Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and a 9600 Pro

[monroeski]

should the 9600 pro be enough to run those two games smoothly? I'd prefer not to be on the lowest detail, med detail I want to be smooth, and I wouldn't mind if Highest detail was a little choppy (but still playable, I don't want monsters to be teleporting around the screen). I'll be running it with either a P4 2.4C or a 2.6C, and hopefully have a gig of PC3200. Basically, I'd like to know if 1) the 9600 Pro will be enough and 2) if there's a better card for the same price range that would be able to play them also. I heard the GEForce FXs were big letdowns, but that was a while back.

All of this is for a comp that I probably won't be buying for a few months anyway, I just figured I'd start looking now, I want this one to last a long time into the future, when I bought my current comp last fall, I mainly got it for the short term until I was on better financial footing, which I now am. So I guess add a 3) do you think the 9700 or the 9700 Pro will be under $200 by August or September?

[camaro]

9700NP is just a few bucks more and much faster. Why don't you give that a look. I saw one for $191 at gameve.com.

[ND]

Regular 9700 should be what you're looking for.
And I prefer R9500Pro over R9600Pro any time (as long as they're less or more equally clocked).

[batmeat]

And I prefer R9500Pro over R9600Pro any time (as long as they're less or more equally clocked).

Not to mention that that the 9500 pro has more pipelines for better through put too.