HELP!!! Which 9700PRO should I get? Please post your brand.

[LiquidX]

I have decided to get a Radeon 9700 PRO. Is there any one brand which is the best to get or shoud I stick with the ATI one. I do not over-clock so that is not a issue. If you have also had any problems with a certain brand please post.

Thanks

[Chalnoth]

Speaking of which, the primary difference between different GeForce brands has always been 2D image quality. Has anybody tested the 2D image quality of various R300 boards not made by ATI?

[Megatron]

I have the retail Built by ATI 9700. Its been great so far.

[gravioli]

I own a retail Built by ATI that I got back in August. It works great, but I hear a lot of good things about the Hercules one.

[-=Gib-McFragger=-]

Originally posted by Megatron
I have the retail Built by ATI 9700. Its been great so far.


Ditto :afro:

[digitalwanderer]

Since the rage128 to the radeon to the 8500, I have had/heard nothing but bad things about OEM/white-box cards. I bought me rage128 & 7200 OEM, and they came about 10% under-clocked from specks and just weren't very good. My 8500 is a retail and I can tell the difference.

I'm not sure which brands are the best right now, but make sure whatever brand you get you make SURE of the clockspeed you're promised! A lot of ATI manufacturers used to cheat a lot and clock back from the default specs and a lot of people never noticed it 'til after they bought the card and were most displeased.

I'm gonna try the El Coyote modded saphire 9500 me own self I think. :)

[Raptorman]

I have a Built By ATi Radeon 9700 PRO, but I would also take a real close look at the Hercules 9700 PRO. I use to by from Hercules all the time until they went to ATi (I didn't like the Radeon 8500), but now that the 9700 PRO is out, and is a great card my choice would be Hercules.

[Chalnoth]

Originally posted by Raptorman
I have a Built By ATi Radeon 9700 PRO, but I would also take a real close look at the Hercules 9700 PRO. I use to by from Hercules all the time until they went to ATi (I didn't like the Radeon 8500), but now that the 9700 PRO is out, and is a great card my choice would be Hercules.
This is kind of off topic, but I thought I'd throw this out there.

I still think it's kind of funny that Hercules is the brand name of the video cards. Hercules tanked around the time of the TNT2 Ultra's heyday (Wasn't that around mid-1998? I forget exactly...). They completely went under, and were broken up by the bank. At the last minute, Guillemot purchased the name. So, today's Hercules has absolutely nothing to do with the company before about 1998. If I remember correctly, Hercules was even an Australian company, and whereas Guillemot is a French company.

[nin_fragile14]

I have a built by ATI that works great. I heard the Hercules is the best overclocker though.

[mcortz_2000]

Hi All

Well I have jumped side for the moment. I just purchased it yesterday.
I Bought the powercolor Evil commando 9700 Gold Pack(non-Pro) and guess what.
The card came with 9700 pro memory modules. They are samsung K4D26323RA-GC2A which if you read up are rated for 350Mhz(x 2 ). I read that the tetail Ati 9700 pro uses the same memory. Anyway I picked it up for 270 plus tax.
I know that there are cheaper prices but hey I was a little impatient.
Anyway it has been a joy to use. I like the 2d IQ and the text at 1600x1200 looks a little sharper than my GeForce4 Ti4600(Visiontek).
I have had no issues witht the catalyst so far and I suppose i will.
It overclocks quite well but some ram sinks could definately be of assistance.
:afro:

[PreservedSwine]

Originally posted by Chalnoth
Speaking of which, the primary difference between different GeForce brands has always been 2D image quality. Has anybody tested the 2D image quality of various R300 boards not made by ATI?

ATI has included the dual 400mhzRAMDACS (and filters) on the GPU, so there is little chance of any noticable difference in IQ on the R300 products.

As far as a superior R9700PRO, it seems the Tyan Tachyon boasts a superior cooling solution over the otheres, and very cool hardeware monitering. It appeasr to be the only one to really stand out from the crowd, claiming overclocks near 400mhz.

Be carefull though. If you order one, make sure you get the model w/ hardeware monitering, as there are two models.

[Chalnoth]

Originally posted by PreservedSwine
ATI has included the dual 400mhzRAMDACS (and filters) on the GPU, so there is little chance of any noticable difference in IQ on the R300 products.
Hrm...it would probably be somewhat challenging to integrate the filters on the die, but I'm sure it's not impossible. Just looked at the surface of the Radeon 9700 Pro, and it does seem to have fewer resistors/capacitors between the chip and outputs, so you could very well be right. Got an official link?

Regardless, I would still find it interesting if a comparison was made...

[PreservedSwine]

Originally posted by Chalnoth
Hrm...it would probably be somewhat challenging to integrate the filters on the die, but I'm sure it's not impossible. Just looked at the surface of the Radeon 9700 Pro, and it does seem to have fewer resistors/capacitors between the chip and outputs, so you could very well be right. Got an official link?

Regardless, I would still find it interesting if a comparison was made...

Nvidia is following suite w/ the NV30. There will be little, if any, discernable diference in IQ between boards of the same manufacturer. Both companies have integrated dual channel 10-bit RAMDACS on the GPU, leaving no room for cheap RAMDACS by third party manufacturers.

[Chalnoth]

Originally posted by PreservedSwine
Nvidia is following suite w/ the NV30. There will be little, if any, discernable diference in IQ between boards of the same manufacturer. Both companies have integrated dual channel 10-bit RAMDACS on the GPU, leaving no room for cheap RAMDACS by third party manufacturers.
nVidia's beeing using integrated RAMDACs for quite a while now. The difference is usually in the filters.

[noko]

Tachyon G9700 Pro :D, real nice. Tyan agreed to exchange my non monitoring version for monitor version due to it wasn't clearly clarified until after I bought mine the two different versions. Anyways it doesn't separate itself from the rest of the Radeon 9700 Pro's.

[Blkout]

Well, I went with an All In Wonder R9700 Pro so I didn't have much choice but ATI retail. I believe Sapphire is the only other company making an All In Wonder right now.

[SnakeEyes]

The possibility of getting a card clocked slower or with some other inferior point compared to the 'real thing' is why I ordered the ATI branded card. Which btw, hasn't arrived at my door yet, and the waiting is killing me! :D

[digitalwanderer]

Oh yeah, I'm on a holy quest to spread the word about Powercolor..DO NOT BUY FROM THEM!!!

They underclock their cards, but have a bad tendancy not to mention it or to mention it in fine print buried on their site. :mad:

Whatever you do, make sure of the clockspeed your card is supposed to have before you buy it! If you can't find out what it should be on the merchants site where you're looking, go somewhere else!

There are some 3rd party companies that really do screw people over by selling inferior ATI products as the real thing, watch yourself!

Remember; if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

But Powercolor is the worst offender of the lot, stay away! ;)

[Ratchet]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Sapphire - they make great cards, infact they make the "built by" cards for ATI as well so you know they are good. I've got a 9500 Pro from Sapphire and a 9700 Pro from ATI and I see literally NO difference in image quality on my Viewsonic P95f+b.

I have no problems at all recommending Sapphire to someone looking for a R300 based card.

[Rogozhin]

Yes Sapphire makes good cards

I picked up a 9700NP from them for $240 and it is a built by ati board with a sapphire bios. It also has the pro samsung 2.8ns ram!

IT came with a locked bios runniing 276/270 but I've unlocked the bios and now run it at 310/305.

I like it alot ;0

rogo