Please help me decide on ATI card..

[DarrenFrost]

Hi everyone, I have an old radeon VE I grabbed to make the rig I was building 3 years ago work (mobo didn't support agp 1x so my AIW 128 pro was out) that just isn't cutting it anymore. I don't want to spend over $50 total on my new card and I've been with ATI since the PCXpression and always been satisfied, so the models I'm limiting myself to are the 9000-9200. From what my friends have told me I should go with a 64mb 9000 pro for the highest performance due to it having the best shader which I guess is a large part of RPGs (I play NWN, War3, and want FFXI.. my current FFXI benchmark is 990 so I am hoping for at least double with this card for decent smoothness) and the 128mb version somehow decreases performance. My own research says the 9200 is the slowest in this class, the 9100 has the best fill rate but shader is total junk and 9000 sucks but 9000 pro has a great shader and not bad fill rate. My friends and I aren't the hardcore techie guru's you guys are.. so please advise me ^_^

 

[sargeduck]

I would have to suggest a 9100. It's actually a re-packaged 8500, with a tweak here and there. Pricewatch has them listed as $50, and they will give you much better performance than anything else in that price range. Also, you may want to check out <A HREF="http://user.auctions.shopping.yahoo.com/ca/user/atitechnologiesinc" target="_new"> here </A>. ATI is having an auction. Click <A HREF="http://apps.ati.com/productinfo/auction.html" target="_new"> here </A>to register.

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue