Radeon 9600 Pro VERSUS GeforceFX 5200U

[martinchaoss]

I bought a G5 dual 1.8 today. I could choose between a Radeon 9600 Pro or a GeforceFX 5200U.

But, which one is better? Is there a difference?

M

[aethier]

obviously the Radeon 9600pro. (well it is a fake pro, it only has 64megs of ram, instead of 128, like on the pros in the PC version.

aethier

[martinchaoss]

ok, thanks. I also undrestand there's a 9800 on the market, but it has a fan which makes more noise than the 9600.

I think I'll go for the 9600

M

[manitoubalck]

Have a look @ www.tomshardware.com and look at the benchmarks, make your decision after them.

P.S: I want a MSI R9600XT:D

[blue&whiteman]

unless you want to play modern high detail games then get the 9800 but any of the video cards offered for the G5 would be fine otherwise. when it comes to 2D its hard to notice any speed difference between video cards. I never play games other than osx chess myself.

[Rezet]

Originally posted by aethier
obviously the Radeon 9600pro. (well it is a fake pro, it only has 64megs of ram, instead of 128, like on the pros in the PC version.

aethier

Well, they call it PRO not because of the ram but an updated architecture. Although i find outrageous that mac has 3 new video cards at this point that are by far not that great. PC 9600Pro is cheaper and more powerful than Mac 9600Pro.

[hugemullens]

The "PRO" designation only pertains to the clock speed of the core and memory. Thats why in the pc world you often find that a radeon 9800 and a 9800 pro are really the same card, and you can flash the bios of the 9800 to the pro bios (usually gives more juice to the ram to run stable) and be off and running. Architechure changes usually have the radeon 9000 to radeon 9200 type desgination. I agree tho, 64meg was a bit a slap in the face, i still want pro video card support!!!

[Kid Red]

I',m a little naive with video cards but have always wondered- Is there a reason our cards are never as 'stocked' as the pc cards? I mean, hell, they're robbing us, might as well make it more for the same, rather then more for less. That's ridiculous.

However, my question is, how much better would getting the 9800 pro be in 2-3 years as opposed to only having the 9600?

[Gymnut]

I'd have to agree the 9600 is a clear cut winner over Nvidia's card. Well for one thing, the Mac version of the 9600 only has 64MB of video ram whereas the ATI 9800 has 128MB. Go figure.

[martinchaoss]

I checked out www.tomshardware.com and it tells that the 9800 Pro can be set on two different fan-speeds. It also tells that the whole card is upgraded, and not boost to the max.

Sounds good so far. But I don't know if this fanspeed-option is valid for the mac or only an extra feature for the pc-card.

Well still didn't decided what to do, 9600 pro or 9800 pro.

And for the outrageous prices? They're clever, aren't they.

[hvfsl]

The Radeon 9600pro is the only card out of the three that does not make any noise, because it has no fan. Although it is much faster than the Geforce FX5200U. The FX5200U about the speed of a Radeon 9000pro.

[blue&whiteman]

my radeon 7000 has no fan but its pci and only has 32mb ddr so I guess thats why. it does have a heatsink on the gfx cpu though. it does support dual monitors also so thats cool!

[manitoubalck]

Originally posted by Rezet
PC 9600Pro is cheaper and more powerful than Mac 9600Pro.
Because Ati has licienced the design it has to compete with other 3rd party manufactures eg: Tyan, MSI, Powr Colour, etc... hence prices drop. Also each of the 3rd party manufactures add their own little mods and tweaks to make their card run faster. The same would happen if 3rd Party cards for mac were availabe.


martinchaoss, I said to check Towmshardware because of the benchmarks. R9800 is ~twice as fast as the R9600 in 3D gaming, if that's important, also remember that similar results could be expected in other graphics intencive tasks eg. video editing.

P.S: I hear some people have got PC cards to work in their mac's.