WHY Upgrade to a Radeon 9700?

[WyteWatt]

apoppin yep that is part of the fun! To me another part of the fun is building the computer and fixing problems u have.

 

[BFG10K]

Nonsense. My o/c'd 1.5Ghz Tually Celeron IS the equal of the 1.4Ghz Athlon.

Utter rubbish.

Did you just dismiss the benchmarks?

What benchmarks? The ones I gave you which proved you were wrong about your comments? Or your own benchmarks which have absolutely no merit in this discussion?

And without question the original P4 1.8 was the equal (or lesser) of the 1.4 Athlon.

The P4 was faster in some cases. Regardless, your processor is slower than both.

The Doom engine was finished before the 9700 came out.

The Doom3 engine isn't even finished now, otherwise the game would be out.

That's not what Carmack says:

Pease show me where Carmack quantifies his comments with actual resolutions and average framerates.

And now you are arguing with Carmack.

Please show me where Carmack quantifies his comments with actual resolutions and average framerates.

 

[sharkeeper]

I like speed too! 🙂

Does anyone have sol.exe from an earlier version of Windows? Windows XP Solitaire has been "fixed" so the cards don't explode all over the place when you win. When I first won with this new version I had a flashback to Paradise VGA (512K), Windows 3.0 and AMD's 386 DX40! :Q

I wonder how fast those flying toasters would go with a 9700! 🙂

Cheers!

 

[BLiT45]

Originally posted by: Whitedog
There are PLENTY of impractical people with $$$$$ they don?t know what to spend on and WILL by a 9700 for $400 bux? That's the target market for these new cards...

Those of you/us who are ?practical? buyers have absolutely NO reason to go and Buy one right now. It is true that when games come out with Doom III engine you?ll want a card like that, but take this into consideration?

Buy a GF4Ti4200 or something NOW for $130. It will meet ALL your gaming needs for a good 6-9 months? at that time, you?ll be able to buy a 9700 or NV30 for $150 or so, and be able to play Doom III and such with Pleasure? sure you?ll spend $280 in all, but you?ll have 2 cards... and you can sell one maybe.

One way or the other, you really only ?need? to buy what you ?need? now? which is NOT a Rad 9700.

nuff said

Makes SOME sense. However, you will spend, (I'm assuming US $$$ here), your $280 in ALL, right...like you said.

Not really. You assume that the 9700 or NV30 will be $150 in 6-9 months? I think not. Why, because the Ti4600 is STILL almost $300 US even after ALL these months now that the Ti4xxx line has been out. In fact, there would be no reason at all to buy a new Ti4600 right now...considering the 9700 is only about $50 more.

As for the Ti4200, perhaps, yes it's cheaper, but for the 128 MB version it's still pricy, I can't deal with this US $$$ thing so I'll switch for a few min. The Ti4200 (128 MB version) sells for about $300 CAN here, ok? Now...the 9700 I just found for $550 CAN, so another $250 CAN more and I don't have to worry about another card for 2 years. Oh respectively US $175 (Ti4200) and US $325 (ATI 9700) for each card, the Ti4600 maybe US $300. Just a guess on the US prices. Probabaly cheaper.

So what it boils down to, is for an extra $70 US you save (if the 9700's go down to $150 as you say), over that time, you will have bought 2 cards, correct? Why bother...I mean I could see it if you spent $600 US on the ATI 9700, but folks, this card is priced really good for a brand new card...think what the NV30 is going to cost, knowing Nvidia it won't be cheap.

 

[BLiT45]

Originally posted by: Curley
Why spend $400.00 on a Video Card?? Why spend $900.00 dollars for Mag Wheels on your car? Why buy a New Golf Club because it might get you 20 more yards?? Practical??? It's insane!!!! Why buy a Mercedes when your Honda will do the same thing at the same speed 60miles an hour (60 FPS) the speed limit. They buy a Mercedes because it does the same thing better.

Why do we do it??, Because we are all computer and gaming enthusiasts. Because it is our hobby. It is probably the only hobby that depreciates 15% a month until you have to give it away.

If I have the money, I would not hesistate to buy the 9700 Pro just as my wife likes to save for three months so she can walk around with a "Coach Purse" ($300.00) rather than another brand. Hell, I paid $500.00 for the PIII when it first came out. It is crazy and probably a waste of money in other peoples eyes but worth every cent for me.

Remember the old saying, "It is never a good time to buy".

I know the feeling. My wife spend over $500 on a stupid purse...🙂 I on the other hand, will gladly pay for the new 9700...actually folks, it's not really that expensive all things considered. The Ti4600's retailed for more $$$ back then, and they STILL haven't dropped enough in price to really justify the $50 or so you would save over the 9700!

 

[bluemax]

Remember when a single Voodoo2 12MB cost about $300? 😉

 

[apoppin]

This thread has been resurrected more than a zombie in a B horror movie. 😀

I have absolutely NOTHING further to say to you, BFG10K. It is a waste of my posting. The other guys here get it.
However, I am glad there are guys like you who stay on the cutting edge of hardware - you ARE the support of the industry . . . believe what you want.

I just sold my Radeon 64DDR VIVO for $45 . . . kind of sad to see it go (I had it since LAST - March, 2001) 😉 . . . however, I just got home with my NEW BABY - a Radeon 8500 128MB DDR (Retail, TV out) . . . only $129 brand new at CUSA (no rebate). 😀

I WILL have this card when Doom III comes out and will get to see if I was right or not. Letsee, $129-45=$84 . . . and I seriously believe I will be able to sell it for $65 in six months . . . Less than $20 for a nice upgrade for 6 months OR . . . $300 . . .

$300 . . . or . . . $20 . . . ?

now that wasn't such a hard decision. 😉

🙂

 

[BFG10K]

however, I just got home with my NEW BABY - a Radeon 8500 128MB DDR

Have fun with your new card. 🙂

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

however, I just got home with my NEW BABY - a Radeon 8500 128MB DDR

Have fun with your new card. 🙂

Thanks!

It feels nice to have a "modern" card - even if just for a moment. 😉 I finally got to see the "tests" in 3DMark2001 that wouldn't run on my old card (score way more than doubled to almost 8K and w/o O/C'ing). 1-1/2 years between video card upgrades is my personal "record". And no doubt someone will be really glad to get my old card.

I am also really curious to see how much Half-Life (an all-time favorite of mine is improved w/support for Truform).

EDIT: You proved me wrong 😱 . . . I did have MORE to say. :Q What I should have said is, I won't ARGUE further. 😀

 

[BFG10K]

If you're an anisotropic filtering junkie like me you'll love this card. That's why I'm positively drooling at the prospect of getting a Radeon 9700.

 

[apoppin]

Now I'm surprised . . . you don't have it yet? *GASP* :Q

😀


My original Radeon 64 didn't support anisotropic filtering very well. I am REALLY looking forward to finally enabling it with decent framerates.

 

[BFG10K]

No, it should be a few days before I get it. 🙂

My original Radeon 64 didn't support anisotropic filtering very well.

What problems did you have? All Radeons support 128 tap anisotropic filtering with a minimal performance hit.

The only problem I have on my old Radeon is that it's not easy to enable anisotropic fitering in Direct3D mode.

 

[apoppin]

Remember we talked about "satisfactory" FPS in Max Payne? Compared to my new one, the old one didn't have sufficient 'Horsepower' to do everything.

GPUs have really come a long way in 1-1/2-2 years. I am most impressed and look forward to the R300 when I can afford it.

 

[VBboy]

The next person to use "anisotropic" is getting bitch-slapped! 🙂

 

[BFG10K]

Yeah the Radeon 64 MB DDR really is an obsolete card and generates slideshows in pretty much every game at medium detail levels and resoluitions, even with anisotropic filtering and FSAA disabled. But if you've got the framerate to begin with (ie you drop to very low resolutions) you can usually enable anisotropic filtering and the performance hit will be minimal.

Of course the 8500 does a much better job and the 9700 is an absolute killer.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Yeah the Radeon 64 MB DDR really is an obsolete card and generates slideshows in pretty much every game at medium detail levels and resoluitions, even with anisotropic filtering and FSAA disabled. But if you've got the framerate to begin with (ie you drop to very low resolutions) you can usually enable anisotropic filtering and the performance hit will be minimal.

Of course the 8500 does a much better job and the 9700 is an absolute killer.

You want "obsolete" ? . . . . Try 6 month old notebook graphics. It's all a matter of DEGREE. I lower the resolution on my Norebook's 16MB DDR Radeon and the details. On my desktop, I got "satisfactory" framerates preferring higher resolutions (i.e. 1024x768). Now I get it all (more or less) on current games. The future is the future . . . we'll see how long this one lasts in my system. 🙂

 

[apoppin]

You may be right BFG10K

😛

This Dutch Site Quotes John Carmack:

Nvidia is the first of the consumer graphics companies to firmly understand what is going to be happening with the convergence of consumer realtime and professional offline rendering. The architectural decision in the NV30 to allow full floating point precision all the way to the framebuffer and texture fetch, instead of just in internal paths, is a good example of far sighted planning. It has been obvious to me for some time how things are going to come together, but Nvidia has made moves on both the technical and company strategic fronts that are going to accelerate my timetable over my original estimations My current work on Doom is designed around what was possible on the original Geforce, and reaches an optimal impliementation on the NV30. My next generation of work is designed around what is made possible on the NV30.

:Q


😀

EDIT:
So . . .

WHY Upgrade to a Radeon 9700?

😉

 

[BFG10K]

I'm not surpised the least by Carmack's comments about the NV30. Doom3 is going to require a monster video card to truly run well.