Author Topic: ATI Radeon 9700 (Read 1134 times)

Skuzzy · « **Reply #15 on:** July 23, 2002, 05:55:56 PM »

minus, the ATI9700 is not out in volumn yet. Expect it to be shipped in quantities in the next 2 to 3 weeks.

I expect there will be 2 versions of the R300 ATI boards. The 9700 and 9700 Pro, with the Pro beinig clocked higher. It would be a smart move on ATI's part, as very few systems can actually push the R300 to its limits and it would give a good price break to the 9700 family while keeping all the features.
Heck, at this point they could drop the core speed by 30% and still be on par with the NVidia Ti4600.

I would not mind that level of performance for say,...under $300 U.S.

Pongo · « **Reply #16 on:** July 23, 2002, 06:32:39 PM »

As long as they dont call it the ATI 9700 and the ATI 9700 oem...

wolf37 · « **Reply #17 on:** July 23, 2002, 06:37:57 PM »

waaaaaaaaaaaaa

I,m buying new comp in a week or so, no way to afford new vid card, so tell me, is the voodoo 5 still any good or am I still i the dark age's.

lord dolf vader · « **Reply #18 on:** July 23, 2002, 08:49:17 PM »

you can get a motherboard with onboard gforce 2 grafics that are dang nice for like 80 bucks on pricewatch. I used one on a comp i built for step mamma. it got 50 fps sitting on runway offline at 1000 x 1200 on ah ,just amazed me that it could be that good and onboard. it also has onboard sound and agp for future better cards. was the easyest install I ever had.

asus a7n266-vm

streakeagle · « **Reply #19 on:** July 28, 2002, 11:50:06 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by wolf37
waaaaaaaaaaaaa

I,m buying new comp in a week or so, no way to afford new vid card, so tell me, is the voodoo 5 still any good or am I still i the dark age's.

My Voodoo 5 is still running strong, what concerns me more is that this new ATI card does not support Windows 98 SE.

I have worked with all versions of windows, and still prefer SE. My Saitek X-36 only works 100% with SE. I suspect sometime after December I will be forced to build a new computer from the ground up to play LOMAC and Project 1. I hate to give up Win98SE, PIII, and the Voodoo which are still serving me so well in AH, OFP, All the Jane's games, and Starfleet Command. I think I will leave this computer intact for use when friends come over because it works so well.

If 3dhq (formerly 3dfx underground) ever release the fully WinXP/DirectX8.1 compatible drivers they claim they are developing, maybe my Voodoo will stick aroung a little longer as my primary video card, but I suspect those drivers don't exist or won't perform as advertised. So my attention will probably turn toward ATI unless NVidia actually uses some of the image quality technology they bought out from 3dfx. The GF4 may be light years ahead of the GF2 in terms of IQ, but the Voodoo 5 still looks better than the GF4. Where is a next generation card with the kind of image quality 3dfx always promoted? I was hoping Kyro would fill that nich, but it looks like ATI with their buggy drivers is my last hope.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #20 on:** July 28, 2002, 04:10:34 PM »

Streak,...that is just a rumor about the 9700 not working under W98.

Here is how it got started; MS has officially turned off WHQL for W98, so any drivers written for 98 cannot be certified. ATI has already announced they have drivers for 98 for the 9700.

They just cannot be WHQL, but there is support for 98, ME, 2K, and XP.

Oh, and "thier buggy" drivers appear to not exist with the 9700. I believe it was Anand that discovered a bug in MOH and ATI delivered another driver in less than 24 hours to correct the problem.
You guys should be aware, the 9700 was not designed at ATI in Canada, but in San Jose by a team they put together from the various acquisitions they made last and early this year.
One of the gurus on the project is a guy from Pixar. He knows his stuff.

All reports, so far, say the drivers are rock solid, and the board is not even in production yet. All features are enabled and they have a new UI in place, which exposes more features than ever before.
This is a different team that did the 9700 and it shows.

streakeagle · « **Reply #21 on:** July 28, 2002, 10:15:33 PM »

I visited their site. Their own specifications lists the supported operating systems as being:
WinME, Win2000, and WinXP

That is what I based by statement on. If they still support Win98SE on the side... then it increases the likelyhood I will try their product since I wouldn't have to upgrade my operating system. However, the rest of my computer would likely be a bottleneck for such a card.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #22 on:** July 29, 2002, 08:37:02 AM »

They released a pre-release concerning 98 support. They only list the WHQL drivers on the WEB site right now, but they stated they will have support for 98.

All drivers released after 7/31/2002 will not longer be able to get WHQL from MS, as they are dropping the program for 98.

You may want to visit the Rage3D BBS, as ATI reps post information there regularly.

As far as you computer goes....you just about need a 2+Ghz CPU to keep the card busy enough, but ATI looks like they are going to have 3 different versions of the R300 family. The PRO, LE, and normal versions all running at different clock rates and at different price points.
The LE version appears to be clocked to compete head to head with the NVidia Ti4600, but be cheaper.

This is all speculation right now, but it does make sense. ATI needs too fill the big price gap they are going to have between the 9700 ($360.00 U.S.) and 9000Pro ($130.00 U.S.).

In the workstation market, a picture of a quad R300 board is making its rounds. Rumored to be able to do real-time photo-realistic art and be part of the FireGL line. I beleive this product will not make it to production, simply due to the fact you would need a dedicated power supply to run it, as it would require about 200W to power just the card, but you never know.

I see ATI having a problem with the 9700. It is going to take one screaming CPU to push the card and, and at least a 4X AGP bus. I can see guys buying it and putting it in a 1GHz/AGP 2X system and complaining about the lack of performance. ATI would do well to state a CPU speed that would push the card, or at least keep it busy.

mason22 · « **Reply #23 on:** July 29, 2002, 09:58:29 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
I see ATI having a problem with the 9700. It is going to take one screaming CPU to push the card and, and at least a 4X AGP bus. I can see guys buying it and putting it in a 1GHz/AGP 2X system and complaining about the lack of performance. ATI would do well to state a CPU speed that would push the card, or at least keep it busy.

i wish all card manf. would do this. it would really save the consumer questions and hassles.....assuming they can read of course

LePaul · « **Reply #24 on:** July 29, 2002, 10:43:31 AM »

Ok, Skuzzy, fess up! Which one did you pre-order

And are you going to stick that sucker in an AMD or Intel system?

Skuzzy · « **Reply #25 on:** July 29, 2002, 12:08:50 PM »

Hehe,..the 9700. Intel P4 2.53Ghz.

Currently, the 9700 is the only one available in the line. ATI is still fumbling about with the other models.

Been watching the dev on this product a long time. I am now watching the R400 dev cycle.

Gonna have to get a 21" monitor to be able to enjoy all the games at 1600x1200x32.

Dunt worry,...NVidia lovers have a good part coming in the NV30 chip. Hard to say what performance/cost level will be at this time. Heck,..all the NVidia sites have conflicting information on when the NV30 will be out.

The only official information I have garnered about the NV30 was a press release from NVidia to the SEC/stock (concerning quarterly projections) holders which stated they would not be able to get the NV30 out in time for the Christmas sales season. Take that for whatever it means.

Intersting times ahead for all gamers.

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #26 on:** July 29, 2002, 12:33:04 PM »

Dammit Skuzzy... if you beat my 3DMark score I'll have to run out and get one of these new gizmos.

What do you currently have in the 2.53?

AKDejaVu

Skuzzy · « **Reply #27 on:** July 29, 2002, 02:05:44 PM »

An ATI8500. Hehe,..get ready to play catch up Deja

.

The current 3DMArk score for the 9700 in a 3Ghz P4 (overclocked I assume) is 15,479. I figre to get really close to that, if not beat it, when I am done.

LePaul · « **Reply #28 on:** July 29, 2002, 02:15:31 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
An ATI8500. Hehe,..get ready to play catch up Deja .

The current 3DMArk score for the 9700 in a 3Ghz P4 (overclocked I assume) is 15,479. I figre to get really close to that, if not beat it, when I am done.

Cripes!

Tweaked out, the best I could do was 9450!

Oh well, considering I've upgraded from a Voodoo 5, I'm delighted to be ABLE too play these newer games

Skuzzy · « **Reply #29 on:** July 29, 2002, 02:17:40 PM »

By the way,..maybe you NVidia followers know,..has NVidia pissed off the industry,..in general?

I mean,..all of a sudden all these third party video card makers are churning out ATI based cards rather than NVidia based cards.

I mean, Creative Labs, Hercules,..several others and now Crucial...yep,..the RAM guys are cranking out an ATI based video card with thier ram on it. What gives? Any clues? I can't even speculate why this is happening.