New graphics card advice

[ZildjianKX]

I was debating whether or not this should go in the gaming forum, but I figured this was slightly more appropriate.

I currently have a Radeon 9600 Pro in my G5, which is an "okay" graphics card, but I was wanting something with a bit more umph to it. I was considering buying a Radeon 9800 Pro online for $300 and selling my 9600 on ebay for $100+, but here's my dilema:

I know the Radeon 9800 Pro just received a $50 price drop, mainly due to the Radeon X800 Pro coming out at the end of April for the PC... I'm really not sure whether to wait or not, because it's going to be a long time before the X800 Pro probably hits the mac, and it's going to be $500 anyways most likely. I'm not sure if the Radeon 9800 Pro will lower in price more, and I really doubt the Radeon 9800 XT will make it to mac.

So... what do you guys think I should do?

 

[Rezet]

I was debating whether or not this should go in the gaming forum, but I figured this was slightly more appropriate.

I currently have a Radeon 9600 Pro in my G5, which is an "okay" graphics card, but I was wanting something with a bit more umph to it. I was considering buying a Radeon 9800 Pro online for $300 and selling my 9600 on ebay for $100+, but here's my dilema:

I know the Radeon 9800 Pro just received a $50 price drop, mainly due to the Radeon X800 Pro coming out at the end of April for the PC... I'm really not sure whether to wait or not, because it's going to be a long time before the X800 Pro probably hits the mac, and it's going to be $500 anyways most likely. I'm not sure if the Radeon 9800 Pro will lower in price more, and I really doubt the Radeon 9800 XT will make it to mac.

So... what do you guys think I should do?

I have a 9800pro retail. I got it for $270 shipped brand new and sealed.
Here is the deal, depends on what you want to play 9800 could be worth it or be a waste. UT2004 ONS mode lags like crap even on 9800pro I can tell you right now. And 9800 often makes it worse. 9800 is built completely different, so lower resolutions don't give much of the fps boost as u may expect. In fact, boost is almost insignifficant. For example on my firs 5200 card i could set settings at 800x600 and it would perform ok in ONS. But with 9800, it seems irrelevant whether it's on the highest everythingor the lowest resolution and details. in DM you notice a huge fps boost. W.O bots it often hits 170 fps on smaller maps. but when it comes to ONS or assault, with 16+ ppls you will get about 18-35 fps.
Don't forget that OPEN GL isnt Direct X PC use. And Open Gl is more CPU dependent.
So it depends on the games you are going to play.
I got my 9800 about 2 weeks ago and pretty satisfied with it, especially considering the price I paid.
But don't forget that Ati 9800Pro SE 256Mbs will come out for mac by june and many resellers already are taking preorders for it for under 400 bucks. Tests show that Se wont give a significant boost to UT2004 for example. Reseults I saw, the difference was about 3-4%.
The main reason for getting SE is that it has ADC out unlike current 9800Pro retail 128 which has only Analog/DVI out. SO if you are using apple display, you will have to buy a DVI>ADC converter, which costs another 100 bucks. I spend $270 card + $90 converter....
Hope this helps.... You can talk to me on ichat/aim if you have any questions: DimitriFSB