Upgrade: Good old ATI or the new NVIDIA?

[moonshinemadness]

Im planning on upgrading my graphics card to either the new NVIDIA FX or the ATI Radeon 9700 pro, money is no object but seen as right now it is impossible to move without finding a contradicting review I need help! Where to now? I use my computer for heavy gaming and my current graphics card is to say the least inadequate! Any ideas would be welcome.


Athlon XP 1600+
Elite Group K7S5A Motherboard
512 PC 133 Ram
20GB Maxtor HDD
Current GRPHX Card is a NVIDIA TNT2 Model
Soundblaster live! 5.1

Thanks!

 

[mchammer187]

you will get a lot more bang/buck with R9700 Pro and it is faster with Anisotropic Filtering/ Anti Aliasing

this is what im getting

the sapphire

2.8 ns memory instead of 3.3

 

[CurtCold]

A 9500, or 4200 would be nice for your system. That pc133 is going to hold you back from getting much more performance from the FX or 9700pro. That's JMO. I would save money until R350 comes out, or spend the dough on a DDR board.

 

[GnomeCop]

I haven't been keeping up with the video card scene , when is the r350 coming out?

 

[moonshinemadness]

The board is DDR and PC 133 compatible you suggest replacing my exsisting ram with the DDR? When does the R350 come out not sure i can wait that long!

 

[CurtCold]

Supposidly soon, maybe in the next couple of months.

 

[CurtCold]

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
The board is DDR and PC 133 compatible you suggest replacing my exsisting ram with the DDR? When does the R350 come out not sure i can wait that long!

DDR will give you a pretty decent performance boost over SD, I'm not just suggesting a RAM change, I was trying to say that with the FX, or 9700 Pro, the SD ram will limit the performance drastically as opposed to DDR.

Another words with SD the performance of a 9700, and 9500 would probably be very close. Personally I would get the 9500, because of the AA, and AF. The ti4200 would also be a good pair with the 1600xp processor.

 

[moonshinemadness]

Will it be hugely bigger than the R300? What sort of performance are you looking at with it? Is it going to be the same price/perfomance ratio as they have got with the 9700 pro or is it going to be more like the price of the FX?

 

[CurtCold]

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Will it be hugely bigger than the R300? What sort of performance are you looking at with it? Is it going to be the same price/perfomance ratio as they have got with the 9700 pro or is it going to be more like the price of the FX?

I've heard 30% increase in performance, but no one knows for sure until it gets here.

HERE
AND HERE

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: CurtCold
A 9500, or 4200 would be nice for your system. That pc133 is going to hold you back from getting much more performance from the FX or 9700pro. That's JMO. I would save money until R350 comes out, or spend the dough on a DDR board.

It won't if you turn up the AA/AF/res. in your games. Once your card is the bottleneck you won't have to worry about slow RAM. I've got that board and I'm switching to DDR, but it's definitely not neccesary. I'm only doing it because RAM prices are as low as they're going to get IMO.

Also, I'm usually an nVidia fan (not fanboy, I just lean their way a little more than ATI's), but I would absolutely get the 9700 Pro. It's the good buy right now.

 

[WyteWatt]

How many fps are you loosing at 1024x768 resolution + if you turn on all the details to maximum. Plus use at least 4x FSAA and 8x AF on the ATI 9700 pro with having only pc133 sdram , Athlon XP 1800+ cpu, and KT133A chipset mobo ?

 

[moonshinemadness]

Ok so the 9700 is probably the best bet right now maybe it is also time to consider giving my computer an overhaul! Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[Ophir]

I would recommend picking up a couple of sticks (as everything seems to be going dual channel) of PC2700DDR (and run it at 266Mhz), which will still be useful once you upgrade the mobo/CPU
- 2 X 256MB = $130

Then pick up either a 128MB 9500NP and try to softmod = $160 + $130 for the RAM = $290 which is close to the price of a 9700Pro, and if the softmod works you get 9700 performance, if not, it'll at least keep you satisfied until the next couple of generations of cards are released, then go big.

Or pick up a 9700Pro = $300 + 130 = $430 which is ~ price of a GeForceFX. This will keep you satisfied for atleast another year.



Edit: for typos

 

[hdeck]

or you can get the 9500 and overclock it to 9700 speeds thus saying you $100+ to buy some DDR with. no need to go blowing your money, even if you have it.

 

[Ophir]

hdeck: looks like I beat you to it

 

[jeffrey]

If money is no object and you are considering a $399 dollar GeForce FX, this is my $.02

Buy a Radeon 9700 PRO for $299 and 512mb of PC2700 for the other $100.
This upgrade would give you a top graphics card for games and also upgrade your overall system performance.

 

[coolVariable]

ATI

 

[buleyb]

Why wait, buy a 9500Pro or 9700 Pro, only because they are DX9.0 cards, or any of the GeForce4 line, because anything will be a huge improvement from your TNT2 card. And I agree with others, save the cash and upgrade other parts of your system too. If you buy the vid card, and its a huge success, why spend more $$.

 

[dmhinz]

I replaced my GF4200 w/ an ATI 9700 Pro and have been very happy with it. I can't compare it w/ the new FX series cards but, again, I thought the 9700 Pro was $ well spent.

-D