Should I get the Radeon 9700 even with all the people having problems?

[Sub51]

I'm planning on building an Athlon XP system with a Radeon 9700 Pro and Windows 98.

The games I'd play:

Battlefield 1942 (a lot)
UT2003 (a lot)
Max Payne
No one lives forver 1/2
Quake 3
Return To Castle Wolfenstein (a lot)
Jedi Knight 2
Medal of Honor Allied Assault
Serious Sam
War Craft 3
Dungeon Siege
And in the future:
Age of Mythology
C&C Generals

I heard about a lot of problems with the Radeon 9700, anyone with the card:

What kinds of problems could I run into, general, games as well as OS ones?

Also, if I get the card, should I just download the latest cataclyst drivers and install them over the old ones?

 

[AnAndAustin]

I wouldn't let the teething probs put you off what is by far the best gfx card out there at the mo. If anything I'd let the facts that it will devalue very quickly, be superceeded very quickly and very actually little needs or will use the Rad9700's speed and features so by the time DX9 proves useful you'll be able to pick a faster DX9 card up for close to $100. If you want the best then Rad9700 it is, it is more sensible to wait to see how NV30, 'value' NV30 and Rad9500 shape up but if you want super fast FPS in high res and 4xAA 16tap AF then there is nothing which even comes close.

If you want as little hassle as possible and the best compatability with the most mature driver then GF4TI would be a good idea. $140 shoudl get you a 4200-128MB which is by no means near Rad9700 perf but is more than capable of playing any game in high res with 2xAA and 2xAF (equiv 4tap). If you need that little bit more 4600's are now about $210 and about 20-30% faster than 4200. These cards will forfill their potential now, cost little to purchase, play all current games very well, devalue steadily, sell on well and are ideal to help you get great perf while waiting to see how the NV30 vs Rad9700/Rad9700-DDRII shape up.

 

[BFG10K]

The card works extremely well in most games and most issues you are reading about are caused by flaky motherboards, swapping video cards without correctly removing all traces of the old one, weak power supplies and/or by overclocking.

I haven't had any OS problems at all and I only a have a few minor problems in a very few games.

 

[canadianpsycho]

I've tried most of the games you've listed.

They've patched pretty much everything now. Make sure you have a decent PSU and do a clean install of Windows, and you'll be rocking.

Only game that woudn't work for me was NHL 2k3 and they had a new set of drivers released a few days later.

They do need to iron out the D3D performance though. That and force Vsync (in the works).

 

[canadianpsycho]

Oh and if any nvidiots that bitch about ATI drivers feel like chirping up... Safe to say you never tried playing Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed with the earlier detonator drivers when the Geforce 256s were just coming out.

New hardware can be fickle, regardless of the manufacturer.

 

[Brian48]

Having gone from a ti4600 to a 9700 Pro, I would say that if you're not sure, go with the ti4600. It's plenty fast and unless you run at really high resolutions (above 1280x1024), you're not missing much with the ti4600 over the 9700 Pro. I personally think FSAA is overrated.

If you do want the 9700 Pro just to future proof your machine a little bit more, than you shouldn't have to many problems as the new v6193 drivers are quite solid.

 

[AnAndAustin]

I agree canadianpsycho, any hw as fundamentally new and technologicaly advanced as Rad9700 is is going to have a few wrinkles to iron out, NV30 will be no diff in this respect. GF4 and Rad9000 are rehashed older technology, the last big 'new' releases were actually GF3 and a little later Rad8500.

ATI have had their driver issues in the past but I'd say the are every bit as good as nVidia now, certainly hugely better than either Creative or Epson who even with relatively modern hw haven't even caught up with WinXP yet, and we are over a year down the line.

 

[Smilin]

Uh, beavis, what problems?

I bought a pre-ordered 9700 and it had like 2 bugs when it first came out and those were fixed within five days.

I play nearly all of those games and I haven't had trouble with any of them. All the ones you list as playing 'a-lot' work perfectly with the 9700 and run like a scalded dog.

Good luck with that windows 98 thing though man...You've only chosen that OS because you haven't run 2000 or XP as your primary OS before...don't respond, I know I'm right

 

[Foamfoot]

here's some input from someone having 9700 issues, be prepared to spend some time under the hood of your machine. also, be prepared to make additional purchases - power supply among other items - just to get it running.

with that said, the card looks great when it runs - truly amazing - and i would definitely recommend getting one. its just very tempermental and the smallest issues can cause it to not run. i dont mean not run optimally, i mean LOCK_UP, FREEZE, CRASH. i envy those that just plugged it in and off you went playing games. i, on the other hand, have spent 3 days reinstalling winxp time and time again, loading different drivers, installing and uninstalling hardware. the only way i was finally able to get mine to run 3dmark 2001se or games was to underclock it substantially. im still trying different things to get it up to default speeds, no luck so far.

also, its not just people that are running old machines or that didnt properly remove drivers with problems. im running the new albatron 845pe board, a p4 1.8a, 512 meg corsair 3000 ram, antec true 480 w PS, winxp and a modded case with 5 upgraded fans. as i said, in excess of 10 clean installs with different drivers. was very careful about the way i installed items and the order of installation. still problems. and from the posts on rage3d im not the only one. lots of people with great systems having issues.

bottom line - its a very power-hungry finicky piece of equipment. be prepared to spend some time with it, possibly even an RMA. if you can be patient and are prepared to troubleshoot, i would get one. when you finally get it right, i think it will be well worth the trouble. and who knows, maybe you'll be luckier then i was and simply plug and play.

 

[boyRacer]

Eh... i sold two Radeon 9700s just because my bro was having problems with mine... and i didn't wanna deal with it in case i run into the same problems... but guess what... both cards work fine to the people i sold them to...

 

[scottrico]

I had all kinds of issues with my 9700 but it was worth it.
BF 1942 looks amazing with 4xAA 16AF. My issues were with a cheapo power supply.
When I got a antec true 460 with the blue light fans, my issues went away.
Some games need for you to disable AA (mafia) but all other game run great.
This is the card to get.
peace

 

[AnAndAustin]

Well things like crashes, visual glitches or probs with AGP8x slots (is that sorted yet?) are down to the Rad9700 which as said has always been very common (usually much worse) with any fundamentally new technology. Things like needing a decent PSU, good in case ventilation, airflow, driver residue and infinite loop bug probs are all common in many other gfx cards most notably GF4TI4400/4600. If you want the best and the newest (which GF4 and Rad9000 truly aren't) then expect to pay the price both financially and quirkilly (best word I could come up with) but bear in mind that many of the probs can be experienced with any kit.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Foamfoot
here's some input from someone having 9700 issues, be prepared to spend some time under the hood of your machine. also, be prepared to make additional purchases - power supply among other items - just to get it running.

with that said, the card looks great when it runs - truly amazing - and i would definitely recommend getting one. its just very tempermental and the smallest issues can cause it to not run. i dont mean not run optimally, i mean LOCK_UP, FREEZE, CRASH. i envy those that just plugged it in and off you went playing games. i, on the other hand, have spent 3 days reinstalling winxp time and time again, loading different drivers, installing and uninstalling hardware. the only way i was finally able to get mine to run 3dmark 2001se or games was to underclock it substantially. im still trying different things to get it up to default speeds, no luck so far.

also, its not just people that are running old machines or that didnt properly remove drivers with problems. im running the new albatron 845pe board, a p4 1.8a, 512 meg corsair 3000 ram, antec true 480 w PS, winxp and a modded case with 5 upgraded fans. as i said, in excess of 10 clean installs with different drivers. was very careful about the way i installed items and the order of installation. still problems. and from the posts on rage3d im not the only one. lots of people with great systems having issues.

bottom line - its a very power-hungry finicky piece of equipment. be prepared to spend some time with it, possibly even an RMA. if you can be patient and are prepared to troubleshoot, i would get one. when you finally get it right, i think it will be well worth the trouble. and who knows, maybe you'll be luckier then i was and simply plug and play.

Wow! I've been perfectly happy with mine. If I was in your situation I would have RMA'd the thing long ago.

 

[Killrose]

I just received my 9700 and am in the process of trying out a suite of older games I have with 4xFSAA and 16xAnsio enabled. I play BF1942 demo all the time, and so far i'm not having any real issues. The text looks a little fuzzy is all, but is easily readable. Does'nt seem to be with-out FSAA/Ansio.

I'm running an XP 1600+@1800+ speeds on an Epox 8HKA+ with Win98se. My only run of 3DMark2001se netted a score of 12840 (I beleive thats right) but just a few tweaks below 13k, and the 9700 is not overclocked.

 

[lung]

One of the main things that you have to take into consideration as well is that most of the time, people will only get really vocal when they are having problems. If the card is working fine, you're probably going to be playing games, not posting about it. I had some issues with my 9700 to begin with, but with driver revisions and finding out little things like not installing the Intel Application Accelrator, my system is totally solid and absolutely screams in games.

I say go for it. Just realize that you are buying a very new piece of hardware and with any new hardware, you have to expect some issues in the begining.

 

[Wolfsraider]

i ran a bunch of games thru mine and i poste the list here on anandtech not to long ago but to sum it up
3 games
tribes 2 the selection screen was black but you could use the mouse like a flashlight to see the settings
harry potter in xp can see behind the walls in narrow corridors
need for speed hot pursuit blacks out the display setting button so only low res driving ie looks like crap
and one new one need for speed 6 hoy pursuit 2 does not support the 9700 but after treading the comments on the board i ain't missing nothing

i love the 24bit screenshots in powerdvdxp but they are huge files lol
i watch a lot of dvd's on my machine it looks much better than a tv/dvd setup on my aiw radeon and 1.5 willie box(before) now it looks 10x better than the it used to.

i have found that the bugs in most games are patched already although i haven't gamed much since i listed those games and have not tried them again.i been busy fooling around with this new rig too much lol

if i had the money and the machine to run it i'd still get the 9700 but my scores are much better on the 2.8 than they were on the 1.5.if the machine was less than 2 gigs i'd say get the nvidia unless you don't mind spending the money.

i had a bad card the first time around.after replacing it it was a 10 minute install and i have been very pleased especially now with the 9700 running full out.

mike