Corey

iTrader: (1)

As seen on my PC page, I am running an Nvidia based FX 5200 vid card with 128 MB of RAM.

Bottom of the line for the FX cards, but every game I have looks great with it including Battle Field 1942 and the new Unreal 2004.

Today I scored an ATI 9600 Pro, and will be putting it in tomorrow after I delete my current drivers and all.

There should be some improvement with the new card over the current one.
I got to witness the new ATI 9800 XT with 256 MB of RAM, and currently that is the top of the line vid card for gaming on the market right now.

Anyone else running the 9600 Pro, and how do you like it?
One thing I will miss is the built in Internet Explorer pop up blocker that comes with Nvidia's drivers.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

I use a program to benchmark 3D cards and CPUs.
The one for graphic cards is called 3D Pro, and you can get a demo here.

Test 1 last night with my Nvidia based FX5200 yielded a score of 1523.

Test 2 this morning with the ATI based 9600 Pro yielded a score of 3394.

The frame rates looked way better with the ATI card.
Going to be testing it today with some good graphic intensive games such as Battle Field 1942 and the new Unreal 2004.

kaneman23

Corey,

I'm running the ATI 9800Pro and love it so far. I just built a new PC last month and couldn't decide between a ATI 9600PRO,XT, or 9800PRO, XT. I'm not a huge gamer and I don't want to use my machine as a $1200 XBOX but I still want to watch movies and etc. I ended up choosing the 9800PRO because everything else in my machine is high end.... This thing is smokin fast.... I'm downloading the benchmark program now and will post the results of the 9800PRO.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Sounds good.

Thoughts so far...
I am not impressed with ATI's Control Panel at all.
Having been an NVidia user for many years, it is far better than ATI's.
They need to improve it by far.

My FX5200 had TV out and performed flawlessly for viewing a game on the 27" TV in the living room.
I could clone my monitor right to it so both would run, can't do that with this card.
It's view either my 19" monitor, or the TV, not both at the same time.

I can get it to view both, but you have to turn off the cloning feature and select "extend desktop" to the TV set, and when you do that, you loose the Start button and stuff on the TV set.

Nvidia is by far the leader when it comes to the Control Panel and TV out.

The 9800 XT card I saw yesterday on a P4 3.0 CPU with an Asus P4C800 Deluxe mobo with 1012 RAM got a score of around 6,500 on that test, almost twice as fast as this 9600 Pro I have in now.

MTL_4runner

I use Madonion's vid card benchmark.
Give it a try and let us know what you get!

http://www.futuremark.com/download/?3dmark03.shtml

kronicx

Corey,

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...299#post145299

kaneman23

Well, I didn't DL that benchmark program because it was too darn slow.....

Also, this is the first "QUALITY" VC that I've bought and used in any of my systems, so I don't have anything to compare it too.. It seems that ATI is the leader in VC technology so that is the reason I chose the 9800PRO over any of the NVIDIA's. It's working great for me and I don't have any complaints.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Battle Field 1942 is not running as good as it did on the old vid card.
With the ATI one, it's jumpy, and the settings are the same, 1024x768 and 85 Hz within the game itself.
Not to many games also let you set the Hz within the game, but BF does.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

MTL, that is the exact same benchmark I linked to in my post above

MTL_4runner

HAHHAHAHHA sry Corey, the 3D pro name threw me off!
It used to be easy when it was just Madonion (now Futuremark)....they must have been acquired.

Have you tried Sisoft Sandra and see what system marks you get?

kronicx

Even though the linked article is showing the XT, it still shows the Pro kicking Nvidia's butt except for the top of the line 5900. There's something messed up on your system if it is running slower. Maybe you need to check your drivers (make sure all the Nvidia driver remnants are gone) and or patches.

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/...9600xt-25.html

Corey

iTrader: (1)

All Nvidia stuff is gone, as stated in other posts here by me, I use a program called Nasty File Remover before each new vid card update.
It gets rid of all Creative, ATI, and Nvidia drivers that can be hidden around your PC.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3233.html

All games I have tested today work great with the exception of BF.
BF has always been a very buggy game IMO since I got it.
It took me awhile to get it to run with my FX5200 card correctly, and I had to use a specialty forum just for the game to get the scoop on it.

Many people have problems with that game with all brands of vid cards.
Other than that game, my PC is running tops.

MTL, I have Si Soft Sandra as well.
However, there is another benchmark program I like better for the CPU, and it also is made by Future Mark.
It's called PC Mark 2002, and there is a thread on the forum on it somewhere.

I'm a gonna run it in a bit and see what I get.
My 2.4C chip has been overclocked to 2.88 now for several months with no heat increase, and runs well.
I can overclock it all the way to 3.2 also woth no problems either via the mobos BIOS, or an Asus Windows utility.

sabre

I got 3358 on my 9600 pro on '03 at straight settings. Make sure to get rage3D tweak program. It will add right on yo your ati control panel.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Within the game I turned down the Hz from 85 to 60 Hz, but kept the res at 1024x768, as I run all of my games at that res.

No more stuttering within the game, and it seems to like the 60 Hz setting better.
Game looks great.

I just ran PC Mark 2002, and my score is.
CPU 7079
Memory 8070
HDD 939

Sabre, where do you get the aplet you mention?
Does it allow you to overclock the vid card also, as I don't see an option with ATI's Control Panel to overclock.

I know Power Strip will do it, but I don't think that one is free.

Dr. Zhivago

http://www.rage3d.com

THE source for all things ATI. ATI Employees hang out there. So do I .

Peace.
G

sabre

thats it.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the link to the Rage applet there Doc
It's installed.
Don't understand a lot of it, but I will try the overclocking bit this coming weekend when I play UT 2004.

My PC is a lot quieter with the ATI card in, as with my FX5200, I had replaced the cheap noisy Asus fan on it with a 5500 RPM one as seen on my website.
The fan from the FX card may fit onto the ATI one too, but since it seems to be a high quality bearing fan, I may just keep it intact and enjoy a quieter computer.

I still wish I could get TV out at the same time as on my main monitor too.
That's a bummer, and still in black & white when it shows on the TV set.
Can't figure that one out.
As mentioned previously, Nvidia has ATI beat in the TV out area.

kronicx

Try this guide to see if it helps. http://www.ati.com/support/manualpdf/Rade9600.pdf

Corey

iTrader: (1)

In a support email I received from ATI was this link.
http://www.ati.com/support/faq/winxp...abletvout.html

What I was trying to do before with the "clone" option is not achievable with the ATI card like it was on the FX5200 card I had.
When cloning, it turned off my 19" Iiyama screen and only output to the TV was usable.

I re-read the above URL and saw this pic.


All I had to do was hit that little green icon by the word TV, and the TV came to life right away while still keeping my monitor lit up.
However, output is still in black & white, and I am waiting to hear back from support on this.

My TV does support 1024x768, unlike how they mention only 800x600.
My Toshiba TV rocks.

I also tried that feature called "extend my desktop" with XP, and I don't really like it.
All the icons on my main screen do no show up on the TV set unless I unlock my icons and drag them off screen and over to the TV set.

Pretty much useless IMO unless the TV set or another monitor was set up by my PC.

Does anyone know if you can hook up another standard monitor with XP and one vid card?
Or do you need two vid cards?

I have another 19" monitor in the spare bedroom I could hook up if I wanted to.
I do have the other socket on the back of the new ATI card that is for an LCD screen, and an adaptor came with it allowing a regular CRT to hook to the output on the vid card there.

BT17R

Corey, what looks like the best solution, Hydravision , doesn't appear to be supported by the 9800 series cards according to the list on their site. Too bad, it looks like exactly what I want.

About that DVI/CRT adapter, where can I get one, and what's the proper technical name to ask for? The closest big box stores don't carry one, but I haven't driven the 15 miles to CompUSA to check. As usual, they don't pick up their phone and their website is notoriously bad on the in-stock counts. TIA...

Edit: 9800XT $188 @ Fry's, from techbargains, Sacramento store, but says it can be used for price match at other outlets.