ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Question

[spirittoo]

A friend of mind gave me a video game as a gift and I found the card I am using now will not run it.

When my budget allows and the price comes down in a few months I plan to purchase the R 9700 Pro, to run the LOTR game.

I am wondering if I will see better performace with MS 2002?

Can anyone give me any information on this subject? If so please post.

Thank you for your time. :)

[timjohns]

You should see a definite improvement over the MX200. I think in frame rates to some extend (as the video card is no longer the bottle neck), but probably mostly in image quality. A higher amount of AA/AF can be enabled without the system locking up.

[TheFlightMan]

The processor you are describing, is that a Celeron, cause I believe it is. If so, not even a video card will help you with FS2004 or other video games. You will need to upgrade your processor to a P4 in order to see some decent performance with today's games.

TheFlightMan

[TheFlightMan]

Another thing, why purchase a refurbished 9700 Pro when you can buy a newer card for the same amount of money. Video cards are coming down in price rather quickly, this is due to the new PCI Express standard. I would do some homework before looking at a 9700 Pro that is refurbished.

TheFlightMan

[timjohns]

What does refurbishment involve and is PCI Exress going to replace AGP?

[comphollic]

First let me make some corrections here

You sig states your motherboard has an 845HV chipset, i believe you meant an 845GV ;-)
TheFlightMan, there were such things as a P4 1.4ghz, they are not celeron processors....they were one of the first P4 to come out and were usually low performers compared to the P3 Tualitin cores...BTW P4 based celerons first were introduced with a speed of 1.7ghz and P3 celerons only got up to 1.3ghz just to let you know ;-)

Refurbished means a product returned to the manufacturer to be fixed and was put of to sell again..

Back to the orginal post
If you are going to buy a ATI 9700Pro, might as well buy a [link:www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-268&catalog=48&depa=1|ATi 9800Pro] off newegg.com for $215 which seems to be a great deal, and i doubt prices will go lower than that, though it may hit $200 before it becomes discontinued...

Since you do have an 845GV chipset on your motherboard and hopefully support PC2700 memory, i'd recommend upgrading that CPU to atleast a [link:www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-139&catalog=343&depa=1|2.4ghz($139)] and pick up some new memory i'd recommend [link:www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-485&catalog=147&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1|Crucial PC2700 512mb] if you would like to a see some type of performance boost with an ATI 9800PRO

Timjohns---PCI Express will replace AGP8x, but i doubt manufacturers will take away AGP8x soon off their motherboards, and i doubt video card companies will keep PCI express as standard and discontinue AGP cards soon...In terms of peformance, video cards today cant use all the bandwidth that AGP8x has to offer so i doubt PCI express will be a HUGE performance boost like manyy people think or like intel wants you to think ;-)

[timjohns]

Thanks very much

>i doubt PCI express will be a HUGE performance boost like manyy people think or like intel wants you to think

Same goes for all computer kit!

[TheFlightMan]

TimJohns,

PCI Express is here to stay and will eventually replace AGP, don't fool yourself. PCI Express offers twice the bandwith of AGP, so you can imagine how much data it can pump through the bus. True, it will take a year or two for PCI Express to become what AGP is today.

TheFlightMan

[timjohns]

I wasn't trying to fool myslef - just aware that companies can make claims that don't hold a lot of truth, having just read a length article on high speed RAM.
Is PCI express available yet then?

[comphollic]

pump through the bus.>

YEs, but when will video cards pump that much data is the question. Video cards today almost utilizes all the bandwidth AGP4x offers, and barely use more than that, so AGP8x is useless right now...now PCI Express offers twice the bandwidth of AGP8x, which makes PCI express even more useless than AGP8x for video cards today and maybe for the rest of this year...it would take a couple more years for video cards to fully utilize the bandwidth that PCI Express offers...yes PCI Express is here to stay, but will it give the performance boost it promises to give when it finally arrives? No...not yet atleast..

[TheFlightMan]

PCI Express will arrive in late April along with the new BTX format. The initial cards to be released with have an AGP to PCI Express converter and will not be true PCI Express cards. The native cards are slated for late May or mid June at the latest.

TheFlightMan

[spirittoo]

Sorry I forgot to put the P4 in. Why do you say it is a refurbish card? I didn't think I was looking at a refurb. I'm not interested in a refurb at all.

My mobo is an Intel D845HV here is a link to the board:

http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d845hv/sb/CS-008815.htm

One poster is telling me my system will not run the R 9700 pro because my ram isn't fast enough because it's not DDR and my cpu isn't fast enough. They say there will be a "bottleneck" cause because my system can't get the full potential of this card. I plan to upgrade when the budget gets right again, hopefully the price will come down well below $100 (at least on a card that my system can draw the most benefit from.)

I will continue to do research in this area so I can get the best card for my system.

Thank you for your time and posts. :)