Geforce 3 Vs. Radeon 9700 Pro

[MrLips]

I have a Geforce 3 card in my machune now and Im thinking of updating to a Radeon 9700 Pro, how much of an increase in performance can I expect, and should I wait for a newer card.
Thanks



Asus A7V 333
Geforce 3
AthlonXP 2100+
512 pc 2700 ram
Audigy 2
80 gig Western Digital Hard Drive

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Welcome to the forums How much will you get over a G3? ALOT. I would say get it for sue I have had many vid cards till now and its the bets one I have owned hands down. This is the first card that actually delivered the fps it said it would.

 

[MrLips]

I was reading in another forum about power issues, what is the best wattage for this card.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I run a 350 watt with no problems. I wouldnt go below that even though ATI says 300 will work.

 

[Reliant]

Originally posted by: MrLips
I have a Geforce 3 card in my machune now and Im thinking of updating to a Radeon 9700 Pro, how much of an increase in performance can I expect, and should I wait for a newer card.
Thanks



Asus A7V 333
Geforce 3
AthlonXP 2100+
512 pc 2700 ram
Audigy 2
80 gig Western Digital Hard Drive

It will be like night and day.

 

[EdipisReks]

you'll like it. it'll be a huge difference. wanna sell me your Geforce3 for cheap when you get the 9700?

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: EdipisReks
you'll like it. it'll be a huge difference. wanna sell me your Geforce3 for cheap when you get the 9700?

WaTaGuMp<.......................................................has a Leadtek G3 and TI4600 under his bed.

 

[majewski9]

Hmm I am waiting for R350 since FX is a dud and I know once I get the 9700 the 9900 will come out a week or so later. Just like the 9700 did when I bought my Radeon 8500.

 

[IdBuRnS]

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp
I run a 350 watt with no problems. I wouldnt go below that even though ATI says 300 will work.

I run a 9500 Pro in my Shuttle SB51G and it only has a 200w PSU.

 

[EdipisReks]

geforce FX is hardly a dud. especially considering the fact that it hasn't even come out yet and, looking at nVidia's history, will probably sell fairly well.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: EdipisReks
geforce FX is hardly a dud. especially considering the fact that it hasn't even come out yet and, looking at nVidia's history, will probably sell fairly well.

I would be surprised. nVidia has dominated the market for years, but the FX barely matches the performance of the 7-month-old R300, and it has poorer visual quality and requires a VERY noisy fan to do it. I think the noise factor will not endear it to OEM builders, and as an end user I honestly can't see why anyone would buy one over an R300 or R350 (which should dust the FX's performance). I think the FX is even more disappointing than the V5 was, years ago.

 

[BoomAM]

I say go for it.
I upgraded my system from a GF3Ti200@Ti500 to a 9700PRO and the difference, wow.

Just so you know majewski9, the R350 is officialy called the 9800 not 9900, theres info on it on rage3d news.
There are also the new names of the RV280, RV350, and R350(9800).

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: IdBuRnS

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp
I run a 350 watt with no problems. I wouldnt go below that even though ATI says 300 will work.

I run a 9500 Pro in my Shuttle SB51G and it only has a 200w PSU.

You may be able to run your system with a 200 watt psu, but newer chips need more power. Last thing you need to worry about is not having enough power to run your system there are more things to consider like number of case fans, CPU, vid card etc etc.

 

[ScrewFace]

Originally posted by Don_Vito:

would be surprised. nVidia has dominated the market for years, but the FX barely matches the performance of the 7-month-old R300, and it has poorer visual quality and requires a VERY noisy fan to do it. I think the noise factor will not endear it to OEM builders, and as an end user I honestly can't see why anyone would buy one over an R300 or R350 (which should dust the FX's performance). I think the FX is even more disappointing than the V5 was, years ago.[/Q

The 3dfx Voodoo5-5500 wasn't a mistake. It still, IMHO, has the best FSAA and IQ of any card in existence today, The only mistake 3dfx made was to not have the texel rate twice the pixel rate. And that's a fact, jack.

 

[dfloyd]

I would not say night and day difference unless your playing the Doom III tech demo.

But I would say a very noticeable improvement in some games, and at least the ability to run FSAA/AF where you could not before. My Geforce III runs everything I throw at it, including games that my 9700 does not like to run well. I personally wish I had waited to upgrade as from Unreal II down everything runs fine with just my Geforce III.

This is at 1024 x 768 that is. And without FSAA/AF on most games. Before you upgrade I suggest asking yourself, what will my Geforce III not do that requires an upgrade? Not to mention the expected price drop on Ati cards in the next few days.

 

[Goi]

Its a huge upgrade, but IMHO I think your GeForce3 is still a very capable little card, and unless you really need the speed for a game right now that's not performing up to expectations, I'd say you wait a while for the new R350 core and whatever nvidia has up its sleeve to both come out, duke it out, and even if they're too expensive to buy then(or huge disappointments performance wise), they'll surely lower the cost of the current 9700 Pros.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: dfloyd
I would not say night and day difference unless your playing the Doom III tech demo.

But I would say a very noticeable improvement in some games, and at least the ability to run FSAA/AF where you could not before. My Geforce III runs everything I throw at it, including games that my 9700 does not like to run well. I personally wish I had waited to upgrade as from Unreal II down everything runs fine with just my Geforce III.

This is at 1024 x 768 that is. And without FSAA/AF on most games. Before you upgrade I suggest asking yourself, what will my Geforce III not do that requires an upgrade? Not to mention the expected price drop on Ati cards in the next few days.

I dont mean to be rude here but if you think running games at 1024x768 is good then cool. But if you want to run games the BEST you can which is 1280 or 1600 res with AA on then go for a Radeon. I find it funny to play games like Unreal 2 on anything other then with higher res and AA on its not doing justice to a game with graphics that good.

 

[Goi]

Heck, even a Radeon 9700 Pro isn't fast enough to run Unreal II at 1024x768 if you turn up the eye candy...I get framerates less than 10FPS on the "Izanagi Secret Facility" map where you have the defend this technician. Its crazy.

Of course, all my in game settings are at max, both my display control panel sliders are at max, and I have 4XFSAA as well as 16XAF(performance) enabled.

Somethings wrong with the AF though, its not looking very good at all, especially on those metal grilled platforms that appear so frequently in the game. I'd take screenshots but I don't know how. F9 is supposed to do it, but I don't know where the game saves the screenshots.

 

[BoomAM]

Goi,
For a screan shot, do this:-

Get to where you want the screen shot,
press print screen,
gota main menu,
press the start menu button on the keyboard,
load up paint,
paste into paint,
save,
continue playing U2.

Its easyier than searching for some poncy program to do it for you.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I ran Unreal 2 fine with 1280 res 4xAA and 8x AF not 16. I did get a drop at some points but it was so short I didnt even worry about the actuall fps in the game. Maybe it did drop low but not low enough to make the screen choppy at all.

 

[Goi]

You mean printscr works under D3D applications too? Didn't know that...I think Unreal 2 has a button for screen capture though...anyway I don't have a "Start Menu button" on my keyboard

WaTaGuMp mine was pretty choppy during that mission. I used stat fps to track my in game framerate and it was down to below 10FPS

And this is on an overclocked Radeon 9700 Pro on a P4 2.4B @ 3023MHz with 1GB 425MHz DDR memory...if my machine won't run it fast enough nothing will for the next 6 months

 

[Eug]

I tried PrintScreen after a level was finished and I was just looking at the winner, but only the map showed up. The character and the text on screen was absent.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Dont know what to say then cause your system is faster then mine and I didnt have a problem with the game, but like I said I didnt bother using the display to see the fps cause the times it was slow it wasnt bad enough to worry about it for me.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: Eug
I tried PrintScreen after a level was finished and I was just looking at the winner, but only the map showed up. The character and the text on screen was absent.

Dunno whats happened there. It works on my rig, in any game that has the ability to "minimise".

 

[SickBeast]

you guys are all too upgrade-happy.

the geforce 3 is fine in today's games. wait for another 6 months before upgrading. you'll save a ton of money, and when you get the card there will actually be games out that use of its advanced features.