ATI or Sapphire?

scriptasylum

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I'm "sorta" in the market for a new vid card and was looking at the 9700Pro or 9800Pro. Two popular choices seem to be the Sapphire and the ATI. Model, accessories, and bundled software being equal, which is the better choice; or does it matter?

This will be my first ATI card in a very long time (last one was a all-in-wonder 8MB AGP pre-radeon card). I've been using nVidia since they released the first Geforce256. nVidia is kinda turing me off with their monster-size cards and their cheating on benchmarks (I know ATI was too, but they weren't quite so bad).
 
Well, I am in the league for an upgrade too, I am splashing out and buying myself a load of new stuff,

hopefully should be as follows:

LG Flatron F700B Pure Flat 0.24dpi 17" - My new monitor

AMD Athlon 2400XP - My new processor

256DDR 2100 Ram - Upgrading RAM will now have 1GB :)

LG DVD Super Multiwrite Driver Reader - My new DVD Writer

Western Digital 80GB 7200rpm 8mb - Another hard drive

ATI Radeon 9700Pro TV/DVI - New Graphics Card :)

This should put my pc back on the recommended specs table :)

Skazzy
 
Originally posted by scriptasylum
I'm "sorta" in the market for a new vid card and was looking at the 9700Pro or 9800Pro. Two popular choices seem to be the Sapphire and the ATI. Model, accessories, and bundled software being equal, which is the better choice; or does it matter?

This will be my first ATI card in a very long time (last one was a all-in-wonder 8MB AGP pre-radeon card). I've been using nVidia since they released the first Geforce256. nVidia is kinda turing me off with their monster-size cards and their cheating on benchmarks (I know ATI was too, but they weren't quite so bad).

FYi... the built by ATi cards are actually produced by Sapphire :)

the sapphire sold ones are basically the reference design rebadged as sapphire :)

therefore.. it does not matter...

the 9700pro is turning into one of the best bang for the buck cards... the 9800pro is a really good card also... and there should be a new/faster product out by the end of summer/early fall IIRC... though I have yet to hear more buzz on the r360...

but yah.. sapphire or ati == the same :)

sapphire does make a silent card as well... basically with a zalman style heatsink on it to provide the cooling... passive therefore no noise.. a 9800pro version will be out soon...
 
Originally posted by SkazzyUK
Well, I am in the league for an upgrade too, I am splashing out and buying myself a load of new stuff,

hopefully should be as follows:

LG Flatron F700B Pure Flat 0.24dpi 17" - My new monitor

AMD Athlon 2400XP - My new processor

256DDR 2100 Ram - Upgrading RAM will now have 1GB :)

LG DVD Super Multiwrite Driver Reader - My new DVD Writer

Western Digital 80GB 7200rpm 8mb - Another hard drive

ATI Radeon 9700Pro TV/DVI - New Graphics Card :)

This should put my pc back on the recommended specs table :)

Skazzy

if you don't mind me suggesting this... consider getting the 2500+ instead of the 2400+ .. the price difference is not that much and the 2500+ has more cache and is turning out to be an overclockers dream...
 
Yea, cheers, my mobo only supports upto 2.2Ghz.

I have a Gigabyte 7VTXE+ will it support that ?

There is a BIOS update, but I can't get on the site :(

I put a athlon 2000xp on my pc before but it refused to work, I dont understand why?!!!

Skazzy
 
Originally posted by SkazzyUK
Yea, cheers, my mobo only supports upto 2.2Ghz.

I have a Gigabyte 7VTXE+ will it support that ?

There is a BIOS update, but I can't get on the site :(

I put a athlon 2000xp on my pc before but it refused to work, I dont understand why?!!!

Skazzy

teh 2500+ operates @ 1.8ghz IIRC...

I dunno if you meant 2200+ or 2.2ghz... :)

coz if its 2.2ghz that supports all athlons AFAIk...

bios may fix it.. I dunno... would have to read the .pdf of the file...
 
Ok, here is latest BIOS update:

F6a (Beta) 2002/8/27 Recognize correctly AthlonXP 2600+ CPU.

:)

Skazzy
 
Originally posted by SkazzyUK
Ok, here is latest BIOS update:

F6a (Beta) 2002/8/27 Recognize correctly AthlonXP 2600+ CPU.

:)

Skazzy

well that should be fine then.. considering the clock of the 2500+ is less than the 2600+ by a fair amount :)

enjoy whichever purchase you make though...
 
hey, im in the market for a new video card as well, and im sure i want an ati, and i have a budget of around $200. The powercolor radeon 9700 sure looks promising for me, but i was wondering , why do some of the sites advertise it as having 277mhz core clock and others 275 (i know the default is 275). Do they overclock the card or what? Also does anyone know if this is a good buy?
 
Originally posted by theevilsithlord
hey, im in the market for a new video card as well, and im sure i want an ati, and i have a budget of around $200. The powercolor radeon 9700 sure looks promising for me, but i was wondering , why do some of the sites advertise it as having 277mhz core clock and others 275 (i know the default is 275). Do they overclock the card or what? Also does anyone know if this is a good buy?

its a decent buy.. not sure about the mhz differnece since this is the first I have heard about it... but since it is only 2mhz.. I cant for hte life of me see how this could possibly affect performance...

perhaps a 10-15mhz difference would be more feasible to see a difference...

but yah.. not a bad buy...
 
Re: Re: ATI or Sapphire?

Originally posted by Sazar
FYi... the built by ATi cards are actually produced by Sapphire :)

the sapphire sold ones are basically the reference design rebadged as sapphire :)

therefore.. it does not matter...

the 9700pro is turning into one of the best bang for the buck cards... the 9800pro is a really good card also... and there should be a new/faster product out by the end of summer/early fall IIRC... though I have yet to hear more buzz on the r360...

but yah.. sapphire or ati == the same :)

sapphire does make a silent card as well... basically with a zalman style heatsink on it to provide the cooling... passive therefore no noise.. a 9800pro version will be out soon...

Thanks Sazar.

Given what you said, is there any difference in overclockablility from one to the other? Maybe better memory chips on one?
 
Re: Re: Re: ATI or Sapphire?

Originally posted by scriptasylum
Thanks Sazar.

Given what you said, is there any difference in overclockablility from one to the other? Maybe better memory chips on one?

not that I know of... since they basically use the same overall package...

for the most part... ati/sapphire == same cards...

fyi... :)

some memory modules allow for better oc'abiltiy... but thats more luck of the draw.. unless you have some site offering cherry picked cards :)

as far as overclocking goes.. IIRC gigabyte offers some good cards... and tyan is not far behind...

overclocking is not a guaranteed scienve though... attempt @ own risk...
 
what is the difference between the 9600 pro and the 9500 pro? because the prices are about the same.
 
so the 9500 seems to be better. but in games for the future will the more memory bandwidth be better then the more pipelines?
 
Originally posted by mike09
so the 9500 seems to be better. but in games for the future will the more memory bandwidth be better then the more pipelines?

pipelines in the general sense don't mean as much as they used to because of hte programability of the gfx cards nowadays... therefore pipelines don't quite make as much of a point :)

memory bandwidth IS important and you can see that ati and nvidia are both seeking for more bandwidth... naturally just having HUGE bandwidth will not cut it (for reference.. check matrox parhelia) but if it is used efficiently (ie if the bandwidth usage is coupled with good marchitecture... you have a good product)

in response therefore... I would say bandwidth is more important than pipelines...
 
Originally posted by SkazzyUK
Yea, cheers, my mobo only supports upto 2.2Ghz.

I have a Gigabyte 7VTXE+ will it support that ?

There is a BIOS update, but I can't get on the site :(
skazzy, be careful... sazar mislead you by mistake. :eek: don't buy a 2500+. your board (KT266A chipset) doesn't support the 333fsb of the 2500+. you're limited to 266fsb processors, so that means, 2600+ (266fsb version), or 2400+ and lower.

and make sure you get your bios updated before you put any of those high-end processors in.
 
Originally posted by Sazar
pipelines in the general sense don't mean as much as they used to because of hte programability of the gfx cards nowadays... therefore pipelines don't quite make as much of a point :)

memory bandwidth IS important and you can see that ati and nvidia are both seeking for more bandwidth... naturally just having HUGE bandwidth will not cut it (for reference.. check matrox parhelia) but if it is used efficiently (ie if the bandwidth usage is coupled with good marchitecture... you have a good product)

in response therefore... I would say bandwidth is more important than pipelines...


so your saying that the 9600 pro is or will be better then the 9500 pro? so for asking so many questions, thanks in advanced.
 
Hercules for ATi, the Prophet 9700 Pro is a sweet card
 

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