ATI 9600 PRO 128MB vs. ATI 9700 PRO 128MB

[VDeltaUnited14]

Which one of the two graphics cards here show all of FS2004's greatest features perfectly like reflective water, moving water, 3D clouds, reflective planes,ai traffic, and almost all slidders at max. I cant spend any more money then these two.

[W2DR]

They will both show all "the stuff". Everything will look the same with either card. The 9700 is faster for many games but not necessarily MSFS. But you can't run the sliders maxxed with a 1.8 CPU. Unless you're going to upgrade the CPU soon I'd go with the 9600 as the CPU is going to limit the framerate, not the video card.

Doug

[Lenny]

Obviously the ATI 9700 Pro. I have the 9700TX 128 MB - basically the 9700 Pro but the pipeline dumbed down a bit and $200+ dollars less. Great card. Use the 3.2 Catalyst drivers though because ATI has identified problems with the 3.6 driver and FS9 and will be fixing same.

However, main memory is a BIG factor in FS. If you had a gig (although, I'm not sure, your board may have a 1/2 gig limit) you would see a big increase in smoothness. The 1.8 ghz is ok IF you can up your main memory then of course the card. The 9700 Pro has come down a lot in price by the way because of the 9800 series now.

[fly_inverted]

They'll both do the job.....

However your cpu will be the limiting factor.

I have a Sapphire 9600 Pro 128meg card, and it works like a charm at 1280x1024. I'm getting aroung 24-28 fps. No AA, 4x AF. Terrain texture thing set to 100. Aircraft detail set to medium-high.

System spec
AMD 2400+
512 DDR RAM

The 9600 Pro doesn't have enough grunt to really run AA, IMHO, at this screen res. When I do enable 2xAA, fps is cut in half.

If you don't much care about AA, I would buy the 9600 Pro and put the money I saved towards a faster cpu.

Otherwise, go the 9700 Pro.

Mark.

[flightsimmer747]

now any big difference between 9700 and 9800 pro besides price

[Bigshot]

Yes, the 9700 Pro has twice the bandwidth as the 9600. It's much faster. Therefore, just a bit more expensive and it'll run 4xAA & 16xAF all day long without even noticing it.