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decision time 9700pro/9800pro

gigglebyte

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Messages
3,814
ok..I have been looking to upgade my Ti4200 for a while now and the time has come. before somebody says read the furums before you ask the question...I have read them and have narrowed it down to a couple of choices but I am requesting some info/guidence on which one to get.

First thing off money is not going to be that big of an issue...do I have unlimited funds? not by a long shot...but I can easily afford the card but want to get the best bang for my buck so VALUE is more important than actual end price.

When looking at the specs it looks like the 9700Pro holds its own very well with the 9800Pro and it looks like there is only about a 10FPS difference between the two so I have to wonder if I should spend the extra bucks for the 9800 or save my shillings for some other toys ;)

Now to throw a curve ball into this...I would also consider the AIW versions of either one and get rid of my LeadTek cap card (as nice as it is it does take up an extra slot). Now with this all said what are the big differences between the 9700/9800Pro cards and on the AIW side do they have the same hardware or different?
 
the other thing I am worried about is heat from the 9800Pro...does the 9700Pro run considerably cooler than the 9800? This can be an issue for me as I am running this in a shuttle so ventilation is not what I would say great :rolleyes:
 
9800 Pro for sure. Its only like $20 more. If you get the 9700 pro, you will regret it for sure.
 
Wait for a few weeks....

See what else comes out, seeing as the next gen is right around the corner.
 
I just does not make sense to buy a slower video card if money is no issue :rolleyes:
 
If money is no issue, check out the new NV40 performance thread. I think that's where you'll want to put your money.
 
Originally posted by gigglebyte
First thing off money is not going to be that big of an issue...do I have unlimited funds? not by a long shot...but I can easily afford the card but want to get the best bang for my buck so VALUE is more important than actual end price.

I will never buy a new release video card again...the last one I did was the Voodoo 5 5500 and payed through the nose for it too...never again...I will usually buy a newer series but never the top end...especially since there are no games that take real advantage of it other than the raw speed...the 9800 has been out long enough that the price has come down quiet a bit and if there isn't a big difference between the 9700 and 9800 then it comes down to the best VALUE...damn that word again ;) I don't have to have the fastest card out there...I just want to upgrade my 1.5 year old video card


edit: I can't really wait as I have a game weekend coming up in 2 weeks and need to have everything working and installed before then
 
Originally posted by gigglebyte
I will never buy a new release video card again...the last one I did was the Voodoo 5 5500 and payed through the nose for it too...never again...I will usually buy a newer series but never the top end...especially since there are no games that take real advantage of it other than the raw speed...the 9800 has been out long enough that the price has come down quiet a bit and if there isn't a big difference between the 9700 and 9800 then it comes down to the best VALUE...damn that word again ;) I don't have to have the fastest card out there...I just want to upgrade my 1.5 year old video card


edit: I can't really wait as I have a game weekend coming up in 2 weeks and need to have everything working and installed before then

lol, my best friend did the same thing at that time.
 
I can laugh at it NOW but not then...that was a $500 card and performed for shit....oh well it is a good object lesson not to buy bleeding edge technology
 
Originally posted by gigglebyte
I will never buy a new release video card again...the last one I did was the Voodoo 5 5500 and payed through the nose for it too...never again...I will usually buy a newer series but never the top end...especially since there are no games that take real advantage of it other than the raw speed...the 9800 has been out long enough that the price has come down quiet a bit and if there isn't a big difference between the 9700 and 9800 then it comes down to the best VALUE...damn that word again ;) I don't have to have the fastest card out there...I just want to upgrade my 1.5 year old video card


edit: I can't really wait as I have a game weekend coming up in 2 weeks and need to have everything working and installed before then
Heh, I also did that. At least we had visual quality over nVidia :D . Sure as hell didn't have speed.
 
i'm perfectly happy w/ my 9800 pro ;)

it will last you longer than the 9700 that's for sure
 
9800 pro. Bought mine for $300 about a month before they price dropped. I haven't regretted it...
 
well I think I am going to go with the 9800Pro but not the AIW...even if I could find a deal like CompUSSR had ($249 after instant and MIR) I realized last night that I would have to give up my dual displays....that isn't going to happen ;) so now I need to decide if I want to save a whopping $31 by getting from Newegg and getting the Saphire or going to my local CompUSSR and getting the ATI Retail...I have to pay tax either way but can get it local today or next week some time from Newegg.......hhhuuummm decisions decisions decisions
 
MIR's from CompUSA take about a year to get to your door. I would just go Newegg.
 
well I decided I didn't want to wait so I now have the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 sitting here and I am going to get to putting this bad boy in my system!

edit: installed and running great. I ran both 3dMarks for both cards

Ti4200
3d2001 - 7907
3d2003 - 1302
9800 Pro
3d2001 - 10184
3d2003 - 4980

and that is with the cat 3.4 drivers off the CD...I will be checking and tweaking over the next week but I think things are gona be just fine :D
 
hhhuuummmm...I just loaded the 4.3's and went from 4980 down to 3550...I had heard that the latest cats are the best...any suggestions on which ones to run since the wonderful search feature is still turned off?

edit: figured it out...I had tweaked some settings for AA and AF and forced them to run at those settings...backed them out and hit 5032 so I am happy now :D
 
card is running great but now I have a question about passive cooling...I used to have a zalman CU17 on my Ti4200 and it worked fine...I sort of got use to my system being a little more quiet but I have not been able to find out if there is a passive cooling for these puppies....I can't use the VGA silencer as I am running a Shuttle and the AGP slot is on the outside edge of the comp and not the inside....I am planing on opening the side a little bit and see if it will help kill the whine but any assistance is appreciated.
 
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