ATI 9000 Pro?

[hans2]

I've got an upgrade itch, and I'm thinking about swapping my beloved G400Max DH for a 9000 Pro. $92 gets me 128 mb. The reviews say the 2D is a snob's hair below the G550. My monitors are a bit old, Viewsonic G790 does 85 hz at my res, but my Optiquest 21" will only do 75 hz at 1280.

Does anyone have any info other than what the reviewers said? I've only dealt with ATI's tech support once, and they were pretty useless that time. Other than that, the only thing I remember about ATI is how long it took them to produce Windows 2000 drivers back when it came out [12, 18 months was it?]

So basically I'm looking for someone to tell me its a steal, or I'm better off keeping my G400 and waiting to see what the next few months bring.

There's no way I can afford a $400 Parhelia or 9700, because otherwise we would be having a different discussion entirely.

[GT98]

Look at getting a Radeon 8500 instead...cheaper and faster card

[hans2]

One more thing...I've got a Thunderbird 1333. I'm holding off upgrading till motherboards with serial ATA & DDR400 are stablized....and I've graduated from college into the land of easy money. That's what happens after graduation, right? Employers just lining up to pay me, right? That's what the brochure said.

[hans2]

The 8500 is faster, according to reviews, but not cheaper. It's still over $100 for 64MB. I saw the 8500DV in the store today...what a sweat piece of manufacturing that is. A nice heavy package containing a remote and an external breakout box. I nearly dropped the $160 right then & there.

I'm still overwhelmed. Nvidia is out because of price, and the MX cards are crap. And their 2D is laughed at in these parts. Which leaves me looking to ATI if I want to play the occasional game.

[SitFlyer]

I just finished a system for a friend. I had suggested a Radeon 8500LE 64MB, but, he was pinching pennies and is not much of a gamer. So instead we went with a Radeon 9000 64MB (non pro version).

The system was Asus A7S333/XP 1800+/256MB-PC2100-DDR/W2k.

Got 70/44 in UT2003 benchmark @1280x1024 and played the game with 16 bots and all the settings maxed out, while SETI@Home was running full time in the background. It was was a good gaming expierence. Ran smooth as glass.

I was suprised/impressed with card.

I'd say it's ok, for the occasional gamer who's on a very tight budget.

[K6-III]

I'd again suggest the Radeon 8500 if possible...

[Greebe]

Seti running in the background would yeild no load on the cpu while the game is running.

[SitFlyer]

Even if it's set for "Data analysis always runs"?

[Greebe]

Have you tried running the game with Seti at that setting running in the background and watch it's cpu utilization?

[SitFlyer]

Doing so right now. it shows 100%.

Edit: Just noticed it's 100% even without SETI running.

Learn something new every day

[Greebe]

You can't see the individual processes themself in that screenshot.

[Greebe]

a light must have gone off in your head. LOL

[SitFlyer]

Yeah. Something like that.

[hans2]

Anybody want to buy a Pinnacle Studio TV PCI card? Its fairly decent, serves me well. The 8500 at the local store is the DV version, so I could save a PCI slot with the integrated tuner. Plus the 8500 has a 1394 port, and external breakout box. I'm all about connectivity options, even if I don't have the hardware to use them.

[Dogbert]

If someone does buy the Pinnacle studio from you, a word of warning:
Hardware
Software

Use Dscaler !