Just a couple of questions in regard to a planned upgrade. Currently I have a POS GF2MX400 and am in search of a card for about 100-150 Aussie Dollars. I've done a bit of research and have found a few cards drawn to my attention the likes being Radeon 9550, Radeon 9550 Extreme and a few from the 9600 series. I'm steering clear of nVidia for that end of the market as they seem to get blasted by ATI.
My current frame of mind is : Get the 9550 for <$100 as it will be 100% better than my current card and have no regrets, spend the rest of the money on something else.
But looking at some reviews the 9550 Extreme seems to be pretty sweet aswell. it has a clockspeed of 400/500 up from the 9550 clock speed of 250/400. It has got a few FPS on the stock 9600 in some benches.
But it costs an extra $50. Are the internals the same on these cards, would I be able to get the same figures from a stock 9550 with an aftermarket cooler?
Haven't read much about the 9550, but looking at the specs on the card, it's clearly worse than a 9600, but doesn't cost much less. I can't say anything about the 9550 Extreme, though. In any case, they all support Direct X 9.0 adn have similar speeds, so I don't think you'll be too dissapointed with whatever you choose.
On the other hand, it would be worth it to get some more money for something from the Radeon 9700/9800 series. The 9800 Pro is probably the best bang-for-buck card in there, but any of them will be much better than a 9600 or 9550 because they are all 256-bit. The 9600 is basically the top of the low-end range of cards, so "upgrading" to one isn't really much of an upgrade.
Most of those R9550's that are less than $100aus will likely only have 64-bit memory access so stay clear of them and get one that has a full 128-bit memory access.
Sorry but I can't really help you on that subject.
Yawgm0th believe my I would absolutely love to go out and buy a 9800 Pro but I simply can't/won't. I don't have the cash, and even If I did I'd prefer to spend it elsewhere.
One more question, how well do nonpro 9600 overclock?
If I remember correctly, my Sapphire 9600 non-pro got somewhere around 400/560 in an OEM desktop with no case fans... But again, I might not remember that right.
But I wouldn't get too worked up over it. All the overclocking in the world isn't going to make a 9600 play any modern game well. It's okay if you're still into some of the older Quake-3 based games, I guess.
It appears to be the same as this, which is 128-bit.