I have an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (not all-in-wonder) that I installed a few years ago. Is this still a video card that can play new games at relatively high graphics? How much longer will this card be able to do this?
Is 9700pro still good enough?
- Thread starter TheSisko87
- Start date
I have an old 9600 kicking around that can still play UT2004 with all the trimmings, but it hides its face in shame when trying to play Halo PC, Half-Life 2, Far Cry, or Doom 3...
You'll have to define "relatively high graphics": one man's crap is another man's gold. What are the rest of the specs of your PC? You may find - like my buddy did - that a newer graphics card won't do anything for him because of his outdated CPU.
You'll have to define "relatively high graphics": one man's crap is another man's gold. What are the rest of the specs of your PC? You may find - like my buddy did - that a newer graphics card won't do anything for him because of his outdated CPU.
A 9700 Pro will still play a lot of games at max settings, namely Half Life 2, Doom 3, FarCry, ect...
However with games as terribly coded as Oblivion out now, there will have to be some serious image quality reduction to make it playable on a 9700 Pro.
However with games as terribly coded as Oblivion out now, there will have to be some serious image quality reduction to make it playable on a 9700 Pro.
To be fair, the 9600 is easily half the speed of a 9700Pro. Although you won't be running FC or Doom3 (and definitely not CoD2/BF2/FEAR/Oblivion or other recent games) at high settings on a 9700Pro/9800/9800Pro, it will certainly be great for HL2 or UT2K4. And you can run newer games at lower resolution/detail settings.
I guess my question should be:
Since I don't have a mobo with pci-express capability, is there any point in buying a new agp vid card or should I wait 2 or so years when I build my next pc?
Since I don't have a mobo with pci-express capability, is there any point in buying a new agp vid card or should I wait 2 or so years when I build my next pc?
I would say upgrading to a 7800GS now would be a very worthwhile upgrade. That gpu would hold you over until you build a new pc.
If you are wating 2 years to get PCIe I would upgrade. The 9700pro will basically be playable on zero games released in the next two years.
9700pro is still a good card as long as 1024x768 with a mixed bag of med and high detail settings is OK with you. All depends on the game and how you like things to look. Unfortunately AGP is not getting any of the high-end stuff, so no matter what you try and feed it you will run into problems with it being able to play next years games at full detail settings no doubt.
Ika
Lifer
- Mar 22, 2006
- 14,264
- 3
- 81
In 2 year the 9700Pro would probably be obsolete if you plan on playing newer games. If you were me, though, you could live with horrible graphics quality and still play old games (MX420 playing Halo PC all the way!). If you do want to play newer games, the upgrade to the 7800GS wouldn't be a bad choice.
JimmyH
Member
- Jul 13, 2000
- 182
- 12
- 81
2 years is a LONG time. If you insist on staying AGP for 2 more years then you might as well go w/ the best. Gainward Bliss 7800 GS 512 MB AGP
Its basically a 512mb 7800gt that should last 2 years at decent settings. If it stays the fastest AGP card ever made then it should hold its value well for a vid card.
Gainward 7800GS
Its basically a 512mb 7800gt that should last 2 years at decent settings. If it stays the fastest AGP card ever made then it should hold its value well for a vid card.
Gainward 7800GS
I have a AXP 3000+, Gigabyte 7N400 pro, 1gb DDR333 and a Gigabyte 9700pro, it can acheive 44fps in Doom3 at 1024x76x32 medium quality.
it runs games like HL2 and Halo perfectly fine at 1024x768x32 max quality, I haven't yet tried it on Fear or COD2 but I dare say that at medium settings it should run those games fine.
But just in case...I have an A64 3000+@2.4GHZ, 1gb DDR400 and a 6800gt to run them
it runs games like HL2 and Halo perfectly fine at 1024x768x32 max quality, I haven't yet tried it on Fear or COD2 but I dare say that at medium settings it should run those games fine.
But just in case...I have an A64 3000+@2.4GHZ, 1gb DDR400 and a 6800gt to run them
if you must keep agp for 2 years upgrade now to a 7800gs or the best by ati. it might just last you 2 years playing games. the 9700 wont run anymore games by the end o this year? unless you wont be playing new games
I can play BF2 at low with my 9800 Pro. I bet that you can play most of the newer games out now but at low settings. The graphics will have to be toned down a bit in order for the card to run smoothly. I went from a 9800 Pro to a 7800GT and I wish sometimes that I had gotten a cheaper card since I don't game much nowadays.
Why can't I say terribly coded? UT2007 looks way better than Oblivion and even before it is out, it runs smoother.
Click on the one called Geforce 7800 demo footage. That shows how the game ran at that point in time at maximum settings on a single Geforce 7800GTX. You will see it both looking much better and running much smoother than Oblivion. The game is much farther along now, so it can be within reason to expect it to be smoother than that.
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/746/746632/vids_1.html
RussianSensation
Elite Member
- Sep 5, 2003
- 19,458
- 765
- 126
Upgrade when you are unhappy with the performance you are getting. If for the games you play 9700Pro is satisfactory at the settings you use, there is no point in upgrading. For example someone who plays at 640x480 noAA/noAF Low image quality will be fine with Geforce 3. Another person wants HDR+AA 1920x1200 and X1900XT Crossfire is too slow for them.
apoppin
Lifer
similar system to mine . . . except i had a 9800xt in it.
the Upgrade to a [$200 AGP] x850xt was AMAZING . . . it doubled most of my games FPS . . . even Oblivion plays excellent at 11x8 with everything 'on' and 'hi' and close to 'max' [self shadows are buggy for my system] and even some AA/AF.
So a 6800GS, x850xt or 7800GS would be "worth it" imo.
:thumbsup:
edit: dguy6789 don't talk NONSENSE about Oblivion. Do you have it or are you just looking at screenshots?
No doubt UT2007 will also look much 'worse' when it is released . . . i am sick of looking at PRErelease video.
:thumbsdown:
Oblivion is superbly coded and runs GREAT on most systems!
[considering it hasn't even been patched yet]
I have Oblivion, and it does run rather smooth for the most part. However it can slow down very badly when you are walking around in the middle of nowhere and are surrounded by foliage. If a patch fixes some performance problems, then I will be delighted, however I have come to expect much less than that from developers.
I do suppose it is a bit much to expect a company to come anywhere close to the likes of Epic, but it would be nice if they could. I have no doubt UT2007 will look as good then as it does now. Just because some company lowers the settings, it does not mean that another will. For the record, every one of Epic's games have been mind blowingly beautiful graphically upon launch, and have always performed well. UT2007 runs on the Unreal Engine 3, which is quite probably the most sophisticated and flexible game engine ever developed. It is not a one trick pony like Oblivion.
I do suppose it is a bit much to expect a company to come anywhere close to the likes of Epic, but it would be nice if they could. I have no doubt UT2007 will look as good then as it does now. Just because some company lowers the settings, it does not mean that another will. For the record, every one of Epic's games have been mind blowingly beautiful graphically upon launch, and have always performed well. UT2007 runs on the Unreal Engine 3, which is quite probably the most sophisticated and flexible game engine ever developed. It is not a one trick pony like Oblivion.
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