Ok, Got The 9800 Pro....

Nice purchase man.

Uhhh, at the moment, not really. The only game I can think of that would really put it to work, and I say this only because it kicks the hell out of my Ti4600, would be star wars galaxies. Pretty intensive game. Otherwise, there are some pretty cool radeon 9700/9800 tech demos out there. Try the pipe dream one.

That's why I haven't bothered buying a new video card yet. Historically, the first gen. cards (I.E. GeForce 3, GeForce, Radeon, etc.) have been useless in terms of how many games actually use it's features. Usually the second gen. (I.E. GeForce 4, GeForce 2, etc.) have been much faster and much more useful.

Wait for Halo, Half-Life 2, and Doom III to come out then you'll have more bragging rights. While I'm struggling to play the games at 1024x768 with high detail, you'll be seeing EVERYTHING the games have to offer along with playing at 1280x1024+ full details with a smooth framerate, with Doom III being a possible exception.

 

Strange. What are your system specs.?

Yeah, try reverting to the 3.5's. If that doesn't work...there are a number of things you can try.

 

Heh, that's funny. I was going to reccomend you do that and I don't know what FAQ you're talking about.

Enjoy your new hardware.

 

How would dropping it from 128 to 64 help? Does it change stability at all or anything? I keep mine at 128 but i might change it.

 

I agree. I had a Radeon 8500 shortly after they came out and the drivers were horrible. I sold it and got a Ti4600 the day they hit shelves. I have a couple of friends with ATI cards and they don't have any problems, but I had horrible experiences with ATI products and I hear of other people who have the same problems. Of course, there are also people who have little to none.

Between the R420 and NV40, I will most likely get the NV40.

 

Sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience, MA. I've got an 8500 now, was thinking about picking up a 9700 or 9800 at some point this week.

 

I was never one for VIA chipsets.. too many problems.

Using the 9700 pro with 3.6 drivers on an epox 8rda+ and never once locked up.

MA, I turned on all the textures in the advanced section of planetside and cranked up the detail levels to HIGH on everything. 4x FSA and 4x Aniso at 1280x960 and it brought my card to its' perverbial knees.

 

agreed.
Don't know if you'd be interested in cranking up the 7day trial of planetside for the sole reason of putting the card through the ringer..

 

Hi MA,


I fixed my 9700 Pro stability issues by upping my AGP Voltage to 1.7.

I now have it working on a rev. 1 Asus A7V8X, which people at several forums told me it would never happen

 

you couldn't see in the game?

 

oh.. ok..
That game takes patience..

 

I would'nt mind it if you did'nt have to pay-per-month. That just sucks.

 

You still problem free after installing those drivers?

 

have you noticed any big heat increase with that new card or are things about the same?

 

MA, the new Tomb Raider Angel Of Darkness appears to be a DirectX9 game, as it allows enabling 2.0 shaders in it's setup. Game looks great, but unless you're a past fan of the Tomb Raider games, you probably won't like the game play, as it's more adventure than action, and the user interface is extremely frustrating.

Half-Life 2 looks to be the first really good DX9 game out there. Short of that, Splinter Cell, although DX8, looks terrific, and with all the details maxed out, does give your card a pretty good workout. And it's a really good game.

 

Tomb Raider Angel Of Darkness will be included with newer Sapphire 9800Pro's soon.

 

All the Tomb Raider games have had lousy controls. I program my Precision Pro joystick and play it like a console game. But it's not a run & shoot type game, so precise control is less necessary. It's primarily an adventure game, and is MUCH more interactive than the likes of the Myst trilogy. But it's definitely not everybody's cup of tea. BTW, what vid card did you try it on? I'm using an ATI 9700 Pro, after being a long time Nvidia user, and am very pleased with it. I've only had mine for a couple of months, so missed most of the teething pains with the early drivers, but it's been rock solid for me. And the DX9 water reflections/refractions in TRAOD are awesome, although you probably didn't stick with it long enough to find that.

And if you read ALL of the thread, you noticed that MA's card worked fine as soon as he updated his VIA chipset drivers. ATI isn't as flaky as it used to be.

 

LOL. I know where you're coming from! I stuck with Nvidia from the Riva 128 through GF4 Ti-4400, and thought long and hard before jumping ship. Only reason I changed was that they did seem to have gotten past the sucky driver syndrome. So far I'm happy with mine.

But never say never. Nothing rules forever.