9600 XT 128M or plain 9800 128M?

[rarcher]

I'm getting ready to buy a video card in the $150 range, and I thought I had it narrowed down to the 9600XT, but I saw that the plain 9800 128M can be had for about $15 cheaper. From ATI's site, it looks like the 9800 is the better card. Am I looking at this right?

[rarcher]

It was a 9800 SE that was $15 cheaper. I couldn't find any specs for it on ati's site though. Is this still as good or better than the 9600 XT?

Man I'm confused!

[Bigshot]

I guess I'd avoid anything that's followed by the letters "SE". It indicates a scaled down version of the real thing. The 9800SE has 128bit memory and 4 pipelines just like the 9600XT only the 9600XT is clocked much faster and IMHO probably faster. If those two were my only choice, I'd buy the 9600XT.

However, if you have a local Bestbuy in your area, I heard they were running a sale on a 9800NP (non-pro) for $229 with an instant $100 rebate today. Kinda late now; but there's deals around.

The 9800NP is a 256bit card with 8 pipelines and is about equal to the 9700Pro so check out the pricing on that card. They're generally cheaper than the 9700Pro cards and you get about the same performance. That's what I got for the wife's computer. When I ordered her Dell, the 9800NP was an extra $120 over the GF4MX card that was standard. Wasn't even a question as to which to get even though she does no gaming; but does digital photography and streaming video. She's happy with the awesome 2d quality and speed that card delivers bigtime.