Video Card Advice

I posted this over in the Yard and no luck so I am going to try here. Hi, I am looking to up grade my video card but I need some advice. I currently have a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400. It is a 64MB card that came with my computer when I got it 2 and a half years ago. It is a good card but I think it is time for an up grade. I am looking at a Radeon 9600 SE. I don't know if it is the best I can get for my money or what. All I need is a little advice, please. Thanks.http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/ATI-Radeon--9600-SE-Video-Card--100-437009-/sem/rpsm/oid/80965/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

-Brian-

*Proud Supporter of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic*

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RE: Video Card Advice, derekmorton, Sep-26-04, 05:56 PM, (1) RE: Video Card Advice, UP Wings, Sep-26-04, 06:16 PM, (2) RE: Video Card Advice, plainsman, Sep-26-04, 07:10 PM, (3) RE: Video Card Advice, derekmorton, Sep-26-04, 10:01 PM, (4) RE: Video Card Advice, Doxt5, Sep-26-04, 10:29 PM, (5) RE: Video Card Advice, wakeboarder82, Sep-26-04, 10:59 PM, (6) RE: Video Card Advice, barak, Sep-26-04, 11:29 PM, (7) RE: Video Card Advice, plainsman, Sep-26-04, 11:34 PM, (8) RE: Video Card Advice, barak, Sep-27-04, 03:59 AM, (9) RE: Video Card Advice, UP Wings, Sep-27-04, 01:53 PM, (10) RE: Video Card Advice, wakeboarder82, Sep-27-04, 04:02 PM, (11)

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Hi Brian,I don't see that a 9600 se will give you much better performance than an MX 400. See www.tomshardware.com for performance figures of video cards.

Derek
EngMod@sgrail.org
www.sgrail.org
EngMod forum
http://www.3dtrains.com/forums/index.php?s=3c21ea4e4882bb70177f35d82c51523b&act=SF&f=59

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So what would you recomend?
-Brian-

*Proud Supporter of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic*

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LAST EDITED ON Sep-26-04 AT 07:14 PM (EDT)

Brian,
I had a 9600 and hated it!! If you can't go with the 9800, stay away from ATI. The NVIDIA FX5700 or FX5750 should do a nice job with the sim. That would be my suggestion. I have a FX5900 and am really pleased with it in every way!!
Bob

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>So what would you recomend? Spending more money is the key unfortunately.
I am still running on a GF3 TI200 and will be for quite some time until I can afford a much faster card.

Derek
EngMod@sgrail.org
www.sgrail.org
EngMod forum
http://www.3dtrains.com/forums/index.php?s=3c21ea4e4882bb70177f35d82c51523b&act=SF&f=59

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derekmorton is so right! To make a upgrade even worth while, is to get a card that will stay with current and future game needs. I use as a Two rule of thumb once you find a good card first. 1. "Power supply" Reason being lets say if you are running a P4 which of the bat needs a 300W "Power Supply". It is a good thing to have more watts then what you need, this allows for performance and future upgrades. 2nd is "Mainboard or AKA Motherboard", the newer cards that are coming out actually violate older mainboared AGP slot room. But I personally like Nividia they make great products and are very prompt about updated drivers. But its up to you and what you are willing to spend. I would recomend http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=28 if you were going to build a system. They get you on a freight fee, but if you are building a system then it is more then worth it to buy all your PC stuff there! But my advice if I was in your shoes and pending on your current system. Is 1. Update your Power supply and 2. Get a mid to higher end Nvidia GPU. Good luck to you!Pentium 4 / 2.4GHz HT O/C @ 2.755GHz w 920FSB
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Mike

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The 9600 is great card, probably the best bang for the buck, from ATI at least. The problem is the SE. There are four versions of the 9600. There is the 9600SE, 9600, 9600pro, and 9600XT. The SE being the worst, the XT being the best. Despite the fact that they sound very similar, there is a significant performance difference. Tom's Hardware has a great article on the 9600XT that has benchmark test results for some popular games such as FS2004. I suggest you check that out. As for the differences between your current card and the radeon, there are a few. I have both a 9600XT and an MX 400. The Radeon is faster, it is AGP 8x, and has twice the memory (128). I would recommend the 9600XT or 9600PRO as good card for you if you have a decent computer otherwise. I found the best upgrade for me was RAM. RAM really reduced the crashes in MSTS and smoothed things out a bit. Note: There is not much performance increase in the XT over the PRO, but there is a price increase. Keep that in mind.

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Hello Brian before i bought my new Vcard i looked and looked and read all there is to read LOL. I was impressed with the
ATI 9600XT 128MB the card in it class and if that's not enough the best bang for your buck or buy ATI 9800 128MB BUT you know what the ratings on the ATI 9600 128MB are just about as good as 9800 BUY the ATI 9600XT 128MB it will not let you down, listen i have been playing around with mine and the higher i turn up graphics the better this Vcard works BUT in the end it's up to you. THIS is my 2 cents wroth.Steve
Blind Bay B.C. It's A Bird It's A Plane No It's Just Another HotshotTrain-sim Engineer

Long Live EMD SD40-2's

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I strongly disagree!! I had the 9600 (not 9600SE or 9600Pro), and I don't know about benchmarks, but I do know it was awful for MSTS, was a pain to use and upgrade drivers, and had some strange artifactual effects in MSTS. I got the FX5900 and have been exceptionally pleased, it just works flawlessly, which is what I wanted! If you spend most of your time on Hooligan's Gulch Golf, the 9600 may be your best bet, in MSTS, I hated it!!
Bob

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LAST EDITED ON Sep-27-04 AT 04:02 AM (EDT)

LOL BOB ATI 9600XT blows the doors off your FX5900 i readed bench marks for that FX5900 and they totaly sucked here's my FPS in MSTS
everything to the MAX and my Anti Alising set at 8X and getting
25 to 35 FPS and only running a AMD 2500 and 512DDR ram. I had a Gforce card once AFTER 1 month it how do i put this BLEW UP LOL fried it LOL. drivers can be found easyly at www.ati.com read inst. right there's no problem. MY 2 cents Steve
Blind Bay B.C. PS. I'am all so flying Flight-sim 2004 with all sliders set to 80% and getting 35FPS no problem i've booted FPS up to 50 in that sim no problem. It's A Bird It's A Plane No It's Just Another HotshotTrain-sim Engineer

Long Live EMD SD40-2's

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Ok, I will think about this. I know I will get a Radoen 9600 but I don't know which one yet. I am mostly getting this for the memory up grade. To run trains with 100+ cars all of them being the 1076 textures, I need something more than the 64MB my card has. As with everything, the more money you have to burn the better the item is. Thanks for all of the advice.
-Brian-

*Proud Supporter of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic*

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>I know I will get a Radoen 9600
>but I don't know which one yet. Go with either the PRO or the XT. As for the drivers, ATI releases an updated driver once a month. All you need to do is uninstall the previous drivers, then install the new one. This has never proven to be difficult for me, so I am not really sure why other people have trouble with it. ATI even has step by step instructions on how to do it. My point is, don't be scared off by other posts saying that this card is difficult to work with. I had never installed one before and it worked first try for me.By the way, the hardware forum over at avsim.com has a lot of hardware gurus that might be able to explain the differences between the different versions of the 9600. Sure there is knowledge here but the flight sim community is huge compared to train sims.

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