Better Gaming card - 9600XT 256RAM or X600 XT 128RAM??

[Big Country]

Does anyone have any idea which card would be better for gaming??? I am either going with the Radeon 9600XT w/ 256mb Ram or the Radeon X600 XT w/ 128mb Ram. I would really like to go with the X600 XT with 256mb Ram but I can't seem to find one anywhere. So I guess those are my options. Does anyone know which is faster? I have heard that the X600 is the same card as the 9600 but with the PCIE interface. Does the faster interface make up for the lack of ram? Any input would be helpfull. I need it to run Doom 3 without freaking out when there are more than 3 people on the screen. Right now I have the min. req. for Doom 3 except I have a 128mb video card (9200) and it crashes every 5 minutes. Now I have to spend another $1000 to play my $50 game.

I know this is probably in the wrong forum but does anyone really read the others?

[alimon]

take a look at the following

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2195

as for doom3 everyone seem to say it might run better on the 6 series nvidia card. but check out the following.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/doom3_perf/

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/doom3_perf2/

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/doom3_pt3/

[alimon]

also, if you have time, take a look at some of the reviews for the nvidia 6600GT card

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjYw

[Big Country]

Thanks Alimon. I think you have me sold on the GF 6600GT. It runs circles around the X600 and for about the same $$$. Now I just have to wait for it to come out.

Does anyone have any thought on the 256mb version over the 128mb version? Is it worth the extra $? I was told that there is not really that much difference in performance on a lot of the cards already out there.

[Big Country]

Thanks kryten93.
Newegg has the 9600XT 256MB for $140-$180. They have 8 Different ones.

[kryten93]

ahh no wonder, i never did a search for just 9600xt's.. DOH!!

but i noticed that the one i have is the only "all in wonder" 9600xt card they stock. its got a slightly faster core/ram speed than the other 9600xt's plus i do video editing so i needed the tv/av in-out setup the "all in wonder" has over the others. i just wish it was a 256mb card

[kryten93]

Originally Posted by Big Country

Does anyone have any idea which card would be better for gaming??? I am either going with the Radeon 9600XT w/ 256mb Ram or the Radeon X600 XT w/ 128mb Ram. I would really like to go with the X600 XT with 256mb Ram but I can't seem to find one anywhere. So I guess those are my options. Does anyone know which is faster? I have heard that the X600 is the same card as the 9600 but with the PCIE interface. Does the faster interface make up for the lack of ram? Any input would be helpfull. I need it to run Doom 3 without freaking out when there are more than 3 people on the screen. Right now I have the min. req. for Doom 3 except I have a 128mb video card (9200) and it crashes every 5 minutes. Now I have to spend another $1000 to play my $50 game.

I know this is probably in the wrong forum but does anyone really read the others?

i was playing doom3 on a friends p4 2 ghz, 512 mb pc2100 ram, ati 9000xt 64mb (250/200) 80 gig diamond max 7200rpm system, granted i had to set the quality of the game to 800X600 low quality. but it played it without crashing once. and never really had any major slowdowns either, well except the long load times. there is a tweak you can do to the config file to change the cache memory for doom3. some people didnt notice much of a change others noticed quite alot. i noticed a slight performance increase on my machine. but not much.

you can get the ati 9600Xt 128 mb card from newegg.com for like 180 bucks. thats where i got mine from, and its sweet. it runs 525/650 core/ram speeds. also its with in a few fps of the nvidia 57ultra when testing it on aquamark3 and other test-beds. and it can be overclocked a fair ammount with ATItool. I would like to know where you found the 9600xt 256 mb card though.

[Big Country]

So I'm going with the GF 6600gt PCI-E and I have purchased all my stuff to build my computer except the video card because the darn thing isn't out yet. I found one through Pricewatch at Xtreme Gear but it looks like it has the extra power plug on the end and I thought they nixed that. It looks like it is in stock but I don't think I want that card. I saw that GameVE is preselling 2 of them. One is made by Sparkle Computer and it says it will be out on Oct. 11, 2004 but there's just no way I'm buying a video card from a company named Sparkle. I have never even heard of them. The other is made by eVGA and it says it will be out Oct. 9, 2004. I have never heard of that brand either but it sounds better than Sparkle. Does anyone know where I might be able to purchase one from a company I have heard of??? For sale now or even presale?