[oc jason]

Well I am buying today and have always used nVidia. I have a GeForce 2 Pro 64 and am looking to upgrade. I dont really have a brand preference. My 2 choices are Ti4600 or teh ATI Radeon 9700 non pro. I just cannot decide. I want to run my games at 1024x768 res and a Desktop res of 1280x1024 / 1600x1200. In CS I turn AA off and Antriscopic OFF, Texture Sharpening OFF and MipMap to best Performance. I can tell the clarity of the pics is down but I DO get 100fps steady. I want a fast card that I can set AAx4, 2-4x Antriscopic. Besat Pic Quality for MiPmaP, Texture Sharpening ON and still have 100+ fps.

So what card will do the best with all the bells and whistels maxed out. I play Q3 / UT2K3 / WC3 / CS and some other games but those are the most played. I want those games to have 100+fps & AWESOME detail.

What would be my best bet. and are the ATI drivers still crap. I was looking at the ATI 9700 Control Panel w the 2.5 drivers seems to be a good mix. 9700 on pricecwatch is like $233, Ti4600 is like $210 -- best bets ??

[funnyperson1]

the 9700 is far superior to the 4600 especially if you want to play with AA and all that on....from my experiences i would say that the drivers are pretty good, just as good as with my Geforce2Pro....

[Bon3thugz43v3r]

9700 is the one to get. Ive seen many benchmarks and the ti4600 beat the Hercules 9700 in 1 benchmark out of about 5 I looked at. My radeon 9700 Pro kicks a**!!!

[TheFrag]

IM- neither, get a 9500 PRO. If i had to choose, i would obviously get the 9700 if I have da cash, if not, then go with the ti4600

[TheFrag]

Originally posted by Bon3thugz43v3r
9700 is the one to get. Ive seen many benchmarks and the ti4600 beat the Hercules 9700 in 1 benchmark out of about 5 I looked at. My radeon 9700 Pro kicks a**!!!

Uhhhh..... soemthings wrong in your system. At default i get about 500 points less with my ti4200 and my system is WORSE. THats trippy as a hippy.

[ManOfKnight]

I would get the 9700 PRO if i had the money and wanted to spend it on one thing...although I am going to get a 9500 PRO the main difference is it is 128bit not 256bit like its bigger brother

if you are going to get the 9700...make sure it is the PRO version, there is a big clock difference between the 9700 and the 9700 PRO

[Amino]

Originally posted by TheFrag


Uhhhh..... soemthings wrong in your system. At default i get about 500 points less with my ti4200 and my system is WORSE. THats trippy as a hippy.

Athlon Xp 2000+, 12.0 x 145
1024 MICRON CRUCIAL PC2100,
Asus A7V333,
Volcano 7+,AS3, NOT LAPPED
ATI RADEON 9700 Pro
10,000 RPM WD
3d Mark 2001 Score "10,205"

Dude, TheFrag is SOOO right. You've got serious problems in your system if your 3DMark Score is that low. I've got an Albatron ti4200 and an XP2000+ clocked at 133x13.5 (stock) with only 512 of PC2700 (which might be a small factor), but I'm getting 11,000+! You need to get new drivers or something cuz that seriously doesn't add up, unless you've got 4X AA on and best image quality as your mipmap setting... then it'd make some sense, but you should still be whipping my tail...

[oc jason]

ya but the pro is like another $50 bux

[TheFrag]

the 512mb will only give u a few points, barely any more than a gig would get. Also, the 9700 would own with all setting turned up. Plz explain wtf is going wrong?

[oc jason]

Well the Radeon 9700 Pro is like $293 shipped. The Ti4600 is $210 shipped and now that I think about it I only have 256mb mem that I could get the Ti4600 + 256mb pc3500 for the same price as the Radeon.

That might be a better system choice to get the Ti + Mem. I have 256mb Mushkin pc3000 and upgrading to a stick of 256mb pc3500 will give me 512mb (good since I run XP) and when I go back to AMD system from my current Intel system I will only have to buy 1 stick more pc3500 after selling my pc3000.

So what would be better upgrade overall for the system. Radeon 9700pro only or GF4 Ti 4600 + 256mb MORE memory. I run WinXP and play games. Usually have Trillian, mIRC, a few websites open and some mp3 via winamp. Would I benefit from 512 more than I do 256?

[Evnas]

Go with the 9500 Pro and 256mb ram. The 9500 Pro is cheaper then a Ti4600, has more features, and performs better. I just got one today, and good god im in love! lol...everything ive thrown at it has run it flawlessly. And yes, another 256mb ram will help a lot. Ive only got 256mb atm, and im itching to get another 256mb at least. All i do is game, and a tiny pit of photoediting and webdesign, and ive seen how much at least 512mb of ram can help a system...especially for gaming

[oc jason]

I see the prices on the 9500 but what are some of the actual specs. 8xAGP ? core/mem clocks? mb mem? -any certain brand to go with ?

[Evnas]

Originally posted by oc jason
I see the prices on the 9500 but what are some of the actual specs. 8xAGP ? core/mem clocks? mb mem? -any certain brand to go with ?

Its clocked at 275/270, can overclock to 340/310 about, has 8x AGP, 128mb memory, and i would do with an ATi built version (though they are all really the same, just a different name on the sticker)

[oc jason]

i assume the mem speed is 2x that correct. Say if a radeon is clocked at 250/300 its actually 250/600. If not them my GeForce 2 mem runs as fast as the newest ATI lol. Like some GF4's run at 300/650 or whatever so a Radeon is double the posted mem speed correct ?

[Evnas]

Yea, 270 is actually speed...540MHz effective.

[wilhelm310]

9700 4 sure

[funnyperson1]

if you do get the 9500PRo, make sure you get the Pro version, the 9500 plain sucks compared to a 4600.....

i would get a 9700 regular for around 230-240$ and you could still get the ram ...and this would still crush the 4600

[OC Noob]

Yeah, the 9700 is a really good card still and if it can be o/ced I doubt it would be hard to get it to 9700 pro speeds and BAM!!! you have a 9700 pro.

Can the 9500 pro and 9700 be O/Ced now?

I would do either the 9500 pro or the 9700 and ram. With those you can run AA and AF with good FPS. The Ti4600 can't.


ps the Radeons are DX9 too, so when games start supporting the new features you will beable to take advantage of the new eye candy.

[Evnas]

Originally posted by OC Noob
Can the 9500 pro and 9700 be O/Ced now?

Yup...thanks to Warp11

[OC Noob]

Sweet! Hows it done?