The good thing about NVIDIA right now is at least their branding is not overly confusing.  Product lines are a lot like menus at a restaurant.  Too many choices can be a bad thing.  If you’re a gamer and insist on NVIDIA, right now you only have four choices (ATI has about 10).  NVIDIA’s new GeForce FX 5700 and 5950 cards will increase the product line, but we naturally do not know and cannot say when to expect those creatures.

At least the good news is that the GeForceFX 5900 and 5600 prices are coming down considerably.  The 5900 non-Ultra cards are priced very aggressively with the Radeon 9800 Pro series, but at least in our benchmarks the 9800 Pro still pulls ahead.   

We would like to see the 5600 Ultra come down in price to be a little more aggressive with the Radeon 9600 Pro series, but we should expect that with the advent of the two new GeForceFX cards from NVIDIA.  Unfortunately, the Radeon 9600 Pro’s are priced even cheaper than the GeForceFX 5600s, which really puts NVIDIA at a price disadvantage.

Midrange ATI GPUs and Prices Final Thoughts
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  • Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    "9600 XT will be shipping with the single player version of Half Life 2"

    I take it the 9600XT is not coming out for a loooong time then?
  • Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    Newegg seems to have the 9800np in stock, and several buyers say they've flashed successfully to pro. Can anyone confirm doing this and point to a site with instructions? Thanks. :-)
  • scavio - Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - link

    Another...

    http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112727,0...

  • scavio - Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - link

    Seems others disagree and say it will be multiplayer...

    http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?se...

  • Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - link

    here are the requested links from tomshardware that the version of half-life 2 that comes bundled with the 9800xt/9600xt might be only the single player game >>http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030930/rade...


    http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030930/rade...
  • Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - link

    am i mad to buy a 9800 xt i am asking because i can still cancel order and buy a 9800pro instead
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - link

    Is there a recommendation for a "TV" card too, like an A-I-W? Christmas is coming up, so recommendations would be helpful (jingle-bells, jingle-bells, here's my Amazon.com wish list ...)

    I thought it a reasonably even-handed review, with only the HL2 price to consider. Maybe you could add a column estimating value of included s/ware?

    Oh, and #5 is just a sour-puss.
  • Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - link

    #15, can you confirm that the version of HL2 bundled with the XT's will only be single player? If so, give us a link to that page...
  • Pete - Monday, October 20, 2003 - link

    Ah yes, and I see #13 already mentioned that. Cheers if you edit the article to include that quite salient fact. :)
  • Pete - Monday, October 20, 2003 - link

    Kris, you really should mention that the $50 premium a 9600XT commands over a 9600 Pro includes a copy of HL2, and that the XT's 25% faster core will likely translate into 25% faster performance, as HL2 in DX9 mode seems to be shader-bound.

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