Need advice: 9600 GT or 9800 GT?

[Dragor1]

Hi!

I'm planing to upgrade my aging 6600 and have only 9600 GT which fits in my budget.

But I can stretch it enough to have myself a 9800 GT.

Can you guys please suggest me which one and why?

Also, please try and vote in the poll as well.

I'll keep the poll's results in mind before making my decision.

Here's what Wikipedia says:

Thanks and cheers!

 

[ThePizzaMan]

what is your budget?

 

[Dragor1]

Well considering that here:
Video Cards - TechShop.in - Buy Tech Online Now!!!


Palit NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 512MB GDDR3 Graphics Card is for Rs.4,867 ( US$ 107 approx. )

and

Zotac GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3 ZT-98GES3P-FSR Graphics Card is for Rs.6,334 ( US$ 140 approx. )

You can say I can shell out about $140.

But that site is a local online vendor and shop prices will be around $22 CHEAPER than those on site.

Also note that I could NOT find ZT-98GESP-FSR on Zotac's site. So, please don't stick to that! What I'm gonna do is go to my local PC shop and buy either a 9600 GT or 9800 GT. Not those specific ones listed above.

I've used the above vendor just so that I can get an idea about the price and that's it! I don't intend to buy from them.

Thanks for your reply, ThePizzaMan!

 

[kucing13]

does 9600 and 9800 makes a difference to you?

 

[yowanvista]

9800gt 1gb

 

[Dragor1]

does 9600 and 9800 makes a difference to you?

Of course it would.

Otherwise I would not be asking.

The difference would so obviously be quality!

I think 9800 would last more than 9600 but I wanna make sure that what I think is right, by reading your replies.

That's what forums like this are for!

Basically I can go and buy the 9600 but I am also thinking that If I stretch my budget a bit, I could get a powerful card.

And that's why I posted here so that I can confirm that my thinking is right.

The reason I'm concerned is because there seems to be different "versions" of the 9800 GT. One would be the 65nm 8800 GT rehash and the other would be the 55nm version.

Dunno if the architecture of the 55nm version is the same as 8800 GT or not.

For gaming performance, I would simply be able to play most games at my native resolution (1600x900) with medium to low settings and mostly all games at high settings on 720p with the 9800 GT.

Thanks for your replies!

 

[DocBrown]

I got this 9600GT a little over a month ago for $79.99 on ebay.

Very nice

NVIDIA 9600GT 1GB GDDR 3 GIGABYTE, BRAND NEW! WARRANTY! - eBay (item 170476020993 end time May-21-10 08:46:03 PDT)

 

[kucing13]

and the reason im asking is if it does make a difference ,you could spend some more budget on higher performance and quality GPU. doesn't need to be too expensive though

maybe a gpu that can support 1 or 2 years game more

 

[ThePizzaMan]

hm... i'd say 9800, unless your willing to go ati in which i'd say find a 5750 or a 5670

 

[Dragor1]

hm... i'd say 9800, unless your willing to go ati in which i'd say find a 5750 or a 5670

Hi!

Thanks for the suggestion but 5750 is way out of my budget

I enquired in my local PC shop and am getting Zotac's GeForce 9800 GT for approx $134 (Ouch! Prices sure are steep here.)

I think I'll get myself a 9800 GT as its way more powerful. Just hope that it lasts as long!

Thanks to all who replied!

Cheers!

 

[ThePizzaMan]

welcome good luck

 

[kucing13]

glad you've made up your mind..happy gaming mate

 

[thomas242]

if your going to do any kind of gaming at all go with a the 1gig 9800gt

 

[Joshatdot]

I also voted for the 9800GT. I have a 9600GT, and it is a darn good card, but I want to upgrade. At the time if my build, I also was thinking of either of them...but now I wish I got the 9800. I don't game a lot, but I do play WoW, and at Ultimate settings it (the 9600GT) does it o.k. Frame rates can dip below 20fps, but that mainly happened in the newbie area with lots of ground foliage and pretty stuff.

Anywho, I wish I would have got the 9800 it's about 50% faster then the 9600.

 

[thefabe]

i voted the 9800 gt I had 2 in SLI they were great cards. The only thing I would like to add is to look at the warranty on the card. XFX has always been a good company to deal with for me anyway, they offer a double lifetime warranty (make sure you register the card within 30 days) this is nice since when you decide to upgrade you can offer a lifetime warranty to the next owner by simply unregistering it.
Evga is another good company some cards qualify for a step up program which will allow you to upgrade within a certain amount of time crediting you with the full price on the 9800 toward the card they allow you to step up to. If it qualifies.
BFG has also been a great company to deal with for me. As long as the card has all the tags on it I was able to buy broken cards and get them replaced. once they didn't have the model in stock and upgraded me.
I guess my whole point of this post is graphic cards seem to have a higher rate of failure then other components, IMO so the warranty and company has always been a big part of which manufacturer I would buy from.
Good luck I think you've made a good decision and the card should preform very well for your needs. Fabe

 

[ZXaeon]

Avoid the Nvidia 9xxx cards!

I would suggest that you avoid getting the Nvidia 9xxx cards, especially the 9600GT. They have a serious flaw with them in some games which causes the system to crash, needing a hard reset. The solution to this is to slightly underlock the card from standard clock speeds. So unless you wish to do that, like I and others have to, then I would advise in buying a different card.

Do a Google for "9600GT Black Screen" and "9600GT crash" for pages and pages of people with this problem. Many people come up with various solutions, however the one that appears to work for most people (including myself) is to underlock the card from the stock (non overclocked) rates.

 

[Joshatdot]

I've had my MSI GF9600GT OC for about a year and a half, never had this black screen or crash. My only lil gripe is that WoW on Ultimate setting, in certain areas drops below 30fps. IIRC, my speeds are 700-1680-950 (1900 effective).. I am not home to dbl check, so I'll have to rely on Google & Neweggs specs.

 

[Dragor1]

Thanks guys!

I will be mostly getting myself one of these:

ZOTAC - It's time to play! - Graphics Cards

But the thing is, besides the ECO edition, I can't find much difference between the rest of the editions.

Like whats the difference between the three Synergy Edition cards:

GeForce 9800 GT Synergy

and

GeForce 9800 GT Synergy

and

GeForce 9800 GT Synergy

Have to get a closer look at the box before I buy!

But that'll have to wait until next month since I have some budget issues

 

[kucing13]

its ok.. just wait until you have enough budget to get your hands on it

 

[Zepher]

Like whats the difference between the three Synergy Edition cards:

GeForce 9800 GT Synergy
Core clock 600MHz
Stream Processors 112
Shader Clock 1500 MHz


GeForce 9800 GT Synergy
Core clock 660MHz
Stream Processors 112
Shader Clock 1600 MHz


GeForce 9800 GT Synergy
Core clock 550MHz
Stream Processors 112
Shader Clock 1375 MHz

All 3 cards have different clock speeds.

I've read that the ECO version of the 9800GT isn't as powerful as the version that requires the PCI-E power connector.