-Why buy a card now?-

[Sapphire9800]

Don't buy a video card now, especially a $300-500$ one. Considering the games that utilize this technology won't be out for another 6 months or more, why pay for the full price now? Sure you will notice a difference in performance with the games now..but not enough to break the bank for it. Next year video cards will change..with PCI express and all that..wait for the games to come out before you upgrade.

[Cabot_Teg118]

Well said. Whenever I build my computer I plan on getting my video card last (And hopefully cheaper :D )

[Sapphire9800]

wait for HL2 or DOOM III, thats when ATI and NVIDIA will compete ... believe me prices will go down then

[MaNiAk21]

Yeah, I know what you mean, the only way I will be getting anything too high-end of an upgrade now is if I win it in a contest or something. :P

[BioNiKaL]

agree'd the prices are way to high theese days i dont know if they'll go down because of doom3 and hl2 but they are coming down i remember last year i was looking forward to paying 110$ (aud) for a tnt2

[A Person]

I think the ATI 9600 pro is the way to go right now. Some of the generic brands are selling it for $150. It performs exelent and $150 is reletively cheap compared to some of the super high performance cards. I'm got a PowerColor (I think that was the name) 9600pro for $145 and it kicks butt. It's got DirectX9 (no very usefull for another few months) and it overclocks really well. I just put a few heatsinks on the ram and got an extra 34Mhz out of the ram and another 60Mhz out of the GPU. I haven't tried any higher but I could probably squeeze a bit more out of it.

Anyways, UT03 runs flawlessly at 1240 by 1024 with AA on 4 or 8x, not sure which one. CS runs great with everything set to the max (but then again, CS isn't as demanding as UT03).

I would highly recomend it.

[MaNiAk21]

I would highly recommend the 9500 if you could find one, even if you weren't to find the "L" memory-shaped kind that you can mod, they are still more powerful than the 9600. L:)

[A Person]

Ya, I've never actually tried a 9500 before but it always gets very high reviews. That is another good bet for a card that performs great, will last a long time, and won't break the bank.

[cabe]

i'm stickin' with my R9800 Pro. 8)

[A Person]

i'm stickin' with my R9800 Pro.

:( now i'm jealous

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

i'm stickin' with my R9800 Pro.

:( now i'm jealous

i might be in the process of getting one lol

[MaNiAk21]

i'm stickin' with my R9800 Pro.

:( now i'm jealous

i might be in the process of getting one lol

*hates you* :lol:

[EmoMakesMeCry]

well instead of a 9500 pro, i got the 9700 pro...not as nice as the 9800 but it'll be more than enough for me

[fhetw]

but you can o/c a 9500 faster than a 9700 pro, most of the time

[EmoMakesMeCry]

but unlike many....i don't o/c...nor do i intend to

[hone]

I'm pretty happy w/ my GeForce Ti 4600 that I got for 100 something last year.

[ldonyo]

The games that use DX9 will be out within three months, not six. There won't be anything new in graphics cards other than a refresh of the current technology and a bit of a speed increase, so the only real reason to wait is price. If you go with a 9700 Pro instaed of a 9800 Pro then there really isn't a need to wait, especially since you may wait too long to find one. :wink:

That said, I'm happy with my 9700 Pro and I won't change it, unless someone gives me something better as a present or something. :D