HELP! Choosing the right Radeon 9700 Pro HELP!

T

ThePunkerGuy

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Ok, i am gunna order a Radeon 9700 Pro tonight. I need to make sure i get one that wont crap out, and is great for overclocking. Here are some questions.

- Is there really a difference between 2.8ns ram and 3.3ns ram video cards?
- Does the ram's NS effect its overclockability?
- Does this look like a nice card http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_viewitem.asp?idproduct=717&showit=1 ? It uses 3.3ns ram.. is that bad?
- Any recomendations would be great.. cheaper is always good.. thanks!

- Mike
 
the nanosecond (ns) rating directly affects overclockability.

use this formula:

2000 / ns = mhz

so...
2000 / 3.3ns = 600mhz
2000 / 2.8ns = 714mhz

the 2.8ns memory will give you more overclocking headroom. it doesn't necessarily mean your memory will top out at 714mhz, as it can definitely go over spec. then again, so can the 3.3ns memory. i just don't see the 3.3ns getting nearly as high as 714mhz.
 
there is no guarantee's on overclocking.. regardless of the rating of the memory... it can die if the cooling is not adequate... but taurus is pretty accurate...

I highly recommend either buying the tyan version or buying the gigabyte version of the 9700pro because their 'quality' is better and they have very good heatsinks...

sapphire also has a nice 9700pro with a passive cooler.. you can oc it nicely by adding a hsf to the copper cooler...

personally I recommend the tyan because though its memory clocks may not go as high as some others... its core clock overclocks seem to be the highest around...
 
Well, if you want to save money. You can order the Saphire Radeon 9500 (non-pro). get the software mod then o/c it. it will end up performing better then the 9700 pro afterwards. but without the o/c, it should be just as good as the 9700 pro.

http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/
 
Originally posted by toxicity
Well, if you want to save money. You can order the Saphire Radeon 9500 (non-pro). get the software mod then o/c it. it will end up performing better then the 9700 pro afterwards. but without the o/c, it should be just as good as the 9700 pro.

http://www.maxdownloads.com/~ian/wizzard/

eh um... not really...

:)

the memory is not rated as high...

also the modable version of the 9500 non-pro are not so easy to get now..


be prepared also for disappointment if you get a 9500 non-pro mod does not work...

some of the 9500 non-pro boards were put on 9700 non-pro pcb's... which originally had 8 pipelines...

4 of these were disabled either due to damage or because of demand.. in the software...

there is no guarantee if you mod it that the video card will work as specified... since some of the 4 pipelines you re-enable may be damaged..

ati asked sapphire to stop doing what they were doing... and sapphire has complied...

you will be extremely lucky to get a card that you can soft-mod and get it working...

there are some companies that sell pre-soft modded 9500 non-pro's as 9700 non-pro's... but again this is the consumers risk to take...

learn about the way these cards work before thinking about a purchase of this sort...
 
Built by ATI with Tweak Monster BGA solid Copper-Nickle Plated RAM sinks and a Swiftech H2O block on the GPU is the way I would go.:)
 
Originally posted by SnookBooger
Built by ATI with Tweak Monster BGA solid Copper-Nickle Plated RAM sinks and a Swiftech H2O block on the GPU is the way I would go.:)
a lotta money. i think it'd be better to wait for a 9800pro in that case.

... or get one of these.


:eek:
 
First Which to buy.

The ATI card has a 3 year ATI warantee. The OEM cards including sapphire and powercolor have a 1 year warranty that is handled through the resller. That means extra time to get it fixed!!!! And more hassles. Is the reseller going to be here in a few months? For the 30-50 dollar difference I'm going with ATI. It's worth it for a 3 year warantee. My GE3-200 died 13 months old, it was a gainward golden sample with "factory" overclocking and I'm screwed out of the $185 I paid for it.

Is this a nice card?
There was no name of a card manufacturer on that oem card. It will not be built by ATI. Why was there no name. Sounds fishy. Maybe an illegal reimport from Europe or South Amercia in which case you get no warantee. Lotta money to lay out if your not sure.

Ram Speed
The faster the ram the better your chance of overclocking the memory speed. No guarantee on overclocking the GPU with faster ram.

NOW- My free advise...
Don't overclock a video card! They are much more touchy about being fried. A friend of mine and I both overclocked vid cards a ge4-200 and a ge3-200. Mine worked ok for a year and then got finicky so i set it back to factory and 2 months latter it died completey. My friends card lasted 3 months then died. We both had added better coolers to the cards but they still fried. Our case temps are pretty cool (~35 C). An expensive card like the 9500 pro is not worth the risk.

CPU's have temp monitors and ram just stops working if clocked too fast. The GPU's don't have any protection and are buried under massive heat sinks so there is no way to check their temp.
 

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