Which Graphics Card Is Best??

I am looking at upgrading my graphics card and would like to know what people think is the best one out of these 2 cards. They are both in my price range and although I would love to buy the Radeon 9800 it is just too expensive (I live in the UK!!). The two cards I am tossing up are these two:-

Leadtek WInfast A350XT-TDH GeForce FX 5900XT 128MB DDR (GX-028-LT)

- nVidia GeForce FX 5900XT GPU
- AGP 8X
- 400MHz RAMDACs
- 256-bit Graphics Core
- 390 MHz Engine Clock
- 256-bit Memory Interface
- 2.8 ns Memory Speed
- TV-Out
- DVI Input

and the:-

Asus ATI Radeon 9600XT/TVD 128MB & Half Life 2 Bundle - Retail (GX-020-AS)

ATI Radeon 9600 XT Graphics Engine
- 128 MB DDR Video Memory
- 500MHz Engine Clock
- 300MHz(600MHz DDR) Memory Clock
- 400MHz RAMDAC
- AGP8X/4X/2X Bus Standard
- 128-bit DDR Memory Interface
- 2048x1536 Max Resolution
- Standard 15-pin D-sub VGA Output
- DVI-I Output
- 2nd VGA Output
- S-VHS and Composite TV-out
- S-VHS and Composite Video-in

I have read reviews on both cards and some sites and magazines give them good reviews and others don't think much of them. I have always been partial to ATI but as the GeForce 5900xt comes with 256-bit Memory Interface and the Radeon 9600xt is only 128-bit Memory Interface I was just wondering what difference that is going to make.

I mainly play games such as Call Of Duty, Battlefield 1942, Links 2003 online and offline. I am running Windows XP Pro, with a Athlon 3200xp, 512 DDR400 ram.

would like to know what people think as to which one is the best to go for?

Both are same price so I am just after which will give me best performance for playing the above games as well as HalfLife 2 and Deus EX-Invisible War when they come out over here in the UK.

Cheers for all your replies in advance.

Martyn

 

Hello Martyn

I am not a gamer, but I keep abreast of most all computer hardware, both old and new.

Here is a short review by Tom's hardware site:

http://www20.tomshardware.com/firstlook/20040119/asus-02.html

Here is a much more in depth review of MANY cards by the same site:

http://www20.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html

One thing very important to check for is the quantity of "pipes" the card has.
The more "pipes" the better the card seems to score in the above charts, other things being equal.

Hope this helps

Daddad

 

Thanks for the reply with the links to TomsHardware Reviews, they really helped. I did check out a couple of the reviews on there when I did a Google search but must've been going blind not to find the links you found. Thanks again for the info.

Martyn

 

It appears that the 5900XT has more raw performance than the 9600XT - hence, at least in the U.S., the 5900XT costs about $30-35 more.

Just from doing the "research ", I almost played with the idea of going back to Nvidia to get my next fairly high-end video card. But then I saw something that stopped me - the performance of the Nvidia cards take a serious hit when 4XAA and 8XAF is turned on. And the eye candy is exactly why I would be getting a high-end card. Games on an ATI card look just about perfect with 4XAA and some aniso thrown in. The performance hit is significantly less with ATI cards.

The upside to Nvidia cards is that they seem alot more overclockable though. So maybe it depends how important AA and AF are to you. But these image quality options might not even be practical on the "mid-range" cards you're considering anyway depending on the game you're playing. If both cards cost the same in the UK, you might want to consider the 5900XT. Or better yet, maybe consider the ATI 9700Pro.

 

What the video card is capable of and what it will do when actually in the system may well be two ( or 3 ) different things.

The card itself is just a small part of a big picture.

The Motherboard may make a difference. Type of software may make a difference. The OS makes a difference ( which I can 100% vouch for ). What you want the card to do makes a difference.

Maybe even Monitor capabilities come into play.

And the combination of all of the above may make the biggest difference of all.

A Nvidia Geforce 4-440 was doing fine job with 98SE on this machine till I put XP Pro on. ( driver problem ) A Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 is now doing fine. ( after I tried 3 sets of drivers )

But how well ANY Video card works depends almost 100% on finding the Correct DRIVERS for YOUR system And they may well NOT be the lastest and greatest.

So if you install a Video card and it does not preform to your expectations don't lay the full blame on the card itself. There are too many other variables involved.

So I believe that answer to the original question is.

"The one that works on YOUR machine and does what you require of it. "

BillyBob

 

Cheers guys for posting, have decided to get the Radeon 9800 PRO as managed to get it really cheap. Thanks for your help on the subject.

Martyn

 

Congrats Martyn

My son has that card and he IS an avid gamer and loves that card.

Wise choice indeed

You will be happy with that card

Daddad

 

BillyBob, don't read too much into this. I think the direction of this post is more like what card will give me the most "kills" while drinking copious amounts of beer.

The driver quality and image quality of both ATI and Nvidia cards are currently so good that it doesn't really play that much into the decision. Some say that ATI has a slight edge in IQ while it still seems that Nvidia's drivers are more compatible with more games. ATI still seems to have a few issues in that respect. Though I actually have heard that Nvidia has "broken" some games with new driver releases. This was almost unheard of in years past. Must be that they see ATI in their rear view mirror coming up fast. And actually passing if you've read the latest stats on video card market share.

ATI's anti-aliasing is a little better than Nvidia's - I've seen that in many a comparison. I've heard that Nvidia's anisotropic filtering may be a bit better than ATI but can't confirm.

The 9800Pro is an awesome card if you're a gamer. Try playing some games with 4XAA and 16XAF Quality and you'll be amazed!

 

Cheers for the reply, and how did you know that I drink large volumes of alcohol while fragging somebody?

Having read quite alot of reviews on graphics cards you are right in that there is little difference between ATI and NVidia cards and is down to which you can find the cheapest!

I have bought the Radeon 9800 PRO and it arrived today so will be installing it very shortly, followed by downloading a tweaking driver for it to overclock it!

Cheers for your help on the subject and if anyone plays counter-strike, then check to see if the server called JIMBOBS HOUSE is online and working and we can all have laugh on my server

Thanks
Martyn

PS. Am in the UK and normally online from 6.30pm GMT time.