Best Mid-level Card?

[dimar242]

I'm helping my brother build a rig, and I'm just curious what the best mid-level ($150-$200) card is? I'm thinking either a GF4 4800SE or a Radeon 9500 Pro. Which one of these cards is the better performer?

[GlowStick]

The Radeon 9500Pro is the better preformer.

[webmedic]

without a doubt.

[DaveM]

def. the 9500pro

Trust me too :D

[GlowStick]

Hm, i actualy feel that my answer was kinda crappy because it did not give enough info.

The Radeon 9500Pro is the better canidate because it is the better preformer stock. However, you may beable to soft-mod it, and or hardware mod it to get the preformace of a Radeon 9700, however, modding is riskey and not recomended if you do not know exactly what you are doing.

But the Radeon 9500Pro is defiantly more powerfull stock, and has alot more overclocking/modding potental

[micron]

Originally posted by GlowStick
Hm, i actualy feel that my answer was kinda crappy because it did not give enough info.

The Radeon 9500Pro is the better canidate because it is the better preformer stock. However, you may beable to soft-mod it, and or hardware mod it to get the preformace of a Radeon 9700, however, modding is riskey and not recomended if you do not know exactly what you are doing.

But the Radeon 9500Pro is defiantly more powerfull stock, and has alot more overclocking/modding potental
Although you didnt give much info in your first reply, the info that you gave still is wrong. You cannot soft-mod a 9500Pro. You can only overclock it, and thats after you flash the bios. I think you meant to say the 9500 non pro. Thats the card that can be soft modded to unlock the eight pipes, and turn into a 9700. I would like to add though, that the success rate of turning a 9500 non pro into a 9700 is less then 50%. Especially now that most of the mod-able 9500 non pro's have been snapped up by the enthusiaste community.

[GlowStick]

Originally posted by micron
Although they didnt give much info in their replies, the info that you gave is wrong. You cannot soft-mod a 9500Pro. You can only overclock it, and thats after you flash the bios. I think you meant to say the 9500 non pro. Thats the card that can be soft modded to unlock the eight pipes, and turn into a 9700. I would like to add though, that the success rate of turning a 9500 non pro into a 9700 is less then 50%. Especially now that most of the mod-able 9500 non pro's have been snapped up by the enthusiaste community.

Oh my your right, i forgot about the new revision of the board.

But he can still put a Zalman on it and get pritty good results.

BTW, dont buy he TweakMonster BGA ramsinks, unless you just want to have the best looking ram sinks ever, they only allow a 5mhz gain in OC heh. But dam, they do look awesome.

[PreservedSwine]

R9500PRO or R9700NON pro can be found under $200. I think the R9700non-PRO is a good option too.

[StealthHawk]

Definitely r9500Pro if you don't want the hassle of overclocking.

[hithere]

Another vote for the 9700np

[Sazar]

lol... I was about to suggest the 4200/4400 based on the fact that this is in the nvidia graphics card section :D

I will defer to the responses of the other posters in this thread instead...

[zakelwe]

I think Ati would rather have him buy the 9600. Maybe that is the better bet if those insane overclocks are for real ? not sure though, I know very little about ati cards apart from the Rage XL of which I have three ( very good cards ).

If you wish to go nVidia I would suggest a Gainward 4800SE with 3.3ns memory which should be able to hit 320/660 24/7.

Regards

Andy

[Dazz]

Radeon 9700 none Pro is a very good mid range card. Saw some for £160 :eek:

[Gator]

Originally posted by dimar242
I'm helping my brother build a rig, and I'm just curious what the best mid-level ($150-$200) card is? I'm thinking either a GF4 4800SE or a Radeon 9500 Pro. Which one of these cards is the better performer?

R9700NP is the best, followed by R9500Pro, and then GF4TI4800

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by zakelwe
I think Ati would rather have him buy the 9600. Maybe that is the better bet if those insane overclocks are for real ? not sure though, I know very little about ati cards apart from the Rage XL of which I have three ( very good cards ).

Well the overclocked r9500Pro is very close to the overclocked r9600Pro.

Discussion (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12263).


I'm also moving this thread since it seems just about everyone has recommended an ATI card.

[Headbust]

Trade 9500np 128 meg(easily modded to pro) for ti4600 ...

scores 13,500+ in 3dmark, 4000 in 2k3

[PlasmaSMP]

I just got a Gainward Ti4800SE Golden Sample with 3.3ns ram for $190 shipped from Monarch Computer. I am very pleased with it, and I have it stable at 320/701 with no artifacts.

My system isn't really built for games as it is a duallie, but I do get 10,520 3Dmarks with my current setup.

[pigfukerd]

i got a 9500 none-pro for $149 and softmodded it, now it gets close to 9700pro performance, imo thats the best deal going right now:afro2:
________
Honda VTR1000F (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_VTR1000F)

[ragingWS6]

9700 non-pro without question

[Skynet]

9700 non-pro without question
Without question the best value right now. No contest.

[Hellbinder]

Best Mid Range DX8 classed card is any GF4 you can get your hands on. With imo the GF4 Ti 4200 128 being #1

Best mid range DX9 classed card is the 9500pro

Best card you can get for 150$ Is the Radeon 9500pro. With the 9600pro being slightly more expensive, slightly less powerfull but seriously more overclockable.

However, If you dont care about Dx9, AF or AA then that 142$ Ti 4800SE is for you.