Radeons

[wiresdown]

It baffles me, I'm not really sure which I should get 9700 pro, 9800 or 9800 pro. Or should I hold off till ATI puts out something better. And does ATI makes the top Radeons?

 

[modedepe]

What card to get and whether you should get it now depends on a few more things..How much money you're willing to spend, what card you have now and how eager you are to upgrade it, and the specs of the rest of your system.

 

[Tab]

Radeon 9900 Pro Mid-september.

 

[AnAndAustin]

GF4TI4200 is still a fine card and for speed matches the Rad9600PRO and GF-FX5600ultra (even new flipchip one) unless you get into medium to high AA+AF or DX9. You can think of the following for how the Radeons fit into things:

9200 = Just like the 9000pro and 9100 it's still slower than the old Rad8500, still 'only' DX8 and inferior to the GF-FX5200 too.

9600 = Perf of a Rad8500/GF3TI500 but faster if you like AA+AF or want DX9. Roughly the same sort of speed as a Rad9500 or GF-FX5600.

9600PRO = Perf equal to a GF4TI4200 but faster with AA+AF (esp on high) and of course you get DX9. A step below the 'old' Rad9500PRO but only 15% slower so not hugely slower.

9800 = Perf equal to a 9700PRO but with enhancements like even better AA+AF and T-buffer. Quite a lot faster than 9600PRO and easily faster than a GF4TI4600/4800. Better than a GF-FX5900 and a lot cheaper too.

9800PRO = Perf slightly above the 9800 and generally just below the GF-FX5900ultra but then the price is much lower too.

Soon (with my predictions) ...

9800SE 128bitDDR = 9500PRO speed but again with enhancements inc even better AA+AF and the T-buffer. Half the pipes of the 9700/9800 (4) but 0.13mu enables much higher clocks. You should get 4600/4800 type speeds and easily pull away when AA+AF or DX9 come into play.

9800SE 256bitDDR = 9700 speed but yet again with enhancements inc even better AA+AF and the T-buffer. Again half the pipes of 9700/9800 but again 0.13mu helps that out. Easily far superior to any GF4TI and should challenge the GF-FX5900.

9900(PRO?) = 9800PRO built on the 0.13mu or pehaps still 0.15mu but with faster clocks than the 9800PRO. If 0.13mu it should easily be faster than any current card offering the full 8 pipes with 0.13mu clock speeds. If it ends up being 0.15mu it could feasibly have 16 pipes (double) which should really boost perf. Should be priced close to the GF-FX5900ultra and easily better!

 

[Mem]

It baffles me, I'm not really sure which I should get 9700 pro, 9800 or 9800 pro. Or should I hold off till ATI puts out something better. And does ATI makes the top Radeons?

First question I would ask is what CPU do you`ve at the moment and how much money do you want to spend? We can then suggest a good card for your current CPU and price range,as to waiting well there`s always faster cards coming out,just buy a new card when you want too & have the money.

 

[AnAndAustin]

In terms of what manu to go for (eg ATI, Sapphire etc) it used to make a lot of difference esp in the 8500 days where some manu's clock speeds were around 230/333 instead of 275/550. You still get a variance today but that's mostly on the budget cards like the GF4MX, GF-FX5200 and Radeons below 9500. So long as you're shopping above the budget lines you should find all manu's offerings based on the same card are for all intents and purposes identical. You may find packaging, colour, HSF design, bundle and warranty vary so it can be worth going by more than just price depending upon your prefs and reqs. The only manu I would steer clear of is Powercolor as I've simply heard too many instances of their sub-par components esp using 64bit DDR in place of 128bit DDR thus halving the all important RAM bandwidth.

As Mem says, we need specifics to answer you specificly but currently if you have a GF4TI, Radeon9500 or better then it's best to wait as you have to fork out a lot of money for something genuinely better. If you want something now and you don't care too much for AA+AF or DX9 the GF4TI4200 is VERY good value otherwise look to the Rad9600PRO or GF-FX5600ultra (pref v2 flipchip) but expect to pay 50% more cash.

 

[FluxCap]

Radeon 9900 Pro Mid-september.

That official yet?

 

[wiresdown]

Well I am rebuilding a whole new computer, which school I haven't had enough money to do anything since 2000, so I am outdated. I do however have a nVidia Geforce 3, it's nothing two special.

It seems like with the 9900 pro comming out I should just go with solid card, yet something that will not empty my wallet, until I have the resources for the 9900 pro or something else.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustin


9800SE 128bitDDR = 9500PRO speed but again with enhancements inc even better AA+AF and the T-buffer. Half the pipes of the 9700/9800 (4) but 0.13mu enables much higher clocks. You should get 4600/4800 type speeds and easily pull away when AA+AF or DX9 come into play.

9800SE 256bitDDR = 9700 speed but yet again with enhancements inc even better AA+AF and the T-buffer. Again half the pipes of 9700/9800 but again 0.13mu helps that out. Easily far superior to any GF4TI and should challenge the GF-FX5900.

I thought 9800SE was built on a .15micron process, since that's what a normal 9800 is built on and the SE's are just more or less ones that had defects???

 

[AnAndAustin]

I don't think there's any official info yet (nothing I've seen) so I'm making an educated guess. I'd say the 9800SE will be to the 9800 what the 9600pro was to the 9500pro, ie 0.13mu allows higher clocks which can compensate for half the pipes and still come in much cheaper to make. They should fill in the current gaps left by the 9500pro and the 9700nonPRO so in terms of speed the ATI line-up would look like this...

Rad9200 std & pro
Rad9600 std & pro
Rad9800SE 128bit & 256bit (std & pro?)
Rad9800 std & pro
Rad9900 (assuming std & pro)

I can only assume that if ATI do make them 0.15mu BUT with 4 pipes thewy would need to have perfected multiple textures per clock in order to make the 4 pipes more efficient otherwise you'd surely be behind the Rad9600 series (both ATI and nVidia like playing that game though). There may be a 9600SE too, since the 9200 is clearly a poor replacement for the Rad8500 let alone attempt to compete against the FX5200 series. IMHO the 9600 isn't far off competing with the 5200 series anyway LOL! It'll be interesting to see what happens ...

 

[Auric]

With the frequency with which ATI is bringing out new models they will soon have to adopt a new naming convention. Radeon 10000 and so on will simply not do. If major new products only come out at the end of the year then mayhaps they should use a model year numbering scheme with addendums for derivitives such as "Radeon 2004 Mk. I", Mk. II, &c.

 

[wiresdown]

It seems like with the 9900 pro comming out I should just go with solid card, yet something that will not empty my wallet, until I have the resources for the 9900 pro or something else.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: wiresdown
It seems like with the 9900 pro comming out I should just go with solid card, yet something that will not empty my wallet, until I have the resources for the 9900 pro or something else.

How much will it take to empty your wallet?
When the 9900 comes out it should be one of those wallet emptiers. It should help to drive down some of the prices on ati's current high end cards. Since I don't know how much you're really willing to spend it's hard to recommend a card, but the ones that should last you a while that you probably should take a look at are the 9700np for around $200 or a 9800np for $250. Or if you do want something just to get you through for a little till the 9900 comes out then a ti4200 for $100 might be your ticket. Actually though, it looks like the 9900 might not be that far off. So if you really want to save money just tough it through with your gf3. Those cards are somewhat dated, but still not bad cards.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

No brainer here for me the 9700 Pro will do what you need and not hurt the wallet.

I am still using mine and I now have a P4 2.8C and an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, changed those things and HD and memory and still run fine with the card.

 

[wiresdown]

Yeah, I'll look into these. What I have came up with for my box is:

Lite On 52x24x52 CDRW
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Windows XP pro
Samsung 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Corsair XMS PC3200LLPT 512MB
(WD Raptor 36.7GB or WD 120GB SATA)
9700 pro
(AMD ATHLON XP 2500 "Barton" 333 FSB) It's a processor only, where should I get the heatsink and fan?

soundcard..maybe

 

[FluxCap]

Get an SLK800A with a YS Tech Variable fan from SVC

 

[Regs]

Doom 3 and HL 2 are being ported to the X-Box's mod'ed GF3 and p3 set up. So why don't you think a 9800 pro on a 2.0 Ghz or higher PC will perform efficiently if not fantastically?

Given I can reasonably guess that the x-box version may not look as crisp as on a high end PC, but I think a 450+ dollar 9900 pro will be just a tad overkill for any game and pricy.

 

[sodcha0s]

FluxCap hit the nail on the head with that recommendation, it's a perfect match and is a top performer. You will not need a soundcard with that motherboard, the onboard sound is more than adaquate.

 

[AnAndAustin]

A knowledgable friend of mine says the Swiftech MCX-462+ seems better than SLK-800, AX-7 and PAL-8045 although all are known to be very good. In terms of fans the TT Smart Fan 2 is also very good & it's v.nice to have the adjustability. Vantec 's Aeroflow is significantly less expensive than either of the above heatsink + fan combinations. It uses the innovative TMD (tip magnetic driven) 70mm fan from Y.S. Tech. The The CoolerMaster XDream SE or better still TT Volcano 11 are great options without painful fitting or being overly pricey. I have the BartonXP2500+ running easily at 2.1ghz 400FSB and undervolted to 1.55v using a Volcano 11 on a quiet 2500rpm setting.