One of those "What should I buy" threads... (Radeo

[mstuttard]

Right, I'm in a dilemma as to what to get for my home PC at the moment, so am hoping that someone out there can help me! The basics of my current system is as follows :

Gigabyte 7DX mobo (fsb 133)
512mb DDR memory
Athalon 1.4gig
Geforce 3 TI200 (64mb)
80gb WD HD (8mb cache special edition version)
(and the rest of the usual stuff)

Now I'm trying to give my gaming a bit of a boost, and have been looking at the Radeon 9700 card with some interest. The way I see it, I could get this card now, and it should give me a good boost to my current gaming, and then I can keep it for my new rig which I intend to put together early next year..... does this sound about right? I am either thinking of the 9700, or maybe getting a GF4 ti4200 to put me over for now.

Questions :

1) Will everything run great with the 9700 with my current CPU?
2) Will my system be able to handle the card with a 250w power supply? (I've heard of some power issues)
3) Do any of you have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Ante P]

I wouldn't EVER recommend running that much RAM, that HD, that CPU and even a 256 kb videocard with a 250 w PSU. Get _at least_ 300 w before you get a 9700

 

[Ryu Connor]

More like get a 400W. Don't waste your time with 300W power supplies anymore.

 

[martrox]

I would probably recommend, at this point, that you go ahead & get the TI4200.....I don't think you will be able to get your money's worth out of the 9700 with your current system. And I would also recommend you replace that power supply. You would be much better off spending the money on the TI4200, a "good" name brand 350-400 watt power supply & maybe a new Athlon XP processor in the 2000 range. Another choice might be to wait 30 days and see how the Radeon 9500 looks for the money......
Current Pricewatch costs:
TI4200 $120.00
XP 2000+ $ 97.00
Good, namebrand 350 watt power supply $ 60.00
TOTAL $277.00
9700 $318.00

Hmmm....maybe I'm not such a fanATIc........

 

[stevem]

I'd probably agree, although a good quality 350W PS with robust 3/5V output & low ripple is better than a low quality 400W, etc. I'd also consider more CPU power if you want to run a 9700. Athlon XPs are dirt cheap if you motherboard supports them. But as you said, you'll be getting a new system early next year anyway...

 

[Nagorak]

I would probably recommend, at this point, that you go ahead & get the TI4200.....I don't think you will be able to get your money's worth out of the 9700 with your current system. And I would also recommend you replace that power supply. You would be much better off spending the money on the TI4200, a "good" name brand 350-400 watt power supply & maybe a new Athlon XP processor in the 2000 range. Another choice might be to wait 30 days and see how the Radeon 9500 looks for the money......
Current Pricewatch costs:
TI4200 $120.00
XP 2000+ $ 97.00
Good, namebrand 350 watt power supply $ 60.00
TOTAL $277.00
9700 $318.00

Hmmm....maybe I'm not such a fanATIc........

I'd consider buying a Ti4200 as an upgrade from a Ti200 to be more or less a waste. I think the R9700 is the better call, because then he can up his processor later and still have a decent video card.

 

[mstuttard]

Update!

Right, have spotted an "350W Enermax adjustable fan speed PSU with active PFC" that I will probably get as a new PSU (am assuming this is ok?).......

and have also found a Rad 9700 for £265 whcih I can get, sounds like a good deal, but what do you guys think?

(i appreciate all the replies, it's good to get different viewpoints!)

 

[Randell]

If you look at THG and [H]Ocp 9700 reviews they test with lower systems. In the majority of cases the 9700 on a slower CPU is as fast or faster than the Gf4Ti4600 on a P4 2.4/5gig cpu. So even if you are more CPU bound the fact that you can also turn on the AA+AF and not skip a beat with the 9700 to my mind means you will have a better gaming experience with your current CPU and a 9700 than a faster CPU and an inferior card (Gf4Ti range, but even more so with a Ti4200).

Now of course you have to balance that against the games you play and any current 9700 issues (no 16 bit AA, less mature drivers).

You must however upgrade your PSU

 

[mstuttard]

Randell....

Will the 350w Enermax PSU be enough to cope with the 9700, and my board and RAM etc? (I am going to add a second HD to my system too.... it's not another 7200 RPM drive, but I know very little about power so wondered if a 350W can cope with this lot?

Cheers!

 

[DemonYoshi]

Well, I'm running a XP2100+ CD-RW, DVD, 2 HDs, a couple of fans... and a Radeon 9700 on a 2 year old Enermax... so uh... I think the problems may be slightly exaggerated?

 

[mstuttard]

Is that a 300w Enermax Yoshi?

 

[DemonYoshi]

Ooops, sorry!
Yes, 300w.

 

[Humus]

I think the best is to either upgrade to the 9700 or keep the current card. A Ti4200 isn't much of an upgrade to be worth it, even though it's cheap.

 

[Ailuros]

Randell,

Agreed. Yet the original poster hasn't been very clear about his real gaming needs; could be that if 1024/AA/aniso scenarios are sufficient to him with his current setup that an upcoming Radeon9500 might do the job equally well.

Albeit no specifications or real time performance of those are yet known, there's still a very high chance that he'll get an intermediate sollution between a NV25 and R300, without spending as much (keeping in mind possible AA/aniso scores of the 9500).

 

[mstuttard]

Update...

To be honest I'm just after a nice fast card that will tide me over for a while, lol!

I figured that if I can spend a bit more now, then I can get a good card that I can carry over to my new machine. The 9700 seems to be the card that can run everything at the moment, and will also run the next generation of games also.

I'm about to go pick up an Enermax 350w PSU with a 9700 anyway, so I can try it out. If it doesn't work so well, then I will return it I guess. Seems like it's better to spend a bit more now and feel the benefit though, and be ready for the upgrade on the rest of my bits.....

 

[martrox]

Jeez....I was thinking that money here was a problem.....an either or proposition. IF money is not a problem then, by all means get the 9700 - and the new processor & power supply! Hell, at $97.00, the upgrade from a 1.4 Tbird to a XP2000+ is a steal...... However, the TI4200 is MUCH faster than the TI200(especially if you overclock it to near TI4600 speeds!), which makes using things like FSAA & aniso filtering at least somewhat usable.

BYW, a good NAME BRAND 300-400 watt power supply shoud be sufficent, just don't scrimp here, you will regret it.

 

[Randell]

Well you could look at the 9700 as the Gf3 of its day, a big investement, but lasts a long time. So although it was good to wait price wise for the R200 to get nVidias costs down, early Gf3 adopters probably will get a good 2 years plus out of the initial £300 investment without feeling that their card is left behind too much compared to the new product ranges.

Ail,

yes a wise course of actionwould be wait and see what the 950 etc brings in a few weeks, but whatever it brings, it will be more limited than the 9700. But it's certianly a product that interests me.

 

[Dio]

Slightly (very?) off topic.

I've had strange behaviour with some Enermax supplies and some motherboards - usually boot failures detecting the video card. Dropping the Athlon FSB to 100 makes it better (but doesn't fix it). It's very MB depepndent; it doesn't seem to happen with any recent MB's, just the older ones.

However, I have now found a fix. Drop the wall voltage from 250V (in my area it fluctuates between about 247 and 250) to 230V, by kicking in the battery on my APC UPS (which is set to a 230V default). Then it boots just about every time...

Anyone any idea at all why a _lower_ supply voltage would provide better power at the MB level?

 

[Saem]

Dio,

Your APC provides a very clean signal. This is important because, according to overclockers the Enermax cables are TOO long - making them more suceptible to noise. This was also stated in an Ace's article, they used a Super Sparkle or something like that PSU instead.

 

[mstuttard]

Well I took the leap of faith and decided to buy myself the Radeon, which is now sat next to me. I just bought that and a 350w Evermax PSU, combined it came to just over £300 which isn't too bad..... well actually I guess spending that much of a gfx card is crazy but what the hell!

I will let you know how things go, but won't be able to install the card till late tonight as I'm out after work. Now that's torture!

Cheers for the advice anyway, it's good to see what people thought. The way I figured it in the end, best way was to spend out to get the best card for now, and look at upgrading my other bits later on. The card should give me the best improvement now with my games until I can afford my new CPU/mboard.... I will be asking for suggestions on that next!