Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro.. good upgrade?

[LuDaCriS66]

I'm currently using a Gainward GF3 Ti200 under WinXP.. and looking to upgrade to a Radeon 9500 Pro possibly. Think it would be a good upgrade? I play anything from BF1942 to UT2K3 from time to time.

Thing is, I also have a Gigabyte GA-7VAXP.. I heard there were problems with these cards and this mobo?

 

[Jolyon33]

The ATI 9500pro is an excellent card for the money. A lot of the Kt400 mobo series have problems with the Radeon cards but that is the KT400 weakness, not ATI's.

Its up to you if you wanna try the radeon with that board. But its a lot better than Nvidia especially with AA and AF, plus has a better picture in general.

 

[capodeloscapos]

As Anand said in his last ATI article, finding a 9500Pro is a good choice. the you can also mod it for being a 9700...

 

[selfbuilt]

The Radeon 9500 Pro is an excellent choice, as it is probably the price/performance leader among higher end graphics cards at the moment. I run mine on a KT400 board without problem, although I know some people have resorted to running at 4X AGP instead of 8X, in case of problems. It's irrelevant anyway, since it makes no real difference in frame rates in current games or current benchmarks (I've tried both AGP settings on mine, so I know).

 

[WarSong]

Originally posted by: capodeloscapos
As Anand said in his last ATI article, finding a 9500Pro is a good choice. the you can also mod it for being a 9700...

You can't mod a 9500pro into a 9700.

edit: To actually answer the question at hand, the 9500Pro would be a very good upgrade. I am not familiar with the compatibilities issues with the KT400 mentioned earlier though. I would research that before you make a purchase.

 

[Keysplayr]

It would be an outstanding upgrade.

 

[LuDaCriS66]

Yeah, I think I will buy the card when I get home after this semester. Any of you think it'd be worth getting the ATI version instead of the Sapphire card?

 

[SickBeast]

sapphire actually makes ati-branded cards that are sold overseas iirc...so i don't think you'll notice much difference (if any). their 2d output is supposedly very good.

 

[Blain]

I've read the Sapphires ship with an unlocked BIOS and is therefore overclockable. And that the ATI's ship the BIOS locked.

True?

 

[Wigwam]

Originally posted by: Blain
I've read the Sapphires ship with an unlocked BIOS and is therefore overclockable. And that the ATI's ship the BIOS locked.

True?

if you read the review of this card over at sharkeyextreme they mention that even though sapphire bundle the card with their redline overclocking utility, they have not unlocked the bios so it is a bit pointless!

i have one and it is nice