Radeon 9600 Pro, 9700 or 9700 Pro?

[zensunni]

All are in my price range, but I want to go for the card that gives the best performance dollar-for-dollar and is the most cost effective over the long-haul. I'm building my own pc to use pretty much exclusively as a gaming machine, and want to get a decent card that will give great performance for at least a couple years before needing to be upgraded.

Here are the prices I'm working with:

9600 Pro for ~ £140 ($212)
9700 for ~ £180 ($273)
9700 Pro for ~ £210 ($318)

I realize the 9700 Pro is the top performer here, but does it really perform that much better to justify the difference in prices? Based on benchmarks I've seen, it doesn't seem as if the 9700 Pro is that much better than the 9700.

With regards to the 9600 Pro, should I just go with that, and expect to have to replace it maybe a year or so ealier than I would the 9700, which would make it more cost effective. Or do you think the 9700 would hold-up so much longer than the 9600 Pro that this wouldn't be the case?

Thanks,

 

[cleeve]

I'd go with the 9700 non-pro.

In most cases they can be overclocked to at least PRO speeds! They're great cards.

 

[daddywags214]

My inclination would be to reccommend the 9700 nonpro, but if you are using it EXCLUSIVELY as a gaming rig, you may want to step up to the 9700 Pro, as it will last you a good little bit longer.

Tit for tat, butter for fat, ATi's dog kicks nVidia's cat

(Maximum PC)

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Get the 9600Pro! That way more people will have them and I can expect better driver support from ATI for MY card.

Actually I would recommend, the 9700 non-pro as it's a significantly better performer. The 9600P 'might' tide you over until you can get a PCI-EX R420 or the like, but that's not guaranteed. The thing is that the price diff is significant, and depending on when you are willing to upgrade next you may be better of short-terming it. It's hard to tell until the REALLY cool games hit the market. I would think the 9700NP will let you play Doom]|[ and Half-Life 2 at reasonable levels so for the near term it's the best choice, as I think we will hit a lul where there is no KILLER game engine to hit that kills cards (like the previous 2 years IMO) Even UT2k4 shouldn't stress much. So the 9700NP will do you for a fair deal longer I would think.

Go with the 9700NP, unless you want to help expand the mid-range 9600P market just for me.

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