NVIDIA to ATI to NVIDIA

[Chiles4]

Was using a GF3 Ti 200, great for all my games. Felt it was time to evaluate ATI. Got a retail (250/250) 8500LE for $72. Seemed to have a little more umph than my Ti 200.

On a freshly built system...got some weirdness in NOLF2. Somehow my ATI driver installs caused some wackiness in the registry. Cleaning the reg cured it.

Found out the hard way that you don't seem to be able to install any new ATI driver version (in Win98SE) if you've already installed IE 6. Others had this - will report to ATI.

My Sapphire 8500LE, like many others' ATI cards, suffers from the "rolling waves" problem. EMI causing rolling lines thru the screen at certain resolutions and refresh rates even with no source of EMI (other than PC) nearby. No real cure according to Rage3D forums except RMAing until you get a good one.

Occasional gpf-like error with ATI control panel - nothing serious.

What I'm getting at is that I was trying to switch to ATI, even came very close to getting a 9500Pro, but the experience just isn't as polished and it just doesn't inspire a heck of alot of confidence. Am I'm not being too harsh here.

I kept the 8500LE and put in a box whose monitor doesn't have the high resolutions that "mess up" the card's display. That way I can continue to evaluate ATI's drivers. I still have hopes for that 9500Pro.

Ended up putting my GF3 Ti 200 back in, oc'ed the bejeesus out of it (OMG this thing OC's great!), loaded the 41.09s (maybe a poor choice?), and am incredibly pleased with the performance and IQ of the card.

Myabe some of you can relate and offer some vga guidance...

[Captain Beige]

9500pro is probably the best performance/price card in the history of mankind, with no hardware problems and great drivers.

[Cotita]

I agree, I wish I could get one but here I can only get either 8500, 9000 or 9700pro.

Besides the 9500pro will be replaced by the 9600, which may be slower, so get one while they last.

[cvearl]

Originally posted by Captain Beige
9500pro is probably the best performance/price card in the history of mankind, with no hardware problems and great drivers.

Actually I think the OEM 9700's are. At least here in Canada. The price of a good 9500 Pro is $300 and at the moment you can get the OEM 9700 for $365. Pretty incredible for almost a 9700 Pro. Really only short by 15%. If it's the RED PCB, 7 FIN ATI FAN with SAMSUNG RAM then you can flash with a RETAIL ATI 9700 PRO BIOS and it is apparently a 9700 Pro!

So far though I am too chicken to try it.

As far as botched driver installations go, I had a really bad run in with the drivers my first time around. I never actually beleived that a full reinstall of the OS was required to get it to work properly. Found out the hard way that going from nVidia to ATI it is a must! Second time around with a clean install the card ROCKS! Totall stability and unbelievable performance.

Charles.

[Chiles4]

Well, this is all driving me kind of nuts. I've got Splinter Cell up on my good 19" monitor with the GF3. And I've got it up on an old 17" monitor with the 8500LE.

I reset my display settings on the GF3 to all defaults.

With the GF3 and the 41.09s:
- textures are splotchy (colors don't "blend")
- contrast (or what I assume to be contrast) is so high that most everything is black and white (most all color is gone) and the pic is very hard on the eyes
- flashing textures occur every now and then
- game glitches and occasionally locks up when you switch resolutions in-game

With the 8500LE, the game has no glitches and I can't even begin to describe how sweet the picture looks...gamma, color, contrast are right on. Makes the game look much more "real".

Guess I shouldn't have been so pleased with the GF3's IQ after all.
Well, I guess I have some hard drinking - I mean thinking - to do...or both! :p

Cvearl, I read your long thread (over at rage3d?), sounds like you've done a complete 180 - if I remember your thread correctly.

[Cotita]

I have a geforce3 myself and I have no problems with splinter cell, it looks awesome. I'm using 43.30 right now.

[Chiles4]

That's exactly what my next step was (43.03). I'll see if it makes a diff. If I can figure out how to upload pics to my Comcast account I will - the difference (GF3 vs. 8500) was almost freaky.

[Captain Beige]

Originally posted by cvearl
Actually I think the OEM 9700's are. At least here in Canada. The price of a good 9500 Pro is $300 and at the moment you can get the OEM 9700 for $365. Pretty incredible for almost a 9700 Pro. Really only short by 15%. If it's the RED PCB, 7 FIN ATI FAN with SAMSUNG RAM then you can flash with a RETAIL ATI 9700 PRO BIOS and it is apparently a 9700 Pro!

here in UK 9500pro ~£140, 9700 ~£200 so imo 9500pro is better price/performance, especially since I'll be CPU limited anyway (XP2000+)