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Currently I have an NVIDIA GeForce4 MX420 (64MB RAM). I'm seriously considering upgrading to an ATI Radeon 9600 SE or 9600 Pro (Both have 128MB RAM)...but I'm not sure if I really NEED it...I know that, for example, Star Wars Galaxies and Deus Ex: Invisible War won't run on my PC now because my card has no pixel shader...is this a sign of things to come? Will all new games require a pixel shader? If not, would anyone recommend I upgrade anyway? Otherwise, my computer is pretty good...2.5GHz P4 (533MHz FSB), 1024 MB RAM and plent of HD space.
i'd definately say upgrade the video card, other than that your system sounds good. i got a radeon 9200 and i can barely play Deus EX Invisible War =\ choppyness
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You should get the 9600 Pro, but if you have couple more bucks to spare try getting the 9600 XT or Geforce FX 5700 Ultra.
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Eh, I'm not even sure I can afford the Pro at this point...but thanks for the recommendations. I was under the impression NVIDIA had a lot of issues with DirectX9...a lot of games are using that now, wouldn't the NVIDIA give me problems?
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don't buy ANY "SE" edition product..SE stands for sucky edition, sh*tty edition, etc..NVIDIA has supposedly fixed the problems with DX9, esp. the Ultra line is buggy, so don't count on it
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David, if you're not sure you can afford the 9600 Pro, get the SE version. (It doesn;t stand for sh*tty edition)
and Justin, the Geforce FX 5700 Ultra is not "buggy" I have one myself and it works great. It also has higher performance/clock speed than 9600XT.
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Yes you need it.
I have a Radeon 9000PR0 with 64 meg.
I run a 3200XP at 333bus, and I have little freeze ups when the graphics get SUPER heavy at 1024x768 res, all features enabled on need for speed underground.
I am going to get a new card. Gotta be done.
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I just replaced my Radeon 9600 Pro with Geforce FX 5900 Non Ultra 128mb and the performance increase is awesome, gained an extra 4000 points on 3DMark 2001 SE, and extra 2000 points on 3DMark 2003 and an extra 10,000 points on Aqua Mark benchmark over the Radeon 9600 Pro, this is a beast of a card and I would highly recommend it, don't get a Geforce FX 5600 Ultra 256mb as I had one and the performance is crap even my old Geforce 4 TI 4200 128mb beat that card without a sweat
Nvidia did have massive performance issues with Direct X 9, but they seem to have fixed 95% of their bugs with their latest drivers
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Total Benchmark Scores are
3DMark 2001 SE =13,467 Points
3DMark 2003 = 4,862 Points
Final Fantasy Benchmark at high resolution = 4613
Final Fantasy Benchmark at Low Resolution =5326
Aqua Mark 3 = 39170Athlon XP 2600+ Thoroughbred B @ 2.1GHZ 39C idle, 46c full load, Average 43C
1,024MB ( 1.0GB ) DDR PC3200 ( Dual Channel Enabled )
Leadtek Winfast nforce 2 Ultra 400 Motherboard
Leadtek Winfast Geforce FX 5900 Non Ultra 128mb
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_____________________________________________
My Benchmark Scores
_____________________________________________3dmark 2001 - 12097
3dmark03 - 4082
_____________________________________________System Specs.
_____________________________________________Pentium 4 2.9ghz (0/C'ed)
Asus P4S800 Motherboard
512mb DDR 400 PC3200 RAM
BFG Tech. Geforce FX 5700 Ultra (529/1003)
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You'll definitely want to upgrade. The GeForce4 MX cards are an excellent and inexpensive way to upgrade an older computer like mine (800mhz PIII), but for a 'good' computer like yours, I'd want a much better card. And the 420SE is even on the bottom end of the MX cards...
Happy shopping,
Bob
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The MX4 series are good video cards, but there are other series that is about as expensive as a MX4 card. The FX 5200, for instance, is about $70 and it has support for Dx9. The MX4 is about $60-70 and it is slower than the fx5200, and has no support of Dx9. If you want to get the best bang for your buck, I'd go for the fx.
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MX 4 series good? OMG I had one and it was worth more to sh*t on it than anything. Do you need a 128 mb dx9 compatable card? Need is an understatement.
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