Forums | MacLife

insane1 · 2003-06-24 8:24 pm

Obviously, the 9800 would be better then the 9600 but in playing a game such as UT2K3, would there be a drastic difference between the two? I plan on buying a new G5 when they become available but I'm not quite sure as to pay an extra $300 for the 9800.

Rook · 2003-06-24 8:47 pm

If the 9600PRO came with 128mb of VM like the PC version does I would say save the money and go with the 9600PRO, but alas, we get scr&wed again out of a quality mid-end card.

Bat · 2003-06-28 5:05 am

Yes, there's a large difference. I went from a GF3 Ti200 (64MB) to a 9700 Pro... one nicely playable, the other, framerate/ image quality heaven. The G5 will give Macs the suds to push a high-end videocard hard, for the first time in... a long time.

How much money that's worth is your call.

insane1 · 2003-06-28 8:51 am

framerate/ image quality heaven

From that alone, it's worth a lot of money. big_smile

Gipetto · 2003-06-28 11:14 pm

I'm gettin' beautiful game play with this Radeon 9000 in a dual Ghz DDR machine.

I can only imagine what either one of those cards will look like. Should be wonderful. What you might consider is if you think you'd ever plan on upgrading the video card in the future. If yes, get the 9600 and wait for the upgrade that you REALLY want, or the one that would make the next level of games fly. If you don't think you're gonna want to mess around with that in the future, then spend the money now and get the 9800.

Me, I'd go the first route. After all, an upgrade later on won't cost you $300, so if you do decide to upgrade, you'll have spent less money.

DBvader · 2003-06-29 2:04 am

i didnt know that the 9600 only had 64 MB RAM...it would have been a great choice at 128 MB.

(isnt the nvidia card on the powermac a joke? like a rebadged MX?)

i have a 9000 on my Dual 867, and i am not happy about game performance. i need to get a job, and then maybe i will think about getting a 9700/9800...

DeadSexy · 2003-07-16 4:55 pm

So has anybody here tried the new 9800 yet? Or seen screenshots comparing it with older cards? cool

Bat · 2003-07-16 10:13 pm

As mentioned, I have an AIW 9700 Pro in a PC, and the fillrate and memory bandwidth allow most games to be played at at least 1024x768x32, with 4x FSAA and 8x AF, which combined allow excellent image quality, which higher resolutions don't compensate for (lack of). High order AA, or decent AA at very high res with sophisticated texture filtering, do wonders for image Q, and ATi said in an interview some time back that they were working on enabling that at will, PC-fashion [e.g. not requiring specific game support].

Also not mentioned so far are the later cards' support for DX8.1/ OGL 2.0 features, like advanced shaders and floating point color, which must have hardware support- ATi 9500+ or GeForceFX required.

Not to mention ATi's TruForm (N-patches/ PN triangles- simple to use higher order surface support, allowing developers to use more curved surfaces without sending a zillion polys down a crowded AGP bus, doing the work in the GPU).

car121_007 · 2003-07-17 3:41 pm

Basically i'd go with the 9800 just cuz it's not as dumbed down for the Mac. (although if i'm spending $4200 CAD on a system I want the 256MB 9800 that is available for PCs, not a crappy 64MB version). keep this in mind, the real jump in speed will be from the jump to 9700/9800 (I've had several PCers tell me they flashed their 9700's to 9800's . they are in the different class then cards like the 9600.

The Radeon 9600 is a fairly good card but it's a ripoff with only 64MB RAM. it might end up outperforming other cards because it will actually support 8X AGP.

GeforceFX 5200 is among the worst cards available on any platform. it's $75 CAD to change that to a 9600 in the Apple store. I would do that for certain.

this is basically based off my knowledge of PC cards and how they perform, as all of these cards are new to the mac platform.

i can't believe you can spend that much money and not get a 128MB video card.

Leonard Nimoy · 2003-07-17 4:01 pm

I want a G5...

DeadSexy · 2003-07-17 4:37 pm

Actually, the 9800 comes with 128mb ram as opposed to the 256mb PC version. hubba

car121_007 · 2003-07-17 6:28 pm

yes i know that it does

i meant to suggest that the regular dual G5 has a 64MB card

i am aware that the 128MB is available BTO.

the 256MB cards are in short suppy for PC i believe but if you see that with a 800mhz FSB on PC it is rediculous. i know a fellow that gets 140 fps in Raven Shield standing in a room full of smoke!!! 250 fps normally.

i can't wait for a G5. anyone wanna buy me one?

Short Circuit · 2003-07-17 7:30 pm

I cant wait till September...

Dual G5
Radeon 9800
1.5Gig of RAM..

eek

W

Forums | MacLife

#1 2003-06-24 8:24 pm

Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#2 2003-06-24 8:47 pm

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#3 2003-06-28 5:05 am

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#4 2003-06-28 8:51 am

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#5 2003-06-28 11:14 pm

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#6 2003-06-29 2:04 am

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#7 2003-07-16 4:55 pm

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#8 2003-07-16 10:13 pm

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#9 2003-07-17 3:41 pm

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#10 2003-07-17 4:01 pm

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#11 2003-07-17 4:37 pm

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#12 2003-07-17 6:28 pm

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

#13 2003-07-17 7:30 pm

Re: Radeon 9600 vs 9800

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