Undecided about new graphics card

[BusterGonad]

Help! I'm looking to buy a new card but can't make my mind up. I want a good card that will last me but I'm not worried about it being the very top of the range. So far I've got it down to either:

Sapphire Radeon 9800 128mb Non-pro

or

Sapphire Radeon 9600 128mb Pro

The reason for Sapphire is that they are the main supplier in the UK (can't get BBA). Both do what I want them to, play games, but I don't want to end up buying a lemon. For information, my current card is a R8500 non-pro, but it's giving me problems at the moment and I think it's time to replace.

So, what do you guys think? Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks.

 

[cleeve]

Both are great cards, the 9800 non-pro is a great deal faster, but buy whatever you can afford.

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Radeon 9500 (modded to PRO w/8 pixel pipelines)
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
3dMark03: 3529

 

[BigBiggist]

Definately go for the Radeon 9800 Non pro. That thing will dominate pretty much anything you throw at it and i think i heard somewhere that if you flash the 9800 non-pro bios to a Pro Bios then you will have a full blown 9800 Pro with 380/680 or whatever clock speeds. Im pretty sure that most people are trying it with the Sapphires and they have had some nice success with it.

One thing though, which 9800 are you looking at, is it the plain old 9800 or is it the 9800SE? If its the SE ive heard some horror stories about it.

A wise monkey never monkies with another monkey's monkey, unless another monkey monkies with another monkey's monkey before the wise monkey monkies with another monkey's monkey.