Upgrade 9500 Pro to ?

[Mark D. Miller]

Well, I've got the itch to upgrade. I think the majority of my components
are fine for quite awhile.
P4 3.0 (the 512 cache version)
Intel 875 Pbz main board
1.5 gig Corsair RAM
Soundblaster Audigy Gamer
and as stated, an ATI 9500 Pro.
I'm considering a 9800 Pro or NVidia 6600 GT (AGP)
Opinions?
Thanks
Mark Miller

 

[Glitch]

Well, I've got the itch to upgrade. I think the majority of my components
are fine for quite awhile.
P4 3.0 (the 512 cache version)
Intel 875 Pbz main board
1.5 gig Corsair RAM
Soundblaster Audigy Gamer
and as stated, an ATI 9500 Pro.
I'm considering a 9800 Pro or NVidia 6600 GT (AGP)

I think you would be better off saving another month or two and buying
yourself a 6800GT or X800Pro/XL.An upgrade from 9500PRO to 9800PRO
wouldn't be noticeable,besides you can probably mod your 9500PRO to a 9700.

 

[Ben Pope]

I think you would be better off saving another month or two and buying
yourself a 6800GT or X800Pro/XL.An upgrade from 9500PRO to 9800PRO
wouldn't be noticeable,

Most tests I've seen have shown the 9800 Pro to be 50-80% faster than a 9500
Pro

Given that a 9500 Pro is pretty stretched in newer games, I would have said
thats noticeable to the extent that many games become playable when before
they would have been unplayable.

Ben

 

[farmuse]

I have owned a 9500, 9500 pro, 9800, 9800 pro, and an X800 pro. If
you have the money the X800 is outstanding, if not then the 9800 pro is
a very good card. My Saphire quit after a few months, thus the X800
pro. BTW, a 9500 pro is darn near a 9700 the only difference is the core
clock speed and memory speed. Really a 9500 pro should be able to play
most modern game with the exception of FarCry, which the 9800 pro just
barely managed to run at any appreciable detailed settings. I am sure
the 9500 pro can run Doom 3, and should be able to run HL2 on low detail
seeting, but I have not tried that combination to be able to say first
hand. Get the X800 pro.

 

[Mike]

The 9800pro is nowhere near that big of an upgrade. My brother went from a
9500pro to a 9800 nonpro and the difference was noticeable but not huge.
Even overclcoking to 9800pro speeds showed that such an upgrade isn't
worthwhile, pretty much just gave a resolution jump. Ben you might be
thinking of a 9600pro, that's inferior to a 9500pro despite being newer, if
I remember right the 9500 had the same bus width as the 9800 but the 9600
had half...

Mike

 

[Augustus]

Really a 9500 pro should be able to play

most modern game with the exception of FarCry, which the 9800 pro just
barely managed to run at any appreciable detailed settings. I am sure the
9500 pro can run Doom 3, and should be able to run HL2 on low detail
seeting, but I have not tried that combination to be able to say first
hand. Get the X800 pro.

A 9800 Pro is a big jump over a 9500 Pro. The 9500 Pro is a 128bit card with
275/275 clockings. The 9800 Pro is a 256bit card with 380/340 clockings.
Bandwidth of 8.8 vs 21.8 Gb/sec. Hardly a minor difference. My Barton 3200
runs FarCry at 1280x1024, FSAA and high details with no issues or lags or
slowdowns.

 

[farmuse]

yeah I knew someone would stick up for the 9800 pro. Like I said
it's a good card, but with all the settings turned all the way up I saw
some lag with FarCry. Granted, this is with a KT400 chipset, a XP1700 OC
to 1.8 GHz, and 1 GB ram. YMMV. I agree, it is a good card, thus the
high retail value it still commands even after all these months. I wish
mine had not had issues or I would have kept it. Maybe when they drop a
little in price I will try another one. My son has my X800 pro for EQ
II, and I am back to square one with the 9500 np softmodded to 9700 !

 

[Matt]

I have owned a 9500, 9500 pro, 9800, 9800 pro, and an X800 pro. If you
have the money the X800 is outstanding, if not then the 9800 pro is a very
good card. My Saphire quit after a few months, thus the X800 pro. BTW, a
9500 pro is darn near a 9700 the only difference is the core clock speed
and memory speed. Really a 9500 pro should be able to play most modern
game with the exception of FarCry, which the 9800 pro just barely managed
to run at any appreciable detailed settings.

That's odd... I'm playing FarCry on a 9500Pro at max settings without any
problems at all.

 

[borolad]

yeah I knew someone would stick up for the 9800 pro. Like I said
it's a good card, but with all the settings turned all the way up I saw
some lag with FarCry. Granted, this is with a KT400 chipset, a XP1700 OC
to 1.8 GHz, and 1 GB ram. YMMV. I agree, it is a good card, thus the
high retail value it still commands even after all these months. I wish
mine had not had issues or I would have kept it. Maybe when they drop a
little in price I will try another one. My son has my X800 pro for EQ
II, and I am back to square one with the 9500 np softmodded to 9700 !

Why 9500 np softmodded to 9700
Why not 9500 np softmodded to 9800

- how many pipes have you managed to open ?

Augustus wrote:

I posted this in June last year :

This card I'm on is one of the said 9500np's and fly's through Far Cry
on full spec and at ' full welly ', no probs.

Now then, for those who see the frequent posts quoting FarCry I've
often wondered what % of people who can't get it to play properly, or
even at a reasonable resolution / speed are running less than 1GiG of
memory at a reasonable bandwidth.

It's one hell of an engine but it seems to me that this game, a
graphical leader amongst equals, needs at least a GiG to play on any
MOBO.

The above applies to D3 & HL

¸ô¶ó

 

[farmuse]

what resolution ?

That's odd... I'm playing FarCry on a 9500Pro at max settings without any
problems at all.

 

[farmuse]

all 8 pipes open, the core OC to maybe 310 but the ram is the
limiting factor, start getting artifacts like odd psychedelic squares on
the grass lawns of BF1942, and some texture tearing, really bizarre
looking structures. I believe I had it at 310/280 last time I OC the
9500 np. So, softmod to 9800 ? never heard of that before. The 9800 is a
different core. I do agree, 1 GB ram makes a huge difference in FarCry.

 

[Ben Pope]

The 9800pro is nowhere near that big of an upgrade. My brother went
from a 9500pro to a 9800 nonpro and the difference was noticeable but
not huge. Even overclcoking to 9800pro speeds showed that such an
upgrade isn't worthwhile, pretty much just gave a resolution jump. Ben you
might be thinking of a 9600pro, that's inferior to a 9500pro
despite being newer, if I remember right the 9500 had the same bus
width as the 9800 but the 9600 had half...

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030306/

Ben

 

[Ben Pope]

Well, I've got the itch to upgrade. I think the majority of my
components are fine for quite awhile.
P4 3.0 (the 512 cache version)
Intel 875 Pbz main board
1.5 gig Corsair RAM
Soundblaster Audigy Gamer
and as stated, an ATI 9500 Pro.
I'm considering a 9800 Pro or NVidia 6600 GT (AGP)
Opinions?

If you can afford it, maybe an X800XL? Dunno if they do AGP ones... Sees
to be a good price/performance and a significant jump on the 9500 Pro.

Ben

 

[Mark D. Miller]

Hey, thanks to all for the lively and informative discussion. I am impressed
by everyone's knowledge and willingness to share their opinion.
To be honest, I'm in a fortunate position. Money is always a concern of
course, but getting the best for my dollar is more important. Having said
that, I would be interested in trying to softmod my card to get the 9700
level of performance. If someone could provide a link to a place that could
walk me through that process I'd appreciate it.
Thanks again everybody!
Mark Miller

 

[John Smith]

try here
http://www.techpowerup.com/softmod/

Smiffy

 

[Matt]

what resolution ?

I can run everything up to 1280x1024 without problems... and at 1280x1024 I
only have the occasional hiccup (usually when I'm tossing grenades or when
the action is extremely heavy)

 

[SL]

I went from a 9500pro to a 9800pro. It cost me 200$ at the time. I have
not regretted it at all. I installed it on a modest system.

AMD 2000+ (266)
768 pc2100 ram
40 gig HD

Games like Doom3 went from playable to very playable at 1024x768. I then
made a second system with an:

AMD 3000+ (333)
1024 pc3200 ram (400)
80 gig HD

The improvement was very nice on the 9800 pro. All the games out to date
run extremely well. Nothing is overclocked and using generic cpu coolers
bought for less than 10$. The 9500 pro is on the first stated pc. I play
often on a LAN and it can certainly hang in there. Although to reduce any
performance on lan games, I sometimes will reduce down to 800x600. Usually
leaving most games at default settings. D3 I reduce very slightly on the
9500 pro. However, I know its going to become dated very soon. I will then
resort it to an entertainment pc.

HTH,
Sl

 

[Thomas]

besides you can probably mod your 9500PRO to a
9700.

No, only the 9500 np is moddable. The 9500 Pro already has the 8 pipes, the
memory is 128 bit, can't be modded.

 

[Thomas]

The 9800pro is nowhere near that big of an upgrade. My brother went
from a 9500pro to a 9800 nonpro and the difference was noticeable but
not huge. Even overclcoking to 9800pro speeds showed that such an
upgrade isn't worthwhile, pretty much just gave a resolution jump. Ben you
might be thinking of a 9600pro, that's inferior to a 9500pro
despite being newer, if I remember right the 9500 had the same bus
width as the 9800 but the 9600 had half...

Like the link Ben gave us probably says, the 9500Pro and the 9800/9700 have
8 pipes, but the 9500Pro has 128 bit buswidth, against the 9700/9800's 256
bit.

 

[Thomas]

try here
http://www.techpowerup.com/softmod/

This is for the 9500 NON PRO, you cant do any mod to the 9500Pro...