Upgrading Video Card--Which to Choose

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by mdowns, Jan 28, 2006.

  1. mdowns

    mdowns Private First Class

    Hello Geeks! :)

    I am looking to upgrade my video card (see my computer specs in my sig). I'm not a serious gamer (mostly Civ, SimCity, and A Tale in the Desert), but I have been running into trouble recently due to the crappyness of my Radeon 9200SE (ATITD doesn't like it very much). So, I am not going for a lot of bells and whistles, but I would like something that will get the job done for around 100 bucks.

    The two cards I am looking at are the Sappire Radeon 9600XT and the ASUS Geforce N6600 TD. Anyone have any experiences using these two cards?

    A couple things about my situation...I use Linux a lot, which means the nVidia might be better (better driver support) but I have not had many problems with installing the ATI Linux drivers for my current card. In the above links there's a 30 buck price difference. However, I can get the Geforce card for a little over 100 dollars from a vender here in Japan. The ATI card, though is really expensive in Japan, but I can oder it from NewEgg and then have my family ship it over. Either way, the price is going to be about the same for both cards.

    Right now I am leaning towards the nVidia card, if only because it presents a lesser amount of hassle. I figured, though, with such a great resource as MajorGeeks, it wouldn't hurt to ask a question in the forum.

    Thanks for your help.
     
  2. viper_boy403

    viper_boy403 MajorGeek

  3. theguy

    theguy Private E-2

    Yeah, get the 6600gt if you can, great improvement over the 6600. Here's a card right around a $100, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814164043 6600 vanilla with 256mb. Or you could get a 9800 pro 128mb which is right there as well, I have a 256mb version and it performs pretty well in some intense games. You're games shouldn't require much though.
     
  4. mdowns

    mdowns Private First Class

    Thanks for the replies, guys.

    The GT bumps up the price in Japan by about 6000 yen, around 50 bucks. Thus making the Radeon Card a bit more enticing to buy in Japan.

    What's the difference between an XT and a Pro card for ATI? (I remember reading a review, after I had bought my SE card, that said never ever ever buy an SE card! Slapped my forehead a few times after that! :D)

    For the games I am playing is it worth the extra 50 bucks? Or will the vanilla do OK? I mean, I don't play Doom or Quake or any of the FPS games. I like ATITD and might try out WoW sometime. But that's about as graphics intensive as I get. Would the 13000 yen be poorly spent on the vanilla card?

    Sorry for sounding like such a miser! ;)

    PS: forgot to add that the Geforce card I am looking at in Japan is 256MB rather than 128 (like in the link from the OP).
     
  5. theguy

    theguy Private E-2

    For ATI, XT is better than a Pro. For Nvidia, XT is a lower end version. Oh yes, dont buy SEs heh. The vanilly 6600 would work just fine for your games, they don't require much to play. I would think the 6600 should play WoW just fine, but don't expect the highest settings.
     
  6. mdowns

    mdowns Private First Class

    Well, then, I guess the Radeon is out if it's equal to the vanilla Geforce.

    Now, I just have to decide whether I want to spend the extra 6000 yen on the GT. I'll tell ya what I'm thinking, and see what you have to say: I'm trying to get as much out of my computer as I can for the next two years or so. For a while, I was toying with the idea of building a new AMD 64 machine, but I then figured that the CPU I have is pretty good especially since I don't do a lot of heavy-duty computing. It should last me for a while. RAM I can get more of. HDs aren't a problem. The video card is the only other thing I need to think about. I guess I'm just trying to talk myself into not worrying about getting the GT cause it'll stay competitive for a while.

    And where were you when I was buying my crappy SE card 2 years ago! :p
     

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