Need help to choose best card for FIFA: Radeon 9600 Pro vs 9800 NP or NVIDIA?!..

[Dance123]

Hi everybody,

I hope you people can help me with following question, cause I can't decide. I would really appreciate it! Here it is:

I am gonna buy a new Pentium 4 and since I am only gonna play EASports games like FIFA 2004, NBA Live, I was wondering if there is much performance difference with a Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 non-pro 128Mb compared to a Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 Pro 128Mb with those games. In other words, is it worth getting the 9800 non-pro over the 9600 pro for those EASports games, or are those games not so demanding and will they run perfectly smooth with all options on with a 9600 pro?!

Or don't you recommend an ATI card with these games and would you recomend an NVIDIA card instead?!

The thing is I have absolutely no idea how demanding FIFA and NBA Live are compared to high-demanding games that you see in benchmarks all the time, etc.. because those EASports games never seem to turn up in benchmarks (despite being very popular I thought). I want to be able to play FIFA and NBA smoothly with all options on, just wondering if a 9600 pro is already more then enough for that or will I get much better framerates, etc with the 9800 NP?! Will I really notice a difference or not?! Perhaps somebody who upgraded from 9600 to 9800 can tell from experience if it makes much of a difference with those EASports games and how do NVIDIA cards compare, etc..?!

PS: if anybody knows any videocard benchmarks with EASports games in, please mention it!

PS2: I am looking for a silent card, since I also want to make music with my PC, so please mention this too.

Thanks very much for all good feedback!

Mike.

 

[Daniel Jones]

The 9600pro is definitely powerful enough to play any of the games you mentioned at high detail. However, if you do decide to play some more hardware intensive games it would be a better bet to go with the 9800np. The nice thing about the 9800np is that you can overclock it to pro levels (I can vouch for this since I have one). ATI definitely has the edge when it comes to image quality.

 

[ngyc]

suggest you ATI Radeon 9600 pro, is good

 

[Oz_Leeds_Fan]

the price difference is pretty big. Im not sure the 9800 is better enough to warrent that much more money. In australia the 9600pro is available for around $310 whereas the 9800 is about $800. Im getting a 9600, i simply cant justify spending that much on a card that is a bit better than the 9600.

 

[FKPartizan]

If you play games like fifa the 9600pro is more than good enough

 

[Dance123]

Hi,

Are you all really sure that a 9600 Pro can run FIFA 2004 and NBA Live with ALL graphic options on in high quality AND still get perfect smooth play, and that a 9800 non-pro won't add much more to this?! Anybody has or had a 9600 Pro before and can compare with 9800 NP? It's just that I don't want to buy a 9600 Pro (which is indeed at a good price) and then find out it won't be able to get both smooth play and have all graphic options on with the games I mentioned. But if it really can, then ofcourse I will go for that one. Still strange a 9800 NP doesn't add anything for those games..

Thing is I am really surpised about this cause in all benchmarks there is a huge framerate/performance lap between a 9600 Pro and 9800 NP. As mention before they test with other games, but it surprises me that this isn't the same for those EASports games, as I thought they were also high demanding, esp. if you wanna turn everything on and still get smooth fps?! Maybe I am underestimating the 9600 Pro because many critisize it because it has only 4 pixel pipelines where the 9800 has 8, or don't the games I mention don't need that?!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do EASport games like FIFA 2004 and NBA Live use things like FSAA and anisotropic filtering, as apparently then you really start to see the difference between a 9600 Pro and 9800 NP card?! Anybody knows this for EASport games?

Thanks for the good replies! Hope more will follow..

 

[Parra Power]

if ur so rich that money isn't an issue then get a 256 MB 9800 Pro....... otherwise if ur like the rest of us and have a budget... then definately get a 9600 as it is more than good enough for the games you're playing and will be for another 3 or 4 years yet

BTW: Hardware/Inetnet forum next time

 

[KoreaJjang]

Radeon 9600 Pro is my choice

 

[IceBlu]

well i've used a 9600 pro and its a very good card. I currently have a 9800 pro and its better .... BUT for games like Fifa, u won't notice much difference in quality.

If you intend playing games like Half Life 2, Doom 3 etc and can afford a 9800 pro, then go for it... if not, then just go with the 9600 pro - you will not be disappointed.

Anyway, theres also the 9600 XT which is even better than the 9600 pro. Theres also the 9800 XT but thats way too expensive.


Conclusions -

If price is a major concern and you are not a major gamer outside Fifa, then go for the 9600 Pro.

PS: the 9600 pro will run all games like Max Payne 2, Chrome, Halo etc fine at decent resolutions.

 

[Francesco82]

If you plan to buy a card for FIFA .... definitely go for NVIDIA, EA games ( not just FIFA ) are optimized for NVIDIA cards.

GeForce FX 5700 Ultra is your choice, it's the best mid-range card and it outperforms 9600 XT.
Anyway ... a 9600 or even a GeForce Ti 4200 can run FIFA2004 with best details without a problem.

I have a GeForce Ti 4200 and i run FIFA2004 demo with best details, 1280x960 4X AA and 2X AS and the game runs pefectly smooth, so no matter wich card you'll buy ... FIFA will surely run without a problem.

Francesco

 

[AcillateM]

bye a ati 9600 pro that is a good card for fifa and future games that use dx9

 

[iceboy]

why get 9600 pro when u can get 9800se at the same price

 

[psp]

Get the newer 9600pro XT.
By the way EA Sports benches all their games with Nvidia, but Ati has sharper and better detail with max settings.