Powercolor 9700 Pro vs. Ati 9600 XT

[blackprizm]

I need advice. I'm looking to upgrade to a new card and I know that
the Powercolor 9700 pro is a very fast card/ the 9600XT is pretty
fast. I'm just a little concerned that the 9700 pro has a lot of
problems and is a fairly unstable card. Since I'm getting this mainly
for games that will be released in next 6 months, does anyone have any
experience with the 9700 pro...is the 9600XT while slower... a safer,
more stable bet?

Are there any problems with the Powercolor 9700 pro....I keep reading
about issues with heat. I just don't want to get my hands on a
lighting fast card that is a pain in the ass...Always waiting for a
updated driver release to fix glitches in the newest games.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Andrew]

I'm just a little concerned that the 9700 pro has a lot of
problems and is a fairly unstable card.

What are you basing that statement on?

Are there any problems with the Powercolor 9700 pro....I keep reading
about issues with heat. I just don't want to get my hands on a
lighting fast card that is a pain in the ass...Always waiting for a
updated driver release to fix glitches in the newest games.

The 3.7's work great for me with everything I throw at it. I have a
Gigabyte 9700 Pro for what its worth.

 

[Strontium]

-
blackprizm stood up at show-n-tell, in
(e-mail address removed), and said:

I need advice. I'm looking to upgrade to a new card and I know that
the Powercolor 9700 pro is a very fast card/ the 9600XT is pretty
fast. I'm just a little concerned that the 9700 pro has a lot of
problems and is a fairly unstable card. Since I'm getting this mainly
for games that will be released in next 6 months, does anyone have any
experience with the 9700 pro...is the 9600XT while slower... a safer,
more stable bet?

Are there any problems with the Powercolor 9700 pro....I keep reading
about issues with heat. I just don't want to get my hands on a
lighting fast card that is a pain in the ass...Always waiting for a
updated driver release to fix glitches in the newest games.

My advice.....stay away from Powercolor. But, that is a choice you will
have to make on your own. Everything that you are told here, is conjecture,
until you have first hand experience with it. If I were you (knowing what I
know), I'd not even consider Powercolor. I'd do either Asus (my first
choice), ATI, or Sapphire. The rest suck ass, IMO. Get the real shit.
**** the rest.

 

[Chip]

-
blackprizm stood up at show-n-tell, in
(e-mail address removed), and said:



My advice.....stay away from Powercolor. But, that is a choice you will
have to make on your own. Everything that you are told here, is conjecture,
until you have first hand experience with it. If I were you (knowing what I
know), I'd not even consider Powercolor. I'd do either Asus (my first
choice), ATI, or Sapphire. The rest suck ass, IMO. Get the real shit.
**** the rest.

Thats what I thought. So I ordered a genuine ATI 9700 Pro (or so I thought)
but then a Connect3d version arrived. I phoned the vendor and was going to
send it back, but I thought what the heck I would try it.

And I have to say its a brilliant brilliant brilliant card. (3 brilliants!)
It overclocks like a storm and is rock solid stable. With the stock HS/fan
on it, it was very very good. But now I have put a £20 Arctic Cooling VGA
Silencer on it and its an absolute screamer: I can run it at up to 415MHz
core / 350MHz memory. It will even give 9800XT's a run for its money! In
"normal" use I settle for between 400 and 410 MHz core with the VGA Silencer
on "Silent" mode.

Not bad for a "suck ass", as you say, Connect 3d board ;-)

Chip

 

[Strontium]

-
Chip stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:

Thats what I thought. So I ordered a genuine ATI 9700 Pro (or so I
thought) but then a Connect3d version arrived. I phoned the vendor
and was going to send it back, but I thought what the heck I would
try it.

And I have to say its a brilliant brilliant brilliant card. (3
brilliants!) It overclocks like a storm and is rock solid stable.
With the stock HS/fan on it, it was very very good. But now I have
put a £20 Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer on it and its an absolute
screamer: I can run it at up to 415MHz core / 350MHz memory. It will
even give 9800XT's a run for its money! In "normal" use I settle for
between 400 and 410 MHz core with the VGA Silencer on "Silent" mode.

Not bad for a "suck ass", as you say, Connect 3d board ;-)

I don't recall saying anything about Connect3d Glad you have a good
card, though I, from my experience with POWERCOLOR, will not touch any
mfg that I don't know. Sorry. Enjoy ur card, glad u got a good one

 

[Tim W.]

Not bad for a "suck ass", as you say, Connect 3d board ;-)

Chip

Perhaps the Connect 3D Chinese factory is as good as the ATI Chinese
factory that built my ATI Brand board. It could be.



Enjoy,

Tim Wisner www.wisner.us

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
- William Pitt (the Younger)

 

[Marko =?iso-8859-2?Q?Svir=E8i=E6?=]

Thats what I thought. So I ordered a genuine ATI 9700 Pro (or so I thought)
but then a Connect3d version arrived. I phoned the vendor and was going to
send it back, but I thought what the heck I would try it.

You have a Connect3D R9700PRO? Could you please send me your BIOS? I
have a Connect3D R9700 (NonPro) and I think if I flash it with a PRO
BIOS, I could get to overcloack it more.

P.S. What memory does your card have? My has Hynix 3.6ns.

 

[blackprizm]

So that's one opinion.... Does anyone actually own a Powercolor 9700
Pro that can report back to me.....

The only reason I ask is that I found one for about $200. Seems like
a steal to me. But if it sucks... then that's no good... Asus is
apparently decent too? Saphire as well... cool.. I'll do some hunting
for those as well.

 

[Gunthar]

So that's one opinion.... Does anyone actually own a Powercolor 9700
Pro that can report back to me.....

Got a Powercolor 9700 Pro (Catalyst 3.10), _never_ had anything to complain
with. Works fine with every game i tried, even... Halo !

My specs ; Asus PC-DL 2x1.8Ghz Xeons, 2x512Mo 3200 DDR, WinXP ProSP1...

 

[Strontium]

-
Marko Svirèiæ stood up at show-n-tell, in [email protected], and
said:

You have a Connect3D R9700PRO? Could you please send me your BIOS? I
have a Connect3D R9700 (NonPro) and I think if I flash it with a PRO
BIOS, I could get to overcloack it more.

P.S. What memory does your card have? My has Hynix 3.6ns.

Yikes. Hynix is pretty low grade. Shudder.

 

[Jon Danniken]

So that's one opinion.... Does anyone actually own a Powercolor 9700
Pro that can report back to me.....

The only reason I ask is that I found one for about $200. Seems like
a steal to me. But if it sucks... then that's no good... Asus is
apparently decent too? Saphire as well... cool.. I'll do some hunting
for those as well.

I picked one up from newegg that was DOA, but the replacement is working great. Only clocks to
370/340 (without modding), but that's okay with me for now. It's a good price on a good card.

Jon

 

[Scott Smith]

I have the Powercolor 9700 Pro from Newegg. I am using Catalyst 4.1 now and
I don't have any problems whatsoever. This card rocks in my opinion.

 

[Chip]

You have a Connect3D R9700PRO? Could you please send me your BIOS? I
have a Connect3D R9700 (NonPro) and I think if I flash it with a PRO
BIOS, I could get to overcloack it more.

P.S. What memory does your card have? My has Hynix 3.6ns.

I can mail it you if you like, but I don't think its a very wise move to
flash your card with it. You might well end up with a broken graphics card!

My card has Samsung 2.8ns memory, btw. Let me know where you want me to
mail the bios, if you still do want it.

Chip

 

[Marko =?iso-8859-2?Q?Svir=E8i=E6?=]

Yikes. Hynix is pretty low grade. Shudder.

On what do you base that opinion?

 

[Marko =?iso-8859-2?Q?Svir=E8i=E6?=]

I can mail it you if you like, but I don't think its a very wise move to
flash your card with it. You might well end up with a broken graphics card!

Both our cards are made by the same company, Connect3D, so there should
be no problems.

My card has Samsung 2.8ns memory, btw. Let me know where you want me to
mail the bios, if you still do want it.

Chip

Please, mail it to:

(e-mail address removed)

Just be sure that you put 9700PRO BIOS in the subject. I delete messages
right on the servers if they look suspicious.

THX.

 

[Strontium]

-
Marko Svirèiæ stood up at show-n-tell, in [email protected], and
said:

On what do you base that opinion?

On my experience with cards that use it. But, then again, I overclock
frequently...

 

[Chip]

card!

Both our cards are made by the same company, Connect3D, so there should
be no problems.


Please, mail it to:

(e-mail address removed)

Just be sure that you put 9700PRO BIOS in the subject. I delete messages
right on the servers if they look suspicious.

THX.

You got mail.

 

[Marko =?iso-8859-2?Q?Svir=E8i=E6?=]

You got mail.

Thanks again

 

[Marko =?iso-8859-2?Q?Svir=E8i=E6?=]

On my experience with cards that use it. But, then again, I overclock
frequently...

Mine is overcloacked to 300 MHz (from 270) constantly. I read on the
Hynix web site that the maximum for their 3.6 ns memory is 300MHz. Works
very stable and without artefacts.

 

[fook me]

Black Prism.

I have a Powercolor 9700 pro and it is excellent. I had a few teething
problems, but they are ironed out now. I dont have the best system so my
board doesnt run at its full capacity yet.
I find them incredibly easy to o/c and with only stock cooling you can clock
them very high.

looking around the forums, you tend to here more about bad sapphires etc
than powercolors. I very rarely see posts with problems about Powercolor.

Strontium is always a Powercolor basher (I think he must have had a bad
one).

My Powercolor looks exactly like a genuine ATI (according to the pictures
right down to the memory type and stickers and processor.) and I am now more
than happy with it.

Plays all games without any problems.

Jim