Hi guys,
Well, I was going to be purchasing a notebook soon, and I wanted to ask you guys whether there would be a marked difference in the FPS numbers if I went for a 128 MB Radeon 9800 instead of a 64 MB GFx 5200...I was looking t play at KOTOR, and ToEE, and NWN:HoTU and eventually just Half-Life 2, Doom III and Far Cry.

The rest of the system is top notch with a 3.02 Gig Processor with a gig of RAM. So, could you chaps leave your opinions please?

Well, since you are looking to play Half-Life 2, Doom III, and Far Cry, you would be wise to get a 128 MB Radeon 9800.

Whether or not you will see a difference in KOTOR, ToEE or NWN will mainly be factored on your resolution and detail level, as well as anti-aliasing. With the Radeon 9800, you will easily be able to play those games at 1280x1024 with full detail levels and 4x anti-aliasing, if not 8x anti-aliasing.

I would go with the Radeon 9800 just so you would not have to worry about upgrading your video card for a long time. Cheaper in the long run, I would think. Otherwise your system looks very good. Feel free to complete it with a Radeon 9800 ;)

With the games you've listed, I'm guessing you'll notice a big difference between 64 meg and 128 meg. Given that the 5200 is basically a budget card, and the 9800 Pro is high end, there really isn't much comparision performance-wise.

I've got a Radeon 9800 pro 128mb, and it gives better performance than two of my friends who's got GF cards (same CPU otherwise). The Radeon cards have gotten better grades than the GFs cards (of what I've read, 'course).

I'd go for the Radeon any time. I play KotOR with high (I cannot remeber exactly) graphics with 2.4GHz, 512 RAM and Radeon 9800 pro. Since you've got a bit better processor and RAM, you'd do ok.

Thanks for the info guys. Well, I was buying it as part of a notebook computer, so getting the 128 MB Radeon 9800 is *QUITE* expensive, compared to the 64 meg GFx 5200.

Anyway, I'll just buck up and save for another couple of months then. :(

PS: Does anyone know whether I can buy Alienware rigs in Australia? (Sydney to be precise)

PPS: What kind of performance difference would I find in above mentioned games with a Radeon 9600 128 MB card and Radeon 9800 128 MB card?

[ April 05, 2004, 16:28: Message edited by: Faraaz ]

@ PPS - I'd say quite alot, especially if you're looking to play newer games like Doom III and Far Cry. I cannot recall exactly what the diffrences are, though the 9800 gives you better performance in everything. Since you're looking at playing new games, short on cash to upgrade any time soon(?) , you'd be best off with the 9800. :)

During E3 last year, valve picked radeon 9800 to present their halflife 2 to the world. what can be a better reason for pick other card than this?

During E3 last year, valve picked radeon 9800 to present their halflife 2 to the world. what can be a better reason for pick other card than this? Yes and then they cut a multi million dollar deal with ATI to distribute HL2 with their cards. Then the game was delayed another year. So now the new cards coming out next month will have no problem running HL2.


Hold on for the new cards. This is a very bad month to buy. All new technology will be here in just a short month, which will be faster than anything out there now. Even if you go with older technology in the long run, it will be much cheaper once the new ones hit the market.

i agree, a radion9800 128mb is a great choice, but the latest gf has 256mb and is i think rumoured to also boost to a 512, but it costs a lot, so if you got the money go for the gf, but otherwise the radion9800 would do fine for the games you are getting, plus your processor could handle it perfectly

The new cards are starting to be hyped. Check out the new nVidia card - very fast!

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1566805,00.asp

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_6800_ultra/

THX Chandos :D

Yeah the new nVidia card looks very impressive, doubling the frame rate over the 9800xt in some games. One thing that was eyecatching to me about the new nVidia card was that it should hit the street in late May with a price @ $400...that's over a $100 dollars cheaper than the ATI card came out with.

I know a lot of people who have stuck with nVidia, despite the higher performance of ATI cards, due to a higher level of reliability, especially for non-game applications.

During E3 last year, valve picked radeon 9800 to present their halflife 2 to the world. what can be a better reason for pick other card than this? This is by no means a coup for Valve and ATI, especially after HL2 was delayed and the source code leaked. I think we'll be seeing this "partnership" more often...in fact nVidia is the official video card for id software, which will be releasing Doom3 before HL2 comes out.