buying graphics card - help please

[§äñît¥ Pôí§ðñ]

i can get an ATI radeon 9600 Pro for $179 right now, with likely more discount on top of that
is that a good price? it's an open box deal plus i know sonmeone that works there to get a discount, i'd rather not buy on the internet seeing that if it didn't work for some reason It's a pain in the ass to retun stuff

is this a good card - and price?
I play games and whatnot, so you could say I am demanding and my gefore2 32m is not cutting it any more

 

[Stangfriik]

Yea it's a good card and price. newegg.com has it for $1 less which is good. You'll notice a big difference coming from the 32mb card. I jumped from an ATI 32mb to an ATI 9500 and the amount a detail I can now see in UT2003 is amazing.

 

[§äñît¥ Pôí§ðñ]

ok well.... I will buy it today if I get enough input...
thank you

anyone else?
I'm getting antsy. money is burning a hole in my pocketses

 

[Stangfriik]

oh yea. I can't remember how computer savy you are so apologies if you already know this. Once you get the card, download the catalyst 3.4, 3.5 or 3.6 drivers. These have helped the Radeons reach their maximum potential.

 

[§äñît¥ Pôí§ðñ]

I've never had a Radeon so I did not know that.. What exactly is that and what does it do, if you don't mind elaborating?

 

[Stangfriik]

I've never had a Radeon so I did not know that.. What exactly is that and what does it do, if you don't mind elaborating?

Not sure what you're asking so I'll answer both hopefully
Radeon is a card generally made for gamers or people who like graphic intensive applications. A step up would be the ATI All in wonder cards which are for complex video editing, watching tv, etc. The catalyst drivers are made by ATI do you can find them on ATI's website. Omega also makes drivers for ATI which are tuned more for gamers but I haven't been able to get them to work correctly

 

[§äñît¥ Pôí§ðñ]

ok thanks I was asking about the catalyst was since I had never heard about it