alright...where's the 9700

[sxr7171]

Honestly, I think that if you are using a Digital Flat Panel monitor, you can go with the cheapest DVI capable card. As far as I know they all have the same Silicon Image chip for DVI. Personally, if I were in your shoes I would get the cheapest DVI capable ATI card - ATI for its better DVD playback.

 

[HotDealFinder.com]

Interesting piece of info! Thanks!

 

[SSXeon5]

IF you guys understand doom will require 80+MB for textures for high speeds/high settings. 256MB Graphic memory at this point is a bit much like you have also said, As for 128MB, its well worth it. Im waiting for the Hercules 9500/9700 128MB now, they look like better deals at this point. Whatever it comes around $250-300 I will pick up.

SSXeon

 

[Emultra]

Whoa, $900 for 256 MB? 128 MB it is, then.

 

[SSXeon5]

Originally posted by: Emultra
Whoa, $900 for 256 MB? 128 MB it is, then.

Acually $1200 for the ATi FireGL X1, it has 256MB. Dont get it confuse and at this point there will be no 256MB Radeon 9700, the board can take 256MB of DDRI/DDRII. And go HERE to see the ATi FireGL X1 Beast!

SSXeon

 

[Rio Rebel]

I would wait for the radeon 9700. However, in the meantime, i would buy a GF4 ti4600 from Best Buy and use it for like 28 days, then return it. Remember Best Buy always gives you 30 days to return something as long as you have the receipt and the box. This way, you could sorta "borrow" a GF4 from Best Buy until the radeon 9700 comes out.

Just my $.02

Butch

You are scum.

Just my $.02

 

[SSXeon5]

Originally posted by: Rio Rebel

I would wait for the radeon 9700. However, in the meantime, i would buy a GF4 ti4600 from Best Buy and use it for like 28 days, then return it. Remember Best Buy always gives you 30 days to return something as long as you have the receipt and the box. This way, you could sorta "borrow" a GF4 from Best Buy until the radeon 9700 comes out.

Just my $.02

Butch

You are scum.

Just my $.02

ahaha well its ok im my eyes, of how greedy and bloddthursty the buisness' are .... I say do it!

SSXeon

 

[hans007]

i never buy cards that are over $100 or so. they devalue so much since they are already cheap, and the $100 or so cards are nearly as fast for games that will be out within the next product cycle. nothing in the next 6 to 9 months will really push an 8500 , ti4200 or maybe even a gf3 ti200 to its limits . by then the nv30 will be out and a newer r300 on .13 pushing all other card prices down. I personally am selling ti4600s as a side job righ tnow, but i'd never buy one even at my discounted prices, because well... the extra $200 or so it'd cost compared to my el cheapo gf4mx420 card would be just like setting the $200 on fire, since its no value to me. granted a gf4 mx420 is pretty slow, but even the difference between a ti4200 and ti4600 or a ti4600 and a r300 are not enough to really justify spending more than the minimum unless you really wanna throw money away.


someone mentioned wasting your money on the ati gx1 256mb radeon 9700. really if you even buy the plain 9700 i think you are already wasting your money. but thats just my opinion.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: SSXeon5

Originally posted by: Rio Rebel

I would wait for the radeon 9700. However, in the meantime, i would buy a GF4 ti4600 from Best Buy and use it for like 28 days, then return it. Remember Best Buy always gives you 30 days to return something as long as you have the receipt and the box. This way, you could sorta "borrow" a GF4 from Best Buy until the radeon 9700 comes out.

Just my $.02

Butch

You are scum.

Just my $.02

ahaha well its ok im my eyes, of how greedy and bloddthursty the buisness' are .... I say do it!

SSXeon

and btw you are scum. i agree with rio rebel. first off, a business is a business. they are not blood thirsty, they actually get lower prices to you by being large. all you are doing is making it more of a hassle for other people to shop since now they inspect everything we return and charge more since they cant sell the stuff you used as new anymore. i think return policies are far too liberal in america and people abuse them. did you know like in the U.K. you cant even return stuff unless its clearly defective.

 

[merlocka]

i think return policies are far too liberal in america and people abuse them. did you know like in the U.K. you cant even return stuff unless its clearly defective.

One more reason why I don't want to live in the U.K.

I try not to buy anything unless I can return it for a full refund within 15 or 30 days. With PC stuff these days (especially Vid cards) there is such a rush to get product on shelf that I'm never satisfied until I see everything working correctly on my computer.

Of course there will be people that abuse it (i.e. borrowing stuff for 28 days), but I'd much rather have some abuse than no returns unless "defective".

 

[bunnyfubbles]

i never buy cards that are over $100 or so. they devalue so much since they are already cheap, and the $100 or so cards are nearly as fast for games that will be out within the next product cycle. nothing in the next 6 to 9 months will really push an 8500 , ti4200 or maybe even a gf3 ti200 to its limits . by then the nv30 will be out and a newer r300 on .13 pushing all other card prices down. I personally am selling ti4600s as a side job righ tnow, but i'd never buy one even at my discounted prices, because well... the extra $200 or so it'd cost compared to my el cheapo gf4mx420 card would be just like setting the $200 on fire, since its no value to me. granted a gf4 mx420 is pretty slow, but even the difference between a ti4200 and ti4600 or a ti4600 and a r300 are not enough to really justify spending more than the minimum unless you really wanna throw money away.

Sure, the 8500 and GF3/4 Ti line will be able to play all the games coming for probably well over 6 to 9 months. But there are people who play games to compete. To these people products such as the Ti 4600 and the Radeon 9700 are more like ultimate pieces of equipment than pieces of hardware to give them mere eye-candy entertainment. I play Tribes 2 online and I like to have all the details up with visual distance set to a maximum. And the details are not just for eye candy but to see the dynamic changes in let?s say the energy shields so I know if my enemy is just running off of the protection of armor making the frag a sure one. My frame rate averages around 60 on my Radeon 8500 at a resolution of 1280x1024... But in the clear maps with huge landscapes, my frame rate drops to 40, which is still more than playable for Tribes 2. Although I can tell you right off that never dropping bellow a minimum of 100fps on Tribes 2 which is probably the minimum frame rate the Radeon 9700 would provide at that resolution (although I?m pretty sure it would provide higher than 100)... that would surely be preferable...

There are no current plans to move the R300 to .13; so far ATI is currently focusing on getting the 9700 out and then moving on to the R350 which will arrive next year on the .13 micron fabrication process. Better yields from the proven .15 process will most likely allow ATI to drop 9700 prices in order to compensate for the performance difference (if there is much of one and there probably will be) between the R300 and NV30.

 

[cmdrdredd]

why would going with a Ti4600 be bad? The way I see it noew is the 9700 is useless to anyone that doesn't have a Doom3 demo or early pre-alpha to play with.

The Ti4600 would be great until spring of next year what you can get the next revisions of the 9700 and NV30 or the 9700 or NV30 for cheap.

 

[hans007]

they let you exchange in the UK, but they dont let you return for a refund. I.E. you buy a computer there, you are keeping it. if its broken they will give you another one but not your money back.


Thats what is wrong with america, we dont teach people how to be responsible with buying. Thus all the stores take huge losses on all this open box stuff.


if you buy a video card and it doesnt work in your system, thats your fault, you should have researched if it works in your setup. if it flakes out then they give you a new one, but you dont get your money back you are responsible for your decision of buying that card, and not hassling the store .


i dunno been around support and rma all my life, i would say, that so many computers and other things need to be "refurbed" from this and lost companies so much money from irresponsible buying and returns. the customer is not always right, the uk system makes it so that they at least have to pay for their mistakes instead of affecting everyone else with higher prices just because of one irresponsible or stupid buyer.

 

[scottrico]

Thats what is wrong with america, we dont teach people how to be responsible with buying.

First, it starts with companies learning to be responsible for what they sell.

and 2nd, We need to teach people to be responsible while buying, not with buying.

So remember anandtech members,

Don't drink or use drugs while buying!

my 3 cents

 

[jamie2833]

i agree it's not right to buy something then return after playing on it for a little while so you can test it for yourself without actually paying for it, but then again what's wrong with 'trying before you buy'?

yeah sure the shops lose out because they cant sell their used goods for full price but then they should be more strict on their returns policies and why someone has returned it.

but also how do you tell if someone is really genuine with their returns?
i think if someone who doesn't know about computer buys, for example an athlon XP and they find out their motherboard doesn't support XP CPU's then that's fine for them to return it.

i mean you could hardly expect someone to keep something they cant use now can you?

but people could take advantage of this and 'blag it' buy saying the same thing but they DO know about computers and are using the same excuse because they just want to test the CPU.

same with graphics cards, some people might think a radeon 9700 is awesome, so they order it to test it out and it's not what they thought.

again another but, unless you are a complete genius with component hardware design who can really tell what a graphics card is going to be like unless they see it for their own eyes?
if i have never had an ATI card before or a matrox card then how will i know exactly how good the 2D are on these cards unless i use one, i dont wanna spend loads of money on a card if it's not gonna be what people have told me.