what's up with RADEON 9700?

[RevyGurl]

I've been looking into buying a new video card and I found that Tom's VGA Chart, where 29 graphics cards are compared, is a really helpful recource when making a decision on which card to buy. There is one problem though, the Radeon 9700 Pro is extremely expensive, so I wanted to get an idea of how much the Radeon 9700 was, because it performed almost just as good.. but, I can't find a single store that sells it! Even when I used Tom's low price finder, there's not one out of the 29 stores that sell it. How can this be? This graphics card was only second (performance wise) to the 9700 Pro (which was the best) in almost all the benchmark tests. Why doesn't any store carry it?? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[DuncMac]

Don't know where ur based pal, but....

In the USA go to www.ocsystem.com they've got ati ones for around $232.

Or in the UK go to www.ebuyer.com for around £200 ($325)

I'm getting a mate to bring me one back from the US to the UK by the end of the month.

Drooollll It'll have nice shiny ram sinks and as its replacing my old 32 sdr radeon I'm actively fantasising about the fps and the resolution I'll be able to run.

 

[DuncMac]

Don't know where ur based pal, but....

In the USA go to www.ocsystem.com they've got ati ones for around $232.

Or in the UK go to www.ebuyer.com for around £200 ($325)

I'm getting a mate to bring me one back from the US to the UK by the end of the month.

Drooollll It'll have nice shiny ram sinks and as its replacing my old 32 sdr radeon I'm actively fantasising about the fps and the resolution I'll be able to run.

 

[ChrisPi]

If you're in the U.S.A., have you tried www.pricewatch.com? Just enter "radeon 9700" into the search bar for a list of stores that carry it.

Also, if you find a deal you like it's good to check out the stores reputation at www.resellerratings.com

I've been eyeing the 9700 non pro's myself. Once Doom comes out - right now my Geforce 3 ti500 can handle current games - they should be in my price range.

 

[Lrd_Mince]

yea, Both me and a friend of mine got our 9700's (mine a Pro, his a non-Pro) off a site we got from pricewatch.com named www.gameve.com. They have a satisfactory rating at the BBB and we got our cards only a week after we ordered (would've been sooner but it was the new years holiday).

Their 9700 (non-Pro) is $232 also. Comes with all the cords you need and the installation disc, although it's better to download either the 2.5 or 3.0 drivers before you install the card and install them when prompted.

 

[RevyGurl]

Thanks for the web address (www.ocsystem.com). They do have the R9700.. it's the only place so far that I have seen that carries them. www.pricewatch.com doesn't have them, and none of the 29 stores that you can access through "Tom's low price finder" has them. So it doesn't matter where I'm based I guess, it appears that they've become rare. the R9700 is still fairly expensive at $230 bucks.

I may have found a viable alternative though. ATI Radeon 7500 (All-In-Wonder) 64MB DDR DVI AGP for $100 CND ($65 USD). I'm not sure if this card was one of the test subjects for Tom's benchmark tests, so I don't know about it's performance. Can anyone tell me if this card is worth $65 bucks, and how about its performance..? Thanks!

Revygirl.

 

[Crashman]

Well, it's tough to say! That particular card came at various clock speeds. The retail card is over twice as fast as the slowest versions!

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[flowmaster]

well one ATI card Ive seen is the ATI Radeon 8500 is pretty good and is better then a Geforce 4 mx440 overclocked.
So if your looking at price go with what your heart desires ... after you ask around and dont get stuck for your money either ( check for warrenty and if its oem or manufactured box video card or just used.)

 

[ChrisPi]

RevyGurl, pricewatch does list the radeon 9700, I just checked. Just enter "radeon 9700" in the search bar. Then go to the bottom of the results page and click the next page button. On page 2 the list of 9700 non pro's starts.