ti4200 or 9500 ??

[MrP]

thats the choice boys (and girls!!)

have sold me old geforce 2 mx (or i will be) so i fancy something a little more fitting with the rest of me system.

can get the geforce 4 ti4200, or the radeon 9500( /pro? )

question is, whats going to be better?

system is
xp1800 @1760mhz
256mb ddr2700 ram
40gb hard disk
win2k or xp or linux (need a reformat)

i quite like the radeon 9500 but there are issues with not being able to overclock and i still need to find out if there is a pro version.

what do you lot rekon?

lets be hearing you

toodles

[Drake]

I'm an ATi fanboy, so I'd say 9500 all the way. As I understand it, the OCing issues are just because no one has figured out how, and not because it isn't possible.

[EDIT]: Hmm, check this out from the [H]. Seems a BIOS update fixes the unoverclockability of the 9500. Here's the link (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDA5).

Also, here's a comparison (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Mzk2LDI=) of the 4200, 4600, and 9500.

[MrP]

read that.

have been looking for a review on the plain 9500 rather than the pro version to see how much difference there is.

am definatly siding with the 9500 at the mo, but as i'm going to have to get it between now and the begninning of jan i'm wundering if enough are going to be about :(

toodles

[Farabomb]

I may have more insight by the end of the weekend. I'm picking up a new vid card this weekend and if I can afford it I may be getting a 9500.

Or a gainward 4200 :)

[Drake]

Arr, didn't realize that was the pro version.

But, if there's nothing taxing your GF2 too greatly, I'd say wait for the FX and take advantage of a price drop. Certainly, the prices won't have any other direction to go :D.

[Farabomb]

Besides price what's the difference between the 9500 and the pro?

[MrP]

Originally posted by Farabomb
Besides price what's the difference between the 9500 and the pro?

from what i can tell the non-pro has 4 pipelines, the pro has 8.

how much difference that makes to the performance i dunno at the mo :(

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021202/radeon_9500-02.html

toodles

[4.6POWER]

the only gaming graphics cards I would consider now would be: (in order of affordability)

ti4200
9500pro
9700pro

[MrP]

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9500_pro_overclock/default.asp

overclocking a 9500 pro

next question, a little bird tells me the driver support on the ati cards is still shite?

true or false?

toodles

[NorthernYankee]

Originally posted by MrP
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9500_pro_overclock/default.asp

overclocking a 9500 pro

next question, a little bird tells me the driver support on the ati cards is still shite?

true or false?

toodles

Ati has improved their driver support to the levl of nVidia if not better.

--NY

[Drake]

However, the drivers don't come out as often as nVidia's, nor are they as large. Good thing and bad thing... but if they release a driver that is horrid, then you're stuck with it for awhile.

I've been noticing them coming out in less than month from one another, which is a big improvement over their previous every-other-month releases.

The Cat 2.5's did wonders for me. Can't wait to try 3.0 :D.

[speculative]

Well, no sooner does MS release DX9 but ATI has released version 3.0 of their splendid Catalyst drivers!

http://www.rage3d.com/

They just got a 35% increase in performance in Jedi Knight II at high resolutions. They definitely work on their drivers nowadays and unless you like installing new drivers as a hobby, the ATI drivers come out plenty frequently for the average gamer.

Also, why would you want to buy a 4200 and try to OC it to 4600 standards... when you could buy a 9500 Pro that outperforms the 4600 in many ways in non-OC mode?

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Mzk2

Really just depends on what you like, but the ATI drivers have treated me really well this year, and I'm impressed with this 9500 Pro which replaced my old Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO model.

-speculative

[Drake]

ATI drivers have treated me really well this yearHo, aye! Me too. Went from 6500 some to 8700 some 3D Marks.

[speculative]

Very cool Drake! Btw - have you seen this link?

http://www.rathergood.com/vikings/

:D

-speculative

[Drake]

Aye, it's been in my Favorites for awhile ^.^

I can feel the 10k mark in my reach... it's right there! But no, I'm stuck with 9819 (mah siggy)

Maybe DX9 will change things if I ever get it. *grumbles* been going 60kbps for most the time, sometimes dipping into 30kbps. I don't think the MS servers like me :(.

[speculative]

Hey MrP, I just found this link by browsing through the Rage3D forums while looking for DX9 info:

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9500_pro_overclock/default.asp

we were able to successfully overclock our RADEON 9500 PRO board to a core clock of 355MHz and a memory clock of 315MHz! That’s an increase of 23% and 14% respectively!

Once overclocked, the RADEON 9500 PRO becomes an even more remarkable performer. The entire GeForce4 series is left in the dust, and in some cases we’ve seen that RADEON 9500 PRO is capable of outperforming a vanilla RADEON 9700! ATI must have felt that an overclocked RADEON 9500 PRO would have been too tempting for most gamers to pass up, hurting RADEON 9700 sales.

Keep in mind this involves flashing the vid card's BIOS though....

-speculative

[MrP]

cheers spec.

read about that last nite, however i'm hearing about loads of problems with directx 9 and catalst 3.0 drivers.

dunno which is causing the problem, but it seems to be directx 9 att he mo :(

hmmm, more thinking to do

toodles

[Farabomb]

I just got back from the show with a new 9500Pro. I'm not brave enough to try DX9 yet but I did install the 3.0's but had a problem. I don't think it's a driver issue I just think the card does not like 200fsb. 190 is working fine and got 11342 3D marks on the first run :)

I'll be playing with this card most of the day so I'll see if it will overclock :D

[NorthernYankee]

So how much did that baby set you back?

--NY

[Farabomb]

$190.00

Just installed DX9 and the 3.0's and got 200 more on 3D :D

I'm a little scared to flash the BIOS so I can clock it. I think I'll get over it though. ;)

[speculative]

I'll need to try out some more games before I can give an opinion on the mix, but I installed DX9 and the Catalyst 3.0's in one shot before benching, and got somewhere around 500-700 more 3dmarks. That hit the spot! :djsmiles:

-speculative

[speculative]

UT2003 is sweeeeeeeetly running now on this vid card. I thought I had graphical tearing in some of the shallow water on Antalas, so I stopped to look, and realized that it was the water reflecting the trees and the sky above me upside-down. :eek: (I'm running it all settings maxed out @ 1024x768 and it's running nice.)

Edit: Morrowind ran a bit slow on my Radeon64MB DDR, but I just fired it up and wow, nice. The water in the town I was in is kind of like that water in the 2nd nature scene in 3DMark...

-spec