Looking for a video card...

[boran_blok]

between the 6600 and the 9800 Pro there's no question about it that the 9800 is better, but the 6600 GT is about equal, but since the prices of that one are higher i'd go for the 9800 Pro

[David E. Gervais]

I'd just like to say, that GForce cards use/have an unifieded driver system that is absolutely painless fo setup and updating. As for ATI well, I still have nightmares about how much time and money I lost on that 'Brand'. Not to mention the driver problems I have always had with ATI cards still give me shivers.

I wouldn't buy Ice from ATI on a hot 120deg day if my life depended on it. It would probably end up being Dry Ice and of no use to me.

But this is just me, I've heard rumors that ATI makes good stuff now, but I don't believe it for a minute.

BTW: The last time I tried an ATI card was a Raedon 9200 or some such creature. After installing it, windows wouldn't even boot not even in it's default 800x600 'Safe mode'.

The customer service game went like this..

ATI: It's a problem with windows!
MS: It's a Problem with the graphics card!
ATI: It's a problem with DirectX!
MS: It's a problem with the Drivers!
ATI: Try removing the card and see if that works!
MS: Buy an nVidia gForce they work better.
ATI: Get a new motherboard, yours is not listed on our compatibiltiy list.
MS: Are you running SP2? (No?) well you should upgrade.
David: But my computer does not boot after installing SP2!
MS: It must be a problem with your motherboard.
David: So the solution is to spend $600 for a new MB and Graphics Card?
ATI: No, just get a new MB,.. here's a list of campatible ones.
MS: Yes!

David reformats his 'C:' drive and reinstalls Win XP with SP1 and all upodates. Stays with his gForce FX 5200. Things are back to normal.

Conclusion.. both MS and ATI recruit their service technicians from Radio Shack.

Oops, did I babble?

Cheers!

[thorfrog]

I will never....ever by an ATI card again. GEFORCE 6800 woohoo.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

According to the local comp shop, it's still up in the *$400-500 range, so no 6800 for me.

* Canadian money. %20 less than american.

[Thermodyne]

atomannj said:
I will never....ever by an ATI card again. GEFORCE 6800 woohoo.

I have run both, and never had any trouble. ATI drivers are a little more difficult, you must remove the original cards drivers before you pull the card, of it will blow up on install.

On a side note, you can get a lot out of older cards with tweaking. I'll run some before and after benches on a old mid level system and post the results.

[Thermodyne]

OK here is a set of bench results from an old system. Its an XP3000/266 (about 3 years old) and a ti4600 card. Cheap leadtec I think. NForce 2 Abit board and 512 megs of cheap ram. All of this stuff was purchased from the bargin bin a couple of years ago. Cooling is stock with a single case fan and the OEM cou heat sink and fan. Base Bench Results

Not bad, but nothing to get worked up about.

[Thermodyne]

First step is to OC the system. 2.32GHz is a very doable jump and should work fine with stock cooling.
XP 3000 @2.32GHz

[Thermodyne]

System was running a little hot (78c) so I backed down to 2.28Ghz for the 3D benchs. A $15 dollar COU heat sink would fix this, but I'm not spending any money on this

3D marks at 2.28GHz

[Thermodyne]

Next I installed Rivatunner and put a 5% over clock on the video card.

3d01 with riva

Not bad for a free program and some bios settings.
With some newer drivers and a little more cooling you could double these gains no problem. But that more than I want to get into tonight.

[Krsqk]

Thanks for all the advice. I went ahead with the Radeon 9800 PRO; it should arrive Monday or Tuesday. Looking forward to a nice improvement in my video performance! Thanks again to all who helped.