Im looking to purchase a new video cards, capable of playing the latest release's. Whats everyones opinion on the 9700 Pro, Which brand would you recomend, is there a differance? Cheapest place to buy etc etc Help please, thanks guys
9700 Pro isn't made any more, if you do manage to find one for sale new it will be old stock. You'd be better off going for the 9800 Pro at £125, which, imo, is the best value for money graphics card on the market at present
I was looking into buying 2nd hand, Didnt realise they wernt made no more, So whats the opinions on the 9800pro?, Where can I find one for a low price and is it worth going through ebay?
9800 Pro cheapest price is www.lowestonweb.com at £125 delivered, can be picked up for £130-£140 in a few other places Second hand isn't such a good market for gfx cards as you will still pay nearly full price, although you can occasionaly pick up a bargain on Ebay. Personally I like to have the backup of a supplier behind me in case something goes wrong... If you are looking for really good performance I have a ATI X800 Pro that is virtually brand new for sale at a bargain price of £260
Have to pass up on the X800, I was only really looking to pay 120 max! What are these cards like for games, Will they suffer well with the newer forthcoming games such as HL2 and WOW?
The 9800 Pro will handle them fine - you won't be able to play in highest detail but at least at a reasonable level (1024x768 with medium settings). Anything lower and you will start to struggle though. For an idea of performance difference a great place to look is toms hardware http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html In my opinion the 9800 Pro is easily worth the few extra quid over it's weaker siblings, and to get anything faster you will have to spend well over £200...
9700Pro are still great cards, effectively equal to the 9800nonPRO and should o/c near to 9800Pro speeds too. Also consider the 9700nonPRO if you can find one, they're 99% as good as the 9700Pro when you o/c. 9800Pro are great cards, VERY close to the 9800XT and again you can make that up by o/c'ing. The 9800nonPRO is also a good card, fast stock perf but often can hit 9800Pro speeds (or better) but since the 9800Pro's pricing dropped it's become pretty pointless. 9800Pro should be capable of playing all games due out in the next year with high details (maybe not max) and in a good res, possibly with some AA+AF too. If the likes of HL2 and DoomIII won't play well on them the companies producing these games need to take a careful look around, and sit tight for 3 years while normal people can begin getting up past 9800Pro speeds. Brand makes virtually no difference, the general concensus is that Powercolor are best avoided (shoddy build quality and corner cutting) while Sapphire (previously thought as the best brand) make some 9800/9800Pro with 128bitDDR severely handicapping their speed.
Just another big cheer for 9800np's - Mine's been bios flashed to a PRO, then can be overclocked to XT (412/365) for benchies and is stable. I do tend to turn it down a couple of notches (405/360) most of the time for peace of mind though. 9800pro's the way to go, unless you can pick up a 9700pro very cheaply.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/9700_to_9800_Series.html 9800Pro are £136 there, but they don't seem to have 9700 cards anymore. Lowest have 9800Pro for an amazing £125 inc postage. Retek do have 9700Pro though, £88! http://www.retekdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Video_Cards.html
the gpu is amost exactly the same, just a different pcb layout and higher stock voltage give the higher speed. My 9700np is a 450 currently and im very sure I can get 550 if i can be arsed.
450! Surely you mean 350, no? Stock core speeds 9700=275mhz 9700Pro=325mhz 9800=325mhz 9800Pro=380mhz 9800XT=412mhz. There's no doubt that ATI were overly conservative with the 9700 cards but the minor redesign the 9700 went through to produce the 9800 helped to push it further. 9700/9700Pro as a rough average would hit 360mhz, 9800/9800Pro on average could hit 400mhz. I doubt many 9800 cards (inc XT) would do 450mhz, mostly because they are still 150nm. The 9600 cards clock so much higher because they are 130nm, 9600=325mhz 9600Pro=400mhz (o/c 540mhz) 9600XT=500mhz (o/c 590mhz) but of course the 9600 cards have half the pipes and just 128bitDDR. Of course these are all rough averages and there's always a chance of getting a lucky o/c with a sweet card, but 450mhz core on 9700 seems amazing, are you volting the hell out of it?
