ATi 9700 non-pro or wait for GF FX 5900 value

stardust

Golden Member
May 17, 2003
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I heard alot of people recommending the 9700-nonpro as a solution to the ~$200-300 pricerange gfx cards.
I don't know of any faults in the 9700 and im sure there are very few, but something tells me this isn't as directX 9 or future ready as the new and upcomming Geforce FX 5900 Value.

I heard that the non-pro can be OCed to Pro speeds?? but i think my deciding factor would be its ability to run DirectX9 apps w/ AA and AF on.

Is the 9700 non-pro 256-bit memory?

Is the GF FX 5900 Value 256-bit memory?

Why is the nVidia implementation of DirectX9 more sophisticated? Will this affect overall performance and image quality? or just add features to nVidia's "the way it's meant to be played" list of games.


Not many ppl have argued over these points as far as i've seen so plz give all the information u can :D thnks. No flaming plz
 

stardust

Golden Member
May 17, 2003
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heh i kno...gives me time to save money

my budget now is 250

my budget then is 350

im considering a 9800NP now...heh i guess im screwing nVidia now. I gave them enough credit by sucking up to their VP Chris and getting an engineering sample of the 5600U rev2 and some other demo CDS and a free trip inside the Santa Clara base. Always have bought nvidia cards since my dissapointment with the All-in-Wonder 128 PRO a while back when i was in Cananda. I will still be looking for NV cards but i'll be less ignorant about ATI cuz it ain't bliss no more after ur cash flow runs out :Q :(.
 
Apr 17, 2003
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i would wait a few weeks (maybe a month) and grab a 9800 NON pro for $250 (they are $270 right now) and OC to 9800 pro standards
 

stardust

Golden Member
May 17, 2003
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when is opengl 2.0 gunna be in affect...i guess thats the only MAJOR difference between the 9700 and 9800 besides some other minor revisions.
ugh i hate waiting..but improves my patience :D
 

Pete

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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The only improvements the 9800 has over the 9700 are unlimited-length floating-point shaders, HyperZ enabled with stencils (not too sure about this), and improved pixel shader performance. Otherwise, they're the same.

Both the 9700 and 5900V have a 256-bit memory bus.

nVidia's implementation of DX9 is more "sophisticated" in that it allows two floating point (FP) shader precisions, but, according to current DX9 benchmarks (3DM03, Shadermark), it's much slower in FP shaders than ATi's DX9 cards, regardless of precision. ATM I think ATi DX9 cards are a safer bet for future DX9 performance. So I'd probably recommend a 9700 over a 5900 if you're looking for "DX9" (meaning FP shader) performance.
 

stardust

Golden Member
May 17, 2003
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thnks...im looking at the 9800np now haha i jus got some money in the mail today..gunna prolly buy that card in a week