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Woohoo. Moved up from my AMD2000+, Geforce 4200 rig that's getting old and tired. Still not sure about my video card that I'm getting, if it will be enough with today's games and whatnot. I'd like to be able to run cable-tv in and play good stuff, but not go too huge with $. Oh well :)

 

 

ASPIRE X-Navigator ATXA9NW-BK/450 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply

 

GIGABYTE GA-K8NS Ultra-939 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce3 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

 

ATI ALL-IN-WONDER Radeon 9700Pro 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card

 

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ ClawHammer/Hammer 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500ASBOX

 

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory Model TWINX1024-3200C2PT

 

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 6Y080L0 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive

 

NEC ND-3520A Black IDE DVD Burner

 

 

 

 

Let me know what ya think.

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A 9700 Pro is a good card, but don't expect to run HL2, Doom 3, or FarCry at high resolutions with all the eyecandy.

 

I have a cube PC with an athlonxp 2500 barton, 768mb RAM, and a 9700 Pro. I can run FarCry at 1024x768 (my LCD's native res) with all the trimmings and it works just fine, but I can only run Doom 3 at High detail instead of Ultra. If you wanted to go to higher resolutions, you'd have to get rid of some of the detail to keep your framerates up. But overall I think the 9700Pro is a good card, but I agree with NoNothing, if you can afford it, get an X800XL. It has the best price/performance ratio of any card out right now IMO. You can find some for a low as $250.... It will be my next upgrade :D

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The X800XL only comes in PCI-e, whereas thats a NF3 Gigabyte board so it's AGP. I have that Gigabyte and am loving it so far but I didn't have the money to upgrade to PCI-e so I needed to stay with my AGP for now. While I personally don't see a need for a big rush to move to PCI-e, if your buying a new video card right away you might want to look into a NF4 board and a PCI-e gfx card.

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A 9700 Pro is a good card, but don't expect to run HL2, Doom 3, or FarCry at high resolutions with all the eyecandy.

469695[/snapback]

 

 

What? Are you stupid? I just ran the CSS Video Stress Test on my PC, which has a 9800 non pro, and a A64 3k+ in it. The tes was ran in the glory of the source engine; highest res. possible on my 17in monitor, max details & AA. Guess my score, classy lady!!

Drumroll......

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.

.

.

.

 

97.3 FPS !!! Bite Me!! That 9700Pro smokes my 9800 np 128mb 128bit card. You will honestly play everygame out to date on that 9700pro, no problems at all!

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edited(misread...thought u were saying his 9700 cant be faster then your 9800(256bit vs 128=no comparison) :P

 

Now I get your post, he still wont run everything :P. Doom3,hl2 and the like at max details and res will own his card. At 1024 and med detail he can probably play em...but you cant max everything on a 9700 anymore on all games :'(

...97fps isnt too good for css test :P Hl2 and doom3 are *much* more demanding

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9700 Pro's pretty much smoke HL2 and Far Cry, (I've just finished both with one at high resolutions and candy!) both of those games are very much ATI optimised but it WILL struggle with Doom3 unless you play with all the prettys turned off.

Not therefore the most futureproof card out there, BUT, they are SO cheap right now, with plenty of factory refurbs out there for around $100 and s/hand ones even cheaper, they have to represent the best bang for buck for the skint gamer, if you find a good overclocker, like, say, the Hercules cards and clock it up 10%, you've got 9800pro performance for crappy 9550 money, you simply can't argue with that. So tictac, if thats as far as your cash will stretch, good choice, go for it, in a year or so's time though you may wish you'd gone with an Nvidia 6800 or ATI 800 series card

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...97fps isnt too good for css test :P Hl2 and doom3 are *much* more demanding

469777[/snapback]

 

Doom3 IS much more demanding; especially for an ATi card. If you don't believe me, I play Doom3 on High Details with all adv options on and get 63 fps, solidly...!

 

( will edit and post screeny in a sec! )

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9700 Pro's pretty much smoke HL2 and Far Cry, (I've just finished both with one at high resolutions and candy!) both of those games are very much ATI optimised but it WILL struggle with Doom3 unless you play with all the prettys turned off.

  Not therefore the most futureproof card out there, BUT, they are SO cheap right now, with plenty of factory refurbs out there for around $100 and s/hand ones even cheaper, they have to represent the best bang for buck for the skint gamer, if you find a good overclocker, like, say, the Hercules cards and clock it up 10%, you've got  9800pro performance for crappy 9550 money, you simply can't argue with that.  So tictac, if thats as far as your cash will stretch, good choice, go for it, in a year or so's time though you may wish you'd gone with an Nvidia 6800 or ATI 800 series card

469784[/snapback]

 

 

Well the thing is, I figure if I do not like the 9700 pro in a year I can upgrade. I just want to be able to play CS:S and HL2 without worry. Right now I am straining for both.

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i think a 9700 pro should be enough. Or if you want, a 6600gt, id say, is the best bang for the buck card. valve's games should really not be too much a problem for the card, just doom 3 may not be very pretty. Then again, HL2 is superior anyway. :P

 

As for the rest of the system, I would recommend a larger hard drive. I know this is not a performance concern, but you will find that today's games take up so much space. HL2, UT2004, Doom 3, and others take up a few gigabytes, so take that into consideration if you plan to have pictures, music, and/or an operating system.

 

Also, that RAM may not be very good for OCing, so if you really want to overclock, it will pay off to get some at least decent TCCD or UTT RAM, such as what I have:

http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp...N82E16820220033

 

Otherwise, unless you would rather have an nf4 (recommended) motherboard, that system should be all right. GL.

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i think a 9700 pro should be enough.  Or if you want, a 6600gt, id say, is the best bang for the buck card.  valve's games should really not be too much a problem for the card, just doom 3  may not be very pretty.  Then again, HL2 is superior anyway. :P

 

As for the rest of the system, I would recommend a larger hard drive.  I know this is not a performance concern, but you will find that today's games take up so much space.  HL2, UT2004, Doom 3, and others take up a few gigabytes, so take that into consideration if you plan to have pictures, music, and/or an operating system.

 

Also, that RAM may not be very good for OCing, so if you really want to overclock, it will pay off to get some at least decent TCCD or UTT RAM, such as what I have:

http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp...N82E16820220033

 

Otherwise, unless you would rather have an nf4 (recommended) motherboard, that system should be all right.  GL.

469808[/snapback]

 

 

I have a 200GB external drive for all my music stuff and art stuff that I am constantly changing between my desktop and Powerbook. So I just wanted a small cheap HD for this one, as I didn't need to waste money on space I wasn't going to use.

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