Radeon 9700 NP Clock speeds??

[dguy6789]

I found this 9700 non pro.

http://www.pcrapids.com/home.asp?pw=y&pwl=search/productdesc.asp?lsskuid=VidPow128M01977


I was wondering, it says the clocks are 275/540, Are these regular clocks? And would it be worth it for 207 bucks, how much performance increase would i see from a 9000 pro 128mb?

 

[AnAndAustin]

YES 9700 (std) uses 275/270 clocks (RAM is DDR so 540 effective). The 9000pro is still slower than the old 8500 which in turn is way slower than a Rad9500pro let alone the faster 9700nonPRO. The 9700 is very good esp when o/c'ed as 9700pro speeds always seem easily achievable (gfx BIOS flash may be needed). The 9600pro is a more progressive step, much closer to the 9700 than the 9000pro and should cost a great deal less.

 

[modedepe]

Uh...a 9700np would absolutely kill a 9000pro. You'd see a huge increase in performance, assuming of course you weren't putting it in some pos system.

 

[dguy6789]

ok thanks.

 

[jgaspar]

and compared to a GF3 Ti500 ? you think is it worth the money ? I'm consediring also to buy a 9700np but I can't find a single website which compares the non-pro with a GF3 how much I could expect gaining with the upgrade...

thanks

 

[Mem]

and compared to a GF3 Ti500 ? you think is it worth the money ? I'm consediring also to buy a 9700np but I can't find a single website which compares the non-pro with a GF3 how much I could expect gaining with the upgrade...

Yes it`s ,even before you turn on the AF,AA , the GF3 TI500 will be dust,the 9700NP is a lot faster.

Btw what CPU do you`ve?

Btw jgaspar ,welcome to the AT forums .

 

[Lonyo]

GF3 Ti 500 is better than the 9000Pro, but not loads better, just a bit better, so you'd probably see a nice boost, and especially when it came to AA/AF.

 

[AnAndAustin]

The Rad9000pro is on par with a GF3TI200, roughly 20% slower than a Rad8500 or GF3TI500 which in turn are roughly 15% slower than a GF4TI4200 although the GF4TI really pulls away as the CPU power increases. The 9600pro is about the same speed as a GF4TI4200, the Rad9700nonPRO is easily faster than a GF4TI4600/4800. If you check the 9700 reviews you can estimate where your Rad9000pro card is by looking at Rad8500 perf, GF3 perf or to a lesser extent GF4TI4200 as your card is a little way slower than these. The Rad9700nonPRO is 15%ish slower than the 9700PRO.

In terms of other enhancements, Rad9000pro, Rad8500, GF3 and GF4TI are all DX8 based, Rad9500 (and higher) and GF-FX are DX9 based although nothing needs that yet and is unlikely to for about 6 months. When it comes to AA and AF the Rad9000pro just like the Rad8500 can do AF pretty well but totally suck at AA. The GF3 & GF4TI can do great 2xAA but are killed by 4xAA, AF is fine so long as you keep it pretty low (2x or 4x). The DX9 cards are able to run AA+AF even up to max, perf hits are small but you really need speeds around Rad9600pro or GF-FX5600ultra for that to be feasible certainly in the latest games.

So Rad9600pro or GF-FX5600ultra will yield much better results than your current Rad9000pro, not only pure speed but in DX9 readiness and excellent AA+AF too. The Rad9700 even the nonPRO takes things very decently higher but then that's reflected in the cost of these higher cards. What perf you get will depend upon your CPU to a large extent, it makes much more sense to have a more powerful gfx card than CPU and if your CPU is underpowered you can soak up some of the untapped gfx power by enabling AA+AF and upping the details and res. So as Mem says, what CPU are you running?

 

[jgaspar]

Originally posted by: Mem

and compared to a GF3 Ti500 ? you think is it worth the money ? I'm consediring also to buy a 9700np but I can't find a single website which compares the non-pro with a GF3 how much I could expect gaining with the upgrade...

Yes it`s ,even before you turn on the AF,AA , the GF3 TI500 will be dust,the 9700NP is a lot faster.

Btw what CPU do you`ve?

Btw jgaspar ,welcome to the AT forums .

Great thanks a lot for your quick answer

my CPU is an Athlon 2400XP ... hope it's enough to feed an 9700np, isn't it?

 

[Mem]

my CPU is an Athlon 2400XP ... hope it's enough to feed an 9700np, isn't it?

Yep it sure is,infact a 9700 Pro or 9800NP would be fine with that CPU as well.

 

[jgaspar]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustin
depend upon your CPU to a large extent, it makes much more sense to have a more powerful gfx card than CPU and if your CPU is underpowered you can soak up some of the untapped gfx power by enabling AA+AF and upping the details and res. So as Mem says, what CPU are you running?

thanks you too for such a perfect answer

as told to Mem, my system is an athlon xp2400/768DDR266 ... not top-notch I know, but hope it'll be enough to feed the board :?

probably, along with the 9700 I'll get an asus ddr400 agpx8 and two 512 ddr400 DIMS ...although that's not for sure, it dependes on how much money will all cost at the end ...still got to check it

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yeah the XP2400+ is mighty fine and will get great results form all the mid to high end gfx cards out there. You lose a little perf in using 266FSB and DDR266-PC2100 over 333FSB and DDR333-PC2700 butnothing huge. The XP2400+ is TbredB and as such unlocked, if your RAM and mobo can handle 333FSB then it would make sense to reduce the multiplier (mobo permitting). Gains from 400FSB & DDR400-PC3200 aren't that significant even at higher clock speeds than your CPU so I'd only suggest investing the money if your current kit can't run 333FSB. Do rem that even an XP2400+ at 266FSB with DDR266-PC2100 is an awesome gaming machine when you drop the likes of a Rad9700 in there ... see how that goes and if you want more look to a CPU, mobo and RAM upgrade. If your cooling and air flow are up to it and you don't mind o/c'ing you should find that XP2400+ will run at least 2.16ghz (XP2700+) if not higher.

 

[jgaspar]

Originally posted by: Mem

my CPU is an Athlon 2400XP ... hope it's enough to feed an 9700np, isn't it?

Yep it sure is,infact a 9700 Pro or 9800NP would be fine with that CPU as well.

great

I'll go to fetch it this afternoon....I'll let you know how I find it

Thanks again

 

[Mem]

jgaspar, if you`re not doing a reformat clean install of OS with your new card I recommend you use Driver Cleaner 1.9 from
here to remove your old Nvidia drivers (instructions are in the readme file once downloaded),works great .

 

[jgaspar]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustin
that even an XP2400+ at 266FSB with DDR266-PC2100 is an awesome gaming machine when you drop the likes of a Rad9700 in there ... see how that goes and if you want more look to a CPU, mobo and RAM upgrade. If your cooling and air flow are up to it and you don't mind o/c'ing you should find that XP2400+ will run at least 2.16ghz (XP2700+) if not higher.

I did assume that cpu multipliers were still locked, darn... i did not take a moment to check it ...that's great news for me, thanks

about cooling...think I should be fine here, recently I bought a thermaltake 2000A case which comes with 7 fans & a rheobus...although I live in Barcelona (Spain)...and here we manage to get easily up to 35C during summer lol (you cannot live without A/A here these days ) and will surely not help o/c'ing )

anyways thanks again for the o/c'ing tip...I'll try it to see how my system handles this speed bump... my current mobo is an asus a7v and if i'm not wrong, it permits you to change multiplier settings from the bios ...so it's worth the try


Thank you again

 

[jgaspar]

Originally posted by: Mem[/ihere to remove your old Nvidia drivers

Cool will do it thanks !

 

[AnAndAustin]

:Q Asus A7V is KT133 isn't it? That's way old and incapable of using DDR RAM. Are you sure that's what you're running? Even KT266 have problems with the faster AthlonXP (TbredB/Barton based).

 

[dguy6789]

thanks people, my cpu is an athlon xp 2000, but it is at 333 fsb with dual channel ddr 333. 10.0 X 166

 

[jgaspar]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustin
:Q Asus A7V is KT133 isn't it? That's way old and incapable of using DDR RAM. Are you sure that's what you're running? Even KT266 have problems with the faster AthlonXP (TbredB/Barton based).

sorry for replying so late...

finally I bought it ! found a Club3d 9700np for 250E ( about the same in $ I think ) and got it ... also, finally managed to get an ASUS A7Vx8 + 2xDDR333 dims for a fair price so I've spent most of the day reinstalling everything from scratch just in case

You really were right ... 9700np is an awesome board compared to GF3 ti500 ... much faster and brings higher quality graphics, I've been very impressed specially with this... even in 2D I've seen a noticeable improvement...image now offers a much better contrast and sharpness, that was really a surprise to me...as I did not expect any improvements in 2D

I'm really happy with it specially after reading many success reports on overclocking it up to 9700pro clock speeds relatively easy. Still got to try it though...so far I've only flashed the bios with one that removes the bios lock 9700nps seems to have activated to prevent oc'ing

About A7V KT133...yes and no, A7V series started with KT133 chipset I think...but the one I own(ed) was the KT266A ...been running the XP2400 for 4 months or so on this mobo and had no problems at all and before, for more than a year, I've had an XP2000 working quite stable too... I remember though, KT266 (non 'A') had not too good reviews at the time...that might be the reason I havent had any problems ...

ah! one last thing...been able to overclock very well the XP2400! right now I have it running at 166x13.0 ( 2.15Mhz) rock stable ...just one annyoing thing, if I overclock the 2400XP I cannot perform soft/hardware reboots :? ...if I do, system will always lock up before POST...instead, if I power down/up the system, everything works perfectly (bios settings remain intact) ...I've flashed the mobo bios to 1006 version, but still the same....don't know why this could be happening :?

 

[Mem]

jgaspar,I`m glad you like your card and welcome to the 9700NP club or should I say ATI club .

As to your last question I presume you`ve a good quality PSU?You might be better off posting your problem about OC in the "CPU/overclocking forum".

 

[Blacklotus]

Originally posted by: Mem
jgaspar,I`m glad you like your card and welcome to the 9700NP club or should I say ATI club .
As to your last question I presume you`ve a good quality PSU?You might be better off posting your problem about OC in the "CPU/overclocking forum".

Thanks Mem

yes, I think my PSU should be ok....it's a 400W Super flower ...so I supose it must be enough.... ( what an ugly name for a PSU btw )

I'll better move this thread to CPU/Oc'ing as you suggested

btw ... I've swapped to my usual nick, Blacklotus ... still don't know why I used my real name when I registered last day....well, a short of it

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yes all TbredB seem to hit 2.1-2.2ghz almost every time (sometimes higher). The 9700nonPRO are awesome even at default speeds but you're right, they should all easily reach 9700PRO/9800 speeds but you need to flash the BIOS to allow clock changes to stick (or you may get lucky with one or another of the o/c'ing tools). I'd suggest forcing the gfx drivers to always use either 2xAA+4xAF or 4xAA+8xAF depending upon your prefs and what games you play. BTW a 400W S.flower is a great PSU so unlikely to be the cause of your mysterious reboot problem. Try ensuring your cards, leads etc are all plugged in firmly (PCI, AGP, RAM, IDE, power, keybd etc). AWESOME PC BTW!