Which high end card should I get if I dump the 9700 pro?

[dg]

When I built my system, I really didn't care about having the top 8X AGP
card. I just wanted a decent card that was rock solid reliable. I went
with ATI as I know they have been around a while and have a good rep. More
specifically, I bought the 9700 Pro. Well, the 9700 pro I bought has issues
(which I have discussed below, garbled video upon cold boot). Nobody wants
to take responsibility for this error, and that is really ok with me, I will
just get another card. I am going to first try another 9700 Pro
replacement, and if that one fails too, I will buy a better card. In order
from most important to least important, here is what I want:

#1 RELIABILITY. More than anything I hate flaky products, I will gladly pay
for reliability.
#2 Compatibility, I don't play a lot of games, but when I do I would like
them to play fast and take advantage of my video hardware.
#3 Hardware decoding abilities for DVD/divx/etc, I do deal with movies of
all formats for entertainment and the more load I can stick on the card and
not my CPU, the better.

My motherboard is an Intel D875PBZLK with 8X AGP port. Any suggestions? Is
the 9800 Pro the way to go? Any tips are greatly appreciated, I really feel
behind the times when it comes to video cards.

Thanks,
--Dan

 

[Lee]

I would wait till ATI introduce the new upcoming RV420 cards

 

[rms]

The NDA on the new nvidia card will be lifted in a couple weeks and the ATI
offering a couple weeks after that, wait til then.

rms

 

[Minotaur]

I would have to agree with you there. I am sure a few
people are holding off on a new graphics card, untill new motherboards
are released (that would be revision 2 of the A64 boards with the
next Socket to be released here and a Job!)

DG, you sure it isn't because of a faulty fan on the GPU?
If not, have you tried replacing the thermal paste on it's heatsink?

Just sounds like what the fault would be. :|

Cheers Minotaur (8*

 

[Dark Avenger]

When I built my system, I really didn't care about having the top 8X AGP
card. I just wanted a decent card that was rock solid reliable. I went
with ATI as I know they have been around a while and have a good rep. More
specifically, I bought the 9700 Pro. Well, the 9700 pro I bought has issues
(which I have discussed below, garbled video upon cold boot). Nobody wants
to take responsibility for this error, and that is really ok with me, I will
just get another card. I am going to first try another 9700 Pro
replacement, and if that one fails too, I will buy a better card. In order
from most important to least important, here is what I want:

#1 RELIABILITY. More than anything I hate flaky products, I will gladly pay
for reliability.
#2 Compatibility, I don't play a lot of games, but when I do I would like
them to play fast and take advantage of my video hardware.
#3 Hardware decoding abilities for DVD/divx/etc, I do deal with movies of
all formats for entertainment and the more load I can stick on the card and
not my CPU, the better.

My motherboard is an Intel D875PBZLK with 8X AGP port. Any suggestions? Is
the 9800 Pro the way to go? Any tips are greatly appreciated, I really feel
behind the times when it comes to video cards.

Thanks,
--Dan

The Ati 9800 Pro is only ..slightly faster then the 9700 Pro, so..it's
not really an advicable upgrade.

Since you like DVD/divx decoding..do stick with ati... now..since the
9700 Pro is good enough it should work for you..once you get a non
flacky card.

... if you truly wish an upgrade.. wait unstill the R420 is in the
shops!

 

[Ed Forsythe]

Hi Dan,
That sounds like a non- Built by ATI card - who makes it?

 

[dg]

its an ATI card, something funny about it is that on ATIs site on at least
one of the more main pages, there is a list of cards you can click on for
information and the 9700s are on the bottom of the list. Odd, its like they
were trying to place them out of view as the rest of the cards were listed
in numerical order with 9800 on the top. Anyway, yeah its surely an ATI
card, I got it from zipzoomfly.com as a plain box deal but as far as I know
that is still a brand new top quality card, nothing wrong with a cheaper
plain box.

--Dan

 

[dg]

Well, the thing is, it ONLY has corrupted video when the system is powered
on after being off for a few minutes or longer. The processor isn't getting
too hot as the problem occurs even if the PC has been off all day, but there
is a possibility the fan is buggy and electrically causing issues with the
card initializing. Maybe when the fan is getting started it puts a drain or
spike on the voltage supply and causes an improper initialization of the
card. But when the PC is restart the fan is already spinning and does not
cause the problem. I need to stop myself before I start theorizing too
much about the damn card and just get an RMA for the damn thing. But yes, I
suppose it could be the fan.

--Dan

 

[Mangyrat]

try conecting it to a diferent power conector with nothing else on it.
your on the right track its probly a power problem with somthing sucking all
the power away on cold starts

 

[Andrew]

its an ATI card, something funny about it is that on ATIs site on at least
one of the more main pages, there is a list of cards you can click on for
information and the 9700s are on the bottom of the list. Odd, its like they
were trying to place them out of view as the rest of the cards were listed
in numerical order with 9800 on the top.

Its not odd as they are not being made any more.

 

[John Lewis]

When I built my system, I really didn't care about having the top 8X AGP
card. I just wanted a decent card that was rock solid reliable. I went
with ATI as I know they have been around a while and have a good rep. More
specifically, I bought the 9700 Pro. Well, the 9700 pro I bought has issues
(which I have discussed below, garbled video upon cold boot). Nobody wants
to take responsibility for this error, and that is really ok with me, I will
just get another card. I am going to first try another 9700 Pro
replacement, and if that one fails too, I will buy a better card. In order
from most important to least important, here is what I want:

#1 RELIABILITY. More than anything I hate flaky products, I will gladly pay
for reliability.
#2 Compatibility, I don't play a lot of games, but when I do I would like
them to play fast and take advantage of my video hardware.
#3 Hardware decoding abilities for DVD/divx/etc, I do deal with movies of
all formats for entertainment and the more load I can stick on the card and
not my CPU, the better.

My motherboard is an Intel D875PBZLK with 8X AGP port. Any suggestions? Is
the 9800 Pro the way to go? Any tips are greatly appreciated, I really feel
behind the times when it comes to video cards.

Thanks,
--Dan

Limp along and wait for the next generation -- very soon now.....

Even if you don't buy the next-gen product, the prices of the
highest-end cards of the current generation (9800XT, 5950U ) will
tumble.

John Lewis

 

[Dark Avenger]

Its not odd as they are not being made any more.

Well, atleast it didn't have the glory like mine 9500 Pro to end up in
the "extinct" list from ati. Oh well.. as long as the drivers support
the card I am more then happy!

 

[J. Clarke]

When I built my system, I really didn't care about having the top 8X AGP
card. I just wanted a decent card that was rock solid reliable. I went
with ATI as I know they have been around a while and have a good rep.
More
specifically, I bought the 9700 Pro. Well, the 9700 pro I bought has
issues
(which I have discussed below, garbled video upon cold boot). Nobody
wants to take responsibility for this error, and that is really ok with
me, I will
just get another card. I am going to first try another 9700 Pro
replacement, and if that one fails too, I will buy a better card. In
order from most important to least important, here is what I want:

#1 RELIABILITY. More than anything I hate flaky products, I will gladly
#pay
for reliability.
#2 Compatibility, I don't play a lot of games, but when I do I would like
them to play fast and take advantage of my video hardware.
#3 Hardware decoding abilities for DVD/divx/etc, I do deal with movies of
all formats for entertainment and the more load I can stick on the card
and not my CPU, the better.

My motherboard is an Intel D875PBZLK with 8X AGP port. Any suggestions?
Is
the 9800 Pro the way to go? Any tips are greatly appreciated, I really
feel behind the times when it comes to video cards.

Please forgive a stupid question, but (a) have you tried the board in a
different machine with the same results and (b) if so have you called (not
emailed) ATI's tech support and explained the problem to them?

The symptoms you're describing are either a configuration problem of some
sort in your machine or something broken, they are not normal behavior for
a Radeon 9700. Your board should still be under warranty if it's a
built-by-ATI board.

You're not going to get any major performance improvement by going to any
board currently on the market--the 9700 pro is current-generation
technology and was the fastest board on the market when it shipped, the
9800s are slightly faster but not radically so. Further, if a 9700 is not
working in your machine due to a problem with the configuration of the
machine rather than to the board being broken then a 9800 will probably
show the same behavior.