Who ELSE is tired of spening $every 6 months -_-!

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could always get the best card out there but that will only by you a few more months before your next upgrade.

Mobile Barton 2500+ @ 2420mhz 11x220 1.7v
Asus A7N8X Dlx 440 FSB
1gb Geil GD pc3500 Dual Channel (2-3-3-6)
Segata 80gb SATA 8.5ms seek
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro(420/730)
 
the performance difference is not worth 100 bucks. you could have waited another year at least and gotten by with that card.
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i got BF Vietnam last week, and its not playable higher than 800x600.. sure my Palomino @ 1833ghz (166fsb) doesnt help, but its not a slouch either sinse i got my ram in sync@ cas2 6/2/2/2 or whatever.. i am positive the graphics card is the bottleneck from the symptoms and slowdowns


a 9500pro is a 8pipeline design, and it acctually HAS pixel shaders (sarcasm).. it may be on par with a TI4200 in current games, but new games the 9500pros advantages clearly start showing up. i also plan on gettig Halo next week.. the 9500pro should get a good 20fps more, with PS2.0


just look at some UT2003 benches.. 9500pro comes out faster than a TI4600 most times, AND you can actually use AF/AA .. its not just possible to use those features on the GF4TI architecture

meh for 100 bux, itll last me until october when prices calm down after the new chips are released

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GW: its not that i dont see any good with nvidia cards, they certainly pack a punch, its just that ATI's offerings are better in most areas and quite often for less money so its hard for me to compliment nV .. you know what im saying. if they release a card that competes , both in performance AND price then ill happily make the purchse


but theres just nohting out yet.. even a 5900xt isnt worth it, if you play games like FarCry or other shader heavy ones


markgun: i didnt have the money at the time, and the TI4200 was hella cheap .. it was a good purchse at the time, just i figured there would be at least some improvements over my 8500 sinse its a newer generation card



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Phial, I believe the secret with video cards is to buy at the $200 price point. Your hardware will last at least a year that way.

Either that, or buy a 9500 for $80 eight months ago on ebay like I did and mod it to a 9500 PRO for free. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Far Cry has been quite smooth at medium-high detail for me, I must say.

(sorry for rubbing it in there, Phial :wink: )

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9500 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(hardmodded 9500, o/c 322/322)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>~2600+</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 2400+ w/143Mhz fsb)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>4,055</b></font color=red>
 
hahaheheh.. see? my TI4200 cant do that, and its running at PS1.1 .. .. i dont know how people can say that the two cards perform almost equally



but hey, its a R300 core .. should be decent even if i wanted to wait until xmas, no? sure i wont be playing at 1280 with 8xAF/AA , but hell itll still be hella fast

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Why not just face the truth. Whilst it is worth waiting for certain products, if u spend ur time waiting ull be waiting 4eva. Take my soundcard, I spent ages waiting for the audigy 2, and whilst I am glad that i did wait for it, I am still gutted as there is another card 1 year on with the more popular 7.1 standard. Now 6.1 is nearly obsolete!

Anyway back to graphics cards, surely a 128MB Radeon 9600 should still give you top performance with games released in a year's time. The PC market is cruel in this way. If you buy top of the range equipment it will be conisdered obsolete in a years time and u will be able to purchase it for a quarter of the price you paid.

My solution is, as long as the games you play run happily then dont bother upgrading. The motto is "If it aint broke, dont fix it!" Yes my PC config (see signature) is a bit screwed up but I can still run games reasonably fast, with the only bottleneck being my pint sized hard drive and my ancient 32mb graphics card. If you wish to keep up with the PC market right to a T then u will need bottomless pockets of cash!

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ running at 1.25ghz, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows Me
 
i know man i know.. once i find out that my job is stable, im going to get a loan from them and upgrade everything at once. that mightnot be for mnths



and yes, a 9600pro would be fine until the end of the year probably.. and a 9500pro is generally faster so 😉

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how is 6.1 almost obsolete. 5.1 isnt even near obsolete. very few if any movies are 6.1 the only advantage is a rear center channel. who cares. the main purpose of the front center channel is vocals. why do you need a rear. its just a gimick to get suckers to spend more money. sure, in the near future 6.1 will be the standard. but i really dont see the need to have any more than two speakers in the rear. nothing on the screen is behind you anyway, its just to give the illusion of ambient noise.

wpdclan.com cs game server - 64.246.52.144:27015
now featuring (optional) cheating death!
 
That's what I did to replace my gf3. I like $250ish every other year to $125 every year. It may work out about the same as far as spending goes in the end, but it's nice to reward yourself with a top card once in a while.
 
My speakers a 4.1 and I bet they sound a hell of a lot better than any cheapshit 7.1 set.

Holy crap, Ive just calculated that I have spent over £600 on my computers in the last 2months! I work part time in a super market...no wonder Im always skint.


P4 2.6@3.38
512Mb PC4000
2x120Gb 7200.7 in RAID0
Waterchill KT12-L30
Abit AI7
Ge-Force4 Ti4200
 
"no offense but are you a republican?"
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What difference does it make? Do democrats not make money in the US? I like Bush, but not the one/kind you're thinking of. I'd be a libertarian if anything, as I think they are more pro legalization of selling human organs (for transplant and culinary pursuits).

Don't see how my political affiliation relates to this thread, however being able to afford the latest technology does. And bringing up the ability to pay for that new technology is definitely pertinent to this thread. Especially considering it's title, which has a nice dollar sign in it. And it's a very important part of my upgrade strategy because part of my last return got me my R9600P, and I like thinking that the Gubna-mint pays for my tech, I pay for theirs.

Oh BTW, yeah I have money, did I mention that? It helps pay for things instead of killing people and stealing theirs (although the thought has crossed my mind here sometimes).

I go to school, and I have a job, I work hard and I have money. I continue to go to school so I can make more money. And you know what discipline I have a degree in and am working towards my masters in? Economics, it's all about the <b>MONEY</b>. mo' money, Mo' Money, MO' MONEY! Also I invest that MONEY I <b>EARN</b>, and then make even <b>MO' MONEY</b>. And when I invest my money in RRSPs, the guys out east gimme MORE money again. It's really sweEet. The best part, I have very colourful MONEY with higher IQ than US money, so buying my tech products is like a graphics demo. Look at all that colourful paper and shiny metal!

MMMMMMmmmmmmmmm<b><font color=green>MONEY</font color=green></b>!

Once again you miss the crux of the post, which was obviously Phial's need for better accounting and tax software to manage his Money. Either that or a better dealer so he could reduce other costs and afford better Graphics Crack.

Seriously, take GW's advice and leave. Don't go away mad, just go away, no one will miss your contributions.




- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK :evil:
 
The R9500Pro is a fine choice, and what people seem to forget is that should you have been more focused on the material and not giving it to the poor (like a Feed the children fund, but instead it's a 'Bring 32bit(colour)-T&L gaming for the children' fund; don't tell me you haven't seen the commercials on Sunday at noon during the football off-season. :evil: ), you could sell the GF4ti and get alot of your money back. The price of the difference is definitely worth it, especially $100 CDN! There is nothing you could get for even twice that amount which would offer better value.

And now we can return your ATI decoder ring, and teach you the latest version of <A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/art/afinger.txt" target="_new">the secret handshake</A> :wink: .

EDIT: BTW, don't click that link either, if you're easily offended. :evil:

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK :evil:
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by TheGreatGrapeApe on 04/06/04 05:48 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
I go to school, and I have a job, I work hard and I have money. I continue to go to school so I can make more money. And you know what discipline I have a degree in and am working towards my masters in? Economics, it's all about the MONEY. mo' money, Mo' Money, MO' MONEY! Also I invest that MONEY I EARN, and then make even MO' MONEY. And when I invest my money in RRSPs, the guys out east gimme MORE money again. It's really sweEet. The best part, I have very colourful MONEY with higher IQ than US money, so buying my tech products is like a graphics demo. Look at all that colourful paper and shiny metal!

MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmMONEY!
Click to expand...
HAHAHAHAHhahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa



CLASSIC dude .. honestly writing is one of your forte's should have taken something liek that in school.. but hey, the business of MONEH is good to be in also, sinse it is what the human race is now

ahah but yea that was great dropped my smoke 3 times
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actually i havent seen that commercial ;P


dont watch tv! passive entertainment will Rot your brain!. rot it !



as for the TI4200, going to be giving it to a needy friend in Montreal as a suprise.. you know where i got the inspiration for this grape;P

hes a poster here, error_911, great friend of mine who sells computer parts as well as goes to college .. hes setting up a small business out of his room right now, making raid-capable webserver and hes hard up with all the parts he needs.. scsi drives, cables, PSU's, casees, evreything.. hes doing good but this will be a nice little suprise because his business has taken up his money and he is currently using a :

GF4MX440!!!!


we play games now and then, so itll be worth it for me to give ot him also so he can keep up 😀

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I like $250ish every other year to $125 every year. It may work out about the same as far as spending goes in the end, but it's nice to reward yourself with a top card once in a while.
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I'm the opposite because I always have another use for the pulled card. SO I'd rather have Ti4200 for a year and R9500P for a year than just R9500P for 2 years. If both options cost me the same, the Ti4200 would be put in a spare system, sold in a system, or just plain old sold for money back. But I can see that for other people the extra year with the R9500 pro would be worth the extra price of not having a spare card to sell.

Lets say he could have bought the R9500 Pro for $200 back when his R8500 croaked. I paid $198 for a retail BA 9500 pro when it first came out, which was a hard deal to beat for months. Not sure what his Ti4200 cost him. But if it was $100 and $112. He spent $12 more to get 2 cards. Sure, he could have been gaming on the R9500 Pro for a year now. But he can now sell off his Ti4200 for $70 and the upgrade to R9500 Pro cost him $42. Or he can stick it in a spare. That is my thinking on why it makes sense not to buy top cards but wait a while for the price to drop. I like paying about half the original cost. Seems that when $200 cards hit $100 and when $400 cards hit $200, it is a great time to buy. That figure isn't set in stone, but was true for Ti4200's and R9800 Pro's. Also it makes me feel good knowing other people spent twice as much. :smile:


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt
 
i try to stay a generation behind..


actually, itd be better said like "i try to keep my equipment no older than 2 generations behind whats current"


seems thebest way to save money.. and yea, the TI4200 was freaking cheap..

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Heh, I haven't bought a new card in something like 3 years.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
 
It shows dude!

I mean look at your siggy, it looks like 2-tone daisy-wheel printing man! :tongue:


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK :evil:
 
I don't spend that much money per year. I will now that I actually have money, but you can make do with very little money spent if you spend your money correctly.

I bought half a gig of memory when it was dirt cheap and when everyone was only buying 256MB or less. That was a good buy. $60 for half a gig of PC2100 2-3 years ago. Buying a R9800 pro when it was $180 was a good buy for those that didn't want to wait another couple of months. Buying the most expensive motherboard isn't necessary either. I have a K7S5A that I bought for $70 and I overclock using a better bios to bring my XP2400+ to speeds that would have cost me twice as much or more.

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The 9500P is an awesome card. What sucks though is you spent $112 for it when you could have bought it 2 years ago for $200 and been using it this whole time.

Either way that card is a great buy!

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That is my thinking on why it makes sense not to buy top cards but wait a while for the price to drop.
Click to expand...

Also consider the money you spend on games though and how much more fun they are on the newest card. When you factor that in it's worth it to spend a little bit more on a better card.

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I know the feeling. I can only buy 1 piece at a time and by the time im done buying the crap, its almost obsolete.
When i get my new rig built, it'll be time to start looking at newer [-peep-]

Confuscious say: He who go to bed with ithcy ass, wake up with stinkyfinger
 
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