Need Some Tech Info On Graphics Cards

[Gunslanger]

OK, so i had a 64 Mb GeForce 4. I decided to finally upgrade. I went and got a Radeon 9200. But, now I'm gonna take that badboy back and get a Radeon 9600SE(128 RAM). But, they also had a 9600XT(128 RAM). what is the difference between the two? furthermore, would it be better to get the xt-it costs more lol so i take it probably. I also saw a 9000 Pro "all in wonder".
someone was telling me NVIDA cards are better in general, but they are not sold anywhere close to me. should i go ahead and get a NVDIA online? talk to me techies :D
also, i'm lookin to upgrade my RAM. My system came with 512 DDR SDRAM. I was gonna buy some ram, but i saw all these different sticks of DDR saying stuff like PC1300 DDRAM and all that type crap-i fear buying the wrong ram stick. i know not the got the little ones for laptops-i know what ram looks like and have instialled it in the past, but, just don't want to buy the wrong stick. thanks for your help.

[ZionsFire]

Definately get ATI 9600XT very good card for it's price. On the RAM thing just check your motherboard and see what speed it uses. Mine only uses PC2100....need an upgrade myself...

[Daleon]

Video - May want to look into some kind of 9800 Pro/128 from newegg or pricewatch. These are dropping through the floor and are the best deal for performance around $160-200 range. If you need cheaper, then a 9600XT is best choice. It would show a noticeable difference in performance from a 9600SE.

Ram - See how many total and free memory slots you have. You may have 1x512 or 2x256 currently. As long as your system is not a name brand, Dell / Compaq / Gateway, then you can use most brands of DDR if thats what you are using. The speed is is backwards compatible so you could buy PC4200. It'll run at a speed to match your slowest ram.

[Rbstr]

SE stands for shity edition, it's a cut down version of the regular 9600 with half the memory bandwidth, it aims for the peopl that can't get a reg 9600/pro/xt but want tthe bum in number.

[MattxMosh]

Dont waste your money on a 9600, they are ATIs bastard generation.

Take Daleons advise, and go with a 9800pro, If you search hard enough you can find one sub $150, but they are usually within $175.

Rams a bit different, if your motherboard only supports up to a certain speed, you don't have to buy higher speed ram, but, if you do, you could reuse it one a better PC in the future. To play it safe pc3200 is a quality choice, brands like kingmax, crucial, kingston, mushkin and other have high quality ram, even thier "value" brands perform very well.

[Gunslanger]

thanks people for the great advice. i think i'll look into the 9800 pro online-you guys said pricewatch? i'll check there. now, i hear that NVIDA was a better choice of graphics card for SoE based games because SoE supports NVIDA more and NVDIA has better support. but, i also heard nvida was a lower quality grapichs card compared to radeon. something about radeon's processor being faster..any comments on this? because i still got my EQ account (haven't played in months, but will start back one day) and i just recently started back playing SWG just for the hell of it :rolleyes:

great news on the RAM. i was worried if i got the wrong kind, it would screw up my computer. great, i'll try to get some fast stuff that i could use in the future. i think my computer has an extra ram slot (duh, i should have checked while i was installing the graphic card!). but, it is a HP, so it is name brand. hope that doesn't affect anything. thanks again for the help guys (and gals :D )

[Daleon]

I don't know if I would say NV was better at SoE games than ATI. I'd prolly put ATI ahead as they are all DX games, where ATI is clearly ahead of NV most of the time. Really though, the high ends of either work fine.

Ram for an HP, hmm. I'd say any quality brand name should work out, just make sure you can return with no problems wherever you buy it from.

[Electrofreak]

SE cards suck. 9600s are good if you don't have money, but the 9800 PRO is probably the best bang for your buck right now.

Edit- and that "runs best on Intel/Nvidia" stuff is all junk, totally advertising. If AMD and ATI had offered SOE more money it would say "runs best on AMD/ATI". The Devs wrote PlanetSide to run well on ALL cards, not any better on one brand name. If they did, they would be cutting out some of their potential profits. Believe me, PS runs just about as well on either.