Graphic Cards?!

[thekeelings]

Hi.

I want to buy a new graphics card but i'm a little unsure about something! I want a nvidia 5600 fx 256mb ddr card but it says 8x on ebay! My motherboard is only 2x and 4x! I emailed most of the people asking about it and the people who replied say it will work! I dont want to spend £100+ on a card that might not work can anyone help me understand? O yeah whats best? A nvidia fx 5600/5700 or radeon 9600 pro?

Cheers
Lee

[RincewindTheWiz]

These days the radeons are a bit faster, and if you go to the top end (radeon 9800xt, geforce fx 5900 ultra), the radeon will win with quite a margin. However, ATI has always made bad drivers. In the past they've even completely abandoned cards that were only a year old, they just don't feel like making drivers for it anymore. Contrast this with Nvidia whose drivers still work for the TNT2 cards of years and years ago, and who seem to have a much much better compatibility record. About the AGP 8x, this will also work in boards that support agp 4x, but NOT in boards that only support 2x. So it should work for you too.

[d4rk]

5600U or Radeon 9600 Pro? I'd take the Radeon any day. Image quality and performance more or less destroys the 5600U.

Again though, I'm not too sure about ATI's drivers, Nvidia have proved to be reliable with thier drivers throughout (apart from the little cheating incident in 3D Mark 2003 ) wheras ATI have be renowned for poor drivers (even though they are improving loads).

[thekeelings]

Hi.

Thanks for the advise. I'm taken my chances with the geforce 5600 xp 256mb drr card! Nvidia's drivers are the best around so i hear and untill ATI do better drivers i'm staying with Nvidia! But no doubt about it! Radeon cards look a hell of alot better!

O yeah...how much difference will i see when i install my 5600 256mb ddr from my geforce 4 mx 128 ddr card?

Thanks again
Lee