fx5600 256 or radeon 9600

[maniac_113]

I have been looking for a couple of days on a new video card. I know about computers but not about the cards in particular.

I found an:

-XFX GeForce FX 5600 256mb DDR:
Fill rate: 1.3
Memory Bandwidth: 6.4
Clock speed video memory: 400Mhz Ramdac

-ATI Radeon 9600 128mb:
Fill rate:1.6
Memory Bandwidth: 9.6
Clock speed video memory: 600Mhz

Can someone please explain to me these 3 terms and if it will be visible between the two?
My computer has AGP 4X, will it affect the memory bandwidth?
what is the difference between Ramdac and normal memory, is it better?
I dont know if i should prepare for the future and get the 256mb card.
how do i know how much power these video cards need and how much i have?

my comp is 1.2Ghz A7V133, 384 RAM, Nvidia GeForce 2 MX400 64 mb, Win XP.

If i upgrade my video card to the ones mentionned above should i buy more ram?

[f1oored]

I've been looking at the 9600XT ($200.00) it seems to be a good card. The core speed is what the processor on the card runs at and the memory speed is what the memory runs at. So the memory on the ATI card is 200mhz faster than the GeForce.

I'm not sure about the bandwidth and the fill rate, but bigger is probably better though. If you get the 9600XT you get a free copy of Half Life 2. Don't know if you are into gaming but that is a $50 value if you are planning on buying it anyway.

[maniac_113]

i read some posts and some people compare their "benchmarks" something with 3d2003 or whatever. how do i check my card and how do i know what benchmarks there will be with my current computer? is there a program or something?

[f1oored]

Yeah 3dmark03 is by futuremark. It's a very popular benchmark for gamers. Just download it (futuremark.com) and run it on the standard settings and it will give you a score. Install your new card and run it again and you can see the improvement.

[tony_j15]

Bottom line: the 9600 is better than the 5600. Fill rate is measured in MegaTexals(i think). Memory bandwith is measured in Gigabytes, and shows how many gb the memory can push in a second. On both, bigger is better. AGP 4X is fine, you will not see any performance impact. Ramdac is for 2D output, seperate from 3D stuff. Dont bother getting a 256mb card unless you can afford a 9800 or 5900, they are the only cards that utilizes that much correctly. A 300watt PSU will do fine.

[RamonGTP]

9600 over the 5600 anyday