380, when that website just showed that it wasn't. And then he says that he hopes the price will come down, anything over $400 is ridiculous, when that website offered a "come down" price of $300...

So I'm not seeing the light here...

[Kamikaze]

Out of curiosity, why the FX5900? I've seen tests which have shown the Radeon 9800 to be superior.

[Fury]

Originally posted by Kamikaze
Out of curiosity, why the FX5900? I've seen tests which have shown the Radeon 9800 to be superior.

Yeah, and Radeon 9700 non-pro and pro seems to offer the best punch for your money at the momen. GF FX's are just too pricey.

[Cannikin]

Originally posted by Kamikaze
Out of curiosity, why the FX5900? I've seen tests which have shown the Radeon 9800 to be superior.

Check the benchmarks on these (and the pages following):

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030512/geforce_fx_5900-10.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030714/vga_card_guide-12.html

In the majority of cases the 5900 Ultra is shown to be better.

[Kamikaze]

I've found some of my own tests that show results in the contrary...

http://www.ocaddiction.com/articles/video/fx_5900ultra_vs_radeon_9800pro/

I think the general case is that the Radeon 9800 operates better in higher FSAA modes than the GFFX, and has better image quality. It also costs less.

I think this may sum it up nicely:

From Nordic Hardware (http://www.nordichardware.com/reviews/graphiccard/2003/Radeon9800Roundup/index.php?ez=10) :

When we talk general performance vs the FX 5800 Ultra we can see that in some cases the FX board is indeed faster. Especially the Quake 3 benchmarks with 2xAA/4xAF showed us that there is some stiff competition from nVidia yet. The competitor that we unfortunatly couldn't show you is GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. As for the 5800 Ultra I personally feel that the 9800 Pro board deliver better performance where it counts it doesn't really matter if the FX board is faster when running low levels of AA/AF when the ATi boards can run higher levels of AA/AF much better.

[Admiral LSD]

That second review only covers the FX5800, not the 5900. Even nVidia's saying the FX5800 is a disaster (there's even a video of them lampooning the outrageous FX Flow cooling system). The 5900 is a whole different kettle of fish.

[Hudzy]

Originally posted by Kamikaze
Out of curiosity, why the FX5900? I've seen tests which have shown the Radeon 9800 to be superior.

Well, from what I've read, it's the best out of the two over all, although as said, the 9800 offers better aa at higher resolutions. Tough call really.

[RangerKarl]

I hear the FX 5900 needs to have an adjacent PCI slot empty to fit. Might want to weigh that in too.

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by RangerKarl
I hear the FX 5900 needs to have an adjacent PCI slot empty to fit. Might want to weigh that in too.

Both the FX5800 and 5900 do, it's to fit the extravagant cooling systems the chips require. It's not that big a deal really, the first PCI slot usually shares it's IRQ with the AGP which can cause problems with poorly designed cards (most notably LAN and sound cards, the most notorious of the latter being Creatives cards) and is best left empty anyway. In fact, I've noticed motherboards with AGP and PCI spacing that would indicate the first PCI slot is being left out altogether but as they've only started appearing since the FX5800 came out I'd say they were designed with that in mind more than any issues with interrupt sharing.