How fast is a 9600xt compaired to a regular 9600 (also awsome deal on a 9600xt card)

[Edge]

OK, a few months ago I tried out a 9600 card to see if it would be a decent upgrade from my TI4200 and, well, in raw speed it fell flat on it's face, but had excellent features. HOWEVER, I noticed that this week (until tomarrow) Circuit City has 9600xt cards on sale for $150 after rebates, and of course it includes the voucher for free Half-life 2 (which I'm planning on buying anyway, so really it would be more like $100 for the card). Now I found out that the regular 9600 cards are clocked pretty disapointingly (325/400, which is far slower then what my TI4200 overclocks to), but the Pro and XT cards are supposed to be clocked a good deal better. So, how much faster would the XT be then the regular one? Are there any benchmarks out there that show a regular directly compaired to an XT (Tom's and Anandtech only compaired them to other cards)?

Any help would be appreciated, so far I've been almost exclusivly an Nvidia user but I've been looking to jump on the ATI bandwagon ever since I became an AA nut ;)

[jAkUp]

a huge upgrade.
Check out these benchies here :
http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html

A 9600xt comes close to a 5800U in performance. Definetely nothing to scoff at.

[cthellis]

They're much better, and the low-k dielectrics means they update well. Their core clock starts high, and can usually overclock substantially higher as well (to about 600mhz). Unless the card you're talking about is a PowerColor (which I doubt) the RAM will be worse off, but the core OC would have much more effect anyway.

Offhand, I think that especially with the HL2 coupon, the 9600XT is an excellent deal. A 9800 non-Pro or 9700 Pro for $200 would be better, but they're harder to find and don't often come with the coupon. (And the stores where you can occasionally get rebates for that price or a mail-in HL2 coupon tend to run out of stock quickly as well.) Even outside of the stores, NewEgg and other players tend to have 9600XT's hovering around $160 normally anyway.

If you want something better but want to save a major expenditure until you see next generation, it's a good choice.

[Ruined]

Originally posted by jAkUp
a huge upgrade.
Check out these benchies here :
http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html

A 9600xt comes close to a 5800U in performance. Definetely nothing to scoff at.

Do you mean 5700U? Because in that link in almost every benchmark the 9600XT is around 20-40% slower than the 5800U depending on the game. It's less in the league of the 5800U and more in the league of the 5700U.

[jAkUp]

oops yea, my bad. a 5700U in most tests

[AlphaWolf]

Well if you look only at the quality benches the 9600xt is pretty close to a 5800U.

[Leoncatz]

I'm not impressed that the Parhelia 128 was completely wiped off the map when it came to the FSAA and Anistropic benchmarks. It's only once you enable those features that the cards even comes alive. It's completely left to the mainstream cards... It's a shame really and is exactly why I don't bother with them anymore. I don't know what else to say, but it just seems too convenient.

bleh :rolleyes:

[bkswaney]

Talking about the 5800u.
That darn card come to life when the FW 50's were released.
To bad nvidia waited so long for the kind of drivers
it really needed to shine.

I kinda wish now I still had my 5800u.
It was a nice card. :)

[jAkUp]

Dont remind me of my beloved 5800 Ultra... *crys*

Rest in piece.. it was loud, but looked ****ing awesome!

[Edge]

Wow, thanks for the responses, that compairision was pretty eye-opening. The XT being 50% faster then the regular...wow, that's a pretty damn big difference. That would bring it up to my TI4200 and then some, not to mention the AA would likely be a lot faster as well.

But one thing does still concern me: I probably won't get another videocard for at least 2 years (I rarely upgrade unless it's part of a big sale), so would the 9600xt still be able to play games at 1024x768 with at least 4xAA and lvl8 anisotropic down the road? I know that seems like a pretty big requirement, but if I don't get a 9600xt now I'll probably get whatever budget card the have for the day-after-thanksgiving sale they have at Best Buy (which will probably be whatever budget card costs $200 at that time). How much better do you guys think the next generation of budget videocards will be? I mean if I buy a 9600xt now, and then in four months another card comes out for the same price but double the performence, I'd feel pretty silly. Though the free HL2 offer is definatly tempting...

[cthellis]

Oh. Hrm... I was assuming this was a card to tide you over "for the time being" rather than riding on for a long time. (Going to wait for next gen to show up first and all, but wanting to play better now.)

It will probably let you PLAY just fine down the road, but up to two years from now at high quality...? <shrugs> For two-year investments, it's best to spend a bit more and assure yourself of a more powerful beast to ride with.

In ths case, that means a 5900XT (can find some with Call of Duty which makes them sweeter, but I'm not sure how many are actually doing that deal) for just under $200 or a 5900 non-Ultra for just over, but I'd still lean towards Radeons when looking for future performance because of the NV3x's design issues with the way games are going. A 9700Pro or 9800 non-Pro have about the same performance, are more future-proof, and can run around $200 if you keep your eyes open. Since you're wanting to make a two-year investment anyway, I'd be patient and find the best values. They infrequently come with HL2--which makes them in essense $100 more than the 9600XT--but sometimes they can, especially at Circuit City and Best Buy, who can have broader offerings for the coupons than just Radeon XT cards. Usually you'll have to deal with rebates for the good value--and perhaps for getting the HL2 coupon itself--but I assume you have no problem with that.

If you can't find the 9700 Pro or 9800 non-Pro with HL2, then you can sometimes get "Pro equivalents" that price at closer $250 but have a tendency to latch onto HL2 offers better. ^_^ Hence it requires greater outlay, but it's a "price equivalent" for a better card.

Keep an eye out on here and other forums, as people many times post the good deals they come across (such as the 9700 Pros between $200-210 on ZipZoomFly (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Home.jsp)), and DEFINITELY keep an eye on places like Circuit City, Best Buy, and CompUSA, because interestingly the best deals you can find are the ones that rip through there all quick-like (and you can occasionally play them off each other with price and offer-matching to make it even sweeter). But as long as you're not in a rush, you should be able to find a great deal on a card you'll be happy with years from now. (i.e. don't be like my friend who was just "must-have-new-card!!!!" and went out one day on the spur of the moment and bought a 9600 Pro for around $200 from Circuit City. I wanted to smack the crap out of him... :mad: )

[Edge]

Hmm, alright, thanks for your reply. I think I'll just hold on to my TI4200 a bit longer then. Usually I just get whatever card they're having at the Best Buy Day-After-Thanksgiving sale, as it's usually a very good card at a terrific price (2 years ago it was a TI200 for $100, last year it was a TI4200 for $90), but this year it was only a 9600np which had pretty disapointing performence. So I guess I'll just keep an eye open for any new deals (I have seen some 5900/9800 cards on clearence lately, but they aren't quite cheap enough yet). Also I wish I knew how good the next generation of cards will be, it would be nice to know if they'll basicly be a refresh or if they'll be a huge deal better then current cards.

Though the ironic thing is that if I bought a 9500 a year and a half ago when they launched at $200 I would probably still be very happy with it, especially if I got one that was flashable to a 9700. Oh well, guess I can't get every deal out there.