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Video card recommendation....help please.

PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2003 7:40 pm
by bto
First of all, for some members that may remember me, I'm finally back. School is over.....for now.

Anyway, My question of the following Video cards, help me choose one (based on price and performance):

Radeon 9700 PRO
GeForce 4600 (w/ 128MB)
Radeon 9500 with hack to make it 9700 (was it to PRO also?)

Thanks for any help.
It's just a video card to replace my 3-year old GeForce DDR. Vice City forced me to, as I want to purchase it. No Doom 3 or HL2 involved, I will probably save for a better one by then.

PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2003 8:59 pm
by BuddhaTB
Welcome back bto, long time no see.

I'm more of an Nvidia guy myself, so I would recommend the GeForce4 Ti4600, which you could pick up for a good price now. Other than that, the Radeon 9700 Pro is a good card too. Since you've used a GeForce in the past, I'm sure you'll be happy with the G4 Ti4600.

PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2003 9:19 pm
by aviationwiz
I recomend a 9800 Pro. This 256MB Ge Force FX 5600:
http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=112 ... 1&scat=522


looks nice also.

From the 3 you listed, the 9700 Pro would be your best choice.

PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2003 10:32 pm
by bto
Thanks for the responses guys.

Well, I checked out reviews and all, and the 9700 pro comes out in top of the 4600, but it's also 100 bucks more, and I don't want to spend too much, since in probably a year I'll have to upgrade to play Doom 3 and HL2.

Consider it, a half-way-there upgrade. I saw that 4600 is aroun 165 while 9700pro is aroun 265-270. I mentioned the 9500, for its price, and also for its hack, to convert it into a 9700 pro. Anyway heard of that one?.

Anyways, it's good to be back, while not full-time at least back, to CDRLabs.

PostPosted: Thu May 29, 2003 1:24 am
by Bhairav
http://www.hardforum.com/search.php?s=& ... descending

Also check:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php ... +9700+hack

to see whether your 9500 Non Pro can be turned into a Radeon 9700
Good luck!

PostPosted: Thu May 29, 2003 2:06 pm
by alpha_03
:D

Hi all, new to the forum here. Seen this post thought I might be of some help.

I have tested and own all 3 video cards you make mention to plus the fx5600. A lil' info on these-

ti4600- most are 4x agp, none have dirx 9 support, very fast, less "eye candy" price varies from $229.00 to $279.00 w/rebates

fx5600- on par with the ti4600 not quite as fast, has agp 8x and dirx 9 support, 2 versions- 1) has 128 memory, 2) has 256 memory, about same price as 9500pro $179.00 @ best buy

9500pro- about same speed as the ti4600, has agp 8x and dirx 9 support bios flash can make this card perform close to that of a 9700 non pro. it's memory limits this generally less expensive than the ti4600 $199.00 @ best buy

9700pro- very fast most speed of all listed even with eye candy on full blast, best value for the money- does all of the above but much faster. renders beautifuly $299.00 @ best buy

as I personally own all 4 of these cards the one not in use at present is the fx5600 if that is any indicator of how I feel about their perspective diferances.

Hope this helps ya decide, as any of the above are good choices, just depends on what ya really want them to do.

Main PC-
Enermax fs-710 6 case fans, 430 enermax swit/pwr. sup.
Amd athlon 2.5 barton @200mhz
TT vol. 7+ w/ custom moded no. bridge fan
Geil Golden Dragon pc3700 2x512 (best memory ive ever used)
Asus A7N8X Del. rev. 2 uber1004bios (switched back from 1005)
ATI Radeon 9700pro custom ram heat sinks
Maxtor 80gig dia. max9 ultra 8meg
Phillips cdrw 48x24x48
Lite On Cd rom 56x
Lite on DvD 16x (new- yippe! finally)
Creative dt-5200 theatre ac-3, 6-speaker d.d suround
21" viewsonic p-810 monitor
19" envision secondary monitor
win2k pro sp3

3D mark- very fast but who cares

PostPosted: Thu May 29, 2003 4:04 pm
by bto
Thanks for the responses alpha_03 and bhairavp.

Well, any chances of getting a 9500 or Ti4600 seem very slim now. I'll just wait a little bit and buy a 9700Pro.

As for now, I got a borrowed video card, a GeForce2 (don't remember if it's pro ultra or what).

PostPosted: Fri May 30, 2003 8:03 am
by Big_H
I thought that the 9500 non pro hacked to a 9700 pro... maybe I'm wrong.

I'd go with the 9700 pro... of any card, not just the ones you listed. The 9800 and the new FX are faster, but they are so flippin expensive, and they are only slightly faster... not worth it in my opinion. A 9700 Pro will play Doom 3 and HL2, maybe not with everything cranked all the way up, but it will play them.
If you're looking for a 9700 pro cheap.. try ebay, a friend of mine got his from there for about $220 (this was a month ago), or recheck the price at Best Buy, someone posted on Hardforums that they got a 9700 pro at Best Buy for about $220... don't know if that was with rebates or he had an employee discount, but that's what he said.

PostPosted: Fri May 30, 2003 4:02 pm
by alpha_03
no sorry to say the 9500 pro doesnt clock to the same level as the 9700pro. they do share the same gpu core but the memory is totally diferant. as well- to perform this o/cing on the 9500pro a bios flash to the card is required. however, the 9500pro will scale close to the 9700non/pro.

btw if/when you get your ati pro series card go check out rage3d.com for some very good how too's and files.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 3:17 pm
by TidusTheCoolest
I recomend going with ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 3:31 pm
by Alexandrus
If all you want is performance, then Radeon 9700 Pro.
If you want good driver support, then GF4 Ti4600.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 3:38 pm
by bto
Yeah, ATI drivers aren't that good in comparison to Nvidias, from what I've read. But recent comparisons/Reviews I've read show not much difference between the 9700pro and the 9800 (128MB, which in turn is not much slower than the one with 256MB).

I'll wait a little bit, until the 9700pro drops a little bit in price, to buy it.

Thanks for all the help guys. Appreciate it.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2003 7:33 am
by TidusTheCoolest
bto wrote:Yeah, ATI drivers aren't that good in comparison to Nvidias, from what I've read. But recent comparisons/Reviews I've read show not much difference between the 9700pro and the 9800 (128MB, which in turn is not much slower than the one with 256MB).

I'll wait a little bit, until the 9700pro drops a little bit in price, to buy it.

Thanks for all the help guys. Appreciate it.


Yeah ... Buy the 128 MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro . It's cheaper and the perfomance difference isn't that obvious .

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 3:09 am
by hjs
Why not the Radeon 9700 (non-pro)
It's dx9, fast, cheaper and can be clocked to pro values

The 9500 to 9700 trick isn't always succesfull (50%??)

The R9800 isn't that much faster as the R9700, unless you get to the high res part and enable aniso and anti-aliasing, then the 9800 is at it's best !!
And even with a normal Radeon 9700 you must enable this features, there absolute eye-candy !!

And quit about the drivers of nVidia are better, there better in cheating :(
Oh, and get the latest Omegadrivers with youre Radeon 9700, and use the R9800 soft-patch, more info on www.driverheaven.net or www.rage3d.com

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 4:24 am
by Alexandrus
hjs wrote:And quit about the drivers of nVidia are better, there better in cheating :(


Maybe you've never had two cards, one nVIDIA and one ATI to compare driver quality in same games and stuff. Actually, it's quite obvious you didn't do that.
ATi simply sucks at drivers, although they sucka b ti less lately ;)

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 4:32 am
by hjs
Last year a went from a Radeon 32mb DDR to a gf4 ti-4200.
hardly had any ati-driver problems, and now i have hardly any detonators problems.

both are good, and okay maybe nVidia is better.
Can't comment about the latest ati drivers, but as far as i know they only got better and better.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 4:58 am
by jedimc
I've got Vice City on PC, ITS SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD your gonna need a good graphics card for its beautiful graphics. :D :D :D

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 5:05 am
by Alexandrus
hjs wrote:Last year a went from a Radeon 32mb DDR to a gf4 ti-4200.
hardly had any ati-driver problems, and now i have hardly any detonators problems.

both are good, and okay maybe nVidia is better.
Can't comment about the latest ati drivers, but as far as i know they only got better and better.


You should try the new R9500/9700 drivers with certain games, you'd be surprised what problems they have ;)
The older ATi cards had no such problems with drivers, I know.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 6:14 am
by hjs
Alexandrus wrote:You should try the new R9500/9700 drivers with certain games, you'd be surprised what problems they have ;)
The older ATi cards had no such problems with drivers, I know.


Asked a friend who playes a lot of games with his R9700.
And all went very well, no artifacts what so ever. So the Cat 3.0 and newer are all very good he says.
He is now using the latest from Omega, because of the R9800 soft-patch ;)