Torn between choosing 9500 Pro or 4800TI *Update 5/7/03*

[grabadude]

Choices are: Oem Radeon 9500 Pro 128 Mb or Albatron 4800SE 128 Mb (3.3ns ram timing)

I'm very worried about driver problems with Ati. I had 3 Ati vid cards, Ati MAXX (dual chip design), Original Radeon 64 Mb and Radeon 7500. All of them had problems running games, some games would not run at all.

I do like the fact that the 9500 supports DX9.

If I get the 4800TI, i will o'clock it to 4600TI levels. What bothers me is that there is no DX9 hardware support.

Update:

Ordered 9500 Pro

Update 2:

Received 9500 Pro today, tested a couple of games (MOHAA, SOF2, JDooM). Found 0 problems, graphics are beatifull

Update 3:

Unfortunately I had to RMA the card back due to infamous "rolling lines" problem

Need an advice on what to do now. I'm tired of POS 2 meg S3 video card I'm using now as an interim solution

Update 4:

Ordered 9500 Pro made by FIC

Update 5:

Received the FIC 9500 Pro today.

:| And it's even worse now. The whole desktop is corrupted, computer freezes after about 5 minutes and has to be reset, and my Linksys NIC card that always worked now dissapeared.

I am going to RMA it back and get Nvidia TI4600, no more ATI for me

 

[Richdog]

Get the Radeon 9700 non=pro, its barely costs more than the 9500 pro and will blow them out of the water!

 

[spanky]

whats so hard? if u r worried about the drivers for ati, then just get the ti4800. i personally have not had any problems with ati cards, so for me, the choice is obvious (9500pro in case u didn't know).

 

[Keysplayr]

Your worries about driver problems are well justified. Just get the Nvidia. You wont be dissappointed.
No headaches. Install and forget....

Keys

 

[SickBeast]

Your worries about driver problems are well justified. Just get the Nvidia. You wont be dissappointed.
No headaches. Install and forget....
Keys

That's bull$hit and you know it, Keys. The ti4600 is inferior to the 9500 in every way: price, performance, AND drivers (Nvidia drivers aren't WHQL certified).

Oh, and I forgot to mention DirectX9 compatability.

 

[Peter D]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Your worries about driver problems are well justified. Just get the Nvidia. You wont be dissappointed.
No headaches. Install and forget....
Keys

The ti4600 is inferior to the 9500 in every way: price, performance, AND drivers (Nvidia drivers aren't WHQL certified).

rofl

ahah, ah, im sorry

 

[VicodiN]

Never had problems in any way with my GF4 ti4600 128mb, and am very happy with my purchase. Never been a big ATI guy... Discovered a bunch of compatability problems with alot of gamez/progz I utilize... I like the fact that my GF is very low maintence, with only an occational driver update ever so often

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Your worries about driver problems are well justified. Just get the Nvidia. You wont be dissappointed.
No headaches. Install and forget....
Keys

That's bull$hit and you know it, Keys. The ti4600 is inferior to the 9500 in every way: price, performance, AND drivers (Nvidia drivers aren't WHQL certified).

Oh, and I forgot to mention DirectX9 compatability.

 

[spanky]

i had a hunch this might slowly drag itself into a flamefest.

yo grab... why dont u just list the common apps and games that u will probably be playing. i think this might help the discussion.

 

[Bopple]

You will have gaming issues dependent upon driver version, be it ati or nvidia.
And it also varies game to game.
Though i think some versions of drivers like 30.82 are better than ati drivers still.
But then again, ati drivers are not that bad as it used to be. And recent nvidia drivers are worse than ati's.

 

[grabadude]

Originally posted by: spankyOO7
yo grab... why dont u just list the common apps and games that u will probably be playing. i think this might help the discussion.

Games I'm playin'

MOH: AA & SP (Online)

SOF 2 (Online)

AvP2 (Online)

NOLF 2

Hitman 2

I have noticed that the picture quality has gone worse with driver upgrades. Messed up shadows, flickering textures in MOH, etc.

Got 1400 something 2003 3d marks with TI4200 64 Megger

 

[BFG10K]

The 9500 Pro/9700 would definitely be my choice. Those cards will murder the Ti4800 when using high resolution and high detail settings.

 

[NEVERwinter]

I'll take the R9500, nowadays ATI has better driver support (far better than 3 years ago) and you'll get a DX9 support for it.
and it's more powerful in hi-res/AA/aniso compared to the GF4Ti

 

[Trashman]

Another vote for the Radeon 9500 Pro....i went through the same dilemma, not too long ago...it's a great card, no problem with drivers.
If i remember right, cost was pretty much the same, but all-in-all you get more with the 9500P...DX 9 support and as BFG said "Those cards will murder the Ti4800 when using high resolution and high detail settings"....it looks sweet.

 

[Montano]

9500 PRO

 

[CRed]

Easy,the 9500Pro.You might even get lucky and get one with 3.3 or 3.0 Infineon ram that's factory unlocked like me

 

[J5im8yo]

9500 Pro nuff said

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: spankyOO7
i had a hunch this might slowly drag itself into a flamefest.

yo grab... why dont u just list the common apps and games that u will probably be playing. i think this might help the discussion.

let me take this opportunity to apologize to keys. i didn't mean anything personal in my comments.

 

[daveybrat]

another vote for the 9500 pro, image quality is better and directx9 support

 

[Looney]

What problems and gaves have you had with the radeons? I've had both the Radeon 64 and Radeon 7500, and i can't remember having any problems whatsoever. But if you're afraid, then how hard could the decision be?

 

[vss1980]

R9500 Pro

Actually, its not the DirectX9 support which would sway me personally towards the Radeon, because in my opinion by the time games start fully using DirectX9 the card will not really be fast enough anyway..... its the fact that it has better PS support anyway for DirectX8.1 and better image quality.

 

[Shade4ever]

9500 Pro...someone I know recently purchased one, upgrading from a Ti4400, and I saw the before and after ~2hours apart...AA/AF DO run far faster, and look awesome, on the 9500 Pro, compared to the GF4...I'd pick one up myself, but I'm waiting & saving for the 9800 Pro to replace my GF3.

 

[nRollo]

"That's bull$hit and you know it, Keys. The ti4600 is inferior to the 9500 in every way: price, performance, AND drivers (Nvidia drivers aren't WHQL certified).

Oh, and I forgot to mention DirectX9 compatability. "

Really Sickbeast?
Let's see:
Price: They cost about the same. (~ $200. for an ATI 9500 Pro, $190-$225 for various Ti4600)
Performance: Without AA/Aniso, about the same. 9500 is better with.
Drivers: This isn't even close. nVidia drivers have ALWAYS been better than ATI drivers, less issues.
DX9 compatibility? Which is good for what exactly? Can you show us some benchmarks of DX9 games?

You get pretty fired up about 9500Pros for a guy using a 8500? Have you ever even USED a 9500Pro to know what you're talking about? I'll tell you this:
As a guy who owns/uses a 9700Pro and a Ti4200, the Ti has less driver/hardware compatibility issues.

 

[grabadude]

Originally posted by: Moralpanic
What problems and gaves have you had with the radeons? I've had both the Radeon 64 and Radeon 7500, and i can't remember having any problems whatsoever. But if you're afraid, then how hard could the decision be?

Flashing textures in games was the biggest problem.

I consider upgrading from 4200TI 64MB to 4800TI 128MB worthless, same chip features. The whole GFX business nowadays seems boring to me, endless promises of amazing graphics but no software to take advantage of it. Also, why can't i go and buy an announced product anymore? Where is Geforce FX? Where are the new ATI 9600, 9800?

 

[Lonyo]

9800's are shipping, as are 5800's.
Go for the 9500PRO.