9600 GSOs

[Joel~]

So, are these things any good? I keep hearing people talking about how they're great for the price and was wondering if it would be worth putting one in my next machine. It's going to be a lower-powered computer than my main rig (which consumes way too much power and kicks out too much heat as it is) and doesn't need to be super high-spec, so would a card of this level be adequate for playing the odd game (nothing spectacular, just Call of Duty, Wizardry 8, Morrowind etc.) and using Blender frequently?

I've been so out of the loop when it comes to GPUs that I have no real idea what's on offer at the moment. Last time I really looked in to it was when I bought my HD 4870, and even then I didn't look too hard.

Any opinions on this card are appreciated. For reference, the one I was looking at is the XFX one with 1.5GB RAM.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/15GB-XFX-9600GSO-580MHZ

Cheers.

 

[jikifreak]

9600GSO's are decent for everyday stuff, and the games you mentioned should work just fine, as does Blender.

Whats the rest of the build look like if you dont mind?

 

[Joel~]

Sweet, thanks

Haven't fully decided yet, but I imagine it'd be one of the new AM3 Athlon IIs (unless the extra £15 or so for a Phenom II X2 550 would really be worth spending), 2GB RAM and a decent motherboard. I'll be heading in to newer technologies (AM3, DDR3 etc.) but not going over the top. It still needs to be reasonable in terms of its heat output and power consumption, for which this computer is just terrible for.

 

[Neodude1123201]

The New Phenoms are worth it,trust me

 

[jikifreak]

Those Phenom X2 550's are very nice and they dont get super hot

 

[Joel~]

Would there be that much of a performance difference between the 550 and the Athlon II 250?

To be fair, any CPU has got to be cooler than my 9950, which is also rated at something silly like 140W TDP :/

As long as it is reasonable with heat and power-consumption, either the Athlon II or Phenom II would be fine. I don't need more than two cores, so there would be no point in my spending money on anything more than either of those

Edit: There are some Phenom II X2 545s listed on eBay and would be the same price as an Athlon II 250. Anybody heard of those? I haven't found them available as retail CPUs :S

 

[wol-va-rine]

too bad you can't order from Newegg, they have an ASUS 9600GSO for $35 after a $20 MIR, a great deal for a good card, it'll play most games decently...

 

[Joel~]

too bad you can't order from Newegg, they have an ASUS 9600GSO for $35 after a $20 MIR, a great deal for a good card, it'll play most games decently...

Why would you tell me this knowing I can't have it?

I think the deal from Scan is pretty good. I'm not going to be playing any modern games with this, seeing as the vast majority of my collection is at least three years old.

 

[worshipme]

Go with a 9600GT instead of a 9600GSO. You can get one for the same price and it's a better card. Or an HD 4830 of you can, it shouldn;t be much more.

 

[Joel~]

Go with a 9600GT instead of a 9600GSO. You can get one for the same price and it's a better card. Or an HD 4830 of you can, it shouldn;t be much more.

Really?

I'm trying to avoid ATI cards at present since the open source drivers are somewhat pants >.<