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P3 1ghz 100Mhz FSB ATI8500 or ATI9700

H

Highland76

Junior Member
Hi I have a P3 1ghz 100fsb PC with a ATI8500 128MB retail card. I can get a ATI 9700Pro card fairly cheap. Would I get a significant increase in gaming performance using the 9700 with this PC or is it better to save this money and put it towards a major upgrade later down the track?

Any comments welcome!
 
i would save the cash and head for a major upgrade later on
Click to expand...
Definetly.

But, how much are you able to get it for? If it's an AMAZING deal, then get it...If not, wait and also get a new CPU and motherboard/ram.
 
You're not going to see a performance increase really as even your RADEON 8500 is bottlenecked by your CPU. Upgrade your CPU, mobo and RAM and then you'll see performance increase with the 9700 Pro.🙂
 
Depends some on the clocks of the 8500 too as they vary greatly. Have you tried o'erclocking it or the P3? I bet you can wrangle some free performance out of 'em.
 
/deep calming breath
I will not smack the no0b. It is not his fault he's been bamboozled with marketing BS. Do not flame him.
/repeats a few times

Putting a Radeon 9700 into a P3 system is like putting 17" performance tires on a Yugo - there's not enough power driving either. Your 8500 is probably close to overkill as it is.

Save the money for an upgrade. If you can't afford that at the moment, put a fat heatsink/fan on your CPU and try to get it running on the 133MHz FSB (if your motherboard supports it). That would get you to 1.33GHz, more memory bandwidth for that starving Radeon, and a decent performance boost. Check into the CPUs and Overclocking forum and post your information there, I'm sure someone will help. 🙂

- M4H
 
upgrade to a P4 2GHz or above with 512MB of PC2700 with a decent mobo ... till then the 8500 (a flippin good card in its own right) will be fine
 
I don't know about the 8500, but I doubt the 9700 would work with the board you plan on using it with.... Can we say.... Differant AGP spec between vcard & that old 100fsb mobo ? 😉

I'd say most your going to get away with, without a complete overhaul, is a G4 Ti4400 or ATI equivelant.
 
Thanks ALL!...looks like I'll upgrade later on & put the dollars towards it, NYHoustonman, I can pick it up for around $200US over here in Oz from a contact.
 
Use the money you would have spent on the 9700 and go out and get a nForce2 board, a Tbred B 1700+ and 512MB DDR, and overclock it to about 2Ghz+

That will give you a significant increase in everything, and that sort of system will even pull along a 8500 nicely. I saw a thread here today where someone went from a 1800+ to a 2400+ and his graphics got much better, with the same 8500 🙂


Confused
 
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