ATI Radeon 9600 Pro vs nVidia A6200 TDH

[hasso]

Just a quick note regarding my experience with the nVida 6200 card. This card had 128 Megs and I initially bought it because it had HDTV output and was fanless. Well, since I installed it I have been pretty disappointed.

Using any VMR caused tearing during camera pans or sideways motion. The higher the VMR selected, the greater the tearing, with custom rendering having the most. I had to use custom rendering because using VMR7 or 9 would cause the picture sizing issue discussed elsewhere. Overlay worked better but I like the transparent OSD and smoother rendering of VMR. I fiddled quite a bit over a week trying to get non-tearing playback. I think I tried every suggestion in the forum without any success.

So took out the 6200 and replaced it with a Radeon 9600 Pro from Gigabyte. I chose it because it wasn't nVidia, had 256 Megs, and was still fanless. Well, I am now a happy camper. No tearing, smooth playback and great picture.

Your mileage may vary, but if you are having tearing issues and are tired of dealing with the picture resizing issue that nVidia doesn't seem to be fixing, then I'd go for the Gigabyte Radeon 9600 Pro (GV-R96P256D). About NZ$140, probably a lot less elsewhere.

[jonb1974]

I got a Radeon 9550, thats awesome, no tearing of anything. Fanless, and costs less that £20 - which is nothing.

[gEd]

yep, my 9600 pro is working great. I have the 128MB version which I think has faster memory than the 256 tho I doubt that makes too much difference.

stuck a zalman heatsink on it for silence and recently installed the purevideo decoder which seems to work very well indeed.

I tried out my 9800 pro which is far more powerfull card. However I couldn;t notice any difference in the image quality and the card also pumped out loads of heat.

[nitrogen_widget]

9550 here with HDTV dongle.
It has a fan, however the only way you know it's spinning is from the blue glow from it's LED that leaks out of the case vent holes. (I didn't know it had I lighted fan when I bought it.)

[Ted the Penguin]

yeah I will agree with the conclusion that the 9600 is a superior card, at least when it comes to PVR ability, since I installed my 9600 I have been soo happy with my system

[Kyle]

Any of the above people using the SVideo output from their ATI card ? I have read about issues that describe the SVideo output as having "noise" or "rolling lines" on some of the Radeon cards. Can anybody using the SVideo output comment ?

Thanks,

Kyle

[gEd]

yep, I use the s-video out. no noise or rolling lines to report here.

[hasso]

No noise or rolling lines here either... although I don't usually use the SVideo. I stick with the VGA output which goes into the VGA input of my Sony Bravia.

[nitrogen_widget]

I had noise & rolling lines on my display initially on s-video before I moved to component but I found using a sheilded cable & a newer power supply made it go away.

[gEd]

Good point, I had forgotten about the cable. The cheapo ones look it. I bought an IXOS s-video to scart cable that cost about £30 and it greatly improved the image.