Posted: 8/11/2004 3:53:26 PM EDT
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got a quick question. what is the diffrence between an ATI Radeon X300SE, and an ATI Radeon 9600XT. yes, i have checked the specs for both, but i can't make anything out of all that gibberish. if anyone can help, that'd be great..... |
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The 9600XT is the better of the two. If you have the money, you can pony up for an x800 (the xt and up have 16 pipelines). Sad to say for ATI thought, these latest bits of tests with Doom 3 have really started to tip this round to the Nvidia geforce 6800 GT and above. The jump from the 9600 to the 9800 was huge, and even more so from that generation to the x800/gf6800 generations. if I were you, I would'nt invest in anythiing lower then a 9800 Pro. |
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The X300/X600/X800 are the newest cards being made by ATI. The X300SE is the bottom of the line 'X---' series of cards. The SE denotes that it is even crappier than the normal X300. The Radeon 9000 series are the current generation of cards being made by ATI. The 9600XT is the best mid-range card they make at the moment, as I don't think the X600 is out yet. The XT means that it is the best of the 9600 range of cards. If you are looking at buying one over the other, I would go with the 9600XT. I just bought one, and am having no problems playing Doom3 on 1280x1024 resolution on medium settings, or on high settings at 800x600. Add to that the fact that 9600XT's can be had for around $150 on the web, and I'd say thats a damn good deal. However, if you have a little more lee-way as far as which product to get, I'd get the 9800 pro, as its only about $200 and provides a substantial increase in performance over the 9600 series of cards without spending $500 on an X800. |
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Just for the record, all the ATI Radeon X300SE cards I have seen have been made in PCI Express configuration. Have you seen one slotted for AGP or PCI? The card itself is not bad for the price but I would go with the 9800Pro as well. Great card. edit: checked with ATI. They only make the X300 (in all flavors) with PCI express slots only. Until I could see some actual benchmarks from it I would not venture a guess between it and a 9600. |
Man, you must not be as picky on frames per second as I am, I would'nt even use 1280x1024 medium on a x800 platinum, just not enough pipe yet to stabalize at those settings ... ETA these benchmarks ...  Taken from www.vr-zone.com/?i=1051 9600xt will play doom just fine at the mid-higher settings, but the framerate really chunks when you get into some meaty maps etc. on a gas cooled overlclocked 9800 Pro, I was seeing some FPS drop big time on 1024x768 medium when going around corners etc with all the eye candy turned on. It would rarely drop below 30fps, but when it goes from 75fps to 30 ... back to 75, the jitter bothers the hell out of me. |
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Nah, I'm not really picky, but if it does something like what you described above, I would start turning settings down. Funny thing is, I haven't really started experiencing any real slowdowns or hangs unless I have both shadows and anti-aliasing on. AMD Athlon 2000+ (not OC'ed) 512MB 2700 DDR-RAM ATI 9600XT 128MB For the record, I have ATI's Overdrive setting turned on, and am running the Doom3 beta drivers released by ATI. |
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it def. was playable, but with the setting turned up (full AA and full AF), it does slow down to say, 30 or so in heated areas. When turned down a little like on your settings, it ran just fine. Doom 3 has a very impressive engine, and it will only get better. What I was playing it on. Intel P4 3.2GH overclocked to 3.6 1024 MB Corsair XMS memory heatpipe cooled ATI 9800 pro overclocked to 9800XT ETA: I was originally playing under the normal catylst drivers, and did notice a huge change with the beta drivers, I did'nt take those into consideration when making the statements. I still however, would reccomend a 9800 pro over the 9600 XT, the little extra money is worth the performance jump. |
very true, as i found out last nite. the new box i got from dell only came with pci express, which pissed me off at first, but i was still able to play doom3 last nite, so i calmed down a little. this is the time when not knowing about graphics cards and shit like that bit me in the ass, but whatever..... |
yeah, when i first found out my radeon 9600xt wasn't compatible i was pissed, cuz i thought pci express was about the same as agp....i was ready to send my damn box back and exchange it, so i said fuck it....took like an hour away, got some food, and sat down and actually did an agp vs pci express search....found out it was the new thing, and all that stuff, and decided to stick with it....i mean right now some stuff might not be compatible with it, but in about 6 months it will be.... |