Graphics card Q: Radeon 9600xt vs todays cheap cards?

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I have a Sapphire radeon 9600xt Fireblade (128mb) which is AGP8x based. Now I'm going to upgrade my PC (on a budget) and wonder if I should spend on a new graphics card or not.

So my question is: How does my card compare to todays cheaper (in the 100-150 Euro range) cards and which card is a great "value" buy?

Without getting a new graphics card I'm thinking about this:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Venice)
Motherboard: ASROCK ULI M1695 (Has both AGP8x and PCI-e)
Memory: 2x512mb PC3200

 

So you've gone and bought an ASrock - a number of people have took this option. One thing its given you is the ability to carry on using the 9600XT until you make up your mind.
Its a difficult call at the moment - because there are lots of changes in the graphics card market at the moment. ATI have just bought out the 1900 series which is the performance leader - although this is way out of the price range you specified - it had the effect of knocking a massive slice off the price of all the lower level cards. Sometime this week or next Nvidia will be launching their 7900 series, which will have a lesser though similar effect on prices.
Might be best to wait for a couple of weeks see what effect this has. But allthough this may suprise some of you, If I was to buy now at 150 euros I'd try to get a X1600XT (this is about £110 about 150ish euros) I'm not a Fanboy - I currently have an Nvidia 7800gt - which at the time was hands down the best buy for a high end card - its still a great bang for buck card but at 250 euros its too much for your budget (I play lots of CSS and BF2) If it comes down to the 200 euro mark you might be tempted to wait and save and buy this card.

3d05 mark Specs

9600xt on AMD64 4000+ 1gb 2067 marks
x1600xt on FX57 2gb 5342 marks
7800gt on AMD64 3500+1gb 7000 marks

If the x1600xt is slightly more than your budget the pro version should be well inside. The increase in speed might not seem that much but I'd imagine you'd be able to play half life 2 for example at 1600*1200 with all bells and whistles and get a better frame rate than you would at 1024*768 with your current card. I'd imagine you'd get a 300% increase on average with your frame rate.

 

If you're going for 100-150 euros, then whatever you get will be better than the 9600XT, but I don't think the performance difference is really worth it. The X1600XT is a good choice, and I've just seen it for £100 (that's 145 euros). You could go for a X1600 Pro, which is slightly slower and cheaper (115 euros). Alternatively the Geforce 6600GT is the same price as the X1600 Pro, but the X1600 is probably a better option.

My advice is to either stick to your card, or wait until the new releases come out and prices drop. That might bring down the X1800 or the Geforce 6800 (or even some of the better Geforce 7) into your price range.

One more thing, while 3D Mark is a good way to compare cards in terms of raw performance, it doesn't really tell you much about the card's performance in the games you will play, which can make it harder to compare cards.

 

I've heard the same. But I've also heard that Intel's new "Cedar Mill" class processor is quite good also. But, on the AMD side, I would not be going with a 64 3200 at this point in time; nothing less than a 64 3800 at minimum. But one of the Manchester processors would be an even better choice, IMO.

On the graphics side, nVidia has a few nicely clocked 6800s that are worth considering, at good prices.

 

Venice 3200 is a perfectly valid choice for a CPU at the moment. Its pretty dam good for the money - I know people who have clocked their A64 3000+ to 3800+ levels with ease.
One thing I would state - if you decide to get a graphics card at the same time as your mobo and cpu don't bother with the AS Rock. Go for a dedicated PCI express board - the AS Rock is flexible - but thats where the pluses end.

New cards are out today - check www.tomshardware.com - maybe the 7600gt is the most sensible choice now.

[ March 10, 2006, 14:59: Message edited by: Tap Dancing Oyster ]

 

There are always new "upgrades" coming, so better buy what you have now -otherwise you end up waiting forever. I read what Tomshardware had to say too and, IMO, they were largely right. 7600 might be a typo, though; don't they mean "7800?"

Anyway, a few months back 3500+ was the golden middle-road whereas 3200+ the cheaper alternative. By now the former should had taken that place whereas 3700+ is what people should get. Combine that with GF 7800 GT and you have a good computer. Price about 500-600 €.

In the cheapest range would be that 3200+ and GF 6600 GT (256 Mb RAM if possible). Perhaps some 400 € for a relatively good performance on medium settings in games like FEAR, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, and PoP3.

 

I'm mainly conerned about playing Sims 2 with graphic options maxed. It is sluggish and restricting on my computer.
Perhaps I will also want to play the upcoming "ES IV: Oblivion" which has the following recommended set-up:
3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor, 1GB RAM, ATI X800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card.

I don't play FPS games.


@Wordplay
In Sweden an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ & a GeForce 7800GT cost about ~700 Euro. That is way out of my price range.

 

I don't think you'll find anything within your price range to play ES4, unfortunately. If this is the "recommended" setup then that's probably the bare minimum needed to run the game at a decent frame rate at medium detail settings - you can forget about maxing out graphics options entirely, unless you get a 7800 or X1900, both of which are expensive.

I don't think there's a compromise in this case, really. You'll either have to chuck out a sizable amount of money (at least 200 euros for the card alone), or you'll have to forget about maxing out graphic detail.

 

So I might follow Blackthorne's advice and wait.
In the meantime I could upgrade memory to 1gb. I have 256mb now. I figure I could use PC3200 memory later, right?

 

@ Earl Grey

Nothing prevents you from ordering from places like verkkokauppa.com -Finland is right next to the border, you know, and the shipping fees shouldn't be that horrible.

 

You should be able to play Oblivion with a X1600XT without any issues at all, the X800 is the generation before. Althon64s are still a better choice than Intel for gaming (which is the most intensive task most of us do on the PC) - dual core is still an expensive luxury at this point. A Venice core A64 3000 or 3200+ should be fairly reasonable priced - and they both perform more than adequately, and you don't need to buy expensive ddr2 which only benefits Intel CPUs at this point.
7600 is not a typo is Nvdias latest launch alongside the 7900 series.

Nvidias cards are as follows FX5 series > 6 series > 7 series. Up and till last week the 7800gtx was their flagship it is now the 7900gtx, they also bought out the mainstream 7600gt which should perform similarily to the old flagship 6800ultra at a much cheaper cost.
ATI 9*** series > X*** series > X1*** series. They recently launched the X1900XTX which is the fastest unit on the market.

 

Only upgrade with game at hand, not beforehand. Games beforehand are developed with technology at hand.