radeon 9700 pro vs Nvidia 5900XT

[Wich0]

I'm trying to decide which of these two video cards to get. Most of the benchmarks I've seen show them relatively close in performance. I've always bought nvidia cards for the past few years so I'm a little iffy about switching to ATI. I guess the 2 biggest deciding factors for me would be price and 2d image quality. Any suggestions?


BTW here is my system:

Shuttle An35n ULTRA
Athlon XP 3200+ cpu
512mb pc3200 Mushkin ram
geforce3 ti200

 

[jarman]

Go with the 9700Pro, it easily overclocks to 9800Pro performance levels. Also the 5900XT will take up an extra PCI slot in order to fit the 5900XT's GPU cooler.

 

[obs]

Go with the 9700Pro, it easily overclocks to 9800Pro performance levels. Also the 5900XT will take up an extra PCI slot in order to fit the 5900XT's GPU cooler.

The 5900XT is a single slot card. Oh, and you can overclock it too.

Either card is good. I would suggest checking Anandtech for some reviews a little more unbiased than jarman here.

 

[LabRat]

I'm trying to decide which of these two video cards to get. Most of the benchmarks I've seen show them relatively close in performance. I've always bought nvidia cards for the past few years so I'm a little iffy about switching to ATI. I guess the 2 biggest deciding factors for me would be price and 2d image quality. Any suggestions?


BTW here is my system:

Shuttle A35n ULTRA
Athlon XP 3200+ cpu
512mb pc3200 Mushkin ram
geforce3 ti200

I would decide according to the games you play. FarCry--get the ATi. Old stuff, get the nVidia. I have a 5900 on my desktop machine and use it for older games like System Shock 2, Q3, etc. The 9700pro is certaintly fast in these games, but there are sometimes odd texture problems and crashes that I don't see with the 5900. My HTPC has a 9800pro in it, and I use this for any newer games (less than a year old). The 9800pro shines in anything DX9.

Edit: BTW, my 9800pro replaced my 9700pro, which I traded for a 5900nu that OCs to well over ultra levels, so I have direct experience with all of them.

 

[burningrave101]

If you get one of the good overclocking ones its going to outperform the 9700 pro. I know the XFX model has high speed RAM on it and its default RAM speeds are 800Mhz while the normal 5900XT's are only 700Mhz. It will overclock over 900Mhz.

With core speeds it varies but you can usually get at least a 50MHz or more overclock on the cores.

I would go with an nVidia 5900XT instead. I like my Gigabyte one even though it doesn't overclock very high.

 

[jarman]

The 5900XT is a single slot card. Oh, and you can overclock it too.

Either card is good. I would suggest checking Anandtech for some reviews a little more unbiased than jarman here.

Well I wouldn't go as far as calling someone biased. I faced a similar decision before I purchased the 9700 Pro. The Nvidia drivers for Linux would have been nice, but the performance overhead offered by the OC'd 9700 Pro was the deciding factor in a WinXP environment.

Yes, you can overclock a 5900XT, but I have yet to see an overclocked 5900XT beat a 9800 Pro.

 

[burningrave101]

Well I wouldn't go as far as calling someone biased. I faced a similar decision before I purchased the 9700 Pro. The Nvidia drivers for Linux would have been nice, but the performance overhead offered by the OC'd 9700 Pro was the deciding factor in a WinXP environment.

Yes, you can overclock a 5900XT, but I have yet to see an overclocked 5900XT beat a 9800 Pro.

I've seen some 5900XT's overclocked to 5950 speeds and a 5950 beats a 9800 pro. You have to get one of the ones that have the higher speed RAM though. Otherwise your RAM will hold you back and you'll only get around 800-820Mhz instead of 950Mhz.

 

[jarman]

I've seen some 5900XT's overclocked to 5950 speeds and a 5950 beats a 9800 pro. You have to get one of the ones that have the higher speed RAM though. Otherwise your RAM will hold you back and you'll only get around 800-820Mhz instead of 950Mhz.

Yeah, I was wrong about the size of the GPU cooler on the 5900XT, it is a single slot solution.

If only the 5950 Ultra 256MB would hit the mid $200 range...

 

[SidewinderX]

I'd go for the 5900XT if I were you. 9700pro is a TAD bit older and not really supported directly...

 

[burningrave101]

Yeah, I was wrong about the size of the GPU cooler on the 5900XT, it is a single slot solution.

If only the 5950 Ultra 256MB would hit the mid $200 range...

I dont know why people fuss so much about a card taking up two slots. Most people that overclock leave a slot open between the AGP slot and the rest of the PCI slots not to mention that most high-end motherboards support 5 PCI slots and who uses that many? I have a dial-up modem and a sound card in two slots and thats it. Even with one PCI slot taken up by the video card you would still have two left.

And yes i hope the 5950 Ultra's drop down around $250-$350 after the release of the new nVidia cards in full force. There is a good chance i will just get one of them instead of the 6800 GT or 6800 ultra because a 5950 is more then fast enough.

 

[bountyhunter]

I'd get the 9700 over the 5900XT in a hearbeat. The 9600XT is arguably better then the 9600XT(and priced 30 dollars cheaper too!). The radeon 9700 is great, but for the same price as the 5900xt, maybe a few dollars more, you can get a radeon 9800 pro, which is far better.

 

[aces170]

I would say the radeon 9700 pro anyday as the shader performance is anyday better and it oc's well also, btw a 9800se 256bit is fer 150 bucks at newegg a pretty good deal IMO it can be softmodded too also Radeon 9800 pro is not that expensive too it would just be 20 $ more then the 9700 pro.

I am not an ATI fanboi but I would say stay away from the fx series, the 6800 ultra is another story altogether and I would prefer it over the X800's.... IFFFFFFF I had the money

 

[burningrave101]

I am not an ATI fanboi but I would say stay away from the fx series, the 6800 ultra is another story altogether and I would prefer it over the X800's.... IFFFFFFF I had the money

Whats wrong with the FX series? The new 59XX series cards perform very well and have no problem with DX9 games. nVidia cards are also almost always better overclockers then ATI cards. I'd pick a FX 5950 over a 9800XT any day.

Your not going to be able to push a 9600XT far enough to outperform a 5900XT if you get a good one that overclocks well. The 9600XT is vs the 5700 Ultra, not the 5900XT. The 5900XT is a whole nother step up in the chain. Its just priced cheap because in actuality its like an SE card.

 

[TechHead]

I'd go for the 9700Pro, but evaluate both cards depending on which games you play, AA/AF etc.

 

[§pix]

I currently have a 9600XT in my system and I am happy with it. OCed Nicely with no problems with heat or anything like that. My brother and I built a computer for a friend not too long ago and we slapped a 9700pro in there and it plays the newer and the older games fine. The only problem that I saw with trying to OC it was that the pc2700 was taking its toll on it. We inserted some 3200 ram in there and it got a lot better 3DMarks, and the FPS average was higher in the games.

I know people also who have the nVidia cards and they say that they aren't as compatable with DX9 as the ATI cards. I am an ATI man myself. I have been happy with them for a while now.

I'd go for the 9700Pro, but evaluate both cards depending on which games you play, AA/AF etc.

I agree with TechHead though. You should choose the best one that suites your purposes. Each has their faults.

 

[agentzero9]

I'm trying to decide which of these two video cards to get. Most of the benchmarks I've seen show them relatively close in performance. I've always bought nvidia cards for the past few years so I'm a little iffy about switching to ATI. I guess the 2 biggest deciding factors for me would be price and 2d image quality. Any suggestions?


BTW here is my system:

Shuttle An35n ULTRA
Athlon XP 3200+ cpu
512mb pc3200 Mushkin ram
geforce3 ti200

If you are worried about 2D image quality, I think the most important question is, are you using DVI?

If so go with ATI....

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1368026,00.asp

 

[botreaper10]

http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=VC-BFG-003

thats gettin pretty close to that $200-$350 range.

 

[chopsticks]

ive flashed my BFG 5900xt to a full speed 5950u and its been working great without artifacts. it beats out my friend's 9800pro in the popular benchmarks, aquamark and 3dmark03 and its also got good performance overall in ogl and dx9 games. it runs dx9 shader games just fine, i dont think that should be the deciding factor. from what i know, it seems other 5900xts flash just fine, like the Leadtek and the XFX. 5900xt gets my vote, although i think it comes down to which you can get cheaper

 

[EarthwormJim]

Whats wrong with the FX series? The new 59XX series cards perform very well and have no problem with DX9 games. nVidia cards are also almost always better overclockers then ATI cards. I'd pick a FX 5950 over a 9800XT any day.

Your not going to be able to push a 9600XT far enough to outperform a 5900XT if you get a good one that overclocks well. The 9600XT is vs the 5700 Ultra, not the 5900XT. The 5900XT is a whole nother step up in the chain. Its just priced cheap because in actuality its like an SE card.

That's not really true, DX9 games are still a problem with the FX series. Farcry and other DX9 games are forced to run in DX8 mode or mixed modes in order to get playable performance, and the problem is not going to go away.

And actually in a pretty recent review of the 5900xt on [H]ard, showed the 9600xt was neck and neck with it. And the 9600xt a bit better in DX9 games too.

Personally I'd go with a 9700pro (which I did) rather than a 5900xt. I've been pretty happy with mine, and the arguement that a 5900xt is better for older games is really invalid considering both perform extremely well in pre-DX9 games.

 

[plur]

If you play any OpenGL based games go for the 5900.
Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory being the best example I can give you.
I've seen FX5200U's outperforming 9800 pro's in this game and it really pisses me off.

 

[creedAMD]

Another vote for the 9700pro here, until FarCry and Nvidia play good together, I can't see recommending anything in their line. Unless you don't play that.

 

[Nandro]

I think its a pretty price dependant comparison between the 2. I would go with whatever you can get the best deal on. I personally got a 9700pro on ebay for $99 which was a steal. I have a 9800XT in my other rig and its not an enormous jump between the 2. For my second rig I kept a $100 price limit on the video. If I could have got the 5900 in any model XT NU or ultra I would have got it at that price. Keep a price point in mind and grab the best you can in that range.

 

[jarman]

If you play any OpenGL based games go for the 5900.
Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory being the best example I can give you.
I've seen FX5200U's outperforming 9800 pro's in this game and it really pisses me off.

Yeah, it really is a shame that ATI cards really suffer from poor OpenGL performance. I wouldn't say that it taints an acheivement like the X800, but you really have to consider 6800 a superior card for alt. OSes.

 

[creedAMD]

Yeah, it really is a shame that ATI cards really suffer from poor OpenGL performance. I wouldn't say that it taints an acheivement like the X800, but you really have to consider 6800 a superior card for alt. OSes.

Not really too bad of a shame, my 9800pro slaughters current opengl games as of now. Doom3 may beg to differ though.

Rumor has it that Ati is really working on it's opengl performance. I think they are gearing up for doom3 when it is needed.

Rumor as well is better linux support in the near future, so be on the look out for that, don't hold yer breath though, this is just rumor.

 

[plur]

Not really too bad of a shame, my 9800pro slaughters current opengl games as of now.

Then you obviously haven't played ET.

 

[creedAMD]

Then you obviously haven't played ET.

Oh yeah, play it at my LAN everyother month or so, I remember it being something like this:

I'd call that very playable! I usually play that at 4x/8x.