ATI 9700 Pro/Successor?

[anandfan]

My son asked for a 9600xt card for christmas. Checking here, I see the 9700 Pro was about the same price, but better performance. But I can't find the 9700 Pro anywhere. Has it been discontinued or just out of stock. Or maybe ATI has a newer card with similar/better performance in same price range?

Any suggestions?

 

[boyRacer]

Well you won't find it anywhere new... but someone on Rage3d says ATi told him they haven't discontinued it. Go figure.

Anyway, they're running around $130 at the FS/FT forums, the 9800 Pro is running around $150-160. $200 for a new one.

 

[HappyNic]

you are better off getting him a 9800 pro instead. The 9800 pro should drop in price near christmas to around $150 new. Of course the 9600xt will drop too. maybe to $120.

The 9700 pro should be discontinued.

 

[PrayForDeath]

If you want a new card, the 9800Pro should be great for 150-180$ in Christmas.

 

[Appledrop]

well the 9700 pro and 9800 pro are within 7% performance with each other imo, so if you manage to find a 9700pro id go for that, but you would probably only be able to buy that on ebay easily.
if you get the 9800pro, make sure it has a 256bit memory bus, (note: i dont mean 256MB memory).

 

[2Xtreme21]

The 9600xt is a crap card. It only has 4 pipelines and 128-bit memory bus which chokes the life out of it. You'd be so much better getting the 9700pro and, if you're up for spending a few extra bucks, definitely get the 9800pro. But as a previous poster noted, the 9700pro and the 9800pro are within a few percentage points in performance of each other.

 

[agent2099]

Originally posted by: 2Xtreme21
The 9600xt is a crap card. It only has 4 pipelines and 128-bit memory bus which chokes the life out of it. You'd be so much better getting the 9700pro and, if you're up for spending a few extra bucks, definitely get the 9800pro. But as a previous poster noted, the 9700pro and the 9800pro are within a few percentage points in performance of each other.

I must agree. The 9600 XT was not not much faster than my trusty 8500LE.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Originally posted by: 2Xtreme21
The 9600xt is a crap card. It only has 4 pipelines and 128-bit memory bus which chokes the life out of it. You'd be so much better getting the 9700pro and, if you're up for spending a few extra bucks, definitely get the 9800pro. But as a previous poster noted, the 9700pro and the 9800pro are within a few percentage points in performance of each other.

The 9600XT is definately slower but it is NOT a crap card. The point is that the 9700/9800 prices (especially used Ebay ones) are pretty close to the 9600XT pricetag.

 

[RussianSensation]

9700Pro - $163
The performance advantage between 9800Pro and 9700Pro is about 15% (sometimes larger).

If you are going to spend near $200, I'd get him 6600GT AGP.

 

[d2arcturus]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

If you are going to spend near $200, I'd get him 6600GT AGP.

You read my mind, my friend has gotten one already... best card for the price IMO.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
9700Pro - $163
The performance advantage between 9800Pro and 9700Pro is about 15% (sometimes larger).

If you are going to spend near $200, I'd get him 6600GT AGP.

RS is right, wait for a <$200 6600GT. A better buy than any of the last years cards by ATI.

 

[Pete]

Yeah, Allstarshop has a new 9700P, but for that price you should be able to find a used 9800P in the FS/FT forum.

If you want to buy new, I'd either pony up for a $225 6600GT or a $250 6800, or wait for the AGP 6600GT to come closer to its PCIe sibling in price (($180!).

 

[Cawchy87]

I would go for a 9700pro in the fs/ft fourms for ~130 shipped.

Remember that a 6600GT is 200-225 + tax + shipping.

I have a 9700pro running half life 2 on high settings. (AMD xp-m @ 2.4 ghz, 1gig of ram).

Basicly, anything over a 9700 or 9800pro is overkill for a little guy who just wants to play games and doesn't care about framerate or benchmarks.

If you can find a 9700np off of ebay that would probibly be the cheapest.

Either way. DON"T get a 9600xt. The differance between that and a 9700pro is from barely running a game, to running a game at 1024 with medium-high settings.

 

[gururu]

The 9800pro is essentially a newer faster version of the 9700pro. The AGP version of the nVidia 6600GT, a superior card, should hover around 175.00 come christmas time. On black friday, Fry's may have it around that price. That is pure speculation, but something I am hoping for myself.

 

[anandfan]

Thanks all for the replies. I'm forwarding a link to this thread to my son!

 

[1ManArmY]

good luck

 

[RussianSensation]

I think CompUSA has PNY 6800nu for $199 on Black Friday After Mail in Rebate.

 

[SneakyStuff]

I got my made by ATI 9700 pro off ebay for $138.50. It blows my old 5700 ultra away (2540 in 3dmark05 vs. 750). A Radeon 9800 Pro would only be sweeter, and they will be around $150-180 for the holidays. Go for that, or perhaps an AGP version of the 6600GT when they come down in price, a 6600GT for under $200 is a very good buy, provided it's AGP.

 

[Bateluer]

A 6600 GT would also be a good choice in the 200 dollar price point, and outperform the 9800 Pro in most games.

 

[Auric]

... if you don't enable AA/AF. Don't know about potential o'erclocking of the 6600, but the 9800 can o'c significantly. Tough call once the pricing evens out.

 

[Astu222]

the 9800 vanilla gets IDENTICAL benchmarks to the 9700pro (check Toms VGA Charts IV) and it goes for $145 on newegg.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: Astu222
the 9800 vanilla gets IDENTICAL benchmarks to the 9700pro (check Toms VGA Charts IV) and it goes for $145 on newegg.

the "9800's" available on newegg have a 128bit memory bus, the one on toms hardware is a 9800 with a 256bit memory bus. So your performance would be less than stellar if that's what you were thinking

 

[Blastman]

9600XT is a good card. It?s twice as fast as my old 9100 (aka 8500LE) in many situations. Does a very good job running HL2 going by Anands latest HL2 test.

The problem is when the 9600XT was $160 and the 9800pro was $280, there was a huge jump in price between the cards, so the 9800pro was way out of the price range of previous midrange buyers. Since the X800?s came out the 9800pro?s have dropped to the ~ $180-190 range and the 9600XT is ~ $130-140. The sentiment is that the $40-50 jump from a 9600XT to a 9800pro or 9700pro is a really worthwhile jump if someone can swing the budget $.