Hello,I'm thinking about replacing my GF3Ti200 with a new video card (for use with FS9). What I am looking at in the moment are the Radeon 9600 pro cards - they are getting cheaper and cheaper and seem to offer a good performance (I know the 9700 pro is the better one - but they are just too expensive). What I am confused about are the different types of 9600pro cards. Available at our local dealers are:- a Sapphire 9600pro 128MB for 163 Euro- a Powercolor 9600pro 128 MB for 138 Euro- a Powercolor 9600pro 256 MB for 154 EuroNow ... - does the Sapphire offer anything worth the extra money (besides Tomb Raider 3 which I don't care about)?Is there any use for the 256MB version vs. the 128MB Powercolor? Thanks for any comments, Thomas

Thomas,The only thing the sapphire offers is TR3. To answer your other question. If running FS at high resolutions is your thing. If planning to play either HL2 or DoomIII when released is in your future than by all means purchase the 256 meg card. At high resolutions FS will use all 128 megs of available VC memory.My personal choice would be an OEM ATI 9600Pro 256 meg VC. A VERY nice piece of hardware that will serve you well.Bobby

Thanks for the reply. I think I will go for the 256 OEM.I know there were reports about problems with the ATIs and FS9. Is it correct that the latest Catalyst drivers did solve these problems? Thomas

Actually the issues were corrected with the "Leaked" dell drivers from about 3 weeks ago. These can be found at WWW.Omegacorner.Com . From what I understand the latest set of Cat drivers (3.9) corrected the issues as well. I prefer the Omega's but it's a personal choice.Good luck with it.Bobby

Hello,I just found out that the Powercolor cards are striped down versions with a memory clock speed of 200MHz (sometimes advertised as 400MHz due to the DDR memory). The "normal" 9600 pro has 300MHz/600MHz, the non-pro 200/400 with a slightly lower core clock. So the Powercolors are somewhere between the non-pro and the pro-version - probably nearer to the non-pro. Aktually it is not that easy to find these numbers and I am not totally sure that these are true. But in the end I think this is correct. Thomas

Hi ThomasGo for Radeon 9600 Pro 256mb Powercolor. I have this card and it has a great quality and performance. The only problem it has is that the memory bus is a little bit lower than its actual bus but this doesn't have a bad effect on card at all. I am really satisfied with this card especially with cat 3.9.so I recommend this one.Touradg

Sorry ...but i have to differ on that opinion .. Bulit by ATI (OEM) is your safest/fastest bet.. After that ..Asus and Gulliemot/Hercules built ati cards.. Sapphire and powercolor are not as fast as the reference Oem card. If you notice in most cases the prices are cheaper for them.

Look for the cards that use Samsung memory. I have a 128mb 9800 Pro on my second computer (Ati 'stock' brand on a 3.04 P4 with 512mb DDR) and it has the Samsung modules. They tend to overclock better than other ram. I must point out that the performance of the 9800pro in FS with the Omega drivers is a little disappointing in my opinion. However, that may be due to the fact of 512mb of system memory in my second rig. Mike P4 2.4C @3.44 285FSBAsus P4C800 Deluxe1gb Corsair XMS PC3500 Asus V9950 FX5900 Ultra 256mb 500/950SB Audigy2 Platinum ExWatercooled baby!!!Pics: http://community.webshots.com/user/chksix2002