9500 pro or 9700 non-pro?

[NeuronBasher]

So, I'm in the final stages of putting my new box together and I can't make up my mind what to do for video. I'm already a little over budget (damn that 1800FP deal!) but I don't want to skimp so much that I'm not happy with the results. Here's what I've got so far:

Antec Lanboy case
EPoX 8RDA+
Athlon XP 2100+ Tbred B (w/SK-7 & adjustable fan) - I plan to clock this around 2.1 GHz or so, depending on how things work out.
Winbond PC3200 512MB module x 2
7200 RPM 80GB Maxtor drive
Pioneer DVR-A05
Dell 1800FP 18" LCD

So, I want to be able to run games at the native 1280x1024 on the flatpanel but I'd also like to get a reasonable level of AA and Aniso filtering turned on as well -- am I going to be disappointed with the 9500 Pro at this resolution? I don't want to shell out for a 9700 Pro, especially since I suspect prices will drop pretty substantially next month with the 9800s hitting the streets, but I might be willing to go for a non-pro 9700.

That brings up another point -- anyone have any idea what the price on a 9700 Pro is going to look like next month when the 9800s hit the streets? I might be willing to wait it out a little longer with my GF3 Ti200 if the price drop is going to be enough to make it worth the wait.

Opinions?

 

[Shogun]

Up here in Canada, Future Shop advertised the 9700 Pro for $499 Canadian in their last flyer, that is $150 off the "list price".

It looks like prices are coming down already.

 

[kylebisme]

man, there is realy only like 30usd difference in price around here, i recomend you shop around for the same deal. but realy the 9500pro will do you well if that is what you choose, although you might not be able to realy crank the aa and af all the way on some games being cpu limited like you are. but don't freak out becuase i said cpu limited, i run a 1900+ and am quite happy with my 9700pro.

 

[NeuronBasher]

There's more like a $50 price difference between the two, which is pretty substantial percentage-wise.

 

[kylebisme]

do you mean 50cad though? becuase here in the states it is realy not much money between them, at lest not for what you get.

 

[touchmyichi]

Paying extra for the 9700 will be worth it in the long run. If I were you I would wait until the 9800 comes to the market and drives the prices down even more.

 

[BFG10K]

Buy the fastest card you can afford and the 9700 is definitely the faster card of the two.

 

[WarSong]

i would take the 9700 over the 9500pro

 

[Schadenfroh]

why not get the 9500 non pro and hack it into a 9700

Good Luck

 

[NeuronBasher]

Because there's a reasonable chance that the softmod would result in artifacting that would make the image quality unacceptable to me, in which case I'd be stuck with a gimped 9500 when I could have spent $15-20 more for a considerably more powerful 9500 pro.

I know that the 9700 series is faster than the 9500 pro, but my real question was a price/performance one -- is the performance gain from the 9700 over the 9500 pro worth the cost difference given the requirements I listed above? (ie: 1280x1024, AA + Aniso) At the end of the day, the cost difference is only about $50, but that works out to 27.8% premium over the 9500 pro, and the benchmarks that I've seen for most games don't look like there's anywhere like that much of a performance bump from going to the 9700 non-pro.

Does anyone have a subjective comparison of the two cards that they can offer? FPS numbers are all well and good, but at the end of the day it's all about how the game "feels".

Thanks for the replies so far.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
why not get the 9500 non pro and hack it into a 9700

Good Luck

You summed it up with your second comment: good luck. Not very many of these cards are making it to 9700, even the right cards. Sometimes it takes a little while, but even the ones which do sucessfully mod to 9700 often show artifacts down the road, or with a different driver/BIOS. There is a very good chance the mod won't work.

That said I say go 9700 all the way - the 256-bit memory bus is definately worth it. It bolsters performance a lot!

 

[dajo]

The only difference between the 9700 and the 9700 Pro is clock/mem speed (and possibly the mem chips used), right? I've read that some 9700s are really Pros BIOS locked, and that flashing these cards will yield a 9700 Pro (yeah, I know you guys all know about this already).

In that sense, I am trying to decide between a 9500 Pro and a 9700 retail as the retail would probably be more likely to be a BIOS locked 9700 Pro. On the other hand, you might soon be able to get an OEM 9700 Pro for the same as a 9700 boxed.

Hard to say, but I'm ready for the price drop because I want to upgrade!