9700Pro still a viable card?

T

Tetracell

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 7, 2002
Messages
429
My Geforce4 is about ready to eat it, and i've been looking into videocards to buy. I was ready to buy a new 4600, but i've seen that 9700Pro's have come down in price considerably. Are they still good cards that can handle today's games, with maybe some AA/AF?
 
Damn straight, they still hang with the big boys and they're almost 1.5 years old. I got me a 9700 Pro and my previous card was an 8500 at 308/315MHz. This sucker runs everything I can throw at it with AF cranked, most of the time FSAA at 4X and 1280 res. But I do have the horsepower to run it full blast (TBred @ 2400MHz 208MHz FSB) so boy am I glad I worked on the horsepower before getting a new vid card. What kind of setup do you have?
 
Originally posted by PliotronX
Damn straight, they still hang with the big boys and they're almost 1.5 years old. I got me a 9700 Pro and my previous card was an 8500 at 308/315MHz. This sucker runs everything I can throw at it with AF cranked, most of the time FSAA at 4X and 1280 res. But I do have the horsepower to run it full blast (TBred @ 2400MHz 208MHz FSB) so boy am I glad I worked on the horsepower before getting a new vid card. What kind of setup do you have?
Click to expand...

My setup is what I have in my sig now. I plan on replacing my RAM (because there is no way in hell i'm hitting 200fsb with it), and probably my motherboard to an ABIT NF7. The card i'm looking at is this one. I just want to be sure that if'n I buy it, it'll make me happy.
 
sweet ass card...its what i got too (ATI)

dont plan on upgrading it for at least another year or more
 
Originally posted by Tetracell
My setup is what I have in my sig now. I plan on replacing my RAM (because there is no way in hell i'm hitting 200fsb with it), and probably my motherboard to an ABIT NF7. The card i'm looking at is this one. I just want to be sure that if'n I buy it, it'll make me happy.
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Oop! Forgot to check your sig before hitting reply and the sig didn't show up on the "topic review" section =-O

By all means you've got horsepower to drive a 9700 Pro, and the RAM and mobo will unlock some more potential out of 'er. Powercolor makes excellent cards. Like Equalizr said, it should last longer than any card in the past because it's the most revolutionary since the OG Voodoo. It's going to be hard for the big two to really pull ahead of the 9700/9800 this year especially if they need even more CPU power backing them. It'll be one interesting year that's for sure...

One last thing, sometimes installing a card from a different chipset maker (or even card maker 'cause the BIOS can be different) can cause issues with the new card like crashing and low performance, and it's usually the case when going from Nvidia to ATI. So before shutting down with the GF4 for the last time, remove the drivers via control panel and then use Driver Cleaner or Detonator RIP and all should be well. Have phun dood :D
 
Whoever had the insight to upgrade to one of these cards when they came out has to feel pretty good right now. Just thinking that this card is 1.5 years old... *shudder* M-m-monster value.
 
Yes best card ever is actually not exhagirating as it may sound. It´s definiatly up there with the voodoo 1/2 and others.

It´s not until now I have found games that really tax this video card. LOMAC/IL 2 FB and FS 2004 all do a great job stressing it to it´s limit. My 9700 PRO defeated IL 2 FB and FS 2004 without much stress but LOMAC was a harder nut to crack. But finally after some tweaking my 9700 PRO defeated that too.

If LOMAC is the worst the game developers can send to you you can feel confident that your 9700 PRO will survive 2004 too :D
 
Originally posted by oqvist
If LOMAC is the worst the game developers can send to you you can feel confident that your 9700 PRO will survive 2004 too :D
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dude you just made that rhyme.. lemme call you a shrink eh?

and on a serious note.. this forking card is based off a 9800 pro board.. any luck turning it to 9800 pro yet anyone?
 
Originally posted by PliotronX
Damn straight, they still hang with the big boys and they're almost 1.5 years old. I got me a 9700 Pro and my previous card was an 8500 at 308/315MHz. This sucker runs everything I can throw at it with AF cranked, most of the time FSAA at 4X and 1280 res. But I do have the horsepower to run it full blast (TBred @ 2400MHz 208MHz FSB) so boy am I glad I worked on the horsepower before getting a new vid card. What kind of setup do you have?
Click to expand...


is that an 8500 standerd?
i got an 8500le for my GF's pc and was gonna use omega drivers with it.
anything else i can do to OC it only a small bit



as for the 9700pro question
if you can afford it
go for it
 
Its a great card dude, and if you can snag oen for 200 its even better.....

Many people are chilling happy with there 9700pros still just watchin and laughin at all the videocard mess right now.
 
Originally posted by I(illa Bee
Its a great card dude, and if you can snag oen for 200 its even better.....

Many people are chilling happy with there 9700pros still just watchin and laughin at all the videocard mess right now.
Click to expand...

Yeah it´s a great card. No video card has kept me from upgrading this long. And the best part of it I got it replaced from my ti-4600 for free when it broke for the third time and it wasn´t produced anymore.

I am confident it will hold me over onto R420 and if it plays HL 2 and DOOM 3 really well maybe even to the R423/NV45. That would be good because at that time we should have a pretty good picture if NV40 is the video card that redeemed nVidias reputation :)
 
Well, I like the sound of what everyone has to say. I guess I just worry a little too much about how it would perform. I guess i'll pick this up in a few days then. Thanks everyone.
 
It's the shizzle for ma nizzle yo!

Got her a year ago and am very proud of her performance from old to new games.
 
So here's a question for everyone then (maybe it belongs in it's own thread)...

given the 9700pro for about $212 on average now and then there's the 5900nu for about $184 (BFG brand, can be flashed to 5950u)...which one would you go for?

I was leaning toward the 9700pro because it's just proven performance, rock stable, and can oc a bit if need be.

If I went with the BFG 5900nu and flashed to a 5950u, then I would most likely lose any oc headroom it had and have the card maxxed at the start.

any opinions???

(tax time is coming soon and I'll be getting a vid card with the leftover money)
 
Get the 9700 PRO... The price difference aren´t any to speak of anyway.
 
my 9700pro is running at 405/330 (granted, on water and with a voltmod - but still faster than your average stock 9800pro :)).

BEST. CARD. EVAH!

pretty cheap, too. :)
 
i plan on upgrading upgrading my ti4200 to a 9700pro within a week or so...
 
Usually I would be hesitant to upgrade to hardware that is already a generation old. But in the case of the 9700 Pro, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
My buddy has a 333 board with an XP 2700 and a Radeon 9800 Pro/256. There is no noticeable difference in performance between his rig and mine in the games we play.
UT2K3, COD, MOH, GTA/VC
 
I happen to have a powercolor 9700pro, and I can say it's been one of the best cards I've ever owned( 1yr & 3 mo).
 
I ended up buying one from newegg earlier in the day (while at work), but forgot that the rush processing option ends at 12:00pst (I thought it was 1:00pst). :(
I hope by some fluke I get it this week.
 
Originally posted by -l-Z3K3-l-
is that an 8500 standerd?
i got an 8500le for my GF's pc and was gonna use omega drivers with it.
anything else i can do to OC it only a small bit



as for the 9700pro question
if you can afford it
go for it
Click to expand...
Actually it is a BBA 8500LE 64Meg (came clocked 250/275). It was with a deal that I couldn't pass up in 2002 at Newegg. It has Hynix 3.3ns mem, easily flashed to the 7008 BIOS and since it was the reference design it was volt-moddable with a pencil :D That sucker played everything for so long but I started to have to lower detail settings in newer games to get it playable. It was still at least twice as fast as the GF2 GTS before it.

For your GF's setup, read up (search :D) at the Rage3D forums and see if you can flash to a BIOS that might let it overclock more/fix some bugs (backup the BIOS first though :p). Omega's drivers are great, and include the utilities to make it convenient :) I'd start by taking it up 10MHz at a time until you run into noticeable artifacting. To make it easier to spot the artifacts, loop 3DMark as it stresses the card and instead of controlling the game you can focus on looking for anomolies. Then if you see artifacts, back it down 5MHz or until it goes away and maybe raise it up 1MHz at a time. I usually just overclock only one part at a time, first the core, then the memory and finally both. Usually when both are overclocked they run into problems earlier than with one at a time (extra heat in the PCB I think). So then you will know the limits of both and can find a balance between them. Later on you can get some RAMsinks and a good heatsink for the core and maybe be able to volt mod it for some more OC goodness. Good luck :cool:

So here's a question for everyone then (maybe it belongs in it's own thread)...

given the 9700pro for about $212 on average now and then there's the 5900nu for about $184 (BFG brand, can be flashed to 5950u)...which one would you go for?

I was leaning toward the 9700pro because it's just proven performance, rock stable, and can oc a bit if need be.

If I went with the BFG 5900nu and flashed to a 5950u, then I would most likely lose any oc headroom it had and have the card maxxed at the start.

any opinions???

(tax time is coming soon and I'll be getting a vid card with the leftover money)
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nst6563, with that decision, it comes down to which games you play and how long you plan to keep the card for future games. From what I know, as I don't have firsthand knowledge of the Upperend NVidia offerings, the 5900 especially overclocked or flashed to 5950 levels can play fairly recent/older games and OpenGL titles a bit better because of the 2 TMU's as opposed to ATI's single MTU, but with half the pipelines of the higher end ATI cards (4x2 vs. 8x1) and Nvidia's seasoned OpenGL drivers (though ATI's are no slouch :)). However, current games play nicely with both cards, but the 9700 is likely to play next gen games better because of its strict adherence to DX9 specs.

In my view, older games run extremely fast with both cards so one isn't likely to notice 150 vs. 180 FPS but in future games it will be very noticeable with 30 vs. 70 FPS (pulling numbers out of the behind here though :D). The BFG card is still a great deal though, especially if it has 2.2ns mem. HTH
 
I ended up buying one from newegg earlier in the day (while at work), but forgot that the rush processing option ends at 12:00pst (I thought it was 1:00pst).
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In my opinion, paying for the "rush processing" from Newegg is a waste of money. Unless it's a really busy time of the season (like Christmas) they're so frappin' fast sending out orders that it's totally unnecessary.
I had just finished ordering something at 1:30 PM, there was a knock at the door!!!! It......was......oh, the gas man. Anyway, my order was on the truck at 4:00 PM!!!!
They don't fvck around when they fvck around!
 
Originally posted by PliotronX

nst6563, with that decision, it comes down to which games you play and how long you plan to keep the card for future games. From what I know, as I don't have firsthand knowledge of the Upperend NVidia offerings, the 5900 especially overclocked or flashed to 5950 levels can play fairly recent/older games and OpenGL titles a bit better because of the 2 TMU's as opposed to ATI's single MTU, but with half the pipelines of the higher end ATI cards (4x2 vs. 8x1) and Nvidia's seasoned OpenGL drivers (though ATI's are no slouch :)). However, current games play nicely with both cards, but the 9700 is likely to play next gen games better because of its strict adherence to DX9 specs.

In my view, older games run extremely fast with both cards so one isn't likely to notice 150 vs. 180 FPS but in future games it will be very noticeable with 30 vs. 70 FPS (pulling numbers out of the behind here though :D). The BFG card is still a great deal though, especially if it has 2.2ns mem. HTH
Click to expand...

I plan on keeping the card for a long while (probably at least 1.5 years if not more than 2.). I've had my current card (Quadro2 Pro) for a long time....basically since it came out. and it's lasted me this long and still plays most games at 1024x768 with medium/high res (depends on the game and the options, but shadows ALWAYS have to be turned off on this card). That's why I was leaning toward the 9700Pro.
 
I love my 9700 Pro. Hardly breaks a sweat playing anything. She's got the HP to back her up too.
 
Definitely go for it.

Although, I ended up going with an AIW 8500 DV instead for the server, I was wanting a 9700Pro because it's still an extremely competent card.

I miss mine, to be honest. It was probbly the best card I've ever had..
 
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