Mesawolf

Hello readers!
I'm upgrading my graphics card from my current nVidia 7800GT graphics card to something a bit better.

Well I'm looking at two cards that are viable for me to buy. The first card is:

Leadtek nVidia PX9600GT
GPU NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
DirectX 10
Graphics Bus PCI Express 2.0
512MB GDDR3
GPU/Memory clock 650/900MHz
Memory data rate 1800MHz
Output Dual Dual-Link DVI, HDTV
Memory Interface 256-bit
Data bandwidth( GB/sec.) 57.6
Fill Rate(billion texels/sec) 20.8
Stream processor 64
RAMDACs (MHz) 400
NVIDIA Lumenex Engine
NVIDIA ForceWare Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
NVIDIA SLI- Ready
Full Microsoft DirectX10 Shader Model 4.0 Support
OpenGL 2.1 Optimizations and Support

vs.

XFX 9800GT
GeForce 9800GT
600Mhz
112 Stream processors
1800Hz
512MB GDDR3
256-bit
DirectX 10
OpenGL 2.1
Shader Model 4.0
PCI-E x16
2 x DVI HDCP
TV-Out
HDTV Out
Max Resolution 2560 x 1600
SLI Supported

It doesn't seem like there is a much of a difference going on here apart from the GPU. Does that have a large effect on the graphics capabilities of the cards?

THANKS BEFOREHAND!
Bryn.

jonathan68

i'm running both of those cards myself,


my step sons computer has the XFX 9600 in it and my computer has the XFX 9800 GT in it. both are a nice little step up from the 7800 GT card. i have noticed the 9800 is a little more power hungry then the 9600 and it runs a little hotter as well. but either one has yet to fail at what ever we toss at it, we both play the latest games on them in DX 10 using vista and they are almost always wide-open on the settings. i'm guessing it's a mtter of choice for you which one it is that you want, i would pick either one of them myself again for another build anytime. on either choice just make sure you feed them the power they are looking for with a quality PSU and they will be happy.

on a side note what are you running for a CPU and memory because these will have a good impact on just how either one of these cards will perform. nothing like a killer GPU when it's running along side of and older and slower CPU and it does nothing but bottle neck the video card.

zerofire

The 9800 GT would be slightly faster due to faster clock rates on the buses located on the card. Overall if there is a 10-15 dollar premium for the 9800GT I would go for it.

RockmasteR

the 9600 GT is mid range and the 9800 GT is high end, so the 9800 GT is slightly better even if the GPU in the 9800 is a bit lower

Mesawolf

Sweet. Thanks guys. I'm running 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 and an Intel Dual Core 2.8GHz CPU.

Also, as a quick question to anyone out there with this card or knowledge of the XFX 9800GT, does it have overheating problems? And is there anything I can do about it?

dai

what psu do you have
for the 9800 you will need to be up here at a min

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...corsair%2b650w

most of you kiwis that post are underpowered to start with mainly due to availability and cost
it's the same here

Mesawolf

Well, to be honest I only have a 440W Thermaltake power supply right now. I know that won't cut it. I'm buying a new one soon.

RockmasteR

get the one that dai suggested, it's the best deal you can get for a high quality PSU

jonathan68

have heard a lot of ppl say they do run hot, but i have yet to run into that problem. with good air-flow running through the case they will stay cool. i have my fans turned upto 70 % with two 120 mm fans blowing right on them and have yet too see them go over 67 C under full load. i say them because as of yesterday i now run 2 9800 GT's in SLI mode and they rock.

Mcninjaguy

How much are you willing to spend on the graphic card? The PSU is a given its $110.
Whats your motherboard?

You can run a 4850 on a corsair 650w and that a lot closer to the speed of a GTX 260

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
$140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102833

That Sapphire 4850 should give you around 4x better graphics probably a little bit more.

Mesawolf

I've bought this card; http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/List...x?id=217682563

It's the best for what I could choose from. Newegg doesn't deliver to NZ.

Motherboard is an Intel D975XBX2.

emosun

Is it just a dual core or a core two duo?

Mesawolf

Pentium D. So whatever that is.

Mcninjaguy

With a Pentium dual Core I don't you'll be able to use the full potential of your video card as your CPU will be the bottleneck.

Its fine though because if you don't run really high end games with post processing on you should be fine and without lag.

Mcninjaguy

With a Pentium dual Core I don't you'll be able to use the full potential of your video card as your CPU will be the bottleneck.

Its fine though because if you don't run really high end games with post processing on you should be fine and without lag.

emosun

Yea my pentium D 2.8 was holding back my measly 2600 before I got the quad. For an 8800 it'll be like a ball and chain.

Mesawolf

Fuuunk. I'm going to need to go and get a quad core?

emosun

Doesn't exactly HAVE to be a quad core , but you should definitely consider one or a higher speed coretwo duo if your board supports them.

Mesawolf

Ok, so as a question about processors; (Wow I've learnt so darn much about computers in the last week it's crazy) Why is a Core Two Duo 2.8GHz faster than a Dual Core 2.8 GHz? Is it the more advanced microarchitecture in the newer chip? Because they both have two cores don't they? Or does the dual core have once physical and one virtual? And what is a virtual core? How does that even happen?

Ok, lots of questions. Can't wait for someone with the tech-stones to answer. THANKS HEAPS GUYS by the way! You've been huge helps.

zerofire

A Pentium Duel Core 2.8 Ghz unit uses two cores on different dies with a single truck line. This causes a bottleneck in the processor when accessing memory of any kind. Core 2 Duo units have both their cores on a single die with several interlinking trunk lines to correct memory access times effectively getting a 30% better speed over the Pentium Duel Core processors.

Virtual cores or processors with Hyperthreading are processors with half it's cores complete and the other half partially complete for the cores that can be virtual. Hyperthreading cores are slower than a pure complete core because of it's virtual status.