Radeon 9000 Questions

[Jon B.]

Just got done looking over the 80 card review at
http://www.ixbt-labs.com/articles2/over2003/index.html#p5
and noticed the Radeon 9000 Pro goes heads up with cards nearly twice the
price (geforce 4ti and even does pretty well against the new 9800SE). This
suprised me, knowing that I could pick one of these up from mWave.com or
NewEgg for less than $70 shipped.

What I'm wondering is what series was the 9000 released with and was it the
top of the line card at a time? Or was it just a real sleeper that's just
held its own? Are there any drawbacks other than the fact its still a DX8
card? I'm really considering picking one up tomorrow after work for a
budget system that has a Geforce2 MX in it right now.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[Tod]

The 9000 and 9200 have a slightly trimmed down version of the GPU
that is in the 8500,8500LE and 9100 cards.
The 8500LE and 9100 have a slighty slower GPU then the 8500
So 8500 will be fastest
then the 8500LE and 9100 are second fastest
9000 and 9200 come in third

You can get a 9100 mail order for $55-65
or get a 9600SE for $84 (Direct X 9)

 

[Sleepy]

Considering you have a geforce2mx atm the 9000pro
would give you a nice boost and the overall image quality is better too. If
you do get one you need the 3.7 'Catalyst' drivers from ATI for best
stability/compatibility with current games. If you can spend a little more I
would go for that gf4ti - Nvidia's drivers are still better than ATI
particularly for OpenGL.

 

[LaManchaDQ]

Just got done looking over the 80 card review at
http://www.ixbt-labs.com/articles2/over2003/index.html#p5
and noticed the Radeon 9000 Pro goes heads up with cards nearly twice the
price (geforce 4ti and even does pretty

well against the new 9800SE). This

suprised me, knowing that I could pick one of these up from mWave.com or
NewEgg for less than $70 shipped.

What I'm wondering is what series was the 9000 released with and was it the
top of the line card at a time? Or was it just a real sleeper that's just
held its own? Are there any drawbacks other than the fact its still a DX8
card? I'm really considering picking one up tomorrow after work for a
budget system that has a Geforce2 MX in it right now.

Thanks,
Jon

I have a 9000 Pro and have been very happy with it for the most part. I'm
running it in a P3 933 machine on WinXP. The only problem I have had with
it is with the most recent Catalyst drivers I had some major
incompatibilities. All I did is roll back the driver and everything, again,
is hunky dory. This was the first time EVER that an ATI driver update
didn't give me better performance. ATI has for the last couple of years,
has had the better driver history - a well documented situation in both
these forums and the press.

Good luck with it - stick to the benchmarks and pick the one that gives you
the best bang for your buck!

LaManchaDQ