Advice on midrange video card

[doctj]

I want to upgrage my old all in wonder radon video card to one that costs btw $100-150. I have a seperate tv tuner now and only need a graphics card suggestions very welcome thanks.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Im no good with them thar Yankee dollars, but for midrange the ideal cards are the Ati Radeon 9600 Pro or Nvidia FX5700U, that said, next-gen cards have started rollign out today and will do over th enext few months, so it might be worth waiting a whiel and seeing if the current top end cards slide down to mid-range prices.

--Jakk:t

[doctj]

NV40 is not in mass production and I for one won't be changing my power supply to accomodate it.
Regarding 9600 is there much performance difference btw pro and non pro. Also who builds the best "powered by ati" cards?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Yes, the 9600 non-pro is much slower than the 'Pro', infact i made a slight mistake in the above post, you should be looking at the 9600XT, which is slightly faster still than the 9600 Pro and is about the same price if not cheaper.

As for good, non-built by ATi cards, Sapphire, Abit, Asus and Hercules all make decent cards

--Jakk:t

[rsfnatik]

Will you be doing any gaming? If so, the 9600XT should fit the bill for most and you can find them bulk/OEM/PBA for around $150US - tho the retail BBA 9600XT is only $173US (newegg.com).

If you're not into gaming (and i'm assuming that's not the case) then you could go with the regular 9600 and save some cash.

[doctj]

I'm looking at the sapphire 9600 xt with heatpipe cooling since I like quiet computing. How loud is the standard fan? Is the extra price for heatpipe worth it .

[AdamST]

I was going to buy a Radeon 9600XT but i went and got a 9800Pro and im glad i did.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

I would go with one of these instead of passive, heat-pipe based cooling:

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/vga_silencer/

Much cheaper, and, if you should require real cooling power (the passive heat pipe solutions arent great at keeping the cards cool, paticularly if you overclock) a simple flip of a switch and you've got it

--Jakk:t

[doctj]

Originally posted by Bigjakkstaffa
I would go with one of these instead of passive, heat-pipe based cooling:

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/vga_silencer/

Much cheaper, and, if you should require real cooling power (the passive heat pipe solutions arent great at keeping the cards cool, paticularly if you overclock) a simple flip of a switch and you've got it

--Jakk:t
Would mounting this cooling solution void my warranty and does it take up an extra pci slot?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Yes (adding any new cooler will void the warranty) and Yes.

That said, if anything does go belly up with the card, its not hard to replace the VGA silencer with the original cooler and send it back for RMA, they wont know any different.

--Jakk:t

[doctj]

does it take up an extra pci slo, Bigjak?

[AdamST]

Yeah it uses 1 pci slots, the VGA cooler i mean....i just ordered one/

[mobiker]

It does take up a pci slot but if you can spare it it's worth the loss.

Also AdamST let me know how you like yours when you get it. I used Artic Silver insted of the compound they sent.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

I used the included silicone compound and managed to get an extra 10Mhz out of the core of my R9800Pro, which is impressive given that this card started its life as a 9800NP.

--Jakk:t

[doctj]

Went for sapphire 9600xt. This will hold me over till next generation technology matures. Thanks for all the input

[doctj]

Installed fine, quite fast even my 2d applications like launching my tv apps and media files is really faster.