ATI 9600 PRO 256MB any good?

[A.I.]

I was seriously thinking of buying the ATI 9600 PRO 256MB which I saw on sale for $150 (Aus) but now after viewing old threads I'm not so sure. There seems to be conflicting views regarding its reliability, speed and compatability. I would have prefered to get Nvidia but unfortunately AGP cards are hard (And more expensive!) to get and I don't want to pay alot for a mid level video card which I solely want to use to play PJ64 (And games using the Quake3 engine) and other emulators.

Does the ATI 9600 PRO 256MB support Open GL/Glide frame buffer effects? Is the current ATI 9600 PRO 256MB better than previous models? I notice that some reviews in 2003 were less than glowing about it so surely it must have been improved since then, unless (Horrid thought) I'm buying something 3 years old...although the guy said it was new so I guess they're still making them? And will I need a new cooling fan?

I'm also getting 512MB RAM ($70) which will spruce it up to 768MB but will that be enough? Would it be advisable to go the whole hog and get 1 GIG? ($150)

What other cards (AGP) are available in this price range that offer the same performance/reliability? Is the ATI 9600 PRO 256MB compatable with my system? How does it compare to Nvidia?

BTW I put a $5 deposit on it which will be held for only one week so I would appreciate any feedback! Thanks!

 

[Poobah]

Is the ATI 9600 PRO 256MB compatable with my system?

I think the answer to that one is, 'yes', assuming you're looking at an AGP one.

(The motherboard is a "P4 Titan GA-8SG800/GA-8S648FX(-L)" if anyone else wants to check.)

 

[mudlord]

That video card supports OpenGL framebuffer objects just fine (it will support the OpenGL hardware-accelerated framebuffer emulation and GLSL combiner in the wrapper bundled with Glide64). I originally had a 9600 Pro, it served me well (before I overheated it by playing Quake 4 for a long period. After that, it was useless). So, from my experience, the 9600 Pro is great, if your not going to play games that are too GPU-intensive. The price seems pretty reasonable to me, too.

 

[A.I.]

That video card supports OpenGL framebuffer objects just fine (it will support the OpenGL hardware-accelerated framebuffer emulation and GLSL combiner in the wrapper bundled with Glide64). I originally had a 9600 Pro, it served me well (before I overheated it by playing Quake 4 for a long period. After that, it was useless). So, from my experience, the 9600 Pro is great, if your not going to play games that are too . The price seems pretty reasonable to me, too.

Cool! Just so long as it doesn't overheat when I play PJ64. I play for long periods too... So I can play Quake 4, that's good. GPU-intensive, huh? So I guess playing Doom 3 is out of the question then...

 

[Doomulation]

I was seriously thinking of buying the ATI 9600 PRO 256MB which I saw on sale for $150 (Aus) but now after viewing old threads I'm not so sure. There seems to be conflicting views regarding its reliability, speed and compatability. I would have prefered to get Nvidia but unfortunately AGP cards are hard (And more expensive!) to get and I don't want to pay alot for a mid level video card which I solely want to use to play PJ64 (And games using the Quake3 engine) and other emulators.

Does the ATI 9600 PRO 256MB support Open GL/Glide frame buffer effects? Is the current ATI 9600 PRO 256MB better than previous models? I notice that some reviews in 2003 were less than glowing about it so surely it must have been improved since then, unless (Horrid thought) I'm buying something 3 years old...although the guy said it was new so I guess they're still making them? And will I need a new cooling fan?

I'm also getting 512MB RAM ($70) which will spruce it up to 768MB but will that be enough? Would it be advisable to go the whole hog and get 1 GIG? ($150)

What other cards (AGP) are available in this price range that offer the same performance/reliability? Is the ATI 9600 PRO 256MB compatable with my system? How does it compare to Nvidia?

BTW I put a $5 deposit on it which will be held for only one week so I would appreciate any feedback! Thanks!

More ram is always better. Then again, I don't think 768 mb will put a nail in your coffin.

 

[ScottJC]

Don't buy this card, i've owned it before and I was seriously disappointed with it, get no less than an 9800 xt or an x800.

 

[LazerTag]

I latched on to two 9600 Pro 256 cards for my kids systems and it works well for them, but I don't let them play most of the FPS shooters. Lego SW II, emulators, many other games work fine on them. Being used in a Intel 2.4Ghz HT and a AMD 2600+ system, both AGP models. The 9800 would suit a lot better for higher end gaming.

The price seems high, is it due to your location? I paid less then $100 US each from Newegg well over a year ago.

 

[A.I.]

Don't buy this card, i've owned it before and I was seriously disappointed with it, get no less than an 9800 xt or an x800.

Great... Surely it would be a hell a lot better than a Geforce 4 MX?

Let's put is this way, it's like eating cracker's (Geforce 4 MX) for 2 years. The first year the salty, chewy taste is really delicious, in fact it's the most delicious thing you've ever tasted.

By the second year, however, the taste wears off, and it becomes bland, boring but you chew on regardless cos that's all you're used to.

Then suddenly during the third year someone offers you a slice of chocolate cake (ATI 9600 PRO 256MB). It's so delicious you got to have another slice, even though you know it would be probably better to buy the whole cake (9800). But you don't care, you just so desperate for another taste of that rich, heavenly, chocolately taste . And anyway you can't afford to buy the whole cake. Meanwhile you still got a barrel of crackers going mouldy in the kitchen...

Can you see my analogy? Anything would be better than that old, mouldy Geforce 4 MX...

I wanna slice of that chocolate cake now! :drool:

I latched on to two 9600 Pro 256 cards for my kids systems and it works well for them, but I don't let them play most of the FPS shooters. Lego SW II, emulators, many other games work fine on them. Being used in a Intel 2.4Ghz HT and a AMD 2600+ system, both AGP models. The 9800 would suit a lot better for higher end gaming.

The price seems high, is it due to your location? I paid less then $100US each from Newegg well over a year ago.

I live in Australia. Here we have to take out a second morgage just to pay for the petrol! I might consider the 9800. I don't know how much it will cost here, though. Hello credit...

 

[ScottJC]

The geforce 4mx and the radeon 9600 have a lot in common, both are low end cards.

 

[Clements]

A 9600 Pro is easily many times faster than any MX card (which are all GeForce 2 class) and fully supports SM2.0. Make sure you aren't getting it overpriced, and don't expect to be able to play all modern PC games without sacrificing a lot of the detail serttings.

 

[gokuss4]

You can get a GeForce 6800 XT around the same price I thought.

 

[WhiteX]

At least a GeF 6600 GT for the almost same price.

 

[t0rek]

Maybe a 9600 is low end for these days, but sure is vastly better than a geforce 4 mx. He can also get a vanilla 6600 and it would be very cheap

 

[Poobah]

At least a GeF 6600 GT for the almost same price.

Not the AGP ones.

 

[zAlbee]

A 9600 Pro is fine and many times better than a GeForce MX. There's no contest. But I agree at this point in time, it's worth it to get a more recent card that will perform even better, at only a small increase in price.

 

[A.I.]

A 9600 Pro is fine and many times better than a GeForce MX. There's no contest. But I agree at this point in time, it's worth it to get a more recent card that will perform even better, at only a small increase in price.

I agree. I decided not to go with the 9600 Pro but go for either the GF 6600 GT 128MB - $165 or the GF 6800 128MB - $199 thru eBay. I assume the 6800 is better but by how much?

Edit: At one shop I have been quoted $250 fot the GF 660 256MB which seems a little excessive.

Also what is the difference between the GF 7600 GS 256MB - $285 and the FX 7600 GT 256MB - $320? And are these prices too high for a retail store?

 

[Cobrax1884]

well, the radeon is cool but you'd better go with the gforce 6800

 

[Clements]

Certain Retail shops (PC World and the likes) charge ridiculously inflated prices for video cards here in the UK, probably a similar situation in Aus. Buying online is pretty much the only way to get a good deal and not get overcharged.

As said, a AUS$199 GeForce 6800 through eBay would be a heck of a lot better than any 9xxx series card. About three fold faster for an extra $50.

 

[Falcon4ever]

Don't buy this card, i've owned it before and I was seriously disappointed with it, get no less than an 9800 xt or an x800.

same here,

not sure what the bottleneck is but i couldn't play BF2 / Call of Duty at fullspeed in combination of athlonxp 2700+ / 512mb ddr/ 40gb 7200rpm.

So i really doub how well this card is...

 

[t0rek]

Geez those prices are insane, I got my 7600GS for US $100 with shipping included. The 7600GS and the 7600GT has the same GPU. However the 7600GT has better memory (a lot better) providing more bandwidth and higher clock rates on both GPU and memory. However the 7600GS has a great overclocking value and can get near 7600GT level (if you don't overclock the 7600 GT of course)