What vid card?

[tony_j15]

I'm looking to pick up a vid card for under 200. Preferably with 256mb. About the only card that fits that is the FX5600. Its supposedly the equivalent of the 9500. Is it a good card? Reviews anywhere? Personal experience?

Thanks in advance!

[Omardeth]

for that price i would have to say a ati 9500 pro is about the best you will get . for about 230 you can get a 9700 and it is better than the 9500.

the fx is a bust . the only fx card that is really out now that is worth getting is the 5200 and that is only if you are low on money but want a dx9 card .

200 bucks and preferably 256 mb of ram. your living in a dream world. Omardeth is correct the fx is a bust

[rastorize]

ewww...I wouldn't touch the 5200 unless totally desperate. Here is a review of the 5200 and the 5600. Neither one is capable of claiming any kind of performance crown vs. ATI.

For under $200, get the ATI 9500 pro...

Compared to this drastic difference between premium and super-premium designs, ATI has a real gem with the current Radeon 9500 Pro, which represents an almost perfect blend of price and performance. Though it settles for a 128- instead of 256-bit memory interface, the 9500 Pro is a true R300 core, packing a healthy 85 percent of its big brother's power. The Radeon 9500 Pro is not only faster than any GeForce4 Ti board, but in terms of both specifications and early performance reports, the GeForce FX 5600 Ultra can't touch it either.

...taken from this article.

You could wait a few months - by then the 9700 pro could be under $200...and, nVidia's got another new chipset coming out in the near future that promises to be pretty good.

But if you were to buy a card today...get the 9500 pro. Mine has been rock-solid stable, fast - you can overclock it to 9700 pro levels using the Warp11 bios mod, and, it has the best image quality of any card on the market.

[Omardeth]

well i would have to say if you compare a fx5200 to a 9500 yes it beats the pants off it . but the fx5200 isn't a bad idea IF you only have like 70$ to spend on a video card ... you have to compare apples with apples . but rastorize is right if you can wait a couple months the 9700 cards will be alot less since the fx5900 is trickling out . that will help make prices come down .

and why do you need 256 meg of ram ? 64 meg will run ANYTHING you through at it .

[Urban_Squrill]

9600 ultra pro only 128mb 180 http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_v...=1034&showit=1

urban i believe the the 9500 beats the 9600

[Urban_Squrill]

Weird. I no nothing about ATI stuff just that they are better,

[rastorize]

Yeah 9500 pro beats the 9600 pro in many benchmarks...the 9500 pro is identical to the 9700 pro sans the 256 bit memory bus and is clocked down (but that can be fixed :-)...whereas the 9600 pro is a completely new architecture, half the rendering pipelines, but higher clock speed to make up the difference in performance.

Newer isn't always better!

[Urban_Squrill]

whats the difference between the reg and pro?