Need new video card

Hotrodsun · June 2004

I currently have a Geforce4 Ti4600, and I am look to stay with Nvidia. Because of issues with ATI and my motherboard. so which one? I was looking at the 5900XT but I don't know what card to get. I am looking to spend between $200-$250 range. Thanks for the input, Adam

Thrax · June 2004

As a moral obligation: I have to ask, what motherboard do you have?

TheBaron · June 2004

buy a refurb radeon 9800 pro. even if your mobo has issues with ati, it'll still be less of a hassle

qparadox · June 2004

Dude! you're getting a leafblower!

bothered · June 2004

This may upset a few here.
I had a Ti4600 and changed it for a 9800 pro. Can't really see a differance. Both play anything you throw at them with all settings on max (CoD, UT etc.) They say image quality is a lot better? maybe, but unless you use two monitors side by side one for each card showing the same scene you wouldn't know. Yes it benchmarks a lot faster but in the real world you can't see it, well , I can't.
Which motherboard?

Jimborae · June 2004

I can recommend the BFG FX5900 which you can then just flash the bios to make it a full blown FX5950. There were quite cheap to & come with a life time guarantee.

bothered · June 2004

I'm always suspicious of 'life time' guarantees. Does it mean it's guaranteed untill it fails or untill I do.

Armo · June 2004

is it your life time or the cards life time??

u cant go wrong with a radeon 9800 pro, i am a total convert from nvidia to ati, i will never go back to nvidia afte playing of a radeon, plus all the sleezy marketing schemes nvidia uses

Bud · June 2004

get the 9800 pro cant go wrong. The sapphire card is like 208 on newegg new. Dont go Nvidea ati is spanking them. The lifetime warranty is for the "supported" life of the card. So as soon as they stop supporting it , no warranty.

edcentric · June 2004

Adam, Why are you droping the 4600?
Do you have stuff that it won't run?
If NV was still building cards like the 46 they wouldn't be in trouble.

madmat · June 2004

As far as I know it's the life of the card in the original owners hands. (in regards to B.F.G.'s warranty)
I've played on 9700's both stock and modded to 9800's, a 9600Pro, all the TI's and my 5900U and in all honesty I don't see any appreaciable difference in IQ at the same settings between the cards.
I run all my games at 1024x768 8xaf and 6xaa and they play quite nicely...I've run older games such as C.S. and Quake III at 1600x1200 at 8xaf and 4xaa and they were smooth and looked simply amazing.
I'm still of the opinion that if you've just got to have the highest benchmark scores go ATI but if you are only worried about how well games play, either card will do you just as well...I personally like the ease of use with nVidia's drivers over ATI's and the fact that I can find the cards in a wider array of pcb colors (colours for our friends across the pond) and that to me is worth dropping a few F.P.S. that I'm never going to notice anyways. It all comes down to what you want and what you can afford.
That said, I'd try to locate a 5900 non-ultra instead of the XT version as it's more likely to have greater OC headroom.

GHoosdum · June 2004

At 1024 it *almost* doesn't matter what card you've got, most gF4Ti and above and Radeon 9600 and above can do that with no problems.

Above 1024... it definitely matters. I can run Halo at max resolution without slowdowns on my 9800 Pro, but I can't run it above 1152x864 without a few framerate drops on my 9600XT. The 9600 non-pro... fuhgeddaboutit - that card is stuck in the realm of 1024x768 foreva!

madmat · June 2004

At 1024 6xaa on any game (just about) you'll get slide-show frame rates on anything under a 9700Pro.
Yeah, a GF-4TI can run 1024x768 on almost all the games out there but not with aa enabled on games like UT2K3 or BF'42 or DFBHD which I run them all with details maxed and at 8xaf and 4Qxaa or 6xaa (depending on what the drivers call it) but, yeah, the 5900U doesn't have the horsepower to run UT2K3 at 1600x1200 at maxed details and 8xaf and 4xaa...That's why I plan on getting the 6800U when I can afford one.

Hotrodsun · June 2004

I wanted halo to run a little faster. That was the main reason. For the Motherboard it's a Tyam S2885. here's a link.Tyan

Thrax · June 2004

Ok, now I ask the pertinent question:

What issues between ATI and the Tyan K8W?

Hotrodsun · June 2004

so i have read, random lock ups and other non-sense when every you try to play 3d games. something to do with direct3d.

Thrax · June 2004

<b>Using the following strings on Google:</b>
"Tyan K8W"+ATI+issues
"Tyan K8W" +"ATI"
"Tyan K8W" +"ATI" +"problem"
"Tyan K8W" +ATI +issue
"Tyan K8W" +ATI +issues

And an advanced search demanding "Tyan K8W" only including results matching ATI, and "Issues" "Problem" "Problems" or "Compatability."

I didn't find anything.

Can you point me in the right direction?

entropy · June 2004

sorry to thread crap ... but you guys can run games like ut04 and bfv at all settings maxxed with medium-high settings in the drivers?! good lord i must be doing something wrong......