Radeon 9700: flawless so far !

I have an old trashy system (AMD 751 chipset mobo with oc'd slota athlon running at 700mhz) which I'll upgrade next year, but really wanted to replace my voodoo3 to play Nolf2 and LFS, so I ordered a 9700. Basically, its been flawless. I've seen exactly one issue, where the Nature test crashes 3dmark2001SE, but this is a bug in 3dmark itself which will soon be fixed. The tenebrae quake mod (with the latest 9700 patch) looks amazing, making that game much scarier than the original. UT with the S3TC textures is glass smooth (you must d/l all the updated renderers from the Epic site first, besides the 436 patch). Grand Prix Legends looks great in either D3D or OGL, tho my cpu is not enough to crank up all the options to the max yet. The card doesn't run that hot BTW, the heatsink is maybe 50C. The only other thing remotely worrying is the reported issues with agp 8x mobos, but that hopefully will be addressed with a 9700 bios upgrade. My hat's off to ATI, I'm very happy with this card so far. rms [email hidden]

Oh no it doesn't!! The ATI 9700 will not do FSAA in 16-bit color mode, which is all that GPLegends has. This has been confirmed by ATI. See this previous thread: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=alqvmv%24rrp%241%40reader1.tiscali.nl&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D9700%2B16bit%2Bgroup:rec.autos.simulators%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26selm%3Dalqvmv%2524rrp%25241%2540reader1.tiscali.nl%26rnum%3D1 (Christ!!, what a link!! Maybe just search in Google groups for 9700 & fsaa.) This is the main reason why I have not upgraded from my ATI 8500, after all without FSAA what advantage is there in a 9700?? All you can get is 36fps, same as me, but my image has nicely smoothed edges, whereas yours is jaggy!! I hope you will post at the Rage3D forum to insist that ATI supply drivers to make your card work as well in GPL as 2-3 year old ATI or Nvidea cards. Regards JM

And rumoured to be fixed in a few months. I'll wait though, the proof is in the pudding... -- ==================================================== "James Muir" <jrmuir[NOSPAMPLEASE]@tiscali.nl> wrote in message news:an28h6$ca0$[email hidden]... : Oh no it doesn't!! : : The ATI 9700 will not do FSAA in 16-bit color mode, which is all that : GPLegends has. : This has been confirmed by ATI. : See this previous thread: :

It hasn't been flawless for me. I just had a new P4 system built, and installed the 9700. Even after updating drivers and downloading bugfixes, I get one crash after another. The graphics ARE gorgeous compared to my old GF2 Ultra, but they don't last long since the system crashes. It may be an incompatability problem in my computer, but until it's fixed I can't recommend the Radeon 9700 to anyone.

What version is the card. The 1.3 is most stable. Its the last 2 digits of the 1st number in the P/N If its 1.0 that might explain your problem and you can RMA it rms [email hidden]

On Sat, 28 Sep 2002 01:14:55 GMT, "Roger Squires" <[email hidden]> wrote: >What version is the card. The 1.3 is most stable. For what reason ? You seem to have some very useful knowledge to share. Some URLs to the relevant information would be nice. Has ATi produced an "errata list" for pre-1.3 boards ? Maybe the erratas are quite trivial, such as slightly better analog filters, and don't affect core functionality. Is 1.3 the latest version from Ati ? > Its the last 2 digits of >the 1st number in the P/N If its 1.0 that might explain your problem and >you can RMA it > Has ATi officially stated that any pre-1.3 card can be RMA'd ?? John Lewis > >rms >[email hidden] > >

> >What version is the card. The 1.3 is most stable. > For what reason ? You seem to have some very useful knowledge > to share. Some URLs to the relevant information would be > nice. http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33634403&perpage=20&h ighlight=revision%201.3&pagenumber=1 is one, just do some searches on rage3d 9700 forum. rms [email hidden]

A friend was complaining to me that the 2D quality of his new 9700 is lacking. He runs the card at 1600x1200x32bpp at 85 Hz, and he says that 2D text is noticeably blurrier than on his old GF4 4600. Anybody else experience that? "Roger Squires" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:wuVk9.29$[email hidden]... > I have an old trashy system (AMD 751 chipset mobo with oc'd slota athlon > running at 700mhz) which I'll upgrade next year, but really wanted to > replace my voodoo3 to play Nolf2 and LFS, so I ordered a 9700. > > Basically, its been flawless. I've seen exactly one issue, where theNature > test crashes 3dmark2001SE, but this is a bug in 3dmark itself which will > soon be fixed. The tenebrae quake mod (with the latest 9700 patch) looks > amazing, making that game much scarier than the original. UT with theS3TC > textures is glass smooth (you must d/l all the updated renderers from the > Epic site first, besides the 436 patch). Grand Prix Legends looks greatin > either D3D or OGL, tho my cpu is not enough to crank up all the options to > the max yet. The card doesn't run that hot BTW, the heatsink is maybe50C. > > The only other thing remotely worrying is the reported issues with agp 8x > mobos, but that hopefully will be addressed with a 9700 bios upgrade. My > hat's off to ATI, I'm very happy with this card so far.

100% agree with your friend. The 2D quality at 1600x1200@85 is really bad (and it's an original built by ATI card). I didn't see any better GF4 though.. What GF4 brand is your friend using ? Regards, - Juancho "Dog Face" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<an8ace$c2lk8$[email hidden]>... > A friend was complaining to me that the 2D quality of his new 9700 is > lacking. He runs the card at 1600x1200x32bpp at 85 Hz, and he says that 2D > text is noticeably blurrier than on his old GF4 4600. Anybody else > experience that?

> Basically, its been flawless. I've seen exactly one issue, where theNature > test crashes 3dmark2001SE, but this is a bug in 3dmark itself which will > soon be fixed. It's been flawless for me, too. In fact, I don't even have the nature problem you mention with 3DMark2001SE. I did have to get the patch ATI released a few weeks ago to fix the menu font problems in Battlefield 1942 but that's it. AMD Athlon 2200+ XP Giga-byte 7DX MB

An update here. I upgraded to XP, and after installing SP1 and the 9700 drivers on this page http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4081.html two problems I'd seen in Win98 went away (3dmark crashing in Nature, and delayed sound effects in SOF2). Now I score 5900 in 3dmark (the highest for my cpu speed in madonion's database) and NOLF2 is running without a hitch at 800x600x32 with high detail. I'm loving this card more every day :) rms [email hidden]

5900? What CPU do you have? A P2 150mhz? Vintook "Roger Squires" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:Tzbn9.97$[email hidden]... > An update here. I upgraded to XP, and after installing SP1 and the 9700 > drivers on this page http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4081.html two > problems I'd seen in Win98 went away (3dmark crashing in Nature, anddelayed > sound effects in SOF2). Now I score 5900 in 3dmark (the highest for mycpu

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> speed in madonion's database) and NOLF2 is running without a hitch at > 800x600x32 with high detail. I'm loving this card more every day :) > > rms > [email hidden] > >

Aaron Doughty wrote: > 5900? > > What CPU do you have? A P2 150mhz? Roger wrote it in his first post: > AMD 751 chipset mobo with oc'd slota athlon running at 700mhz Andr�

I have an off-topic question... What is that game that 3dmark uses at the very beginning? It's the one with the truck running around shooting the crap out of the big mechanical robots... I'd like to get that one :) -Larry "Roger Squires" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:Tzbn9.97$[email hidden]... > An update here. I upgraded to XP, and after installing SP1 and the 9700 > drivers on this page http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4081.html two > problems I'd seen in Win98 went away (3dmark crashing in Nature, anddelayed > sound effects in SOF2). Now I score 5900 in 3dmark (the highest for mycpu

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> speed in madonion's database) and NOLF2 is running without a hitch at > 800x600x32 with high detail. I'm loving this card more every day :) > > rms > [email hidden] > >

Now THAT is CPU hindered! He's losing the better part of 10000 marks because of it! -Larry "Andr� Janz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Aaron Doughty wrote: > > 5900? > > > > What CPU do you have? A P2 150mhz? > > Roger wrote it in his first post: > > > AMD 751 chipset mobo with oc'd slota athlon running at 700mhz > > Andr� >

Larry....the same concept.....driving/racing with alotttttttt of shooting is seen in Bandits-Phoenix Rising demo....i love it.:) http://www.3dgamers.com/dl/games/bandits/bandits_-_phoenix_rising_demo.exe.h tml AD

Thanks! -Larry "Andrew" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:anku38$l7h$[email hidden]... > Larry....the same concept.....driving/racing with alotttttttt of shootingis > seen in Bandits-Phoenix Rising demo....i love it.:) > >http://www.3dgamers.com/dl/games/bandits/bandits_-_phoenix_rising_demo.exe.h > tml > > > AD > >

Thanks! -Larry http://www.3dgamers.com/dl/games/bandits/bandits_-_phoenix_rising_dem...

You should upgrade your motherboard/cpu now to take advantage of your new graphics card. I just upgraded my Pentium II 400mhz system with a Athlon 2100+ cpu w/motherboard for about $230. Makes a huge difference for such a low price. Your video card will really scream with a more powerful system to run it. "Roger Squires" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:Tzbn9.97$[email hidden]... > An update here. I upgraded to XP, and after installing SP1 and the 9700 > drivers on this page http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4081.html two > problems I'd seen in Win98 went away (3dmark crashing in Nature, anddelayed > sound effects in SOF2). Now I score 5900 in 3dmark (the highest for mycpu

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> speed in madonion's database) and NOLF2 is running without a hitch at > 800x600x32 with high detail. I'm loving this card more every day :) > > rms > [email hidden] > >

"Larry" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:5Smn9.75835$[email hidden]... > Now THAT is CPU hindered! > > He's losing the better part of 10000 marks because of it! > > -Larry And with the $400 he spent on the Radeon he could have doubled his new scores by getting a 2gig cpu instead. dave henrie

Don't forget ram, power supply. "Collis" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:anlt11$u9a$01$[email hidden]... > You should upgrade your motherboard/cpu now to take advantage of your new > graphics card. I just upgraded my Pentium II 400mhz system with a Athlon > 2100+ cpu w/motherboard for about $230. Makes a huge difference for sucha

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> low price. Your video card will really scream with a more powerful system > to run it. > > "Roger Squires" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:Tzbn9.97$[email hidden]... > > An update here. I upgraded to XP, and after installing SP1 and the 9700 > > drivers on this page http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4081.html two > > problems I'd seen in Win98 went away (3dmark crashing in Nature, and > delayed > > sound effects in SOF2). Now I score 5900 in 3dmark (the highest for my > cpu > > speed in madonion's database) and NOLF2 is running without a hitch at > > 800x600x32 with high detail. I'm loving this card more every day :) > > > > rms > > [email hidden] > > > > > >

Some people just dont have money to burn. Mabe he shot the wod on the 9700? "Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:I9un9.46017$PP.52993@rwcrnsc53...

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> > "Larry" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:5Smn9.75835$[email hidden]... > > Now THAT is CPU hindered! > > > > He's losing the better part of 10000 marks because of it! > > > > -Larry > And with the $400 he spent on the Radeon he could have doubled his new > scores by getting a 2gig cpu instead. > dave henrie > >

I think the point was he would get more bang for the buck for that kinda money with a new cpu than wasting $400 on a video card that won't do anything for him without the CPU to run it. Common sense really. "Golgatha" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:WqOn9.54987$DN4.8266@sccrnsc01...

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> Some people just dont have money to burn. > Mabe he shot the wod on the 9700? > "Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:I9un9.46017$PP.52993@rwcrnsc53... > > > > "Larry" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > > news:5Smn9.75835$[email hidden]... > > > Now THAT is CPU hindered! > > > > > > He's losing the better part of 10000 marks because of it! > > > > > > -Larry > > And with the $400 he spent on the Radeon he could have doubled his

new > > scores by getting a 2gig cpu instead. > > dave henrie > > > > > >

"TDRacin�" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:kuOn9.20101$[email hidden]... > I think the point was he would get more bang for the buck for that kinda > money with a new cpu than wasting $400 on a video card that won't do > anything for him without the CPU to run it. Common sense really. > Yup...almost wasted the money if he's still only in the 5k range with 3dmark....of course..if he can NOW upgrade his cpu then he's fine...but if he had the money for ONE upgrade only...the $400 spent on a vid card could have purchased a very fast cpu that most likely, even with the old vidcard, trounce the 3dmark score he has. Fast vid cards are great, but speed in games comes first from the cpu. ALWAYS upgrade the cpu and THEN worry about eye candy with new vidcards later. dave henrie

I started thinking something odd was going on in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action when one foggy november evening "Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> came into my office and told me:

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> > "TDRacin�" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:kuOn9.20101$[email hidden]... >> I think the point was he would get more bang for the buck for >> that kinda money with a new cpu than wasting $400 on a video >> card that won't do anything for him without the CPU to run it. >> Common sense really. >> > Yup...almost wasted the money if he's still only in the 5k > range with > 3dmark....of course..if he can NOW upgrade his cpu then he's > fine...but if he had the money for ONE upgrade only...the $400 > spent on a vid card could have purchased a very fast cpu that > most likely, even with the old vidcard, trounce the 3dmark score > he has. Fast vid cards are great, but speed in games comes > first from the cpu. ALWAYS upgrade the cpu and THEN worry about > eye candy with new vidcards later.

What of all the new games that quote 32Mb RAM Vid as absolute minimal - if your CPU matches the recommended spec but your vid card has "only" 32Mb then you're sort of pushed into upgrading. -- Iphigenie http://www.iphi.net

Dave Henrie wrote:

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> > "TDRacin�" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:kuOn9.20101$[email hidden]... > > I think the point was he would get more bang for the buck for that kinda > > money with a new cpu than wasting $400 on a video card that won't do > > anything for him without the CPU to run it. Common sense really. > > > Yup...almost wasted the money if he's still only in the 5k range with > 3dmark....of course..if he can NOW upgrade his cpu then he's fine...but if > he had the money for ONE upgrade only...the $400 spent on a vid card could > have purchased a very fast cpu that most likely, even with the old vidcard, > trounce the 3dmark score he has. Fast vid cards are great, but speed in > games comes first from the cpu. ALWAYS upgrade the cpu and THEN worry about > eye candy with new vidcards later. > dave henrie

"I have an old trashy system (AMD 751 chipset mobo with oc'd slota athlon running at 700mhz) which I'll upgrade next year, but really wanted to replace my voodoo3 to play Nolf2 and LFS, so I ordered a 9700." Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy http://www.theuspits.com "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" --Groucho Marx--

Thus, would have been better using that old V3 card with a super fast cpu, then going for the card. The benefit of that besides a better system, the vid card will be � that price next year.. "Goy Larsen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> "I have an old trashy system (AMD 751 chipset mobo with oc'd slota > athlon > running at 700mhz) which I'll upgrade next year, but really wanted to > replace my voodoo3 to play Nolf2 and LFS, so I ordered a 9700." > > > Beers and cheers > (uncle) Goy > > http://www.theuspits.com > > "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" > --Groucho Marx--

> Thus, would have been better using that old V3 card with a super fast cpu, > then going for the card. The benefit of that besides a better system, the > vid card will be � that price next year.. Remember a voodoo3 will not run either LFS or NOLF2 or indeed any of the newer titles appearing. So there were two more conservative choices I could have made: upgrade the entire system along with a midrange videocard, say the 8500, or get a 8500 alone for now. But I was really attracted to the 9700 on the one hand, and really wanted to wait for Barton or Hammer on the other, so I made the odd choice of getting a 9700 alone for now. Was it the best price/performance choice? No, the 9700's price has already dropped 5% from the $320 I paid a couple weeks ago. Was it a terrible choice? No, the card operates flawlessly, and I'm enjoying NOLF2 now at 1024x768x32 at a playable framerate. Worst case I've lost say $30/month over the next 3 months in card depreciation. People who buy say the NV30 when it premiers will be in the same situation and that's 2months away minimum, so I don't regret the 9700 purchase at all. For the cpu+mobo+ram upgrade I'd like to wait for barton or hammer, but it looks like they are 6months away, so I'll probably need an intermediate upgrade before xmas. [email hidden]

"TDRacin�" wrote: > > Thus, would have been better using that old V3 card with a super fast cpu, > then going for the card. The benefit of that besides a better system, the > vid card will be � that price next year.. No, because there are now plenty of games out there who refuses to run on V3 cards, so even though the V3 scales very well with with CPU speed and was a decent card in it's time, he simply HAD to change vid card, furthermore, the V3 was more than likely already a bottleneck in his system As a general rule I agree that CPU performance outweighs the need for a faster vid card *when in doubt*, in this case he needed a new card not only because his old one was slow, the V3 is 4 years old by now, but because it won't run the games he wants to play *at all*, now he can at least run them with some of the gfx options turned down If he had gone for the faster MoBo/CPU he still wouldn't have been able to run the games that won't run on the V3 because of the 16 MB memory limit and his "old" games probably wouldn't have run much faster as an Athlon 700 is fast enough to make the V3 the bottleneck in his system As for the money argument, the new MoBo/CPU would also be half price next year Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy http://www.theuspits.com "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" --Groucho Marx--

Gotcha, I did not know that the V3 wouldn't run today's games. I still have one, but I don't currently use it. I apologize for coming across as slamming you for selecting what I have read is a really good card. Since you obviously considered your options, I hope you can accept my apologies. "Roger Squires" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:Rb_n9.757$[email hidden]... > > Thus, would have been better using that old V3 card with a super fastcpu, > > then going for the card. The benefit of that besides a better system,the > > vid card will be � that price next year.. > > Remember a voodoo3 will not run either LFS or NOLF2 or indeed any ofthe > newer titles appearing. So there were two more conservative choices Icould > have made: upgrade the entire system along with a midrange videocard, say > the 8500, or get a 8500 alone for now. > > But I was really attracted to the 9700 on the one hand, and really wantedto > wait for Barton or Hammer on the other, so I made the odd choice ofgetting > a 9700 alone for now. Was it the best price/performance choice? No, the > 9700's price has already dropped 5% from the $320 I paid a couple weeksago. > Was it a terrible choice? No, the card operates flawlessly, and I'm > enjoying NOLF2 now at 1024x768x32 at a playable framerate. Worst caseI've > lost say $30/month over the next 3 months in card depreciation. Peoplewho

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> buy say the NV30 when it premiers will be in the same situation and that's > 2months away minimum, so I don't regret the 9700 purchase at all. > > For the cpu+mobo+ram upgrade I'd like to wait for barton or hammer, but it > looks like they are 6months away, so I'll probably need an intermediate > upgrade before xmas. > > [email hidden] > >

"TDRacin�" wrote: > > Gotcha, I did not know that the V3 wouldn't run today's games. I still have > one, but I don't currently use it. I apologize for coming across as > slamming you for selecting what I have read is a really good card. Since > you obviously considered your options, I hope you can accept my apologies. Wow, not bad, are you going to apologize for the troubles in the Middle East while you're at it Tim or is that still Brian Tate's fault ? Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy "The Pits" http://www.theuspits.com/ "A man is only as old as the woman he feels" --Groucho Marx--

Hell no! Brian will always lay claim to that!!!!!!! lol "Goy Larsen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > > > "TDRacin�" wrote: > > > > Gotcha, I did not know that the V3 wouldn't run today's games. I stillhave > > one, but I don't currently use it. I apologize for coming across as > > slamming you for selecting what I have read is a really good card.Since > > you obviously considered your options, I hope you can accept myapologies.

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> > Wow, not bad, are you going to apologize for the troubles in the Middle > East while you're at it Tim or is that still Brian Tate's fault ? > > > Beers and cheers > (uncle) Goy > > "The Pits" http://www.theuspits.com/ > > "A man is only as old as the woman he feels" > --Groucho Marx--