Graphics card advice pls

[lostplanet]

friend wants to build himself a pc.
we are going for a XP3200+400 ABit NF7 S2G, he does not want to overclock.
1 GB Geil dual channel PC3200 450w PSU and other quality components.

the prob is graphics card.

I am currently waiting for the sapphire 9800 Pro 256 to come down in price.
i have a sapphire 256MB 9550 at the moment and it plays all my games fine
Raven shield, typhoon rising, battlefront, splinter cell

whats the best card to go for out of
sapphire 9550 128MB 128 bit
sapphire 9550 256MB 128 bit
sapphire 9600 128MB ???
sapphire 9600 pro advantage 128MB
sapphire 9600 XT 128 or 256

to be going on with and buy a 9800??? when the price is affordable hopefully in a couple of months?

also which 9800 is the best of the range in terms of value to performance ratio?
i know the 9800 XT is ridiculously over priced and difficult to find
so i am looking at the 9800 Atlantis pro 256MB DDR2.
noise is not an issue so im not to bothered about ultimates.

many thanks
(not starting a war)

[pam123]

Your friend's best bet would be to get the cheapest 4X 1.5 volt card he can and then wait and see if ATI gets it's promised X800 AGP card out in large enough quantities to make it buyable.
If he doesn't want to deal with that then he should start saving for an NVidia 6600GT which is around $200 (USD, don't know what that would be in pounds).
The cards you listed are good but the 6600GT is out now and the way better card. Since the cards you listed are 40% - 60% of it's price it wouldn't be a good deal.
I'm a little worried about the rest of the system you've outlined but then I don't really know what the prices are in the UK .
Just make sure your friend knows how limited his upgrade path is going to be.

[allburnintegrated]

Yeah, definitely go with the 6600GT if you can afford it. It's about $NZ350 here so it should be about 120 pounds in the UK. I saw an article about the 6600GT in a computer magazine and they found that the performance of the 6600GT was about 4 times that of a X600XT and just under that of a X800 Pro. The 6600GT is a really good bang for buck card.

[Darth Revan]

Like pam said the 6600 would work as well as the 9800 Pro. It does have better benchmarks than the 9800 Pro but benchmarks don't play games. You do. If you want to go for cheaper price Nvidia is the way to go. There really isn't a noticable difference between the 2 cards. But I believe they have the Sapphire 9800 Pro for 200 USD. Here (http://pcmech.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php?page_id=5&sortby=popular-&vendors%5B%5D=SAP&popup1%5B%5D=0&popup1_attr_id%5B%5D=387&popup2%5B%5D=0&popup2_attr_id%5B%5D=596&popup3%5B%5D=0&popup3_attr_id%5B%5D=371&popup4%5B%5D=0&popup4_attr_id%5B%5D=344&popup5%5B%5D=0&popup5_attr_id%5B%5D=54&popup6%5B%5D=0&lo_p=0&hi_p=0&form_keyword=9800+pro&Update+Results=Update+Results&sortby=) are some versions of the 9800 by sapphire if you want to look. Oh yeah, if you go ATI get the 128mb version it's as good as the 256mb and it is cheaper.

[kram 2.0]

Like pam said the 6600 would work as well as the 9800 Pro. It does have better benchmarks than the 9800 Pro but benchmarks don't play games. You do. If you want to go for cheaper price Nvidia is the way to go. There really isn't a noticable difference between the 2 cards. But I believe they have the Sapphire 9800 Pro for 200 USD. Here (http://pcmech.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php?page_id=5&sortby=popular-&vendors%5B%5D=SAP&popup1%5B%5D=0&popup1_attr_id%5B%5D=387&popup2%5B%5D=0&popup2_attr_id%5B%5D=596&popup3%5B%5D=0&popup3_attr_id%5B%5D=371&popup4%5B%5D=0&popup4_attr_id%5B%5D=344&popup5%5B%5D=0&popup5_attr_id%5B%5D=54&popup6%5B%5D=0&lo_p=0&hi_p=0&form_keyword=9800+pro&Update+Results=Update+Results&sortby=) are some versions of the 9800 by sapphire if you want to look. Oh yeah, if you go ATI get the 128mb version it's as good as the 256mb and it is cheaper.
When picking out a Radeon 9800 Pro, be absolutely certain that it is a 256-bit buswidth - otherwise, its performance is nowhere in par of a 200 USD card.

kram

[Darth Revan]

Oh sorry I was wrong. :o

[lostplanet]

thanks kram the one im lookin at is part number 21016-01-41
and is for sale here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000C0SPL/ref=pd_sim_ce_dp_2/202-1378210-3759845
but cant seem to find anything that guarantees 256 bit
any ideas please?

[kram 2.0]

I cannot tell - looking up the codes for the 9800 Pros is a bit hard when they use the European version, which google turns up all in a foreign language I'm unfamiliar with ;). I'd say get the one by Connect3D if you want to be aboslutely certain it's a 256-bit card.

kram

[fedz]

I'd really say the 6600GT AGP is the best available card in that price range. Make sure that it's the AGP card though.
You can find them at www.dabs.com, www.scan.co.uk and others. Amazon is overpriced, don't bother. That 6600GT AGP should cost you £130-£150, and will perform much better than the RX9800pro.

:) fedz