Suggestions for new graphics card on T-Bird 1333 Mhz needed

[TactX]

Hi all,

I'll get a T-Bird 1333 Mhz from my brother which will replace my T-Bird 800 Mhz. I think about getting a new graphics card (replacing my GeForce-2 MX) to be able to play newer games (maybe even Doom 3) on my system.

Getting the newest cards with a highend-chipset is propably useless, since the CPU is too slow to make use of the GPUs performance.

Which GPU would be a good combination with my CPU?

I've searched the www, but all tests of newer GPUs were all performed with new CPUs, so that I can't see how the 3D-performace scales with CPU speed :(

Any suggestions?

Thanks for reading.

[Mnl]

Hi TactX

I found a test on THG, testing graphics cards on two systems: An Athlon 1Ghz and a Athlon XP 2700+

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html

The test isn't exactly new - it is from January 20, 2003, but still it features a radeon 9700 PRO (dx 9 compatible).

[TactX]

Thanks for the link, Mnl :)

Based on the test you linked to and some estimations based on the specifications of the ATI Radeon 9600 series, do you think the normal 9600 (not XT, Pro or SE) would be a good compromise? I can get it for about 110 € at my local dealer, with DVI and all other basic features which is quite good.

[Mnl]

Here is a list of the main differences in the 9600 series:

9600XT: chipclock 500 memclock 600 buswidth 128-bit
9600Pro: chipclock 400 memclock 600 buswidth 128-bit
9600: chipclock 325 memclock 400 buswidth 128-bit
9600SE: chipclock 500 memclock 365 buswidth 64-bit

The 9600SE ought to be totally out of the question if you want to do any serious gaming because of the 64-bit buswidth.

The only difference between the 9600, 9600Pro and 9600XT seems to be the clockspeeds of the GPU and the ram. How much these differences in clockspeeds means to the overall performance of your system is a bit hard to tell, but looking at this test (http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html) (also THG :D) there's quite a bit of difference between the 9600 and 9600Pro/XT, but still this test is done on a really powerfull system.

I think that if you can afford it / are willing to spend the extra money, you should really go for the 9600Pro/XT as these cards seem to be significantly faster than the 9600.

But if it doesn't have to be a Radeon and if you are willing to spend just a bit more, Nvidia has not so long ago released the GeforceFX 5900XT, which is quite a bit faster than the 9600XT at almost the same price. (I know - you can always find something just a bit better (at a slightly higher price :D))

hth

Mnl