FX5800 or 9700PRO

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: Rollo
"Out of interest do you get scrolly wavy lines with your 9700 and what do you reckon my chances are if i get one i..e is it 1 in 10 or more common than that"
I had them on my 19" Sony, don't on my 21" Nokia. I don't know what your chances are, but a lot of people have this problem. I love the R9700 though. It really is an awesome card, and it's a steal at $299..

i dont have any issues at all but today i stubled across some links that might help those who do:


here and here.

 

[nRollo]

BFG:
"However if framerate is your only concern as you've hinted in your posts then why aren't you running at 1024 x 768 to instead achieve 105 FPS? Or how about 640 x 480 for a possible 120 FPS?"
Actually, sometimes I do run at 10X7X32 to get those extra fps. Framerate is life in the deathmatch.

"I agree with you that quality anisotropic impacts the performance quite a lot which is why I use performance anisotropic instead, producing performance hits of around 10%-15%"
That's true, but the performance IQ seems a bit more ragged to me.

"Silly comments like this do little to further your cause."
Perhaps, but you have totally disregarded the perspective of the online gamer in your comments. How likely is it the FXs equivalent of ATIs "performance" aniso doesn't offer saisfactory performance?

"Afterall in your lame jokes you didn't seem to feel that addressing jagged edges was a priority."
Hmmm. I thought my jokes were fairly clever and humorous. In any case, 12X10 jaggies are pretty small jaggies.

"Oh, and you do also realise that higher resolutions do more than just increase the visual quality of a game, right? Higher resolutions make targets both easier to see and easier to hit at long ranges. So unless you have a significantly higher framerate, you're at a disadvantage to anyone running at a higher resolution than you are."
Well, for the most part, online shooters are done at fairly close range. For me, 12X10 and 10X7 offer a good compromise. When I want to snipe, I zoom in with alternative fire mode.

"Of those "100s" I wonder how many have overclocked their boards, have poor power supplies and/or other hardware faults."
Well you tell me: I get the scrolling lines with an Asus P4PE (a better motherboard than yours) an Antec 430Watt True Power (a better psu than yours) a P4 2.53 (the same cpu as yours, albeit .13 slower) name brand PC2700, SB Audigy (same as you) Sony HTM A400 19" ($450 after rebate) etc. Not cheap stuff, and on this rig, I got the lines. Nothing overclocked.

 

[nta]

FX baby

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: JamesC

How widespread exactly are these problems that people are experiencing and can i rely on Ati to sort them out, or now the 9800 pro is around will support for the 9700 pro be neglected.

Looks to be 3 of 10 AT users. Another issue I've found is with the 9700pro's ability to run at high FSB speeds, w/ or w/out AGP locking. They simply don't like extreme FSB > ~195MHz, even on nForce2 platforms that support an AGP lock. Not a deal breaker, but for those looking to tweak their PCs to the max, its a bit of a downer.

Originally posted by: BoomAM

I dont know why ppl still critisize ATI for having crap support and poor drivers. There`re equal to nVidia IMO.
They dont release drivers as often, but when they do, its because they need to, not just to say that they update them often.

I must be missing something. Even though their drivers are better than before (not saying much), they're still not up to par with nVidia's. I've used the last 2 generations from both, GF3 and 4 from nV, and 8500 and 9700pro from ATi. I still don't understand why ATi can't put together an install package that combines all the updates into one package that allows you to install what components you want. Its unreal that you have to download 3 or 4 updates for each driver release and go through the ridiculous pains to remove the previous ones. They still don't have a UDA (support for all cards and an all-in-one package), which they've promised for over a year (since the 8500), and the lack of uniformity in each release is just frustrating. I don't even want to rehash all the crap I had to go through to get my TV tuner and all multimedia software to work together, simply b/c ATi has the required drivers and patches scattered across the 4 corners of the earth.

nVidia has never gratuitously released drivers for the hell of it. If you look at their driver releases, they coincide with major product releases or software releases. Considering the GF4 is a very mature product at this point (about a year old and sharing many design cues of the GF3), there hasn't been a recent need for driver updates. Now that the FX family is here based on a different engine, you can expect driver updates based out of necessity which historically have increased both stability/compatibility as well as performance. The 9500/9700pro is 6-7 mos. old now, and people still eagerly await the potential fixes in an update, not for performance improvements, but simply to fix existing issues on older games. Head over to Rage3D and you'll see many of the same issues from 7 months ago.

Oh yah, don't worry Rollo, the humor and sarcasm in your posts wasn't completely lost 😉 😀

But yah, I tend to agree that approach only reciprocates similar replies or none at all, which often leads to the death of an otherwise good discussion.

Chiz

 

[BoomAM]

The Un/Install programs for the ATI drivers are fine for me.
I go to add/remove programs, remove the control panel and drivers, restart, install the new control panel and drivers. Job done.
I dont know where these multiple updates have come from that you mention.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: JamesC

How widespread exactly are these problems that people are experiencing and can i rely on Ati to sort them out, or now the 9800 pro is around will support for the 9700 pro be neglected.

Looks to be 3 of 10 AT users.

also, 9 out of 10 statisticians agree that numbers from a forum where people come to troubleshoot will be extremely inflated in favor of any problem. 😀

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: JamesC

How widespread exactly are these problems that people are experiencing and can i rely on Ati to sort them out, or now the 9800 pro is around will support for the 9700 pro be neglected.

Looks to be 3 of 10 AT users.

also, 9 out of 10 statisticians agree that numbers from a forum where people come to troubleshoot will be extremely inflated in favor of any problem. 😀

This is the exact reason why I don't bother to respond to your posts, you have no clue what you're talking about. When you graduate high school and actually take a statistics class, come back and speak intelligibly. In the meantime, I'll take the time to correct your assumptions and bogus (link please? thought so) assertion.

Notice how I stated 3 of 10 AT users? It doesn't say anything about 3 of 10 R9700pro users, or even 3 of 10 ATi users. Based on your assertion that the only people that vote in a poll about problems are the ones seeking relief from a problem, the 30% is actually LESS representative of the entire population as it is only taking a cross-section of those who are troubleshooting. Not to mention the fact there are tons of other forums where others may frequent for ATi specific troubleshooting, such as Rage3D (where the issue is equally, if not more extensive).

Thanks for clearing it up with that nice statistic about the statisticians though.

Chiz

 

[kylebisme]

i was just pointing out that such a polling is about as good as the "4 out of 5 dentists agree" bs that we see all the time on tv, i am sorry i did not make myself more clear.