Will this combo work well???

[MrMorden]

Hello--

I am interested in buying a Radeon 9700 Pro to replace my GeForce 3 card. My machine has the following specs:

AthlonXP 2000+ (266 Bus)
1GB PC2100 DDR RAM
Abit KG-7 RAID Motherboard

Will a 9700 Pro work well on this setup? I Don't think I'll be too CPU/RAM bottlenecked, but I'm not sure.

Also, I've been looking hard at the Crucial 9700 Pro card...$319 with a lifetime warranty. Thoughts on that as well?

Thanks!

 

[Twitch]

Read the THG article recently posted comparing 65 CPU's. It will be good for you, because all the tests were run on a 9700. That is, if you want to know the relative performance of the 9700 with that CPU. Just remember, if the game is CPU intensive (Quake3 engine), you will be a fair amount slower than systems with a high-end processor, though you should be able to play the games without any noticeable problems. If the game is graphics-card intensive (Aquanox) then the processor is not as important.

FYI, I am running a 9700 on my Athlon 1800+ with DDR266 and it is very sweet. It runs everything that's current flawlessly. Your proposed system will be somewhat faster. I plan on upgrading to a new processor in about 6 months, though, since I believe newer games (Comanche) will show a much more noticeable benefit from newer technologies.

 

[MrMorden]

Cool, thanks Twitch.

I figured I'd be okay. Back when I was single I'd buy the best box I could and keep it for a couple of years and then replace it. Now that I'm married my upgrades have been more...incremental. =8^)

 

[Twitch]

Just make sure you get the newest drivers from ATI. Save yourself a lot of headaches.