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Radeon 9500 Pro / 9700 vs. GF FX 5200 Ultra...

H

Hott Nikkels

Member
I have to choose one, a friend said he'd give me the Radeon 9500 Pro / 9700 128mb, since he's upgrading, andfor his spare box won't need a good vid card. Since I only have 1 box, a main box, should I keep my GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 128mb or take the radeon... I don't know which is better...

Any input....
 
Originally posted by: Hott Nikkels
I have to choose one, a friend said he'd give me the Radeon 9500 Pro / 9700 128mb, since he's upgrading, andfor his spare box won't need a good vid card. Since I only have 1 box, a main box, should I keep my GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 128mb or take the radeon... I don't know which is better...

Any input....
Click to expand...

the 9700 will KILL the 5200

no contest
 
Originally posted by: Hott Nikkels
I have to choose one, a friend said he'd give me the Radeon 9500 Pro / 9700 128mb, since he's upgrading, andfor his spare box won't need a good vid card. Since I only have 1 box, a main box, should I keep my GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 128mb or take the radeon... I don't know which is better...

Any input....
Click to expand...


Take the 9700, take it , take it !
 
is the radeon 9500 pro / 9700 the same as a 9700... i cant tell if this card is a 9500 pro, a 9700, or a 9700 pro

it just lists as a radeon 9500 pro / 9700
 
Originally posted by: Hott Nikkels
is the radeon 9500 pro / 9700 the same as a 9700... i cant tell if this card is a 9500 pro, a 9700, or a 9700 pro

it just lists as a radeon 9500 pro / 9700
Click to expand...

the 9700 is quite a bit faster. still, a 9500 pro would kill the 5200
 
Originally posted by: Hott Nikkels
is the radeon 9500 pro / 9700 the same as a 9700... i cant tell if this card is a 9500 pro, a 9700, or a 9700 pro

it just lists as a radeon 9500 pro / 9700
Click to expand...


If they are listing it as a 9500pro / 9700 then it's really a 9500pro.

9500 pro has 8 pipelines (like the 9700) but 128bit memory (9700 has 256 bit memory). the GPU will likely overclock to 9700 pro speeds, but the memory will never come close. However most recent games are more dependent on shaders, and thus GPU speed than memory speed, somewhat reversing the trend a couple years ago where memory speed was so important. You can see this in the Tom's hardware benchmarks by comparing the 9500, 9500 pro and 9700 because they all use the same core and clock speeds:

9500 = 4 pipelines / 256 bit memory
9500 pro = 8 pipelines / 128 bit memory
9700 = 8 pipelines / 256 bit memory

So the 9500 is a 9700 with half the pixel and shader performance
and a 9500 pro is a 9700 with half the memory bandwidth

Some 9500pro cards would not overclock with the stock BIOS, and needed to be flashed with a 9700 BIOS (same default clock speeds) in order to be able to overclock the card. This is probably why it is listed as a 9500 pro / 9700. With the 9700 BIOS it may show up as a 9700 in detection programs like SiSoft, but in actuality it only has 128bit memory, making it a 9500 pro.
 
Wow thanks a lot, lots of good information there. Is there any recommended utility used for overclocking the GPU... I have most recent ATI drivers right now, it's running good.

Still, would you have chosen the 9500 pro over the gf fx 5200 ultra?
 
Hott Nikkels, 2~2.5 years ago I was completely ignorant about PC parts. I was in the market for a video upgrade from my 64MB GF2 MX200. Now, I was assuming that a 5200 Ultra would be a great upgrade for 100$. It was nVidia, it was 3 generations later. Right? WRONG! I saw anand's benchmarks where a 9500 pro smashed even a 5600 Ultra. I realized I didn't know jack. 200$ investment in a 9500 pro and I'm happy as can be. You'll be happy with the 9500 pro, better image quality, higher performance. 9500 pro is really just a step down from 9700, not like the 9600 pro was a whole floor down from a 9800.
 
Originally posted by: Hott Nikkels
I have to choose one, a friend said he'd give me the Radeon 9500 Pro / 9700 128mb, since he's upgrading, andfor his spare box won't need a good vid card. Since I only have 1 box, a main box, should I keep my GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 128mb or take the radeon... I don't know which is better...

Any input....
Click to expand...

This review contains results for a radeon 9600, geforce 5200 ultra and geforce4 ti4200

This review contains a 6600 gt, 9700 pro, 9600 xt (which I presume is fairly close to the performance of your 9500 pro) and a 5900 xt
 
Originally posted by: Concillian
9500 = 4 pipelines / 256 bit memory
9500 pro = 8 pipelines / 128 bit memory
9700 = 8 pipelines / 256 bit memory
Click to expand...

Not all 9500np's are 256bit. Only the L-shaped memory configuration are 256bit. The I shaped memory configuration is 128-bit.

anyways 9500pro is the best card for the money. These cards can be bought on ebay for $60 shipped. 9500np usually runs about the same on ebay, with not a big performance loss. the 9600 wasn't even worth ATI making. Every performance test I saw puts the 9500 ahead of the 9600 since the 9600 was only a 4-pipeline card. the 9500p beats the 9600p and the 9500np beats the 9600np.
 
Originally posted by: LukeMan
Originally posted by: Concillian
9500 = 4 pipelines / 256 bit memory
9500 pro = 8 pipelines / 128 bit memory
9700 = 8 pipelines / 256 bit memory
Click to expand...

Not all 9500np's are 256bit. Only the L-shaped memory configuration are 256bit. The I shaped memory configuration is 128-bit.
Click to expand...

Even at the the L shaped ones did not have the other 128bit memory interface enabled. You had to mod them with a BIOS and they did work like 50% of the time.
 
so according to the link, the 9500np with L shaped memory can be modded to a 9700np, which performs faster than a 9500pro, pretty interesting.
 
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