Price Guides October 2003: Video Cards
by Kristopher Kubicki and Howard Johnson on October 18, 2003 9:17 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
The good thing about NVIDIA right now is at least their branding is not overly confusing. Product lines are a lot like menus at a restaurant. Too many choices can be a bad thing. If you’re a gamer and insist on NVIDIA, right now you only have four choices (ATI has about 10). NVIDIA’s new GeForce FX 5700 and 5950 cards will increase the product line, but we naturally do not know and cannot say when to expect those creatures.
At least the good news is that the GeForceFX 5900 and 5600 prices are coming down considerably. The 5900 non-Ultra cards are priced very aggressively with the Radeon 9800 Pro series, but at least in our benchmarks the 9800 Pro still pulls ahead.
We would like to see the 5600 Ultra come down in price to be a little more aggressive with the Radeon 9600 Pro series, but we should expect that with the advent of the two new GeForceFX cards from NVIDIA. Unfortunately, the Radeon 9600 Pro’s are priced even cheaper than the GeForceFX 5600s, which really puts NVIDIA at a price disadvantage.
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Anonymous User - Monday, October 20, 2003 - link
both are great cards. you cant go wrong with one of those. but if i had to say which card performs better, id give my vote to the 9800np.Anonymous User - Monday, October 20, 2003 - link
which is the better deal? ati radeon 9800(non-pro) from circuit city for $249 plus tax or e-vga geforce fx 5900(non-ultra) from newegg for $229. which card performs better? although if the 9800 can be converted to a 9800 pro then that would be great!! anybody know of anywhere i can get instructions to flash bios for this ati 9800 card??Anonymous User - Monday, October 20, 2003 - link
#11The ones from Circuit City are the "Built By ATI" versions. I received one with Infineon 3.0ns BGA memory(max 333mhz on paper) :( , but from what I hear it is a 50/50 chance of getting one with Samsung BGA memory. But it is still a nice video card stock. I only OC it when I play games/benchmarks.
Anonymous User - Sunday, October 19, 2003 - link
i read that the version of half-life 2 that comes bundled with the 9600xt or 9800xt will only be the single player game not with multiplayer. something to consider.Anonymous User - Sunday, October 19, 2003 - link
#13: Thats a good point. I didnt think about that.Kristopher
Anonymous User - Sunday, October 19, 2003 - link
"It all depends if your $50 (25% percent of the cost) is worth 4 FPS in UT2K3 (13% percent performance). Nay, $150 is the right price for a midrange video card."think they should have mentioned that $50 of that will be going toward half-life 2 ,and if your looking forward to that , that 9600xt then becomes a $150 card.
sounds like a good deal to me
Anonymous User - Sunday, October 19, 2003 - link
I think the eVGA GeForceFX 5900 128MB deserves to be noted as well, as it offers a lot of performance for its $229, much more than a $ 249 Radeon 9700 pro, that was mentioned as pick of the week in the performance section.Anonymous User - Sunday, October 19, 2003 - link
#10: Yeah. I think they carry the Sapphire ones with the SAmsung BGA right?Kristopher
Anonymous User - Sunday, October 19, 2003 - link
The 9800 non-pros (not the SE version) are available online from Circuit City for $250+free shipping. I would try to get one while they still have them in stock. The Samsung BGA memory is preferred over the Infineon BGA memory if you want to flash the BIOS to a 9800"pro." However, you can still OC them nicely though. Just my two cents.Anonymous User - Sunday, October 19, 2003 - link
I thought the review was very cogent and not at all biased towards one camp or another. #5's comments were completely unfounded.