9600GT enough for 17" (1280x1024) ???
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Definitely increase your budget if you can, HD 4850 or 9800GTX+ should be your target.
Well that depends on the games you are playing and at what setting.
damngoodman999
damnbadman666
dont worry 9600GT is ok , but all medium settings , go for HD 4850 gaming @ high settings
Ethan_Hunt
Aspiring Novelist
Having owned a ATI card for quite sometime now, I would strongly suggest getting a good Nvidia card. 9600GT should be more than enough for playing at 1280x1024 resolution. But make sure he has a good PSU to back it up as well.
furious_gamer
Excessive happiness
Well i thought that you are happy with that card, but when analyze by the statement you written, you are completely disappointed with it.Am i right? Whats wrong with that card?
Anyhow, 9600GT is a best bet for playing games at the resolution mentioned by the OP.
Ethan_Hunt
Aspiring Novelist
I'm not satisfied with the driver support to be honest. It's extremely buggy. It keeps having conflicts with some or the other games. You can check with people who have previously used Nvidia cards & have now used ATI & ended up having issues with ATI cards, which they never had of Nvidia cards. I don't doubt it's better in terms of IQ as opposed to Nvidia, but the stability with games is better with Nvidia drivers. My friend (who has a HD4870) & myself got it around the same time & often end up having discussions of some or the other issues. He was planning on switching to a GTX260. I, on the other hand, am not going to switch anytime soon. Will buy a console, may be, but not switch my graphic card. Provided an opportunity now, I would gladly shift to Nvidia.
furious_gamer
Excessive happiness
Oops, i have to revise my idea of buying a HD4850 
hell_storm2006
Ambassador of Buzz
HD 4850 rocks!!! Great Card!!!! I have no problems with it!! No heating issues. Little power consumption!!! Best value for money card ever released i guess!!!
OP
di9it
thinking di9it'al
Aren't u facing any driver problem with this card, i mean the most of the posters say that ATI cards have driver bugs..?
comp@ddict
EXIT: DATA Junkyard
Dude, 9600GT is a winner, and at 1280x1024 resolution, it will sail through every game at full settings and 4xAA, you might have to occasionally reduce to medium-high settings or 2xAA or maybe 0xAA(never I think), but it's excellent overall.
hell_storm2006
Ambassador of Buzz
Absolutely Not!!!
I get frequent updates! Although Catalyst 8.11 was a problem, notjing major to say ATI makes pathetic drivers. 8.9, 8.10, 9.1.... no problems!!! Catalyst 9.1. I have had such problems with my old AGP card from nVidia! So go for ATI 4850 and enjoy gaming!
comp@ddict
EXIT: DATA Junkyard
^^9.1 is a loser , get 8.12 with the hotfix or 9.2 modded.
Plasma_Snake
Indidiot
9.3 is also out and I too faced driver related issues with my HD4850 and not to forget the cooling issues for which I had to invest another 2.5K to retro fit it with better cooling solution.
What other features that might be?
I haven't had any issues with my card, though I only install only no CCC and ****.
Ethan_Hunt
Aspiring Novelist
^Only one I guess, PhysX. 
physix and cuda really..............n der driver support is far ahead of ati's catalyst ........even though the implementation of both cuda n physics is very less in real world but they are there................. in future, software developers wl use cuda n physix to develop games n softwares whereas havok enjine of ati is nowhere to be seen...........and dnt forget nvidia's hybrid power n hybrid boost are some features which are very useful to conserve energy.........but in ati only one of them is present.......so overall nvidia is better dan ati.............
correct me if m wrong..........
correct me if m wrong..........
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