9500pro

Hellrazer

Been offered on of these dirt cheap and need a question answered.Would this be better than my current GF2ti.I believe they can be soft modded to 9700 specs.Are they direct x 9 compliant/compatible.
Thanks for the help.
Richie

Dempsey

It walks all over a GF2, get it get it get it:D They are a Directx 9 card.

uteotw

The 9500 and 9700 series are DirectX 8.x cards.

But they'll work fine if you installed DirectX 9 , they just won't use the specific DirectX 9 instructions.

Some 9500 can be soft modded to 9700, you need to have the right one.
Google something like "9500 to 9700".

Col_Loki

As standard the 9500's are faster than the 9600's. They can also in some case be softmodded to a 9700/9700pro. Go to http://www.omegacorner.com/ and you should find the drivers (just download the newest one, run the install and it will give you an option).

The 9500 and 9700 series are DirectX 8.x cards.
But they'll work fine if you installed DirectX 9 , they just won't use the specific DirectX 9 instructions.

Are you sure about that?
I thought the 9500's and 9700's were DX9 compliant.......... looking at the box for my 9700pro and it says "Complete DirectX 9.0 support" "First to fully support DirectX 9 and latest OpenGL functionality" etc etc.

uteotw

Damn... I'm full of **** today... another sign that Guinness did damage my brain.
Disregard my comment about DX9...

Hellrazer

So is 80 euros a good price to pay for one of these.That soft modding sounds good--anyone done it here??
Any way it has to be better than my gf2 so Im picking it up on monday.

Dempsey

It is a good price for em, especially with their potential performance increase

Col_Loki

Damn... I'm full of **** today... another sign that Guinness did damage my brain.

lol, beer is great isint it .... [looks at nice can of miller].

So is 80 euros a good price to pay for one of these.That soft modding sounds good--anyone done it here??

€80 is a good price, ive softmodded my 9700pro to a 9800 for a laugh to see if it would work and it was fine....... 9700pro actually performs better so there really wasent any point :rolleyes: . Its nice and easy, and also safe. If it works you have a real bargain, otherwise its still a very decent performer and also a bargain!!

It is far far better than your GF2 , huge difference.

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
Are you sure about that?
I thought the 9500's and 9700's were DX9 compliant.......... looking at the box for my 9700pro and it says "Complete DirectX 9.0 support" "First to fully support DirectX 9 and latest OpenGL functionality" etc etc.

correct!!!!

Mutant_Fruit

"First to fully support DirectX 9 and latest OpenGL functionality"

Does that mean my 9600pro doesn;t fully support DX9 and latest OpenGL?

Col_Loki

9600's do support fully DX9. The 9600's are a newer card than the 9700's. I think the 9500's and 9700's came out arround the same time so both packs prob say that......... the 9600 and 9800 followed .

Mutant_Fruit

Ah, i was getting a bit worried there... For a moment i thought i had a sub-par card.

Mad Mike

Seems to be a bit of misinformation in this thread. I have a 9500 and I hope I can clear some things up.

i) A 9500 PRo is a fully DirectX 9 Compliant Card.

ii) A 9500 Pro can not be modified to a 9700. It was actually certain versions of the 9500 non-pro that could.

iii) Don't worry about (ii) the 9500 pro is still a very good card. From benchmarks I have seen it is as good as if not better than the 9600 XT.

iv) In answer to your first question the 9500 PRO is a far better card than the GF2 ti.

If you need more info - look here:
http://www.8dimensional.com/video-card-reviews/index.html

Col_Loki

ii) A 9500 Pro can not be modified to a 9700. It was actually certain versions of the 9500 non-pro that could.

Doh!! Yea thats right, think i remember reading that somewhere (but forgot soon after). Something to do with 4 v 8 pipelines ....... think the 9500pro already uses 8 pipelines?

Anyway nice spot!!

unkel

Originally posted by Mad Mike
A 9500 Pro can not be modified to a 9700. It was actually certain versions of the 9500 non-pro that could.

True

Originally posted by Mad Mike
the 9500 pro is still a very good card. From benchmarks I have seen it is as good as if not better than the 9600 XT[/URL]

Yes. Memory and especially core clock are crap, but it does use 8 pipelines so your comment is fair

A rare card to get your hands on these days

unkel

Hehe, crossed posts with COL_LOKI

Hellrazer

Just been reading about a bios flash that allows overclocking of the card(since they`re locked).
Anyone done this?Or is there another option for overclocking the card?
Thanks for all the replies.Im picking up the card tomorrow.
Richie

Woden

i think originally the 9 in the radeon product line indicated fully direct X9 support, so that was the 9500 and the 9700 etc. while i think the 8500 was direct X8. iirc however this naming was later brought into disrepute somewhat with cards like the 9000 and stuff that came out as i don't think they had fully DX9 support.

Hellrazer

Looking for the answer to one more little question.
Whats a 9700 non-pro like?
Can get one of these for €100.00.Is it worth the extra €20.00 compared to the 9500pro.
Thanks.
Richie

Mad Mike

I would say yes.

The following link to Tom's hardware guide will allow you to compare their performance in several games:

http://www20.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html

Anothr point to note is that the core of the 9700 can almost certainly be clocked up to 9700pro speed if you are that way inclined.

Hellrazer

Just picked up the card--Using this http://apps.ati.com/102lookup/ and the part number(1029420611) on the card(the 9700 one-I took a chance)it turns out the card is 9700 pro.
And guess what Ive been told to test it before I buy and if it works I get the card for €70.00.
Richie

Col_Loki

Well i must say thats quite a good deal. The 9700pro's perform almost the exact same as a 9800non pro (a little better even). €70 thats a steal.

Hellrazer

Col-Loki,
I see you use a 9700pro--Can they be overclocked without a bios flash?
Also whats the best/fastest drivers for this card?You recommended Omega drivers earlier which Ive downloaded but the file is only a .cab file.Theres no install option from what I can see!!
Thanks
Richie

Col_Loki

Yea they can be overclocked no probs at all. Its like the others, down to luck . Depends on memory and what cooler you pop on it.

Ive gotten my core to 400mhz and memory only overclocked 5-10mhz without artifacts. Try omega drivers again, theres a softmod for 9700-9800 (non pro's) included i think . Didnt thing it was a .cab file, try the link under that?

Hellrazer

My mistake--They are a cab file but I didnt notice that you unzip it using winzip.So Im sorted now.Do the omega drivers come with an overclocking app built in or whats the best one to use.(Excuse the silly questions but Ive always used Nvidia and really havent a clue about ATI cards etc.)

Col_Loki

Try powerstrip (google it ), its not too bad. I havent really tried others as i was pretty happy with it.

Mad Mike

The latest OMEGA drievrs have everything you need including an overclocking utility, a refresh rate fixer and a utility called Radclocker which lets you store different settings for different games. I'm a big fan of Omega. Just make sure to read his readme file. I think you have to uninsatll any ATI control panel before you install OMEGA.

unkel

Hellrazer, where did you get the 9700 pro for €70 - that's an absolute bargain

tman

did a fresh install of xp with the omega drivers last night (mostly for ****s & giggles:rolleyes: )
they seem nicely optimised
damn gfx card is utterly **** for overclocking though, i turned each setting up by about 10 & got a garbled screen as soon as i applied...

and yeah, i'd love to know where you got the card too, Hellrazer

Hellrazer

The IT company we deal with here in work were doing a clearout and the guy I deal with there offered me the card on the basis that it works ok.I still havent installed it yet but will do so tonight.
In the beginning he said it was a 9700 non pro but when I saw the part number come up as a pro I knew it had to be an excellent deal that one couldnt refuse


Im upgrading from Nvidia,do I have to remove ALL the Nvidia crap thats left on my system?If so what program is the best for this.Detonator destroyer apparently doesnt work with XP,so what do you lot use?

Mad Mike

I don't think you have to do anything fancy with those nvidia drivers.

I changed a machine from Nvidia to Radeon about a week ago. It had recent detonators installed (50 something). I just unistalled the nvidia stuff from the control panel and then installed Omega - no problems that I can see.

Hellrazer

Ok need help.Just spent the evening trying to get this card working.Im getting artifacts on the boot up screen(The one just when you switch the PC on)like white dots all over the screen.In game its even worse.Ive a feeling the card is fecked.Anyone ever had probs like these?
Richie

RicardoSmith

Only with a card thats shagged.

Hellrazer

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Only with a card thats shagged.

Thats what I thought.The artifacts are showing up even before the drivers were installed.
Just aswell I havent paid for it yet so!!!

M@lice

check it out!

Jes selling 9500 cards!

Any1 have any idea where they dug these out of? I mean its gota be the best value in that price range!

And they're not pro's and they have L layout memory chips so these are the one's that are softmodable to 9700 as well!

Tempting. :eek: