What is the difference

[EHM-0813 Guillermo]

Originally posted by Willem de GraafThe best card is ATI 9800-256 but its expensive.

I went for the 9600SE instead, because the 9800 would be more powerful thn my entire machine the 9800 is only for faster 2,0GHz+ machines.

[EHM-1199 Philip]

How much would I pay for this? Would it be a huge improvement over my GForce 5200 256Mb?

[EHM-1199 Philip]

Originally posted by Turista
Well.. i have an AMD XP 2800+ with 512 DDR and an Geforce FX 5200, and i´m plenty sattisfied... Geforce FX 5200 works nice with Directx 9 and XP, and on FS2004 i´m flying at +/- constant 80FPS, with medium-high detail, full ATC, and realistic clouds!! Well and Geforce FX 5200 it´s a really really easy Graphic Card to overclock... from origin the Processor works at 250 mhz and memory at 400... my Geforce FX 5200 it´s now at 300/525 and the improve was great!! Just my testemony!!
(Note: my Geforce FX 5200 it´s an MSI so i don´t talk about other labels)

So, I got a GeForce 5200FX installed in my system, can I overclock it reasonably safely and how would I go about doing this?

[EHM-0635 Nitzan]

What is the difference (if there is any) between the GeForce cards and Radeon? Which one is better for playing games? if i take both on the same price scale.

[EHM-0962 Zhen Yi]

For overclocking it's best to consult people over at other technical forums such as the one on MSI's website.......they provide great tips and instructions on how to overclock reasonably well.....

As i remember, nVidia cards should be easier to overclock than compared to the Radeon cards. However both types of cards are priced rather competitively. Even so the top Radeon cards tend to me more expensive that nVidia's cards......(please correct me if i'm wrong! )

[EHM-0813 Guillermo]

Originally posted by EHM635
What is the difference (if there is any) between the GeForce cards and Radeon? Which one is better for playing games? if i take both on the same price scale.

definatly Radeon, but be sure to make the right choice. There are several Radeons available today. For the lower end computers (800MHz~1600MHz), the Radeon 9600SE and 9800 are good enough. But if you want brute strength to go with your high end system (2,0GHz~3,2GHz) you may want to go for the Radeon 9800PRO or 9800XI. The XI is with €499,- the most expensive card.

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Originally posted by Gizmo2k4
definatly Radeon, but be sure to make the right choice...<snip> The XI is with €499,- the most expensive card.

Until of course the next generation ATI cards start shipping (probably next month...)

nVidia will get the "Fastest..." crown back (but not by very much if the most recent benchmarks I've seen are to be believed) and with any luck the pricing on the current top-end cards should drop almost straight away; the higher end nVidia NV40-based card is due to cost $399 (US at a guess) at release.

[EHM-1199 Philip]

For those that want to know, the overclocking of nvidia seems fairly painless once you have the coolbits registry edit downloaded. It even has an automatic feature to detect the best overclock which worked fine and found me an extra fifty Hz or so on processor and memory speed.

[EHM-0079 Simão]

Originally posted by Plymyphil
So, I got a GeForce 5200FX installed in my system, can I overclock it reasonably safely and how would I go about doing this?

Well, overclock an Geforce Fx5200 it´s really easy and +/- safe if you don´t "push real high" the chip! First depends of the label of your Geforce... if it´s an MSI, like mine, there´s Software from MSI with the board CD-Rom that allows you to change speeds very very easily... if the label it´s other than MSI, download the software "GeForceTweakUtility" and you will be able to change the speed of core and mem!
On case of MSI, if you don´t change the original cooler of the card, don´t go more far than CPU - 300 Mhz and Mems - 470 Mhz... if you upgrade the fan, to one of good quality and speed, like me, you could push at leat CPU - 375 Mhz and Mems - 650 Mhz... The improve it´s really significativ and the graphics really better!
But to overclock don´t forget, use a quality fan, and if the label of your card it´s not very trustable (i just trust completely on Asus, MSI, Powercolor and Chaintec) don´t push very mush, becouse you can damage forever your card! :@

[EHM-0962 Zhen Yi]

Does MSI sell other fans besides the one already on the card? I dont remember seeing any........

[EHM-0079 Simão]

As i know MSI don´t sell fans to their cards... but  in shops specializeds in Overclocking and PC´s you will find a lot of fans that are designed to that!  Be sure that the fan that you buy is compatible with your graphic card model!

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Originally posted by Turista
As i know MSI don´t sell fans to their cards... but  in shops specializeds in Overclocking and PC´s you will find a lot of fans that are designed to that!  Be sure that the fan that you buy is compatible with your graphic card model!

But, MSI are one of the few manufacturers that deliberately overspec their fans... have you seen the beautiful monster(s... there's a fan on either side of the card) they have on the GFX5950?

[EHM-0962 Zhen Yi]

Yeah. It's pretty large and appears to work rather well going by the comments in their forums........