Worth upgrading 9700 to 9800 Pro?

[Andrew Marks]

I have a Powercolour Radeon 9700 (non pro) and am starting to notice some of
the latest games now require the detail to be turned down to run smoothly.
I always run at 1280x1024 as I have a 17" LCD display.

My question is this: Is it worth upgrading to a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
Atlantis 128MB?

Will I see much difference between this and my 9700 or should I wait for the
next range of cards? I don't want to spend stupid money so the XT is out of
the question. I have seen the Sapphire for around £230+VAT which isn't too
bad as I may be able to get about £100 for my 9700 on eBay.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Andrew]

Will I see much difference between this and my 9700 or should I wait for the
next range of cards? I don't want to spend stupid money so the XT is out of
the question. I have seen the Sapphire for around £230+VAT which isn't too
bad as I may be able to get about £100 for my 9700 on eBay.

I don't think its worth the cost of the upgrade, although I reckon you
would get more than £100 from Ebay.

 

[Ben Pope]

I don't think its worth the cost of the upgrade, although I reckon you
would get more than £100 from Ebay.

Pros have been going for ~£150, non Pros for about the £100 mark, but as low
as about half that.

Ben

 

[Andrew Marks]

Hmmm, better think of something else to spend my Chrimbo bonus on then.

 

[TMack]

I have a Powercolour Radeon 9700 (non pro) and am starting to notice some of
the latest games now require the detail to be turned down to run smoothly.
I always run at 1280x1024 as I have a 17" LCD display.

My question is this: Is it worth upgrading to a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
Atlantis 128MB?

Will I see much difference between this and my 9700 or should I wait for the
next range of cards? I don't want to spend stupid money so the XT is out of
the question. I have seen the Sapphire for around £230+VAT which isn't too
bad as I may be able to get about £100 for my 9700 on eBay.

Any help is appreciated.

Are you sure that slowdowns are due to the graphics card and not lack of cpu
processing power? Even if the problem is due to the graphics card I doubt
that you would notice much difference with a 9800 Pro. As for the
1280x1024 - I know that the default setting is preferable on an LCD monitor
but it is usually possible to get satisfactory results for games at other
resolutions. both 800x600 and 1024x768 usually look OK. Battlefield 1942
doesn't provide a 1280x1024 option so I play at 1024x768 and the image
quality is very acceptable on my 17" LCD monitor.

Tony

 

[Strontium]

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

I have a Powercolour Radeon 9700 (non pro) and am starting to notice
some of the latest games now require the detail to be turned down to
run smoothly. I always run at 1280x1024 as I have a 17" LCD display.

My question is this: Is it worth upgrading to a Sapphire Radeon 9800
Pro Atlantis 128MB?

I really think it's going to be a matter of personal preference. You've not
stated what the rest of your system is. Nor have you mentioned which games.
As another poster stated, that could be your bottleneck. However, I will
offer my experience. As, I've just done something similar. I have a
PowerColor 9700np (now sitting in closet). It ran games smooth as silk.
Did notice it start to max out, though, on Aquanox2. My processor was a P4
2.4C with 1GB of PC3200. I upped the processor to a P4 3.0C and the video
card to an Asus 9800XT. Aquanox2 is now like butta! Not that it matters,
but my benchmarks went up about 25%.

But, my main reason for ditching the 9700np was due to the shitty PCB that
PowerColor used. Had the infinite loop, with that card.

 

[Mark]

It could be worth it if your games are struggling just a little, but enough
to be visible or annoying. After all it's worth it if it makes your gaming
pleasure better

Going from a 9700 Pro to a 9800 Pro wouldn't be worth it for sure, but from
a non-pro it probably is.

Looking at various benchmarks 9700 to 9700 Pro is around 8-10% difference.
Then 9700 pro to 9800 Pro is about 5-10% extra so you should see roughly 15%
or so difference - doesn't sound a lot but it could take a game that just
struggles into the comfort zone . Plus AA and Ansi filtering will
probably run better if you use it.

If you get some money back on your old card selling it then that helps. It's
all personal taste at the end of the day of course.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Ben Pope]

Hmmm, better think of something else to spend my Chrimbo bonus on then.

CPU / RAM / Mobo / Bigger or Faster Hard Disk / Better mouse / keyboard /
Monitor...

I'm sure you'll think of something

Ben

 

[rms]

Why not flash the 9700non-pro to a pro, for a free upgrade?

rms

 

[Strontium]

It's a powercolor. They do not overclock, well.

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

 

[John Hall]

If he has the right mobo, and a less than spectacular cpu, his cheapest
upgrade would be a new cpu. On most systems these 9700 - 9800 video cards
are not maxed out.

JK

 

[Strontium]

Agreed. But, that was not my point. OP failed to even give system specs,
in first place.

-
John Hall stood up, at show-n-tell, and said:

 

[John Hall]

Sorry, I wasn't replying to your post. Just adding my own observation to
his question about upgrading.

JK

 

[Andrew Marks]

Yeah, I should have listed my system specs. Soz.

I have an AMD 2700+ CPU, Abit NF7-2.0 MB, 1GB DDR333 RAM, 120GB Western
Digital 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD and SB Audigy 2 soundcard.

I am considering upgrading the processor to an Intel P4 800mhz FSB 3ghz HT
processor with an ASUS motherboard and a serial ATA drive instead of the
9800pro. Would this be a better purchase?

The main game I play is Planetside but also stuff like Dues Ex 2, Halo, Max
Payne 2 and of course when it is released I will want to play Half Life 2.

 

[Ben Pope]

Yeah, I should have listed my system specs. Soz.

I have an AMD 2700+ CPU, Abit NF7-2.0 MB, 1GB DDR333 RAM, 120GB Western
Digital 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD and SB Audigy 2 soundcard.

I am considering upgrading the processor to an Intel P4 800mhz FSB 3ghz HT
processor with an ASUS motherboard and a serial ATA drive instead of the
9800pro. Would this be a better purchase?

I wouldn't bother with a new motherboard and processor, similar reason. as
with the 9700 to 9800, not enough gain for the cost. Grab some faster RAM
and try to hit 200FSB with your 2700+, and overclock your 9700 a little.

Save the other money for when HL2 comes out and decide what to do with it
then, or save all the money and decide what to do when HL2 comes out. If
you need more speed now, I bet the increased memory bandwidth will help.

Ben

 

[Strontium]

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

Yeah, I should have listed my system specs. Soz.

I have an AMD 2700+ CPU, Abit NF7-2.0 MB, 1GB DDR333 RAM, 120GB
Western Digital 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD and SB Audigy 2 soundcard.

I am considering upgrading the processor to an Intel P4 800mhz FSB
3ghz HT processor with an ASUS motherboard and a serial ATA drive
instead of the 9800pro. Would this be a better purchase?

The main game I play is Planetside but also stuff like Dues Ex 2,
Halo, Max Payne 2 and of course when it is released I will want to
play Half Life 2.

If you can afford the upgrade, you will notice a difference. As it stands,
I don't see why your rig would be holding you back. What kind of timings
are you running on your memory? Halo is just coded crap, so that's no issue
with your hardware. MP2 is a definite hungry monster. From what you've
said, you shouldn't need an upgrade. But, like I said, you would see a bit
of improvement. It's just a question of whether that little bit would be
enough for you to justify a new mobo/cpu/video card. For me, I love
building, so it's a no brainer. For you, lol...dunno.

 

[Chip]

Hmmm, better think of something else to spend my Chrimbo bonus on then.

Why don't you whack an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer on it and crank up the
MHz?

http://tinyurl.com/f1zn

This has to be the best upgrade I *ever* bought. Its fantastic build
quality, clear helpful instructions and performs *brilliantly*. Quite the
best £20 I ever spent on PC stuff.

I can now run my 9700 Pro at 410MHz Core! It will do a loop or 2 of
3dmark2001 at 415, but its not 100 stable at 415. I run it for normal use
at 400 with the fan on silent mode! Its quite ridiculous really Bet my
9700 Pro beats many 9800 Pros out there and maybe even gives XT's a run for
their money.

Chip.

 

[Ben Pope]

I can now run my 9700 Pro at 410MHz Core! It will do a loop or 2 of
3dmark2001 at 415, but its not 100 stable at 415. I run it for normal use
at 400 with the fan on silent mode! Its quite ridiculous really Bet
my 9700 Pro beats many 9800 Pros out there and maybe even gives XT's a
run for their money.

Yeah... until I overclock mine

450/360 stable using a Zalman ZM80A-HP.

Ben

 

[9800]

This has to be the best upgrade I *ever* bought. Its fantastic build

quality, clear helpful instructions and performs *brilliantly*. Quite the
best £20 I ever spent on PC stuff.

I can now run my 9700 Pro at 410MHz Core! It will do a loop or 2 of
3dmark2001 at 415, but its not 100 stable at 415. I run it for normal use
at 400 with the fan on silent mode! Its quite ridiculous really Bet my
9700 Pro beats many 9800 Pros out there and maybe even gives XT's a run for
their money.

I think I'll throw one of those onto my 9800Pro :-D

 

[Jay]

just got a artic cooler , have flash my bios to pro version(9700) how far
can i now pushit you rekon )