9700 pro and weird graphics takes about 1 hr

[etrin]

Last Nov. I purchased a 9700 pro from atacom. Well they said it was a pro.
After buying this 9700 pro (so it says in the ati listing in xp)
I noticed the clock speed on the core and memory were lower
than a stock 9700.
This had me going big time. a 9700 pro that was slower than a stock 9700.
Using the newest omega drivers with my card I set the clock speeds to 9700 pro
settings.
IF I try to push the memory up I get sparkles on desktop.
using quake 2 and looping I can tell that 292 is MAX on memory and 320 is max on core.
these setting work fine for about an hr maybe a little more. Then in Americas Army
you look at a concrete wall and there are small dots evenly spaced over the wall.
some times there will be a large grey square blocking out some of a room...same place every
round.

I set it back to stock 9700 settings and the artifacting went away.

I think I was sold a bad hacked 9700. Will NOT be buying anything else from this place.

BUT on to my question.

I thought about waiting for the new pci express boards and getting something like an x800 pro express
but Now 2 months after the boards were going to be released no motherboards. People are buying 9800 pros and x800 like there are no tomorrow. I don't want to upgrade now and again in 2 months. (I can't afford all this stuff)

Is everyone seeing pci express boards and ddr2 memory next year or ?????

I want to play doom3 and half life 2 and games like this but I don't want to play at slow frame rates that I know this card is going to give me.

I know I need a better card than I have now, 9800 pro for $200 x800 pro for $400..
or wait?

thanks for your opinions

etrin

 

[huesmann]

I wouldn't hold out for PCI-e anytime soon. If you want to get a new vidcard now, get a 9800p or xt or x800 of some variety.

 

[nanaki333]

9800 XT is a waste of money now, since most stores still carry it at $400+ retail. you can get an x800 pro for that if you can find them and it's basically twice the card as the 9800 XT. you should just get the AGP one, i doubt you'll see much of a performance boost over the pci-e and agp one. hell, the 9800 XT is still overkill for games now, the x800 agp is way beyond overkill.