Another Graphics card question!

[Jon_in_london]

Which is better, An ATI 9600XT or a GEFORCE 6600?

The graphics card is now the tie-breaker in deciding which of two identically priced computers to get.

Oh yes, and another one;

Will a 350W power supply be enough for this lot?

CPU:
AMD SEMPRON 64BIT 3000 + 1600MHz
Memory:
1024 MB DDR400 PC3200
Motherboard:
FOXCONN 760GX WITH SIS760GX CHIPSET


Hard Drive:
SATA 160 GB HARD DISK @ 7200rpm 8mb cache

DVD ROM/Combi Drive:
52 X 32 X 52 CD WRITER + 16X DVD ROM


Graphics Card:
256MB GEFORCE 6600 8X AGP + DVI + TV-OUT

Sound Card:
ONBOARD

[Vitnir]

All questions like that is answered at www.tomshardware.com
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/
Looks like Geforce is the winner at a glance.
Edit: After looking more at the test I'd say it depends on what game your playing, overall the Geforce and Radeon seems tied.

Power requirements are difficult to say, some PSU makers inflate the figures. A big brand PSU rated at 350W should be ok.

[Jon_in_london]

Thanks for that Vitnir!

One last thing- Will I be able to hook up my dinosaur CRT screen to a card like the 6600?

[Vitnir]

If the gfx-card only has digital out (DVI) there should be an adapter with the card for analog monitors but it might be worth checking out beforehand. If it was a boxed version of a gfx-card I would say it's 100% its shipped with an adapter but I dont know if you are buying a bulk version where you only get the card itself with no cables or CD's. If it's a prebuilt system it could be either or.

[Smike]

One last thing- Will I be able to hook up my dinosaur CRT screen to a card like the 6600?

Yes.

[Jon_in_london]

Ha! ordered! No karaoke for me! :D

I'm so going to be sleeping on the couch!!

[Vitnir]

Do what I did, get her obsessed with computer games as well and you must get two computers.

[Underemployed]

You got a female lady of the opposite sex obsessed with games? Are you sure she's a girl? Check her Adam's Apple.

PS Jon you should have spent the extra few quid to make it a 6600GT, much better for games and far superior to the 9600XT.

[Jon_in_london]

PS Jon you should have spent the extra few quid to make it a 6600GT, much better for games and far superior to the 9600XT.

Yes I know - unfortunately the 6600GT wasnt offered with the base system I was customizing. Plus, lowly civil servant that I am, I was stretching the budget just to get the 6600!

(any donations for Jon's-next-graphics-card fund are welcome)

[ernon]

Yes I know - unfortunately the 6600GT wasnt offered with the base system I was customizing. Plus, lowly civil servant that I am, I was stretching the budget just to get the 6600!

(any donations for Jon's-next-graphics-card fund are welcome)


Then you definately don't want to look at the nVidia based 7800GTX. All I can say is Yikes!

[a_unique_person]

The Nvidia supports the full DX 9.0C, ATI doesn't apparently.

[Vitnir]

The 6600 model seems like a fair purchase for the best price/performance deal and should thus last about 2 years, the 6600 GT version isnt more than 5-10% more expensive but if it's over budget then it is over budget.
There is a universe of details when it comes to gfx-cards and when I got the 6800 LE version, the only actual difference between the LE and the GT version was that a number of pipelines had been locked. You could hack it and see if you had actually bought a GT version for a 50% discount but I never bothered since my games ran smoothly anyway.
Something similar may be available for your 6600 version.