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Upgrade from 9700 Pro

R

rabbitt

n00b
Joined
Feb 18, 2005
Messages
33
I am looking to upgrade from my 9700 Pro to a better card. I've read on the forums about some of the x700's and 6600GT's, but I wanted to know what would be a good purchase for an upgrade. I only have AGP, no pci-express right now. Looking to spend limit myself to the 300 range.
 
300$ range, look at X800XL and 6800GT. Both are very even and are available in AGP. Great bang for your buck as well. I have a 9700np and upgrading to one of them soon myself
 
I'm thinking I should go back to my roots with a 6800GT. I loved Voodoo and had a GeForce2MX that was great back in the day. I do have a question though: how difficult is the purge process to get the ATI drivers and other misc. stuff off my PC so I can freshly load the nVidia drivers? I think I tried this before on an older PC but I didn't get everything off and it was causing problems. Thanks!
 
There's a program called Driver Cleaner that's supposed to clean all the leftover driver clutter. I've never used it but it gets high remarks on some of the forums.

Peepaw
 
is the 9700pro outdated enough to require an upgrade, or will it run HL2 and WoW without problems?
 
Hl2 and Wow will run fine, upgrading from a 9700 or a 9800 is for people who want very high resolution or want settings high in a batch of AAA games.
 
I have a 9700np and I can really run everything on fairly high settings. Well that is till I got my new monitor and native res of 1680x1050 is really choking the card.
 
I was able to run HL2 at 1600x1200 on my 9700 Pro that clocked beyond 9800XT speeds. Although I had to turn a few details off at that res, I still thought it looked better than 1024x768 with everything up. The only reason I got a 6800GT was because the 9700 just died one day. I wouldn't upgrade if I were you.
 
My 9700Pro will overheat a lot and freeze with this "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" noise, and I have to reboot. I thought of replacing the stock fan with something else, but I a) couldn't find any video card fans and b) have no idea how to replace it. That's why I'm wondering if I should just get another card. I'm not positive that heat is what's causing it, but that's my guess.
 
rabbitt said:
My 9700Pro will overheat a lot and freeze with this "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" noise, and I have to reboot. I thought of replacing the stock fan with something else, but I a) couldn't find any video card fans and b) have no idea how to replace it. That's why I'm wondering if I should just get another card. I'm not positive that heat is what's causing it, but that's my guess.
Click to expand...

While an X800 XL or 6800GT would definitely be an upgrade, the 9700Pro is still a capable card. I'm currently running WoW on a 3GHz Northwood and at 1024x768 with 2xAA and 8xAF it runs great, even when we have an Alliance raid on Orgrimmar of over 40 characters (does get bad beyond that though, but hey, you are talking about an "old" card here and at least 40 characters raiding, not to mention defenders).

Sooo... if you don't feel like kurplunking 300 bucks for a new card and feel you can wait a bit for the next gen cards to come out (should push current gen prices down), may I suggest slapping on a $15 Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186110

I did that with my 9700Pro when the stock fan died on me and it’s worked very well (much quieter than the stock fan too). Instructions are detailed and easy to follow and even if you find it doesn’t work, for $15, you have almost nothing to lose (especially if you were already going to upgrade anyway). Hope this helps!

- James
 
James54321 said:
Sooo... if you don't feel like kurplunking 300 bucks for a new card and feel you can wait a bit for the next gen cards to come out (should push current gen prices down), may I suggest slapping on a $15 Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186110

I did that with my 9700Pro when the stock fan died on me and it’s worked very well (much quieter than the stock fan too). Instructions are detailed and easy to follow and even if you find it doesn’t work, for $15, you have almost nothing to lose (especially if you were already going to upgrade anyway). Hope this helps!

- James
Click to expand...

Does that replace the stock fan or does it simply go over/under it and take up a PCI slot? :confused:
 
rabbitt said:
Does that replace the stock fan or does it simply go over/under it and take up a PCI slot? :confused:
Click to expand...

It does replace the stock fan. Basically the stock fan is held by push pins, so it’s not too hard to remove with a pair of pliers and some very slight twisting. After that, just remove the gunk, apply some new thermal compound (I used Arctic Silver, works great) and follow the instructions to attach the new cooler. Actually, let me see if I have a link to the review I found useful (along with the great illustrated instructions they included).

EDIT: Darn, unfortunately the original review I read seems to be dead now, but I have another one that, while not as good, will at least give you an idea of what’s involved:

http://www.hardwaremods.com/reviews/cooling/arctic-cooling/vga-silencer.html

Keep in mind that the one in the hardware review above is a little different from the Newegg.com version, but as long as you follow the included instructions and use the review as a point of reference, you should be fine. Also, it does take up a PCI slot, so that’s something to keep in mind. Again, if you really don’t want to go through all the trouble, then by all means upgrade. I just figured that for around $15 it’s worth a shot.

- James
 
Cool, thanks for the help! I'll look into it and see if I can get it to work.
 
James54321 said:
While an X800 XL or 6800GT would definitely be an upgrade, the 9700Pro is still a capable card. I'm currently running WoW on a 3GHz Northwood and at 1024x768 with 2xAA and 8xAF it runs great, even when we have an Alliance raid on Orgrimmar of over 40 characters (does get bad beyond that though, but hey, you are talking about an "old" card here and at least 40 characters raiding, not to mention defenders).
Click to expand...

For comparison, I run at 2xAA/8xAF at 1600x1200. Does it look better? Yes. Worth your $300+? No.
 
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