Which card is faster?

[dml54]

These are the 2 cards in my price range. Which one would be faster.
MSI GeForceFX 5900XT-VTD128 or Sapphire Radeon 9600XT

 

[Todd33]

5900XT, pretty much hands down, search 5900XT or 5900SE in google for reviews with benchmarks.

 

[RussianSensation]

5900 XT, except in Half-Life 2.

 

[Pete]

I'd probably pay the extra $30 for the MSI 5900XT. It will be faster in virtually all current games, it has a known quiet cooling solution, it has VIVO, and it has a decent (if old) games bundle. Here's a review of the MSI, with a 9600XT included in the benchmarks.

Edit: Yeah, it's slightly slower than a 9600XT in HL2 in DX9 mode, but it should be faster in mixed or DX8 mode. OTOH, the 5900XT should be much faster than the 9600XT in Doom 3. Overall, the 5900XT just seems to be a better deal.

 

[modedepe]

5900xt will blow the 9600xt away

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
5900 XT, except in Half-Life 2.

Which doesnt exist.

 

[Todd33]

They sum it up in that MSI review:

"Performance wise, the 5900XT flattens mid-range products from ATI. Radeon 9600XT products are offered for about the same price, but perform much slower in modern games, due to their single texture unit and 128-bit memory bus. Perhaps to combat the GeForceFX 5900XT, we've seen products with the Radeon 9800 "SE" and Radeon 9800 "Lite" nomenclature showing up on radar - although we have not seen what these products are capable of yet."

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: dml54
These are the 2 cards in my price range. Which one would be faster.
MSI GeForceFX 5900XT-VTD128 or Sapphire Radeon 9600XT

I own both a MSI GeforceFX 5900XT VTD128 and a Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT. The 5900 XT is a great video card and much faster than my 9600 XT at high resolution (ie 1600x1200) or with 4xaa/8xaf enabled.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
5900 XT, except in Half-Life 2.

Which doesnt exist.

Exactly, the 5900XT will blow the 9600XT away.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
5900 XT, except in Half-Life 2.

You mean Half Life 2 has been released and I missed it?

Using beta software for benchmarking is a very bad idea and will only deliver very unreliable results.

 

[Blastman]

nodic had a review of the 9600XT and 5900XT. The 5900 is a faster card but 9600XT holds pretty good for a midrange offering -- it managed to beat or tie the 5900XT in 6 of 11 games -- fairing comparatively better in the newer games.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
5900 XT, except in Half-Life 2.

Which doesnt exist.

sure it exists

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: shady06

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
5900 XT, except in Half-Life 2.

Which doesnt exist.

sure it exists

If your going to use the half life 2 benchies to prove one card is better than the other, why not use the doom 3 benchies too? I seem to remember the 5900 series really giving the 9800 series a real ass wooping.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Blastman
nodic had a review of the 9600XT and 5900XT. The 5900 is a faster card but 9600XT holds pretty good for a midrange offering -- it managed to beat or tie the 5900XT in 6 of 11 games -- fairing comparatively better in the newer games.

I would note three things about that Nordic comparison:
1. The settings of 12X9, 4X 8X will play more to ATIs more efficient AA/AF. At 10X7 4X 8X, there wouldn't have been a comparison at all between those cards. The framerates didn't really warrant the settings either.
2. Although the 9600XT did indeed manage to tie the 5900XT at some of the benches, the ones it loses it loses by a LOT in some cases
3.

And remember that PowerColor's 9600 XT has 12.5% faster memory than a "normal" 9600 XT.

Use a 5900 with the memory set at 770MHz for it to be fair.

So your question with these two cards becomes: Do I want a card that can tie the other card in some situations, at some settings? Or do I want the card that will win at most settings, sometimes by a lot?

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: modedepe
5900xt will blow the 9600xt away

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
5900 XT, except in Half-Life 2.

Which doesnt exist.

But when it comes out my statement will become true in DX9 so whats your point?

If something is very likely to happen in the future it can be considered the truth, no one said it is the absolute truth. Like the fact that we are all going to die. It is not an absolute truth since maybe they will clone you in 50 years before you die, but there is a 99% chance that you will die, so hence it becomes the truth; just like nvidia cards are slower in HL2 than ATIs.

With that said, since 5900xt is around $180, unless you find it cheaper, Radeon 9700Pro for $190 or 9800Pro for $210 is the best deal considering RAdeon 9800pro is 2x as fast as 9600Pro at higher resolutions, even without AA/AF turned on, while costing only $80 more.

 

[nRollo]

But when it comes out my statement will become true in DX9 so whats your point?

There's a couple of BIIIIIIGGGGGGGG problems with your argument RussianSensation.

1. The 9600XT is far too slow to run HL2 at any modern resolution in full precision PS2. So are you going to play at 800X600, no AA/AF to see PS2? Uh huh. I don't know about you, but having things look like they're made of Leggos would nix that idea for me.

2. There won't be many games with many PS2 effects out this YEAR I bet. For the few that are, see number 1..

3. Doom 3 will run MUCH better on the 5900, as will the games using it's engine. This offsets the PS2 advantage to some degree. I have more games based on Quake OpenGL engines than I do D3d engines.

4. Mostly, see number 1

 

[Shamrock]

I played with Legos when i was a kid, so what's wrong with them?

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

Originally posted by: shady06

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
5900 XT, except in Half-Life 2.

Which doesnt exist.

sure it exists

If your going to use the half life 2 benchies to prove one card is better than the other, why not use the doom 3 benchies too? I seem to remember the 5900 series really giving the 9800 series a real ass wooping.

where was HL 2 benchies used? some said it doesnt exist and all i'm saying is it certainly does exist

 

[Gagabiji]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
5900 XT, except in Half-Life 2.

Which doesnt exist.

But will.

 

[Pete]

Originally posted by: Rollo

I would note three things about that Nordic comparison:
1. The settings of 12X9, 4X 8X will play more to ATIs more efficient AA/AF. At 10X7 4X 8X, there wouldn't have been a comparison at all between those cards. The framerates didn't really warrant the settings either.

Rollo, ain't nothin' in a 9600XT's memory access architecture that's gonna compensate for the 5900XT's 2x greater bandwidth (9.6 << 22.4GB/s). The 9600XT keeps up mainly because of the benches used; quite a few expose inherent game engine advantages to one or the other IHV's hardware.

2. Although the 9600XT did indeed manage to tie the 5900XT at some of the benches, the ones it loses it loses by a LOT in some cases

This is probably the main point, and you hit this nail on its head:

So your question with these two cards becomes: Do I want a card that can tie the other card in some situations, at some settings? Or do I want the card that will win at most settings, sometimes by a lot?

 

[McArra]

Originally posted by: Pete

Originally posted by: Rollo

I would note three things about that Nordic comparison:
1. The settings of 12X9, 4X 8X will play more to ATIs more efficient AA/AF. At 10X7 4X 8X, there wouldn't have been a comparison at all between those cards. The framerates didn't really warrant the settings either.

Rollo, ain't nothin' in a 9600XT's memory access architecture that's gonna compensate for the 5900XT's 2x greater bandwidth (9.6 << 22.4GB/s). The 9600XT keeps up mainly because of the benches used; quite a few expose inherent game engine advantages to one or the other IHV's hardware.

2. Although the 9600XT did indeed manage to tie the 5900XT at some of the benches, the ones it loses it loses by a LOT in some cases

This is probably the main point, and you hit this nail on its head:

So your question with these two cards becomes: Do I want a card that can tie the other card in some situations, at some settings? Or do I want the card that will win at most settings, sometimes by a lot?

Agree