Geforce 4 ti4400 to Radeon 9500 non-pro w/ softmod...should I?

[bradruth]

I've been thinking about this for a while. I can get the Radeon 9500 non-pro for $140, and I may potentially be able to sell my Geforce 4 ti4400 for around $130 or my Radeon 9100 for ~$60. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade if I could do the softmod? If I couldn't do the softmod, would it still be a justifiable step-up for $10 (or $80)? I'd like to hear a few opinions. Thanks!

System specs:

Antec PerformanceII SX1040BII SOHO Case
Antec 400W Dual-Fan SmartPower PSU
2 Front Intake, 2 Rear Exhaust fans
MSI K7N2-L Delta Nforce2
AMD Athlon XP Barton 2500+ (o/c to 3000+) w/ Thermaltake Volcano 10+
512mb Crucial PC2700 (2x256) @ 400mhz (2.5-3-3-6)
Western Digital Caviar SE 80gb 8mb Cache HD
MSI Geforce 4 ti4400 128mb (o/c to 300/650)
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2
MSI CR52-A2 52x24x52 CD-RW
Lite-On XJ-HD166 16x/48x DVD-ROM
Panasonic 1.44 floppy
Creative Inspire 5.1 5200 Surround Speakers
Gateway EV700 17" Monitor
Windows XP Home

 

[tart666]

Originally posted by: bradruth
Geforce 4 ti4400 to Radeon 9500 non-pro via softmod...

man, that would be rather odd....

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

Originally posted by: tart666

Originally posted by: bradruth
Geforce 4 ti4400 to Radeon 9500 non-pro via softmod...

man, that would be rather odd....

That's what I was thinking, too ... 😉

Anyway, if you're ditching the GF4 and going for the 9500, if you can/can't do the softmod the $10 difference, IMHO, does justify the performance. Going up from the 9100, not so much, but if you can get the softmod to work, it's worth it. The other thing to look at is DirectX 9 capabilities, so if that's something you're looking into, the 9500 isn't all that bad.

 

[pelikan]

I just made that switch from a ti4600 to a 9500 softmod. In my case, however, I bought a used 9500 that had been tested to softmod successfully.
The performance difference after a successful softmod is not so great without AA or AF. However, after overclocking the 9500, the performance difference is very noticable. For example, in UT2003, I was running all details on high except for physics on medium with my Ti4600. With my softmodded 9500 overclocked to 350/290, I run the details on extra high, and physics on high. Also, on any detail level, I think the IQ is better on the 9500.
If your 9500 does not softmod, then it will be far inferior to your ti4400.

 

[bradruth]

Originally posted by: tart666

Originally posted by: bradruth
Geforce 4 ti4400 to Radeon 9500 non-pro via softmod...

man, that would be rather odd....

I rephrased it...that's what I get for starting a thread at 3 in the morning. 😱

Well, I was looking at the Sapphire 9500 at newegg, and judging by the reader reviews (especially the most recent ones), the softmod is VERY possible. The DX9 & better AA/AF is all I would gain if it didn't softmod, but how about if I o/c'd it if the softmod didn't work? Keep the opinions coming, I appreciate 'em.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=14-102-271

 

[pelikan]

They do overclock really well without the softmod. For some reason the softmod limits the overclock. There's a guy who is getting 19K in 3dMark01 with a non-softmodded 9500.
I just read at another forum that a guy bought three 9500's from NewEgg in the past two weeks and none of them softmodded. From polls at various forums the success ratio is still about 50/50.

 

[bradruth]

So it seems that if it does softmod it's definitely worth it, so now the question remains if it's worth it if it doesn't. Will I be taking an acceptable risk?

Also, how do the memory interfaces compare between the two cards? I assume the ti4400 is 128 bit. Just another note, I currently run my ti4400 @ ti4600 speed (300/650) & get 13868 in 3dMark2001.

Ok, I just found some clock speeds for the Radeon series...

9700 pro 325/620
9700 NP 275/540
9500 pro 275/540
9500 NP 275/540

So the only differences between the bottom 3 cards are the memory interface & the pixel pipelines?

 

[ethebubbeth]

yeah, the 9500 non pro is crippled by having four of its pipelines disabled, which i recall also drops the memory bus to 128bit. If you open up the extra four pipelines, it becomes identical to a 9700 non pro (256bit memory bus). The only difference between the non pro 9700 and the pro model is clock speed, their architecture is identical. The 9500 pro is the odd card, it has eight pipelines but only a 128bit memory bus. If the 9500 non pro softmodded succesfully, it would definitely beat out the 9500 pro. Hope i've been helpful. If i'm wrong on any of those stats please correct me.

 

[bradruth]

I think that's all correct, and you have been helpful. Is a bios flash necessary to overclock in either situation? The way it sounds you can o/c when you apply the softmod, but I've seen a different bios on 3dchipset.com that says it enables overclocking.

 

[ethebubbeth]

It depends... sapphire cards tend to come unlocked, so if you were planning on ordering the 9500 non pro sapphire from newegg, you would not need to flash your bios in order to overclock.

 

[bradruth]

That sounds like a pretty good gamble. I think I'll see how much I can get for my ti4400 and then maybe give it a shot.

 

[ArcticChill]

whats a softmod??

 

[bradruth]

Instead of "hard-modding" by soldering, software (modified drivers) is used to unlock the pixel pipelines & memory interface. The drivers access the card as a 9700 rather than a 9500.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

50% chance the mod will work. the Ti4400 is faster. The 9500 will take a smaller drop in AA and AF situations but the rates will be too low to consider playable so you 'll be playing without AA. I would just reccomend that if you're going to upgrade from a Ti440 it should be to a 9700 non pro which is around $200.

 

[bradruth]

Thanks for the advice. What I was thinking of doing is trying the 9500 softmod and if it didn't work, I'd return the card & exchange it for the 9700 or a similiar card.