ATI 9800 Pro or nVidia FX ????

[Guest]

I heard the nVidia FX with full antiliasining is MUCH slower than ATI 9700 pro!.. ATI 9800 pro is due for release and is DDR 256 bit, while fx is DDR2 128 bit. I also heard that another verison of ATI 9800 Pro with 256 bit, 256mb of DDR2 will be comming out in april..So it seems the nVidia FX bottle necks with the 128 bit bus vs. the 256 bit bus ATI has, even though fx has DDR2 and much higher clock speed is is no help since it severly bottle necks, thus, ATI 9700 pro is much faster!!!!!please help!!! me make up my mind!!! I'm tempted to wait for the ATI 9800 pro 256mb DDR2 in april.I'm mainly getting this upgrade for FS 2004 and LOCK-ON MAC!!!!! which are not due out until this summer.Also, my mother board is only 4x AGP, Do I need to upgrade to a 8x AGP? I have heard reports that 4x AGP is actualy faster than 8x. However all the newer video cards are all 8x AGP. It is alot of work to put a new mother board in and I will probably get an ASUS 8X AGP $150.

[Guest]

I don't think I know enough yet about the newer cards to have a feel for what's likely to "work best". But I do have a suggestion regardless of which card you choose. Don't bother changing the motherboard just yet. There is a significant amount of data which suggests that 8X may be no better than the 4X we have now (at least not as far as the eye can see). All the video cards are backwards-compatible and will drop right into your existing motherboard. The worst thing that can happen is that everyone is wrong and 8X is a super thing to have - if so, then just change the mobo and you're still no worse off than doing it in the first place. Somehow, though, I think the 4X board will be just fine.Trip

[Guest]

Thank you TRIP.. you just saved me $150 and a hell of a lot of work!!! Any input on the nvidia vs. ati cards would still be greatly appreciated from the other forum members.