ATI Radeon 9700

[Howard]

What is the difference between the Radeon 9700 and Radeon 9700pro?

 

[cleeve]

Only the speed of the GPU and memory.

A 9700 runs at 275 mhz GPU / 270 mhz memory

A 9700 PRO runs at 325 mhz GPU / 310 mhz memory

A 9700 with decent memory can be overclocked to 9700 PRO speeds pretty easily.

 

[Howard]

what do you mean by decent memory? I'm looking at the sapphire ati radeon 9700. I saw it for around 250.

 

[cleeve]

Decent memory would mean what the memory is rated at: i.e. 2.8 ns or 3.3 ns RAM. The lower the better.

You divide the memory rating by 1000 to see how many Mhz it should run stably at:
1000/2.8 = 357 Mhz
1000/3.3 = 303 Mhz

Also certain manufacturers have a reputation for making memory that overclocks well or poorly, like Samsung VS Infineon, for example.

By the way, you should be able to get a 9700 non-pro online for around $200 flat... try pricewatch.com maybe...

 

[Howard]

What is the best 9700 used for overclocking?

 

[JimmyDean]

Sapphire is fine to oc to pro speeds, but steer clear of powercolor, they use much cheaper ram.

<b><font color=red>Remember kids, if you see a downed power line, suck on the end, candy comes out!</font color=red></b>

 

[Willamette_sucks]

Power color has been known to sell cards clocked at lower speeds than what they should be. This was mainly with power color cards labeled a 9700 Pro. They werent really at pro speeds. But I think theyve either stopped, or at least renamed their cards to stop confusion.

However, a PowerColor 9700 non-pro (i.e. Gold i believe) should have the same memory chips as Sapphire 9700 non-pros, which is 3.3 ns for both I believe.

Long live ATI.