Well I did it...

stca16

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 6, 2002
Messages
238
My trusty 9700 pro has finally proved itself unworthy...cant run much of anything new, decently anyway, except it did a great job with HL2, (the only game I own I have ever finished by the way). So, I was at the local Best Buy and saw an x850 pro agp for 229 bucks, and though ah what the hey!!! and picked it up.Well before I installed it I was reading some stuff about it and found an article about flashing it with an x850xt pe bios....hmmm..interesting. So I ordered the Zalman vga kit everyone was raging about and installed it. Then I installed and flashed the card...ati tool says 16 pipes and more mhz....very painless ....ran 3d mark 2005 for 24 hours straight...that was painless too.Then I sat down and proceeded to play quake4.
HOLY HELL BATMAN!!!!!!! I couldnt believe it...it was fricken awesome!!! Obviously I have been out of the vga card loop for quite a while....but I am frickin amazed at the diffrence in performance...for almost 100 bucks less than i paid for my 9700 pro!!!
All I can say is wow!! And thanks to the person who figured out the bios flash.
 
i bought the 9700 pro for the whole 500 bucks or whatever it was... i was in love with ati for a couple of years after that
 
i did the same but only flashed to 16pipes, left the mem and core speeds at default cause of heat issues that were talked about.

use ati tool and leave it in system tray so u can monitor the Temps since u did OverClock the mem/core.

another thing did u buy insurance for card in case soemthing happens? usually have anywhere from 14-21 days to do so after purchase and ive bought the insurance and when i had a 6600gt, i returned and told them something was wrong like artificating etc.. and put more money with it and upgraded to x700pro then did the same thing to get my x850pro, the things u will do when money is tight. :p
 
dwilson041781 said:
i did the same but only flashed to 16pipes, left the mem and core speeds at default cause of heat issues that were talked about.

use ati tool and leave it in system tray so u can monitor the Temps since u did OverClock the mem/core.

another thing did u buy insurance for card in case soemthing happens? usually have anywhere from 14-21 days to do so after purchase and ive bought the insurance and when i had a 6600gt, i returned and told them something was wrong like artificating etc.. and put more money with it and upgraded to x700pro then did the same thing to get my x850pro, the things u will do when money is tight. :p


Why would I return it if I broke it? Nah....if it fubars I will just buy another.
 
stca16 said:
Why would I return it if I broke it? Nah....if it fubars I will just buy another.

lol sounds like a funny response from a guy who finally broke down and upgraded from a 9700pro.
all i was saying is protect ur investment, if the card is capable of higher and/or overclocking yet they sell it underclocked and still charge too much in my opinion i would protect my investment whether or not it breaks from OCing or god forbid a brown out or lightning strike, saying goes better safe than sorry, but i guess if u have money to WASTE alright.

dont forget to update ur Sig.
 
Demicore said:
Nice purchase :)

I can free you of your 9700 pro :cool:

Thanks for the offer but that card is going into my 5 year old daughters machine.
 
i bought the 9700 pro for the whole 500 bucks or whatever it was... i was in love with ati for a couple of years after that
for almost 100 bucks less than i paid for my 9700 pro!!!

You paid $500 for your 9700Pro!!! holy crap. And the $330 wasn't that far from normal, but I got my 9700Pro about 4months before the 9800 came out for only $225. Still have it too lol. Put a VGA Silencer Rev. 2 on it and OCed it a bit.
 
i got my 9700 for about 450 on new egg lol... if i had waited a year i could have gotten such a better card.... *cries*... but i have dual x1800xts now :) (i love europe)
 
dwilson041781 said:
i did the same but only flashed to 16pipes, left the mem and core speeds at default cause of heat issues that were talked about.

use ati tool and leave it in system tray so u can monitor the Temps since u did OverClock the mem/core.

another thing did u buy insurance for card in case soemthing happens? usually have anywhere from 14-21 days to do so after purchase and ive bought the insurance and when i had a 6600gt, i returned and told them something was wrong like artificating etc.. and put more money with it and upgraded to x700pro then did the same thing to get my x850pro, the things u will do when money is tight. :p
whoa wait....u returned ur 6600gt for a x700pro?
 
yes i did and at time when playing HL2 it appeared better and in BF2 with no OC'ing, reason i did return it and go to ATI was the card DIED out of blue, nice card made by BFG, but havent had the problem and overall am satisfied with ATI, and rumor about HL2 being coded towards ATI had no impact on my opinion of performance.

pretty much same card as far as pipelines, but mem/core difference, either way at time i was more satisfied with the x700pro over the 6600gt, now maybe if i kept it and OC'ed, but eh dont ever plan on keeping 1 card i always get the insurance and return card and put money with it and upgrade.
 
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