Radeon 9500 Pro

[jtown]

Does it matter if I get retail/OEM/or the Sapphire version? There seems to be a significant price difference with all of them.

 

[Krk3561]

Retail - card comes in a box

OEM - the card, drivers, cables, etc. (basically same as retail w/o box)

Sapphire - the card with a different heatsink/fan (Sapphire one, cools the same), comes in box

They all are the same. Sapphire makes ATI's cards.

 

[jtown]

ok cool ... I'll just find the cheapest one then. I guess that hack for the 9500 to 9700 is gone by now huh?

 

[human2k]

I'd get the sapphire, WHY? Becuz they come with an unlocked BIOS so you can overclock with rivatuner or any low level overclocking utility right out of the box. Wif a lil luck, you can get that 9500 PRO to 9700 speeds.


Goodluck.

 

[jtown]

actually, I do see a lot of these on ebay that seem to be hackable. would you guys recommend going that route?

 

[human2k]

its a gamble, you might win (like me), you might not.

 

[Krk3561]

Go OEM, its the cheapest and flashing the bios to the overclockable one is easy and simple, I did it and knew nothing about flashing graphics cards when I did it.

 

[Davegod]

what happens i fyou get a 9500 that doesnt want to do the 9700 thing? Is it very likely to still do at least normal 9500 after a failed attempt, or there much chance of borking the thing completely?

 

[Krk3561]

I think most 9500's (non-pro) that were moddable to 9700's (non-pro) are all sold out now. Sapphire has started to distribute to resellers the black PCB model which is unmoddable. The best option is to go with a OEM 9500 PRO, because a 9500 that isnt moddable is nothing compared to a Pro model.

 

[jtown]

check ebay ... they have a few that picture red cards and they say it's the same layout as the 9700.