9500 pro

[MikeOC]

I'm upgrading my computer within the next month or two and plan to get a 9500 pro as the video card. Anyone know if there is a good chance the price will drop significantly, ie $25+, in that time or would I be adviced not to bother waiting.

[ninthebin]

I dont know about US release but it isnt actually hitting the shelves until mid Jan here...so I doubt it :S

[Captain Hilts]

I wouldn't expect any significant price cuts until the GeforceFX comes out, which should be in February.

[Evnas]

U can pick up an OEM 9500 Pro from Neweeg for about $178 last i saw

[ninthebin]

is it actually out though - here it says you can buy one but then it says in small blue writing below the date when they will actually have them in stock...but again I dont know about US release dates of these things as it dont concern me much :(

[john240sx]

there might be a price reduction there might not. there's no doubt that i'm buying one as soon as i get the money. if i waited until the price came own a little then what would keep me from waiting until the 9700/GF FX came down? it's hard to win when you play the waitng game, you either pay top dollar today or wait for god knows how long before upgrading.

i say if you have the money and you really could use an upgrade then upgrade. if you already have a decent card then waiting is ideal but there's a limit to how long you should wait.

[JCLW]

Originally posted by ninthebin
I dont know about US release but it isnt actually hitting the shelves until mid Jan here...so I doubt it :S
They're on shelves here in Canada.

-JW

[Lukozer]

Yep, i've seen them on the shelves in a few stores here in Nova Scotia... and it was absolute agony walking out of each store leaving them there LOL

[snvpa]

I suspect you might see a small price drop within the first week or two of the new year. if you look on pricewatch there are only 2 pages of vendors and some of them don't have them in stock. also after christmas demand slows considerably and the third party cards will start appearing. Don't count on anything more than like 10-20 bucks reduction at most.

[GoingH2o]

I just bought a 9500pro for $175 from newegg,overclocked the gpu to and i can say it rawks.
Core 340 / Memory 310

3dmark stock: 10100
3dmark pre BIOS flash 300/300: 10160
3dmark BIOS flashed 300/300: 10546

[ArBiTaL 24]

Originally posted by Captain Hilts
I wouldn't expect any significant price cuts until the GeforceFX comes out, which should be in February.

What's one of those? is this the latest release of cards with some new features? are they 256mb?

Also, if what people are saying that with a bios flash you can (effectively) make a 9500 a 9700, and there's nothing ATI can do about it, expect to see a rather large price drop of the 9700 :D

[JCLW]

I think the 9700s have quad 64bit memory channels and the 9500s only have dual memory channels so you can't do it with just a BIOS update.

- JW

[ArBiTaL 24]

Oh ok cool.

[Cisco Kid]

Originally posted by GoingH2o
I just bought a 9500pro for $175 from newegg,overclocked the gpu to and i can say it rawks.
Core 340 / Memory 310

3dmark stock: 10100
3dmark pre BIOS flash 300/300: 10160
3dmark BIOS flashed 300/300: 10546


interesting you say 300/300 PRE FLASHED?? The 9500 Por would no t overclock till you flashed the bios so I do not understand how you got 300/300.

I have a 9500 Pro as well no proggie would overclock it till it was flashed

Cisco KId

[kiljaden5]

I think what he did was use powerstrip to "overclock" it before he flashed it, which does nothing.

before I flashed my card, powerstrip would let me change the clock settings but that did nothing, if anything, it made the comp unusable so his 300/300 pre-flash is actually stock speeds

I have mine running at 345/315 atm and getting over 13K in 3DMark :D

[kiljaden5]

err spoke too soon, those clocks were too high, but 340/310 works fine and still getting over 13K

[Ec]-[oMaN]

hey guys i was just wondering is the oem ati 9500pro clocked the same as the retail???

[kiljaden5]

Originally posted by Ec]-[oMaN
hey guys i was just wondering is the oem ati 9500pro clocked the same as the retail???

I'm 99% sure it is

[Evnas]

Originally posted by Ec]-[oMaN
hey guys i was just wondering is the oem ati 9500pro clocked the same as the retail???

Yes, unless u get stiffed by the company u buy it from and they t ry and slip u a regular 9500.

[brint]

A quick question Ware can I get the newest BIOS driver for the ATI 9500PRO chip?? And Can you flash the ATI bios on a non ATI board. GX Gigabyte 9500PRO??

[cursor]

I have heard that OEM demand for the 9500 pro has been strong. It's also popular among enthusiasts like us. With its already agressive pricing, I doubt that price would drop much if at all in the next couple of months. It might drop $10 if more become widely available, but I can't imagine it dropping much more--even if Nvidia started selling the GF44600 for less (which isn't going to happen, imho).

[Evnas]

Originally posted by brint
A quick question Ware can I get the newest BIOS driver for the ATI 9500PRO chip?? And Can you flash the ATI bios on a non ATI board. GX Gigabyte 9500PRO??

U can get the BIOS from HERE (http://mcturok.com/ati/), and yes, the BIOS will work with 3rd party cards

[sqsisa]

www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=655060/blsrt=1/ut=3fd080b781453da3


The price has gone up a little since the Warp11 factor. I bought mine from Essential Computer @ www.essencompu.com/nupplysingar.asp?ID=2947 for 187.00 Retail Version. Hope this helps.

[brint]

Originally posted by Evnas


U can get the BIOS from HERE (http://mcturok.com/ati/), and yes, the BIOS will work with 3rd party cards

okay, how do I use the flash program? :eh?:

[Evnas]

Originally posted by brint


okay, how do I use the flash program? :eh?:

Its a very simple program...take a bootable floppy (u can make it by formatting a floppy, and clicking on "Copy system files"), the copy over the flash program and the BIOS version, boot it up, and type "atiflash -p 0 9500WARP.bin" to flash the BIOS

[kiljaden5]

Follow these instructions to flash the bios, these are Warp's origional instructions:

After you boot your computer using the floppy, at the A:\ type:

atiflash -s 0 original.bin <---that is a zero not an 'o'
(THIS SAVES YOUR ORIGINAL BIOS)


atiflash -f -p 0 9500WARP.BIN <----that is a zero not an 'o'
(THIS FLASHES THE NEW ONE)

After the flash is complete, turn off your computer using the power button, not the reset button, wait a few seconds, and power back on.

It is VERY important to save the origional bios, because in case you mess up, your card can still be saved.

[brint]

Thanks kiljaden5 and Evnas. You have been a great help!!
I hope that I can repay you some day.

Regards brint