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ATi: The 9800Pro 128mb 256bit is the best card for this range. Giving great IQ, and at 380/680, its not uncommon for this card to be seen reaching XT speeds, this card is often a hands down choice when picking a new video card.
Pros: Handles all of the newest games with decent frame rates, can be flashed to XT speeds and timings, You can also get the r360 cores on this card, single slot cooling solution.
Cons: There is a 128meb 128bit version of this card out, which has caused a lot of confusion. The 128bit version is fairly slower than the 256bit version. Easy way to tell if it’s a 128bit version and you don’t want to read, the heatsink is generally black on the 128bit versions, while the 256bit cards have the brushed aluminum heatsink. But pictures can be wrong, so make sure you do read the specs.
Overclocking: This card, like it’s 256mb big brother can reach XT speeds, and is still very much suffice for all of the latest games.
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It is a proven fact that the 256mb version holds no gains above 2fps when compared to its 128mb counterpart...in fact it has been verified that the 256mb version is actualy a few fps slower in older games...
Any image Quality disputes were due to driver optimizations on the part of NV...Nvidia cards are fully capable of the same "IQ" as the ATIs.
OF course the bit-preccision plays a role, too. But not one thats noticable to the eye.
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Easy way to tell if it’s a 128bit version and you don’t want to read, the heatsink is generally black on the 128bit versions, while the 256bit cards have the brushed aluminum heatsink.
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Easiest way to tell are the memory modules, the 128bit versions do not use BGA ram ICs, I have yet to see one not using TSOP (thats the one right? lol).
Just for the record... R350 cores are no longer in production AFAIK. All new cards will come with underclocked r360 cores.
Also, the majority of 128mb Sapphirre, and BBA cards are put onto XT-PCBs nowadays. (newegg needs to update their pics)
256mb cards were XT-PCBs from the start IIRC.
Also the 9600XT cards are interesting as well...I played FarCry @ 1280x1024 / 32bit all settings max with a steady 25-30 fps in the outdoor levels !!!
nice writeup Cerberus....no credit given.?!....you did all this ?
good to have your knowledge here with us then, thats for sure ! lol.
SenC.