9700p bounces 9600pro!

[fish]

My 9700 Pro that I have had for about 2 years now may be dieing. It's been
overclocked for most of its life at 371/331. I have Alpha brand heatsinks on
the memory and a nice 1U 60mm solid copper heatsink and fan on the VPU.



Recently I'm having an issue with the card booting. From a cold start I get
a screen full of colored boxes and its before the overclock utility, the
card never boots to an overclock, only after Windows loads and clocks it up.



In order to test the card and determine what it is, I pulled a 9600Pro from
a work computer and stuffed in in my system tonight. I uninstalled the Cat
4.7 drivers, installed the 9600 and then re-installed the 4.7's. The system
is freshly installed version of WinXP pro from about a month ago. Its fast
and clean.



The 9600pro's desktop looks real nice, as good as the 9700pro I have.
However, the 3D quality is not nearly as good. The 9600p is washed out and
dull in comparison.



Gaming performance really sucks too. AT the stock clock 325/200 the card
pulls only a 6516 in 3D Mark 2001 and a low 1824 in 3D Mark 2003. Aquamark
scores were also very low at 16366.

I tried overclockign the stock card to 351/224 and it just crashes.



My 9700p at 371/331 scores 18,500 in 3DM01 and 5500 in 3DM03. Performance is
almost 200% higher! And looks a lot better.




My system is a P4c 2.6 at 3260Mhz (250fsb), i875p chipset, memory at 200Mhz
cl2-2-2.

 

[Dark Avenger]

Ya know that the 9600 Pro is 128bits/4 pixel pipelines

And the 9700 is 256bits/8 pixel pipelines?

 

[Navid]

My 9700 Pro that I have had for about 2 years now may be dieing. It's been
overclocked for most of its life at 371/331. I have Alpha brand heatsinks
on
the memory and a nice 1U 60mm solid copper heatsink and fan on the VPU.



Recently I'm having an issue with the card booting. From a cold start I
get
a screen full of colored boxes and its before the overclock utility, the
card never boots to an overclock, only after Windows loads and clocks it
up.



In order to test the card and determine what it is, I pulled a 9600Pro
from
a work computer and stuffed in in my system tonight. I uninstalled the Cat
4.7 drivers, installed the 9600 and then re-installed the 4.7's. The
system
is freshly installed version of WinXP pro from about a month ago. Its fast
and clean.



The 9600pro's desktop looks real nice, as good as the 9700pro I have.
However, the 3D quality is not nearly as good. The 9600p is washed out and
dull in comparison.



Gaming performance really sucks too. AT the stock clock 325/200 the card
pulls only a 6516 in 3D Mark 2001 and a low 1824 in 3D Mark 2003. Aquamark
scores were also very low at 16366.

I tried overclockign the stock card to 351/224 and it just crashes.



My 9700p at 371/331 scores 18,500 in 3DM01 and 5500 in 3DM03. Performance
is
almost 200% higher! And looks a lot better.




My system is a P4c 2.6 at 3260Mhz (250fsb), i875p chipset, memory at
200Mhz
cl2-2-2.

Based on the clock frequencies you have specified, you have a 9600, not a
9600 pro!

9600 325/200
9600 pro 400/300

 

[fish]

Ok, you may be right about that.

Is there much of a difference?

 

[fish]

Yeah, I know.

I just ordered a Sapphire 9800pro for $198 from newegg.com. I was planning
on an X800 by the end of the year but looks like I'm in need of a card
sooner then then. I also found a refurbished 9800p for $169.

I'm surprised how poor the 9600 is for gaming. From the stock clock it looks
like its a 9600se? Does that sound right?

 

[Navid]

Ok, you may be right about that.

Is there much of a difference?

I am not sure. I have a 9600 pro. Never had a 9600 or 9800. My 3DM03
score is 3400. After installing a vga silencer and clocking to 460/350, it
is 4000.
But, these benchmarks are affected by not just the graphics card, but also
by the CPU, memory, GPU driver, etc.
Anyway, I am also shopping for a 9800 pro.

 

[rms]

I have Alpha brand heatsinks
Redo the heatsink compound on the heatsink.

rms

 

[fish]

They are glued on with ArticSilver epoxy.

I have a 60mm X 30mm Sunon fan on it that moves a torrent of air, I think
the card just died of stress.

 

[fish]

whats your system specs?

I am not sure. I have a 9600 pro. Never had a 9600 or 9800. My 3DM03
score is 3400. After installing a vga silencer and clocking to 460/350, it
is 4000.
But, these benchmarks are affected by not just the graphics card, but also
by the CPU, memory, GPU driver, etc.
Anyway, I am also shopping for a 9800 pro.

 

[Navid]

whats your system specs?

ASUS P4P800 Deluxe, P4C 2.6G @3.12G, 2x512MB PC3200, Mem:CPU=4:5