Upgrading Radeon 9500 to X300?

[EatGreenCrayons]

I'm buying a new computer that comes with a Radeon X300 which is PCI express plugged into a 16x slot. I currently have a Radeon 9500 in my old pc and I am wondering which card is better in direct comparison. They are both 128mb but I know there is more to consider like pixel pipelines and so on. Currently I'm running Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 pretty decently off my 9500.

 

[Megadeth2]

Your 9500 is better than that crap X300. You can't plug a 9500 into that computer though. Cause of the 9500 is AGP. I would recommend you get a 6600GT on PCIe because the X300 is really gonna cuase gaming problems. It will bottleneck your whole system and screw you over.!

 

[aj2003]

sounds like sumthing dell does. ive seen them advertise thier "ultimate gaming machine" a P4 3.4 wit a gig ddr2 and other high end stuff along wit the x300se. lol cant believe they put such a rubbish card in it

 

[YanBooth]

ATI's are great, but the cheap assed line of cards suck. I have a 9600xt and its better than the one one of my buddies that came in his cheap
HP
Yan

 

[EatGreenCrayons]

is there anything ATI that's comparable to my 9500 in terms of price and performance? How about like an x700 pro, or even the x600, are either of those better than my 9500? I'm kinda unfamiliar with the latest line of cards because I know the 9X00's pretty well and I know 6800 and 6600 are like pretty top of the line.

 

[Megadeth2]

X700Pro and X600 are not good cards. You can get an X700Pro for $170 and that barely measures up to a GeForce 6600 non-GT. A GeForce 6600Gt that comes at lowest $183 on PCIe16x will whoop an X700Pro...

 

[EatGreenCrayons]

okay the 6600gt sounds good, but help me understand the difference between 256mb and 128mb and also the bit interface because why is the 6600gt 128mb better than the 6600 256mb? Also, does it matter that much if I get a third party made model as opposed to the more expensive nVidia models?

 

[The Merlin]

How much memory a card has doesn't constitute its performance. The difference between 128 and 256mb is practically nil The GT probably has a larger bit interface, which is how much bandwidth it can handle, more pipelines and/ or clock speeds, I dunno which it is though, but thats what makes cards faster

Defiantly go with the 6600GT, and look into an eVGA model. FYI, Nvidia does not manufactor its own cards, it relies on OEM's to sell its cards

 

[EatGreenCrayons]

Thanks Merlin that was very helpful. What is an eVGA and will it be compatible with my current VGA monitor?

 

[The Merlin]

eVGA is just the brand name of teh 6600GT you'll wanna look for