Radeon 9700 Pro - Opinion question

[Canibus]

Hey ok i need opinions on what should i do. I'm going to buy the radeon 9700 Pro no matter what. Should i buy "Built-by-Ati" or "Powered-by-Ati" basically should i buy the board "by" Ati or another Manufacture who produces boards with Ati chips ex : hercules, gigabyte, creative. blah blah.... what should i do, is there an advantage or disadvantage in getting "Built-by-ati"
Please respond soon, info needed asap ty

 

[JJB6486]

I already talked to you via MSNM, but for other user's who are reading it:

bulit-by-ati is a bare reference board so you get better driver and system compatability.

powered-by-ati usually add additional features, like personal cinema, VIVO, multiple outputs, etc but are generally less compatable with drivers and hardware

JJB

 

[Sazar]

built by ati is normally the best... but you can't go wrong either way... just make sure you get a good overall package...

 

[Sazar]

sorry forgot to mention I have bought 2 radeons so far... 2 years apart.. both were built by ati...

 

[UofEEE]

Built by ATI cards usually cost more don't they? (Depending on features, ect.)

 

[Friend of Bill]

Built by ATI is the way to go. Yes, you pay a bit more, but in the past the performance of a Built by ATI card is superior.

Geforce 4600 please exit stage left. You have been de-throned for good!

 

[UofEEE]

We play another game of performance leapfrog. Come hither NV30 and dethrone the current king...

 

[Friend of Bill]

Heeee, heeee....

 

[mavis]

I would recommend the Built by ATi card, there is already a Gigabyte 9700Pro review/preview at toms or anandtech, and the reference (Built by ATi) card is a little bit faster in almost all of the benchmarks ... And yes, there is the issue of driver stability - while some people prefer to wallow in their past bad experience with previous ATi products like [cough]catch23[/cough], the 9700 drivers appear to be pretty solid, according to all of the reviews thusfar. I would recommend sticking with a retail board to minimize the chances of having problems of your own ...

Anyway, you could also wait for the NV30, but remember that the it will probably cost quite a bit more than the 9700 (partly due to the fact that TMSC is getting dismal yields from their .13 process - somewhere around 15%) . Even now, you can order a Built by ATi 9700 for around $365USD, but the NV30 is more likely to debut closer to $450-500, at least. Also bear in mind that Nvidia has publicly stated that there will be limited quantities available in time for Christmas, so the chances of actually buying a card at less than MSRP are probably slim to none, at least until they manage to get better yields from TMSC.

Just my $.02, I think it's kind of stupid to speculate about a product that hasn't even been announced yet and has only recently taped out, but what the hell, doen't seem to stop anybody else.

mavis

 

[UofEEE]

It's not stupid to speculate about a product that is coming out....we all do it, from processors, to ram, to video cards...The companies entice us, we come running to them with wads of cash...

 

[stuy_b]

Personally Im going for the Hercules "made-by" version of the 9700, better ram, faster than ATIs own, more features, better drivers.

Built by ATI is reference (basic) design.. NO FRILLS)

 

[Sazar]

stuy-b.. did you notice something in the reviews conducted on the cards oc'd to 400mhz by gigabyte compared to ati built radeon which was clocked at 325?

did you notice that the card more than hald its own... the ati one I mean compared to gigabytes? also that the gigabyte card has noise issues with its HSF.. the extra features you are talking about are not actually noteworthy... now if they had added any output/input components that the stock card does not have it would have been impressive...

but again just to show that the 3dmark test can be a little misleading.. the stock card goes out there and handles the extra pace of the gigabyte cards and outpaces them in some tests... THAT in itself should tell you something...

wait till others release better cards than gigabyte or look at the reference card more closely...

 

[G-Lizard86]

hey i'm looking for a good card too, the one i have now sucks, it crashed when playing America's Army Operations for 2 minutes, lol, and with winamp AVS fullscreen 640x480x32bpp the fps is between 10 and 20...so that is sh*t...i don't have a big budget, and i want something at the level of the GF3 Ti series, elsewhere i was advised to buy a SiS Xabre Pro. i've seen a few benchmark tests and reviews and it beats the crap out of a GF4 MX440 and it seems to be quite good....any other advice you guys? A radeon or something..or GF3...?

 

[stuy_b]

Sazar.. I said Hercules, not gigabyte! the hercules IS impressive, IMO compared to ATI's own, better RAM, proper cooling, good set of utilities (overclocking).

 

[RobbieSan]

When I decided to look into the Radeon 8500 I decided to get a Powercolor Radeon 8500 thinking it was the same stuff and I could save myself $50.. boy was I wrong.. the first card I got would not even display.. I returned it for another one but the same hting happened.. I returned it and got the true ATI 8500 and haven't looked back.. it's a great card.. I really want to get my hands on the 9700 Pro but I am also very interested in the NV30.. I'm into price-performance and not restricted by brand.. I'm looking forward to seeing real benchmarks on the NV30 vs 9700 Pro..

At the time I looking to upgrade it was either the Ti500 or Radeon 8500.. Price wise the 8500 came in appr. 40% less than the Ti500.. Performance wise the 8500 was as good or better than the Ti500 in many cases but not all.. Since I have been using the 8500 I have been very happy.. I get excellent FPS and rich graphics..

 

[Sazar]

same for me... cept I was looking at 8500 retail v/s ti4200

price and picture quality swayed me to the 8500 I got it for 130 at www.buy.com on a special rate...

sweet eh?



4200 128 mb card was a little out of price range at the time