Looking at a new gfx card

[Maccers]

Ok i think its time to dump my MX440. Things are slow and jaggy (AA takes up most of the power and slows down even more) and on fs half the features are not accessable.
I'm looking at a high-end card, lots of memory and dx9 complient (Price is also an issue, im a student dont forget ) So far ive looked at the FX5600 256Mb and the Radeon 9800 128Mb. The reviews of the 5600 seem rather rubbish for the power and memory it has, and its very cheap for what it is. And the 9800 seems very good, but hugely overpriced.
Can anyone give me some info on these cards, or perhaps recomend another one thats just as good?

Thanks

[Daz]

id recomend the gf4 ti4200 card as this offers better performance than the 5600. read this review on the xfx version of the ti4200 and you will see why its still a good old card that holds its own against many new ones

http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/xfx/4200/

another thing its cheaper than the 5600 aswell but much better performance check out the core clock and the memory rate on that card you will be quite astonished at what the ti4200 can still do i have mine overlcocked at 350 mhz core clock and 690 mhz memory on stock cooling.

not sure about the ati cards i have heard they give problems in fs but this is only a rumour not to put you off ati but id stick with nvidia

[deadnight]

If I where you I would wait until the new drivers for the fx cards come out before you make a decision. Their performance are way below the newer ati cards right now. Nvidia say the new drivers will fix the problem though. The fxcards arent fully compatible with dx9 too. That might not be a concern for you if you don't plan on buying any dx9 games in the future though.. The fx cards 'emulate' dx9 compatibility. They aren't true dx9 cards. well for the pixel shader at least.

[Iroquois]

The Geforce FX5200 is just as powerful as the TI4200 but a heck of a lot cheaper. A lot of people say ATI cards are good but I still don't trust them. They also seem to be quite expensive compaired to Nvidia's FX series.

[deadnight]

I take back some of what I said.. I just realized that that thing about the fx cards not fully supporting dx9... It's being said all over the internet but I can't find any kind of proof about it. It started somewhere and somehow everybody is convinced that it is true without any facts to support it. I don't wan't contribute to all of this by just asuming that it's true.

But! I did run a benchmark test called shader 2.0.. That told me that all the dx9 shaders aren't supported. The new drivers are suppose to fix that according to Nvidia. (I emailed them myself and asked)

Well anyways, I'm not sure where I'm going with this...
Still I would wait for those new drivers (50.xx) to be releases before making a decision.

[Maccers]

[color=Green]Thats an interesting point. But I've had a look at some prices of the 256mb FX 5600 and they go for about

[ATI_7500]

my usual recommendation:

ATI 9500pro (or a 9600pro, but those cards are a bit slower than the old ones).

[zeberdee]

Hi I am also looking to up grade gfx card from Matrox 32mb G550, I have tried ATI 9600 this kept locking up in COF and 2k2 then tried Nvida 5600 this lost cockpit view in COF but ok in 2k2!  :)can anyone help shed light on these Iam runing Athlonxp1600 256mb ram 40gb hard drive windows 98 thanks

[4_Series_Scania]

I ditched my 64MB MX440 for a 128MB Asus 9560 FX5600, its very good IMHO, sadly, its somewhat strangled by my Celeron CPU

[Maccers]

[color=Green]It looks good, and cheap (

[ATI_7500]

louder than you can imagine!
you should better buy an ATI-card...

[4_Series_Scania]

One question... how loud is the cooling fan on it?

Quieter than on the old MX440 !

Its the FX5800 thats the noisy beastie, The Asus FX5600 has active fan speed, thus it only starts to spin fast when its under load - If I turn off the TV, stereo Mrs & Kids...... I can just about hear the tone of the fan change as D3D or OpenGL kicks into gear....

Working with Paintshop pro, or browsing, it seems to switch the fan off, its not audiable at all.

One thing that tells me my MX was past it, I tried GTA Vice City  8) with the MX back in my machine (whilst I cleaned the dust etc off the fan) with FRAPS, I saw single figure FPS, despite lowering the graphics settings, once the FX5600 was back in, 60fps @1280x1024 was a common sight.

Alas, CFS3 ,when in one of its moods,  ::)  :( :-/ still reduces the thing to a crawl from time to time, as every other title I posess seems un-affected by this problem, I sadly play CFS3 less and enjoy the rest of my collection, "the way its ment to be played!"

Paul.