Soooo.... Geforce 9 series..

[Sharma]

Who's got one then?

I couldn't be arsed waiting so i've gone and popped on a 9600 on order (Hey I got it VAT free ) so just waiting patiently till tomorrow then i'm gonna whack my new spanky card in and give it a test drive.

So far i've been hearing alright reviews, nothing spectacular but being realistic I couldn't afford one of the x800 range anyway, I always seems to be buying the mid-range x600 lines.

So I've got an XFX 9600GT on the way down and i'm really wanting to give this a whirl so let me know if you've tried one - if not i'll post some 3D Mark scores and stuff when I get in tomorrow.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Sharma

I don't own a 9-series card, but I believe the 9600 GT is a great performer for the money. It hovers around an 8800 GT, and whilst not quite as powerful, it does offer better HD decoding, DX10 performance etc. and a few other things. Although generic 8800 GTs are now under £100, the 9600 GT is still a great buy; I certainly wouldn't say no

Happy gaming

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. For what it's worth, the 9800 GTX and GX2 will have a very short lifespan, as the 9900 series is due in the summer, so you may be happy you saved your money

 

[Sharma]

ooh rather!

Indeed I am, that's added to my glee then!

Next stop for me is definately an External hard disk mind since i'll be upgrading to Vista to take advantage of DX10 loveliness (SP1 is due soon no?).

I've been waiting for a while to upgrade to Vista mainly because of SP1 - I still think it's a dreadful operating system though but I want DX10 and XP is starting to grind on me as of late.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Sharma

SP1 is now available for Vista, so you can take the plunge whenever you feel. I'm not sure whether DX10 is really worth buying Vista for, but it's certainly getting better, and obviously Vista has many other features worth having.

As for an external hard-drive, I have a Western Digital one and it's been great so far ('Passport' is their 2.5" range up to 320GB; 'My Book' is their 3.5" range up to 1TB+). Seagate's Free Agent drives also have good reviews.

Kind regards

 

[Sharma]

Cheers Jonteh, you're always a star!

 

[PLightstar]

Just recently upgraded and got a XFX 9600 and Vista Ultimate, and I have to say I am impressed, I did upgrade from a 6800 GT so any upgrade was a good one, but I am pleased with the frame-rates and the look, Crysis or UT3 didn't affect my machine on high settings and Supreme Commander gets a bit jumpy on highest settings when the battles get really huge near the end-game of a match. The Direct X10 features look good, though I am awaiting STALKER Clear Sky to test the features fully.

 

[Sharma]

And it's here! /o/

Just gotta wait 4 hrs now to get home and stick it in and play!

I'm gonna test it on Bioshock again I think - full whacked out settings is teh s3x!

 

[LordjOX]

I got the 9800 GTX. It's a good card, but if I owned a 8800 xxx or equivalent card before I wouldn't bother. But it's a good price for a good card though.

 

[Sharma]

The graphics boost from my old 8600 is VERY noticable - Bioshock looks sexy as fuck now!

 

[cHodAX]

The graphics boost from my old 8600 is VERY noticable - Bioshock looks sexy as fuck now!

The 8600 series is a complete dog sadly, the whole range is a complete write off. Nvidia did the decent thing with the 9600GT though and actually shipped a great little mid-range card.

 

[throdgrain]

I wouldnt change my 8800GTX for one to be honest

 

[cHodAX]

I wouldnt change my 8800GTX for one to be honest

Don't blame you, best card around imo. That 384bit memory bus is a complete monster, under certain conditions it beats everything bar SLI in the 9800 range.

 

[Bahumat]

The new Radeon 9800GT Parmo is supposed to be the best card out

 

[Jonty]

Radeon 9800GT Parmo

hehe, do you have inside sources the rest of don't?

As for the 'best' card, the 8800 GTX is obviously a top performer, but the 9800 GTX and GX2 are no slouches. Anyway, they'll all soon be replace with the 9900 series (and 4800 series for AMD/ATI), so I guess we'll see what happens

I'm glad you're happy Sharma!

Kind regards

 

[Kryten]

Aye, ATI won't be pushing anything worth buying for a long while yet

 

[Bahumat]

hehe, do you have inside sources the rest of don't?

Ask Sharma to give some more info on the Parmo...he knows all about it

 

[Steffan-]

Also got a XFX 9600 GT and must say I'm impressed, runs everything I've tried it on (Bioshock, Assassains Creed, CoD4) smoothly And on top of that, it's very silent ^_^

 

[Kryten]

Thats good to know - with luck nVidia keep it up and the expected 9800GT keeps the performance up at a decent price. We're completely spoiled at the moment with the 8800 and 9600 at sub £100. It's making me wonder a little if nVidia and other PC parties are looking at making graphics upgrades less expensive than their console counterparts.