Anand's retail Radeon 9500 Pro review - much faster!!!....

[KimB]

Btw, I went back to the Tenebrae site, and I did notice a 9700 patch. I'll have to check it out soon.

I'm also very interested if there is indeed a connection between the 9700's performance and stencil shadows. Shouldn't be terribly hard to test, once I put it back in.

And as a side note, no, I didn't do a fresh install when switching the video cards, and I'm not going to. If the drivers are still screwed up after I've been relatively careful to uninstall nVidia's drivers, I don't care. It's still ATI's fault (And the same in reverse with the nVidia card...but I haven't noticed any problems since switching back, other than my desktop brightness seemed a little bit off...and I did do relatively rigorous testing, too).

 

[Doomtrooper]

As stated before, certain games don't like it when one changes the video card it detected originally, this has been documented many times..not sure exactly what the game .exe does when it detects certain cards but it is wise to at least reinstall a game if it is causing issues with a hardware change and ensure all applicable patches are applied...

Back up the save folder and re-install...Madden 2002 comes to mind (I went from a Radeon 64 meg to a 8500 and couldn't get any higher than 800 x 600 without reinstalling the game after switching cards)...

9700 patch eh...

 

[Mr.huang]

sorry it's off topic, I have a question about R9500 PRO, Is there any other brand like Gigabyte and Powercolor to ship the R9500 PRO or just only ATI to ship this product? I need one to speed up my bf1942 instead of my old Ti4200.

 

[SvP]

http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q4/021202/radeon_9500-10.html

Expect to see Radeon 9500 cards from the following manufacturers:
Connect 3D
CP Technologies
FIC
Gigabyte
Hercules
Hightech
Sapphire
Wistron
Yuan

Although the 9500 is mentioned, I guess the same list applies to 9500 PRO

 

[OpenGL guy]

And why would the text be mipmapped, anyway?

I have no idea. I only made a suggestion. However, it wouldn't surprise me if the text were mipmapped: I've seen stranger things in games.

 

[martrox]

And as a side note, no, I didn't do a fresh install when switching the video cards, and I'm not going to. If the drivers are still screwed up after I've been relatively careful to uninstall nVidia's drivers, I don't care. It's still ATI's fault (And the same in reverse with the nVidia card...but I haven't noticed any problems since switching back, other than my desktop brightness seemed a little bit off...and I did do relatively rigorous testing, too).

Well, then, you deserve the credit for your problems. And It is Your fault, not ATIs.

 

[RussSchultz]

Well, then, you deserve the credit for your problems. And It is Your fault, not ATIs.

I'd have to agree. First thing that happens in my computer when I get a new video card is "format /s c:". If you don't do this, you only have yourself to blame. (Though I suppose you could blame both IHVs, plus Microsoft, but they're not going to do anything about it, are they?)

 

[Dave Baumann]

LOL. I wonder if there is a "Does reformatting affect 3D performance" article to be had here.

 

[martrox]

I haven't yet been able to get the 9700 to work under Linux because the drivers utterly fail if they can't get any agpgart to work. I can't seem to find an agpgart that will work properly with my nForce2, and ATI's doesn't work (Though the agpgart that comes with nVidia's drivers works just fine). Though I can actually load X without loading ATI's drivers, it always runs at 60Hz refresh, which I just can't use. This is the main reason why I am using the GeForce4 right now.

I bet you formatted your drive when you installed the nForce2!

 

[MuFu]

I wonder how the 9500 Pro is going to stack up against the upcoming Ti4200/Ti4200 8x replacement, NV31.

Apparently it can drive a single or dual link DVI-I device and one or two CRTs. Clockspeeds are 350MHz for the standard version, 450MHz for the Ultra.

MuFu.

P.S. RV350 and M10 are virtually the same. Both are 0.13u, definitely.

 

[jb]

LOL. I wonder if there is a "Does reformatting affect 3D performance" article to be had here.

You know that does not sound like THAT bad of and idea as I have seen lots of people on both sides. Personally I always reformat and I hardly have an issue.

As stated before, certain games don't like it when one changes the video card it detected originally, this has been documented many times..not sure exactly what the game .exe does when it detects certain cards but it is wise to at least reinstall a game if it is causing issues with a hardware change and ensure all applicable patches are applied...

Yea we know games like SS plays around with game settings based on hardware.

UT crash:
1. Open UT, then exit.
2. Open UT again. Game crashes.

Good sir I just swiched to the DX9 stuff as soon as it was public. Before then I was using the same DX8 drivers that everyone else had. I never say this and I normally will have one or two UT sessions up and running at the same time.

Again I apeal to your logic. Most people here dont have these issues (again not saying there is not issues) to the degree that you have having. So logic says that something in your system is at fault or we are all lying.

 

[McElvis]

I wonder how the 9500 Pro is going to stack up against the upcoming Ti4200/Ti4200 8x replacement, NV31.

Apparently it can drive a single or dual link DVI-I device and one or two CRTs. Clockspeeds are 350MHz for the standard version, 450MHz for the Ultra.

MuFu.

P.S. RV350 and M10 are virtually the same. Both are 0.13u, definitely.

The NV31 is only 4 pipes though is it not?

 

[Doomtrooper]

I wonder how the 9500 Pro is going to stack up against the upcoming Ti4200/Ti4200 8x replacement, NV31.

Apparently it can drive a single or dual link DVI-I device and one or two CRTs. Clockspeeds are 350MHz for the standard version, 450MHz for the Ultra.

MuFu.

P.S. RV350 and M10 are virtually the same. Both are 0.13u, definitely.

Now Mufu is a reliable source...

 

[RussSchultz]

I wonder how the 9500 Pro is going to stack up against the upcoming Ti4200/Ti4200 8x replacement, NV31.

Apparently it can drive a single or dual link DVI-I device and one or two CRTs. Clockspeeds are 350MHz for the standard version, 450MHz for the Ultra.

MuFu.

P.S. RV350 and M10 are virtually the same. Both are 0.13u, definitely.

The NV31 is only 4 pipes though is it not?

I don't think there's been enough information to say that as a fact. It seems like a logical guess, but nobody knows for sure.

 

[Humus]

And why would the text be mipmapped, anyway? Logic seems to dictate that there would be no mipmaps, and point sampling would be used (Unless the program wants to do some sort of text anti-aliasing using the 3D hardware...but even then unless you're using variable-size text, as neither NWN nor Morrowind use, you shouldn't need MIP mapping).

There's nothing strange with using mipmapped text textures. Why do we use mipmaps at all? To avoid aliasing. This doesn't change with text. I use mipmapped text in all my demos. I can resize the window to any size and still get nice looking text. The only time you'd want no mipmaps and point sampling is when you sue a very small font and directly align texels to pixels.

 

[KimB]

I bet you formatted your drive when you installed the nForce2!

I haven't formatted my drive for three new motherboards and a new video card. I really believe that all of this crap about reformatting whenever you get new hardware is just due to people not knowing out how to clean out settings.

The last time I reformatted was because I was repartitioning the drive for Linux. I never do it for hardware reasons, and I never will. If manufacturers can't clean relevant things out themselves, I'll complain about their crappy drivers. nVidia's have worked great, including after uninstalling the Radeon 9700.

 

[KimB]

There's nothing strange with using mipmapped text textures. Why do we use mipmaps at all? To avoid aliasing. This doesn't change with text. I use mipmapped text in all my demos. I can resize the window to any size and still get nice looking text. The only time you'd want no mipmaps and point sampling is when you sue a very small font and directly align texels to pixels.

Right, but most games do this (align text to screen pixels). Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind among them. You're right, though, it doesn't necessarily mean that they don't use mipmaps, but it's just a nuisance.

 

[Tahir2]

LOL. I wonder if there is a "Does reformatting affect 3D performance" article to be had here.

I think it does.. had to format (HDD was flaky so I replaced it). My, oh my what a difference that made!

Seems IQ was improved but was slower.. noticeably slower.. then I realised I had not installed the SiS AGP drivers

My advice is the same as what most people are saying Chalnoth... format.
It is a pain but there is some wisdom to what is being said no matter how much of a pain in the ass it is.
I won't blame NVIDIA or ATI for this mess though.. blame MS.

 

[T2k]

I bet you formatted your drive when you installed the nForce2!

I haven't formatted my drive for three new motherboards and a new video card.

 

[martrox]

I haven't formatted my drive for three new motherboards and a new video card. I really believe that all of this crap about reformatting whenever you get new hardware is just due to people not knowing out how to clean out settings.

The last time I reformatted was because I was repartitioning the drive for Linux. I never do it for hardware reasons, and I never will. If manufacturers can't clean relevant things out themselves, I'll complain about their crappy drivers. nVidia's have worked great, including after uninstalling the Radeon 9700.

I just don't understand why you continually expect others to take you seriously when you make statements like this. You are the only person I have ever heard say this......