I have a GeForce 2 Titanium and I want to replace it soon. I usually just play counterstrike but I may also want to play Half Life 2 on my new card but that is not a necessity. Plus I just looked it up and it was said you don’t need a super system to run Half life 2.
Are the Geforce 4 TI 4800 or the GeForce FX 5700 256MB good cards? they run at about $80 each.
Hubby suggest looking at ATI cards. He thinks one of the 9600 cards might be available for under $100. If you can go higher (like $200), get the 9600 XT.
Yep there are several 9600s on pricewatch
$54 - RADEON 9600 SE 128MB
$91 - RADEON 9600 Pro 128MB
$85 - RADEON 9600 256MB
$47 - RADEON 9600 128MB
I’d rather stay a year or two behind the times and spend under $100 though. I remember a few years ago when I bought my titanium people were telling me to spend $300+ on new cards that are only worth $60 now.
The 9600 is a year or two behind the times. The current gold standard is the X800.
If you are buying through Pricewatch I would recommend that you check the reviews of the vendor before purchasing. I always check with Reseller Ratings before using a new source. I would not fully trust the ratings in Pricewatch. I would urge you not to buy an SE version of the 9600 as well because they are not as good. You should consider spending a bit more for the 9800.
This is a “you get what you pay for” grouping. The 9600 Pro is a very nice card that will handle games including Half-Life 2.
You can find some performance numbers here. They tested a lot of cards including the 9600’s and comparable GeForce cards.
Also with pricewatch, be very careful. When I was buying a new video card, I found that people advertised inferior cards inside of categories: if you weren’t careful, you’d end up getting a GeForce 5600 w/ 128 MB instead of the 5600SE with 256 MB that comprised the category.
But you may already know that.
Daniel