saphire vs abit

[silverpearl]

Hi all!

I need some advice on what to pick. Below are the two cards that meet by budget.

Abit Radeon 9600XT VIVO, 256M DDR
ATI-Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600XT, 256M DDR

I tried to read reviews but didnt find any ones that compare both together. Is any expert here knows which is better? And also, im not quite sure with the performance capabilities of 9600XT... is it overclocked? can it b overclocked? i gotta athlon xp 1.6 cpu... i hope this card is not too much for the cpu? pls help!
i use geforce 2 now and really intrested in swapping over to ATI. i've been a nvidia fan for long... i dont know whether this change is worth it.

any help is very much appreciated. TIA

[ECA]

This is a VERy hard question.
First, can your motherboard do 4xAGP?

[Ioman]

ECA, you mean 8X AGP.

I would go the Sapphire route, they seem to be doing well as a video card manufacturer including making cards that can be overclocked. I don't think Abit has quite the focus on video cards as they would like.

[silverpearl]

hey thanks for the replies. my mb supports only 4X. i dont have 8X capabilities.. that rules out lots of new nvdia brands.
I was thinkin of sapphire aswell. what about 9800PRO
i see that they have better clock speeds and more pipelines than 9600XT

[ECA]

on a 1.6ghz system....I only expect 4xAGP...

[meow]

what about my system:
HP 753n
2.53 Ghz Pentium 4
512mb PC-2100 RAM
80GB ULTRA DMA HARD DRIVE
Radeon 9600 SE 128mb
INTEL 845G MOBO

I want to upgrade to Radeon 9800 pro and will my comp support AGP8x? Whatever that is...also how do you find out what your power supply is. I heard radeon 9800 pro had a PS requirment.

[ECA]

what about my system:
HP 753n
2.53 Ghz Pentium 4
512mb PC-2100 RAM
80GB ULTRA DMA HARD DRIVE
Radeon 9600 SE 128mb
INTEL 845G MOBO

I want to upgrade to Radeon 9800 pro and will my comp support AGP8x? Whatever that is...also how do you find out what your power supply is. I heard radeon 9800 pro had a PS requirment.

The chipset...INTEL 845G, says it will do 8xAGP...thats the speed of the video..

and yes the video card will need extra power from the PS...should come with cable IF NEEDED.

OPEN case, look at SIDE of PS, should be on top. Add up the WATTS, thats the power...
from 2GHZ up, I suggest at LEAST a 400watt PS... HIGHER if you want expanction, more HD, SCSI, more internal hardware...

[meow]

i dont have anything else installed so my comp doesnt eat up too much power...is there any way to find out without opening my comp? Also, my MOBO is it good? And it will support all the features of the 98' pro? Will this card last long? Thanks

[ECA]

WELL,
for the video, cant say... THINGS change to quick lately...
the system should be good for at least 2-3 more years...
That config is 2 years old..