256MB 9600 XT or 9700 Pro

[Apokalipse]

the 9600 has a very descent engine, it's still very good at 128MB; the 9200 does suck but the 9600's engine comes fairly close the the 9800, and that's why I'd prefer the 9600

 

[The Merlin]

yea no kiddin, 128 meg cards are the shit right now, no point in looking only at 256 cards, i remember seeing benchmarkings with a lot of cards like a 5600fx 128 and a 5600fx 256, etc...every card with 256 literally came out like .2 fps more than the 128 card... whatever! let's do what the video card companies want us to do, buy higher numbers hardware peices!! ohh look a 64bit chip!! i'm buying that, yea, consider the fact that you're a guinie pig for the next 2 years! ohh and.. look at all the 64bit programs.. mhh

If a guinea pig gets 40 more fps with a 128mb card then a 64mb, than I'm guinea pig cause 40 FPS is ALOT Your syniciasm is granted with processors but comparing 64mb cards to 128mb?? There is no comparing

 

[nvalhalla]

He was talking about 64 bit processors when he mentions the 64. I would bump up to the 9800 pro, it's not much more than the 9700 pro, and gives a great boost in speed. The 9600 XT is a great card if you are looking to save money, but as you were looking at a 9700 anyways, drop the extra coin. What's 20 more bucks? Just skip going to a movie this weekend... Also, stay away from 256 MB cards, the performance isn't there yet, and by the time you need it, you'll want a PCI-E card anyways.

 

[The Merlin]

OK, so shoot me

 

[Soloman02]

lol!

 

[g5orbust]

Well, 256Mb wont get you much. The fill rate on those cards really isnt high enough to saturate even 128MB of texture data (not to mention not many games at the moment can), let alone 256MB. I can see where the highest of the high end cards can use such a large buffer, but that is only when they have the game settings all on high on a game that would really require a lot of muscle and has tons of textures. FarCry comes to mind for this, as having 256MB of VRAM really could make those endless scenes superb (no dropped frames needed because it cant fill the VRAm cache).

Aside from that, Id say get the 9700 pro. The memory interface is 256bit, over the 9600XT's 128bit, not to mention the fill rate is higher. Definitely better on paper.