9700 Pro - keep or get rid of?

cyclone3d

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Well, I just received a 9700 Pro that was in an old Dell machine that was given to me...

Trying to decide whether to keep it for a "retro" card.. and since I have never gotten to play with one, or just get rid of it.... hrmmm.

I am currently putting together a PC for a friend. He doesn't do any gaming so I figured putting an old FX5200 in it would be fine.
 
It's still a great card and can still play most DirectX9 games other than those which require Shader Model 3.0 aka DirectX 9c.

But the main reason you should keep it is that the card is fully capable of Aero in both Windows Vista and Windows 7. The FX5200, although it was supposed to be a DirectX9 card, had an improper DirectX implementation and will not work with Aero!

Even if the person doesn't plan to play any games, having a videocard capable of Areo is infinitely better than one that isn't capable of it.
 
It's still a great card and can still play most DirectX9 games other than those which require Shader Model 3.0 aka DirectX 9c.

But the main reason you should keep it is that the card is fully capable of Aero in both Windows Vista and Windows 7. The FX5200, although it was supposed to be a DirectX9 card, had an improper DirectX implementation and will not work with Aero!

Even if the person doesn't plan to play any games having a videocard capable of Areo is infinitely better than one that isn't capable of it.

The machine I am putting together will be getting XP Pro on it.. Just a P4 2.66Ghz with
1GB of RAM so no need for AERO support.
 
Well, if you sell it you won't get much for it. I'd vote for keeping it if for no other reason that to own one of the greatest video cards of all time. Hang it on a wall, lol
 
Keep it. I wish I still had my old 9700pro....it's just a classic video card...mine finally gave up the ghost when I overclocked it on the stock cooler like a dummy while trying to play FEAR at 1024x768 on medium settings...that was just a little more than it could take.
 
All depends on what you're going to do with it and how much you can get for it. It's not worth much at all, unless you're building a retro box. Then it's one of the better retro cards you can get.
 
I had a 9x card for a LONG time. I picked one up after it was already old news and still kept it for 4 years. That card (and my 8800GTX) have had the most life of any cards I've ever had.
 
i say keep it.. ya never know when you will need it.. i almost got rid of my 9500 bios modded 9700.. after i got my x1650 agp.. only to have it die on me 5 months later.. luckly i had the 9700 as a back up.. and now its being used in my file server.. the cards served me well all these years..
 
i say keep it.. ya never know when you will need it.. i almost got rid of my 9500 bios modded 9700.. after i got my x1650 agp.. only to have it die on me 5 months later.. luckly i had the 9700 as a back up.. and now its being used in my file server.. the cards served me well all these years..

Only problem is the power consumption in a file server, but might not be an issue depending on where you're at.
 
Keep it and sell it in 30 years when it is a classic, you know, when we all would say "I remember when I had that!"
 
Well.. if I keep it for a retro box, I'll haveta make another retro box as my current retro box has:

Slot-A Athlon @ 1.08Ghz
Voodoo 5-5500 (bought it new)
Sound Blaster Awe 64 Gold!

I really can't think of a better setup for a retro box since my current one supports Glide and will play everything that old at full speed.

Grrr.... I will prolly just keep it. Now I am gonna haveta replace the blown caps on the
FX5200 so I can put it in the machine I a building instead of the 9700pro :p.
 
I remember playing Guild Wars on the 9700 Pro.

And seriously, graphics have not come that far from Guild Wars IMO. Yet our hardware is like 100000x as complex.

Depreciating returns FTL?
 
I remember playing Guild Wars on the 9700 Pro.

And seriously, graphics have not come that far from Guild Wars IMO. Yet our hardware is like 100000x as complex.

Depreciating returns FTL?

When I first played Guild Wars I had a 9600XT.

A lot of games have way way way better Graphics than GW could ever hope to have.

The main problem is, is that the game studios have to try to cater to a huge variety of gamers including the ones that think that their 6 year old systems should be able to play everything out there. Not to mention a lot of cheezy console ports are out there.
 
i just pulled this out of my friends working p4 system that i sold him 5 yrs ago. :D
i had modified it with the zalman heatsink when i owned it...


9800pro_zalman.jpg
 
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