Radeon 9500 pro SUPER price/peromance card

[nexus_alpha]

The final version of the card is now reviewed and at anandtech the card performs faster than the ti 4600 except in serious sam and kills the ti 4600 when aa and ansio is on. Not to mention the card will retail for less than $200 on release I say SWEEEEEEEET. Imagine a card that out performs the ti 4600 and since it debuts cheaper than $200 will soon be cheaper than a ti 4200. CAN we all say value for money. Once again I state just my opinion I am open to constructive criticism, if you can find flaws in my statements I will except them if outlined in a rational manner.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Don't forget that Radeon 9500 Pro has full DX9 support. That means it will perform better than Ti4600 in future DX9 based games. And image quality will be surely beeter with Radeon 9500 Pro.

Let us know <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=25703#25703" target="_new"> What File compression format you use? </A>

 

[chuck232]

The only problem I can possibly see happening is the drivers. Although the newer drivers seem to have pulled performance up substantially, there seems to be people who can't get R9xxx cards working with some games.

Other than that, I say it's all good.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...

 

[Makaveli]

I wouldn't say its a Ti4600 killer (only with AA and FFSA)
it more on par with the ti4400 and beating the Ti4600 on some benchs. But this is a much needed card to the price point. And should be offically called the Ti4200 killer. I'm using the 2.4 Catalyst drivers and find them alot better than the 2.3s. And from what i've been reading about the R300 core this baby should be a serious overclocker. Though I wish they used abit faster memory like 3.3ns.
Shouldn't matter anyways slap on some Ramsinks on this baby and she be flying.

Goodjob Ati totally out played Nvidia for the Xmas season.And its about time they stepped up to the plate.
I was planning on getting an Radeon 9700pro in Feburary if Nvidia ever released the Geforce FX so I can get a nice price drop. This card is making it hard for me to wait!

 

[nexus_alpha]

True but of late if a game has issues with a radeon card a patch or fix is often made avaliable the same or next week.Overall compatiablity is in the high 80% for games.

 

[chuck232]

In everything except Serious Sam2, the R9500 Pro equals(or small loss) or beats the Ti4600. That's saying something. It's definitely not a Ti4600 killer, but it does perform on par. The scores in SS2 make me think that the slightly slower RAM is the culprit. By overclocking to ~650MHz (usually possible on 3.6ns BGA RAM) it should equal the Ti4600 easily in SS2 and outperform it even more in other games. But then again, you could always overclock the Ti4600 too... But whatever :tongue:

EDIT: Commanche4 the R9500 Pro also loses, but who plays a game where you can only get a max of ~50FPS on a P4 2.8GHz?...

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Chuck232 on 11/27/02 09:52 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[chuck232]

Yeah, and I must commend ATi for the much better driver support nowadays. Even I'm considering getting a R9500 Pro if the R9700 non Pro doesn't show up soon.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...

 

[chuck232]

Check out the articles. They seem to be popping up now:

<A HREF="http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2002q4/radeon-9500pro/index.x?pg=1" target="_new">The Tech Report</A>
<A HREF="http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/S&V/radeon_9500pro.shtml" target="_new">Hot Hardware</A>

Check'em out!

EDIT: <A HREF="http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/9500pro/default.asp" target="_new">One More!! </A>

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Chuck232 on 11/27/02 10:30 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Hadi]

i can't wait for 9700 non-pro either . I want to play the whole holiday and my choice is R9500 pro. for the price you can't get anything better even without considering FSAA or DX9.
there is no official price know but i've read before it sould be higher than US$200 and around US$220.


i'm just not sure if we can find it here soon in Australia and does anybody know what games will ATI include with the card? ;-)

Wether listen to me or wait for the next patch!

 

[nexus_alpha]

Let me quote tech report "ATI says the Radeon 9500 Pro will jump out of the gate with a $20 rebate on its retail list price of $199." Can we all say SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET I might think of getting one.

 

[dhlucke]

<font color=red>I'd like to buy a radeon 9500pro or 9700, but if 1/5 of games aren't compatible, there's no way in hell I'd buy the card. They better get that up to 99% if they plan on sane people buying their cards.</font color=red>

<font color=red>
<A HREF="http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?dhlucke" target="_new">Forum Assassin</A></font color=red>

 

[Ghostdog]

Were did you pull those numbers from? if a game isn´t compatible, then it´s the developers fault for not coding to a standard-API.

<font color=red>I´m starting to feel like a real computer consultant.</font color=red>

 

[1080jibber]

Hell yes!! I returned my ti 4200 after I read the reveiws on the 9500 pro! ATI really did a good job with both the 9500 pro and the 9700, way to put some pressure on nvidia! Now nvidia will have to work very hard to not only get fx out, but also something to recapture the mid-market, which ATI will surely swallow up in the next 6 months.

Jsf

 

[chuck232]

There are some games that don't work very well on ATi cards, but the driver team seems to be doing well fixing probs nowadays. 99% is an overexaggeration. I don't think even nVidia can boast that. There's gonna be a few games that don't work well. And anyways, seems like a lot of people are excited over this card.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...

 

[chuck232]

Yeah, it sure does look awesome. I know of some people who got Ti4200 recently cause the previous R9500 Pro benches didn't loook good at all. ATi could've probably prevented this if they had've gotten the final board and drivers out faster.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...

 

[eden]

I know for one that Deus Ex runs horribly on my WinXP system with the Geforce 3 Ti200. Lots of lag despite being a 2000 game.
Proof that indeed no driver can be effective on 99% of games.
I doubt ATi has drivers which support only 80%, it's more like they can play the majority if not all, but some may have glitches. Currently I don't see frequent glitch reports for NEW GAMES or recent ones.

One thing I always worry:
While the R9500PRO is probably the next Ti200-Ti4200 P/P card, I feel like buying them, despite having future proof capabilities will not help! That's how I always felt, as you don't even know how the next generation of games will push. I'm even afraid the new games will push the R9700PRO to low levels of gameplay that it can play at 60FPS, albeit many drops to sub 30FPS. This is one of the reasons I get afraid of the new cards which claim future proof support but in fact you never know just how far the games are pushy.
Aquanox had nearly full DirectX 8 utilization, yet it ran at about 50FPS on the Ti500 which also would drop to 25FPS in intensive action, all the while being the highest end card back then, if not the standard GF3.

As you can see, it's an unsure market, that even the best card could suddenly lose to games. But we'll see how proof comes, I just want MINIMUM FPS reports more frequently like UT2003 does.

--
*You can do anything you set your mind to man. -Eminem

 

[HolyShiznit]

Deus Ex would run poorly with an ATI card too if the CPU wasn't fast enough...those Unreal-engine games all like 3dfx cards, don't they?

 

[phial]

THIS WILL BE THE CARD IM GETTIN

please forgive the caps, but im excited. this card is SO sweet, has all the power of the 9700 (non-pro), except for the memory interface. the GPU is far more powerful as far as pixel and vertel shading go compared to the gf4 TI series, much more advanced. and if you play all your games at 1024 with 4xAA i think the memory speeds will be just fine for me!

if i was playin at 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 i mihgt go for a 9700pro or regular..

 

[eden]

Pray tell, is an AthlonXP 1600+ this weak?
I think not!
The game was poorly designed graphically-wise in the first place. I think it also has WinXP problems.


--
*You can do anything you set your mind to man. -Eminem