Which card? 9600 XT or 9800 Pro

yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
edited June 2004 in Hardware
Which card is going to be better? I am a bit confused with the differences in the regular, pro, and xt cards. What are the ups and downs of both? I know they are about the same price so that is why I am comparing them, plus the 9600 xt comes in an AIW series which I am highly interested in. With that said, do you know if the 9600XT's come in both 128 and 256mb size, and if so does the same go for the AIW?

One more thing:
How do these compare with the nVidia series cards? Like, which model best matches up with each model?

Thanks,
D00D

Comments

  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited June 2004
    The 9800 pro also comes in AIW. As for differences ... the regular cards generally are the ones who couldn't pull pro/xt specs. IE - a 9800se (regular) is a pro with lower clock/mem speeds and 4 pipelines disabled. A 9800 pro has higher speeds, and 4 extra pipelines. An XT has those 4 pipelines, and much higher speeds on core and memory. As for which to get, get a 9800 pro, BUT make sure that it has 256-bit memory, otherwise the 128-bit is about the same as a 9600xt (right now a full 9800 pro runs about 190-200 bucks). Honestly, you don't need 256 megs of ram, unless you are a big graphic artist. as for nvidia/ati comparison, I have no idea, sorry.
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited June 2004
    Hehe 9800 Pro > 6800 Ultra! :rolleyes:

    I think the 9800 Pro is about on the same level as a FX5900 or so. The 9600XT should equate to ~5600-5700.

    Please do not make any important decisions based on this... It's kind of a guess.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    In all reality this is a no brainer.

    9800 Pro
    9800 (regular but not se)
    9700 Pro
    9600 XT
    9600 Pro
    9800 se
    Nvidia 5900 (please don't flame)***
    9600
    below this doesn't matter



    *** Sure the Nvidia card will yield frame rates but frame rates are not everything. It needs to be able to run smoothly too. And I won't even get into the DX9 thing.
    :rant:
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2004
    mtgoat wrote:
    In all reality this is a no brainer.

    9800 Pro
    9800 (regular but not se)
    9700 Pro
    9600 XT
    9600 Pro
    9800 se
    Nvidia 5900 (please don't flame)***
    9600
    below this doesn't matter

    9800 Pro
    9800 (regular but not se)
    9700 Pro
    9800 Pro 128bit (<- 9800 Pro w 128Bit memory)
    9500 Pro (<- 9700 Pro w 128Bit memory)
    9600 XT
    9600 Pro
    9800 se
  • yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
    edited June 2004
    hey, how would the 9500 pro beat the 9600 xt?

    ...Okay, I like the price and performance of the 9800 pro, but the 9600XT is still a good upgrade for me and has the best AIW package ati has in any cards I know of as of now. Does anyone know if a new AIW package will come out on something better?
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited June 2004
    9500 Pro > 9600 XT because it's got four more pixel pipelines to work with (twice as many as the 9600 XT), despite the 9600 XT's greater clock speeds.
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2004
    D00D wrote:
    hey, how would the 9500 pro beat the 9600 xt?

    ...Okay, I like the price and performance of the 9800 pro, but the 9600XT is still a good upgrade for me and has the best AIW package ati has in any cards I know of as of now. Does anyone know if a new AIW package will come out on something better?

    Tom's VGA Charts III
  • yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
    edited June 2004
    now why would the 9500 series have that, but not the best 9600??!!?? Sometings fishy here...

    They sure try to make it confusing... :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :bawling:
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2004
    Understand that the R300 (9700Pro core - 8 pipelines 256bit memory) came out over 1.5 years ago. ATI wanted to make a cheaper (& slower) solution available but didn't have another core ready so they reduced memory access by half (256bit to 128bit). This cut the performance of the card by ~30%. However, since they were still using the full R300 core the card was expensive (for ATI) to make (The bigger the chip, the more it costs)

    When they intro'd the R9800 Pro core (R350 also 8 pipelines - 256bit memory) they also produced the 9600Pro (RV350 - "V" for Value). With only 4 pipelines & 128bit memory, it's a smaller, cheaper chip.

    Now that X800 is here, ATI is probably blowing out R350 cores, selling them into the space that the R9600 Pro used to occupy. The 9800 Pro 128bit cards will compare with the FX5700 Ultra versions better than the 9600 Pro/XT cards did.

    New stuff arrives, old stuff gets cheaper
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    D00D wrote:
    now why would the 9500 series have that, but not the best 9600??!!?? Sometings fishy here...

    They sure try to make it confusing... :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :bawling:
    The 9600 series (4 pipelines) replaced the 9500 series (8 pipelines) and do not perform as well. ATI basiclly dropped the 9500's in favor of the new GPU chips but changed the architecture to keep people from getting a free upgrade ie: 9500 to 9700 by soft-modding the cards. I hope that helps explain it. It's all about $$MONEY$$.

    I also recomend going to ATI's site and check out their "Upgrades" deal on the 9800 Pro.
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