Which Video Card is better?

I

Iceman16

Vice Admiral
hey all,

I'm in the market for a new Video Card cuz mine is obsolete and I've narrowed the field down to two choices: an ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB and Nvidia Geforce 3 TI200 64MB With TV out. I'm gonna be runnin Rome: Total War on the machine that I'm upgradin and Im wonderin which is better as both cards are recommended on the box. Thanks for any help.
 
Didn't the Radeon 9800 Pro come out around the same time as those Geforce 5xxx cards? It's probably two generations younger than a Geforce 3, which would make it a hundred times faster.

My (cheap brand, reference design) 9800 Pro has TV Out, VGA out and a DVI connector. It can run two displays at the same time, so the Geforce 3 wouldn't have anything over the ATI, except possibly the price.
 
Indeed, the 9800 is GeForce 5 generation. So it should be far better then the GF3.
 
The 9800 is one helluva lot faster than the Geforce3. I just upgraded from a Geforce3ti200 and that is 3 years old, and it was one year old when I bought it. The 9800pro is 3 generations past the Geforce 3, and two from the latest batch of cards. Is someone charging you the same price for both of these cards, because a 9800pro is worth £70-80 and a geforce3 is worth about £5.
 
For goodness sake, get a geforce 6600Gt for a little more than the 9800pro and enjoy the lighnting fast speeds.

And it has video component out.
 
no, the Gefoce 3 is goin for about $20 Can, and the Radeon 9800 is goin for $149 Can. ok ya, I think I will go with the Radeon 9800 since most of the votes are goin that way. Thanks for your guys' help
 
Did you even check the prices for the GeForce 6600gt? it shouldn't cost much more than the Radeon 9800, and it has a far superior performance AND supports more new technologies, like Shader Model 3.0. IT will let you play most current, past and ner future games with ease.

And yes, stay far away from the GeForce 3, it is ancient history.
 
ya, I checked out the prices on the GeForce 6600gt but I already bought a ATI 9800 which is good enough for me.
 
You should be doing very fine with a 9800 right now (speed wise). You really only need newer cards if you need pixel shader 3.0/directx 9c. Some programs might enforce this, tho currently only some benchmarks do I guess.
 
Edfilho said:
Did you even check the prices for the GeForce 6600gt? it shouldn't cost much more than the Radeon 9800, and it has a far superior performance AND supports more new technologies, like Shader Model 3.0. IT will let you play most current, past and ner future games with ease.
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It may be faster, but it uses a lot more power and is one helluva lot noisier. It also uses up 2 slots, so all in all, I'd rather save a few pennies, get something slightly slower, but quieter, more effecicent, and takes up less space.
 
And not play Splinter Cell, Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Far Cry and several other games (including some that will be released soon) with all the eye candy on. I mean, did you try a mission in SCCT with Shader Model 3.0 on? Or HDR? It really, really kicks major ass. Not to mention that, depending on which 9800 we're talking about (SE, normal, pro, XT) the 6600GT is far more than "slightly" faster. It really mops the floor with the older radeon, as it is supposed to do.

Well, if he's happy, fine. I'm just stating some facts here :)
 
I'm with KrisV here.

I have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro as well as Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Far Cry, etc.; no slow-downs, running in max detail. I also own other graphics and memory hogs in the form of SOE MMORPGs (Planetside, Star Wars Galaxies, and the Matrix Online). Either nothing slows down or nothing slows down on account of the graphics card I'm using, and everything (except Star Wars) is maxed out on graphics settings.

No doubt Edfilho's right - next generation ATI and nVidia cards are going to beat the heck out of the older tech. eventually, but that difference right now is mostly just in a lab at this point. I think Iceman16 will hum along just fine in the interim going with the Radeon 9800 Pro and will likely enjoy seeing the exact same things at the same framerates that Edfilho's seeing in these games currently. Good choice, Iceman16, and congrats on being smarter than impulse buyers like me and waiting until it came down in price a bit! :)

- FireFalcon ~};^
 
Edfilho said:
And not play Splinter Cell, Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Far Cry and several other games (including some that will be released soon) with all the eye candy on. I mean, did you try a mission in SCCT with Shader Model 3.0 on? Or HDR? It really, really kicks major ass. Not to mention that, depending on which 9800 we're talking about (SE, normal, pro, XT) the 6600GT is far more than "slightly" faster. It really mops the floor with the older radeon, as it is supposed to do.
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Actually, my friend owns a Radeon 9800pro, and he can run all the above games with all the eye candy on with no problems at all.
 
No, happy Camper, he cannot run with ALL the eye candy because the 9800 series cannot support shader model 3.0. he runs those games with the available options turned on, sure, but there are a few tricks that the 9800 simply isn't able to pull. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory on a GF6 is a damn lot prettier and faster than on any radeon 9xxx.

Firefalcon, it is not a matter of future games. I'm talking about games that are out now, as we speak. Even games that favor ATI are looking better AND playing faster on Geforces (Far Cry, BF2, HL2) than they could ever possibly do on a radeon 9800. The radeon x850 is a beast and is really faster than the 6600gt, but the 9800 is already lacking in its support for new technologies. I repeat, I'm not talking of subjective aestethical opinions, or of games from a distant future.
 
Well, in a few weeks or months there will be a game with something that a Geforce 6600 can't do. As long as the 9800 that the guy can get is good value for money, there's really no reason not to go for it.
 
Oh, agreed. I'm just answering the other posts. I do think that, if it is good enough for him, then he made the right decision.
 
Edfilho said:
No, happy Camper, he cannot run with ALL the eye candy because the 9800 series cannot support shader model 3.0. he runs those games with the available options turned on, sure, but there are a few tricks that the 9800 simply isn't able to pull. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory on a GF6 is a damn lot prettier and faster than on any radeon 9xxx.
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I'll take your word for it.
 
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