Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: acetnt-2nd on October 17, 2003, 04:43:24 PM

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: acetnt-2nd on October 17, 2003, 04:43:24 PM

Planning on buying a new video card, am considering between the 9700pro and the 9800 pro 128- difference of about $60. What are the pros and cons of each??


Thank you for your response - it is very welcome

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: acetnt-2nd on October 17, 2003, 04:45:34 PM

Oops,  Skuzzy - can you please move this thread to HArdware forum - made a mistake posting here....

Sorry

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: Skuzzy on October 17, 2003, 05:57:17 PM

The 9800Pro is based on the R350 chip and the 9700Pro is based on the R300.

The R350 (9800Pro) has some fixes and performance enhancements over the R300 (9700 Pro).  Overall, the R350 is more stable and faster than the R300.

A good bang-for-the-buck card is going to be the 9600XT, which is starting to ship and should be easy to get in another couple of weeks.
Not as fast as the 9700 or 9800 Pro cards, but on the price performance curve it looks really good.

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: bloom25 on October 17, 2003, 06:31:37 PM

Circuit City is selling the Radeon 9800 (non-pro, but not the SE) for $249.99.  Pretty hard to beat that.

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: Skuzzy on October 17, 2003, 08:18:12 PM

That is a good price, and a very difficult card to find.  The SE's are worthless, as far as I am concerned.  A marketing gimmick.

Most regular 9800's can be clocked to perform at 9800Pro levels, but they are hard to find.

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: bloom25 on October 17, 2003, 10:32:38 PM

I know I decided to pick one up today... ;)

Frame rates are improved in AH2 beta over my "old" GeForce 4 Ti 4200.  The big difference is that I can now turn on AA and AF with little to no performance loss.  Image quality (specifically contrast) seems better with the Radeon as well.

The only issue I'm having is that AH2 has now caused my system to reboot from a bugcheck twice.  (Once in an M3 after driving into a hill in the terrain, once when flying a Spit9)  I'm trying to determine whether or not it's because of a bug in AH2, or if it's heat related.

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: Replicant on October 18, 2003, 05:15:18 AM

I have my Radeon 9800 running at 9800 Pro speed and it's been very stable.

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: Skuzzy on October 18, 2003, 08:23:39 AM

bloom, I would not sweat the crashes, just yet, in AH2.  Report them, in the AH2 Bug Forum, but give it a bit.

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: singh7 on October 18, 2003, 02:55:07 PM

Thanks a lot for the replies. Will try to find a 9800 non pro non se - hope I can find one

Acetnt

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: Soulyss on October 18, 2003, 03:28:12 PM

Hey bloom care to ship that Ti 4200 this way?  this Mx440 blows hehe. ;)

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: singh7 on October 30, 2003, 06:54:42 PM

Ok folks,

YEt again I am in this dilema. I had decided to go ahead and purchase a Radeon 9800 non pro vid card to couple with my current system -
ECS L7vMM motherboard with onboard sound and network 4XAGP / Athlon 2000+ / Radeon 9000 pro 128MB vid card / 512 MB 133MHz ram (sigh - I think)

BUT

after reading a few other posts, I saw that an upgrade of my cpu/motherboard may be a better alternative? Do you all think so. I am considering using an nforce2 motherboard with 333MHz fsb Athlon 2600+ and 512 MB 333MHz DDR ram and my radeon 9000 pro vid card. This setup will cost a bit less than the radeon 9800. Is this the better option??

All I want is the best performance when playing aceshigh - it is the only game I play.

Comments most appreciated.

ACETNT-2nd

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: bloom25 on October 30, 2003, 07:11:03 PM

The 2000+ with the 9800 will be significantly faster than the 2600+ with a 9000 Pro.  The 9000 Pro just does not have the muscle to let a faster system push any higher framerates.

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: Skuzzy on October 30, 2003, 08:26:24 PM

Quite right bloom.  The 9000 is a very under clocked 8500 chip (R200).

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: singh7 on October 30, 2003, 09:43:07 PM

Thanks a lot guys. This is exactly what I wanted to hear.


Acetnt-2nd

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: Hajo on October 30, 2003, 10:07:36 PM

Today purchased a 9800Pro card.....was using GeForce4Ti4600.

Basically I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about.  I'm

going to build another system, so either way I'd have a good vid

card.  Installed 9800Pro.....hooks up to the HD and powersupply.

installed drivers and voila....frame rate the same with the

Ti4600 Card  (constant 80 to 85).  But......once I got into Custom

Settings.....pushed sliders all the way right for highest

performance (except for anisotopic filtering)  made sure vert sync

always on.....I learned something.

1.)  Using 6x FSAA and did NOT suffer frame rate loss (WOOT!)

2.) Crisper, clearer image also.!

But also remember....Frame Rate is going to be refresh rate bound

folks.....don't expect frame rates in the 80 to 90's unless your

monitor can handle that rate!  Don't spend the money on the

card and expect a great FR boost (into the 70s' to 90s') at 1280X

1024 32bit with a monitor that can only handle a refresh rate of

40 to 50!  It's best to always check to see what your monitor can

except before spending mucho dineros for a vid card...and be

disappointed when you install it, don't blame the card, make sure

your monitor can handle higher refresh rates!

Title: 9700 pro or 9800 Radeon (128MB)
Post by: Animal on October 30, 2003, 10:26:00 PM

Get the Radeon 9800 Pro with a Half Life 2 key for $300 after rebates on Best Buy