• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

In retrospect, is the 9700 PRO the best card ever?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Originally posted by: NEVERwinter
It's the second in history.. after the infamous 3dfx voodoo
Click to expand...


I don't see what makes it that incredible. The vodoo was way different then anything out at the time. The 9700pro on the other hand was pretty much just a better version of stuff already out. To me its just another in a long line of incremental video updates.
 
The origional 3dfx voodoo 1 was the most revolutionary card to be released.
next on the list was the geforce 2 gts, then the radion 9700 pro. IMHO
 
Yes, I think it's the best card ever.

Voodoo boards may have dominated once but the 9700 Pro came out of nowhere and not only dethroned the undisputed king at the time (nVidia), it has survived as a high-end board for 18 months, which in this hectic industry is absolutely amazing.

Other amazing cards are the Voodoo 1, Voodoo2 SLI and the GeForce DDR but I feel the 9700 Pro is better than all of them when taken into the context of when they were all released.
 
Originally posted by: BFG10K
Yes, I think it's the best card ever.

Voodoo boards may have dominated once but the 9700 Pro came out of nowhere and not only dethroned the undisputed king at the time (nVidia), it has survived as a high-end board for 18 months, which in this hectic industry is absolutely amazing.

Other amazing cards are the Voodoo 1, Voodoo2 SLI and the GeForce DDR but I feel the 9700 Pro is better than all of them when taken into the context of when they were all released.
Click to expand...


If I remember my timelines right I don't really agree. Though some of this was long enough ago I may be abit fuzzy on it. Wasn't the Ti4600 out already? While the 9700pro is quite abit better, I don't think it was "Oh my god" better. More of an improvement on stuff you could already do. Whereas the Vodoo 1 came out and it was "Oh my god" better then anything else at the time. You could do stuff with it that you couldn't do with anything else at the time. The 9700pro didn't really change the way you could use a graphics card, just allowed you to do pretty much what you could do before faster.
 
Wasn't the Ti4600 out already?
Click to expand...
Yes and the 9700 Pro absolutely demolished it.

While the 9700pro is quite abit better, I don't think it was "Oh my god" better.
Click to expand...
It most certainly was; some of my benchmark scores increased to three times what they were with the Ti4600 at identical settings, even while the 9700 Pro was providing better IQ too. The Ti4600 had absolutely horrendous AF performance.
 
Originally posted by: BFG10K
Wasn't the Ti4600 out already?
Click to expand...
Yes and the 9700 Pro absolutely demolished it.

While the 9700pro is quite abit better, I don't think it was "Oh my god" better.
Click to expand...
It most certainly was; some of my benchmark scores increased to three times what they were with the Ti4600 at identical settings, even while the 9700 Pro was providing better IQ too. The Ti4600 had absolutely horrendous AF performance.
Click to expand...

Well, I know the 9700pro beat the Ti4600 around. But it was mainly just a speed thing (I can't compare IQ on the two). While the vodoo1 changed the way you could play games in all kinds of ways. I do think the 9700pro was a great card, I just don't see it as a huge leap forward. I think for me personally two milestones in video would be =

Vodoo 1. And to a lesser extant Vodoo 2 with SLI. Lmao, when I got my SLI set up I was ecstatic. I could actually play Falcon 4.0 with a lot of settings cranked.

And well behind the vodoo line the early GeoForce cards. At the time they pretty much came out of nowhere with a great 3d chip to compete and eventually win against 3dfx.

I just don't think the 9700pro competes against those for impact on the graphics card scene.
 
Well, all I can say is that I was FAR more impressed with my voodoo cards than I was with the Radeon 9700P/9800NP I owned in the past. 3D acceleration really didn't exist for gamers before 3Dfx. The Radeons made it much better for sure but they didn't pioneer any new territory IMO.
 
Originally posted by: Megatomic
The Voodoo cards were the best, even the V2s were only incremental upgrades to them. Those cards revolutionized 3D gaming. All the cards that followed only built on the groundwork that that 3Dfx laid down.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'd say the 9700Pro is the best since the Voodoo. ATI really kicked it up a knotch with it.
 
9700Pro -- Evolutionary, not revolutionary. Hasn't this discussion been had before?

Anyway, the Voodoo was revolutionary and paved the way for the 3d video card, but the 9700 has ushered in a new way of thinking. Following API specifications, not compromising image quality for raw speed, etc...
 
Isn't this a little like arguing about , "what was more revolutionary? The plane the Write brothers flew, or the space shuttle"?

Sure the VooDoo started it all, (appologies to Rendition owners) but the 9700 pro took it to a whole new level.

If you had a 9700Pro in your computer a year and a half ago, you didn't have to choose between speed and image quality anymore. AA/AF at high resolutions was effortless. And it's still a high end card today.

8 years ago, you did have to choose. If you wanted speed, you got a VooDoo and played GLQuake, if you wanted image quality, you got yourself a Rendition card and played VQuake. Of course, raw speed was more important in those days, and the VooDoo claimed it's rightful place in the history books.

The only two video cards I consider revolutions are the VooDoo and the 9700Pro.
The VooDoo for starting it all, and the 9700Pro for bringing features like AA/AF at high resolution, outstanding image quality with incredable speed, all in one card.

Hopefully we won't have to wait another 8 years for another truely revolutionary video card.


 
I agree, I have had this card for like 2 years now and I don't forsee upgrading for at least another year. It seems that with a bit of oc, you can almost match the top-end stuff now (over 2 years after release for crying out loud) and I doubt the 9700 Pro will be a "slow" performer in relation to other cards until another year, maybe a year-and-a-half has gone by. For IQ reasons alone, I'd take a 9700 Pro over any nVidia card out today. In the recent history of video cards, the 9700 Pro is definitely a stand-out. Next up I would say is the GF3 (original) I had that thing for over 2 years as well, oc'd to ti4400 speeds 🙂.
 
Originally posted by: Alptraum
Well, I know the 9700pro beat the Ti4600 around. But it was mainly just a speed thing (I can't compare IQ on the two). While the vodoo1 changed the way you could play games in all kinds of ways.
Click to expand...
You don't think that making AA and AF usable at moderate settings with record low performance drops "changes the way you could play games"? The entire IQ experience of the games goes from jagged edges (even at 1600x1200 they're noticeable) to smooth everything. Considering where the previous generation of Radeons (8500) sat in terms of performance, where the GF4 Ti4600s sat in terms of performance, and where the card designed to kill the R9700Pro (FX5800U) ended up performing, I'd say damn straight it's the best card in the last 5 years to say the very least. What you have with the R9700Pro was a card that when it first busted onto the scene annihilated the existing top dog, and proceeded to maintain its edge over competitor's boards for well over a year. It wasn't until the introduction of the FX5900s and 5950s that the 9700Pro didn't consistently outperform the competition. Don't underestimate what the R9700Pro did -- it caused a shift towards constant use of AA/AF by allowing you to play every game out at acceptable frame rate at 4xAA/8xAF.

I'm using a GeForce 3 Ti200 at the moment, and I've had the pleasure of using a Radeon 8500, GF4Ti4600, and an R9700Pro on a friend's system. Bar none the R9700Pro handily whipped the competition that came before it, and still gives the latest cards a pretty decent run for their money when you consider how much you can get them for.

 
jagged edges are barely noticable at 1600x1200. you have to really look for em. id rather play at high-res with no or 2xaa than lower res with higher aa. maybe for people with little monitors lowres with aa makes sense.

JB
 
After the Voodoo, this is the most significant gaming card yet built. The Voodoo allowed us to play actual 3d games in OpenGL and Glide, and the 9700Pro was the first card to let us play games at acceptable framerates with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering enabled. It was also the first major card that could handle DX9 features, and it dethroned longtime king nVidia in one fell swoop. Add the fact that it's still an excellent card 16 months after its release, and I'd say you've got some revolutionary hardware. Yeah, I said it, revolutionary. I agree that the hardware itself is evolutionary, but its effects were definitely a revolution in graphics.
 
Well, I don't think there is much more I can say. We all have our own opinions. I agree it was a great card. But it wasn't shocking to me or anything. It was just a matter of time before video cards got to the point the 9700pro was at. It got there first, but thats not terribly exciting to me.
 
I'll have to say the VooDoo was with out a doubt, the greatest thing to happen to 3d gaming. It's not even close. That card is the reason behind the current 3d gaming industry.

I remember when the original Quake was released and playing it a laughable 320x200 resolution, in software mode, and thinking "man, this game is SO cool." Then I got a VooDoo card and instantly I had almost double resolution and twice the FPS. Now this was REALLY cool! Then glquake was released and would only run on a VooDoo card. I downloaded it and installed it. Ran it. I think the words earlier were "Oh my God!" My jaw was on the floor. It was breathtaking. Every texture properly rendered. Amazing colors and brightness. And, it ran at 640x480 at 60fps, insanely fast for the time. It was like going from playing pong on your TV to playing Dragons Lair at the arcade. Nothing since has made that much of an improvement in speed, playability and IQ. Those of you that experienced it know exactly what I mean.

Now there have been some damn fine cards since then, most from nVidia and now from ATI, but none of them had near the impact that the VooDoo had.
 
My Voodoo II card was the best card ever. No other card worked perfectly out of the box. I remember I didn't even bother updating drivers back then like I do now. All games worked perfectly out of the box.
 
Originally posted by: Megatomic
The Voodoo cards were the best, even the V2s were only incremental upgrades to them. Those cards revolutionized 3D gaming. All the cards that followed only built on the groundwork that that 3Dfx laid down.
Click to expand...

Which is why we all still use glide and cards have more TMU's than pipes, right?
 
And well behind the vodoo line the early GeoForce cards. At the time they pretty much came out of nowhere with a great 3d chip to compete and eventually win against 3dfx.
Click to expand...
3dfx were already floundering on their own accord with the Voodoo3 and then with delays in the Voodoo4 and Voodoo5.
 
I'm not trying to start probs, in any way shape or form, but I have 3 cards here, wifes sytem,=ti4600, My rig, =FX5900, and my cruncher for D2OL, which is where I opted to put my Radeon 9800 Pro due to their drivers. Nuff said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top