9500 pros??????

[WoLFe]

Originally posted by Austin
Holy crap, check this out...

http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...readid=1116880

WoLFe RAM HS are largely decorative and yield very minimal gains if any at all, the extra cash is a small asking price for a guaranteed minimum clock and (hopefully) a warranty at those speeds. I believe the £15 extra simply gets you the same 9700nonPRO but with std clocks closer to a 9700PRO, not a true 9700PRO.

9600nonPRO's don't have a hope of beating a stock 9500PRO, lets take a look at the specs...

9600PRO (0.13) 400/300 128bitDDR 4pipes 9.6GB/s 1.6Gp/s
9600 . . . (0.13) 325/200 128bitDDR 4pipes 6.4GB/s 1.3Gp/s

9500PRO (0.15) 275/270 128bitDDR 8pipes 8.6GB/s 2.2Gp/s
9500 . . . (0.15) 275/270 128bitDDR 4pipes 8.6GB/s 1.1Gp/s

Even if the 9600 has remotely decent active cooling I'd say you're still going to get 500mhz core tops, and with only 4 pipes vs the 9500PRO's 8 you're still slower. Plus the 9600 is where all the poor performing 9600pro cores will be used so o/c'ing may not even reach 400mhz. The RAM speed is by far the worst though as 200mhz would have to get to 270mhz to even begin to worry the 9500PRO and I can't see 3.6ns type RAM being used on a low end card which begs for cheap 5.0ns RAM to be used. I'd say 4.0ns is still unlikely on a consumer 9600 and even then 250mhz is about as good as you're likely to get.

Seriously if you want a 'budget' card get a GF4TI4200 but then you do lose DX9. Otherwise the 9600PRO is the logical choice, the cards above this cost a LOT more, if you want DX9 get 9600pro (or wait) and not a sub std handi-capped card. That's MHO.

cheers for all that, just ordered a fooking 9700 np from here

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...category=27387

I could pay a extra £15 and get him to ram sink it and oc it to a 9700 pro with a garantee? i could just o/c it myself....

[CrapshoT]

i paid £172 all for it off ebay i bought it on the wednsday afternoon and had it by 8am friday morning just comes in a brown box but i did get the other leads n stuff and a couple of dodgy cd-rs with the drivers and clear instructions on how to install the card properly and its been working really sweetly
ive had a good gf4 ti 4200 and my last card was a fx5600 and this just totally wipes the floor with them easily i was worried about switching from nvidia to ati but i wish i did it when i got the fx5600
i would recomend these cards to anyone who cant quite afford the £200 mark i think the extra £10 was just for ramsinks maily
but up till now im happy with it and thats what counts

[WoLFe]

Originally posted by CrapshoT
i paid £172 all for it off ebay i bought it on the wednsday afternoon and had it by 8am friday morning just comes in a brown box but i did get the other leads n stuff and a couple of dodgy cd-rs with the drivers and clear instructions on how to install the card properly and its been working really sweetly
ive had a good gf4 ti 4200 and my last card was a fx5600 and this just totally wipes the floor with them easily i was worried about switching from nvidia to ati but i wish i did it when i got the fx5600
i would recomend these cards to anyone who cant quite afford the £200 mark i think the extra £10 was just for ramsinks maily
but up till now im happy with it and thats what counts

You reckon its worth getting ram sinks? dout i'll bother to be honest...or does it help when o/c?

[Austin]

WoLFe your choice, £15 is hardly a lot of cash although I'd lean towards the cheaper option myself.

|SilentDeath| the 9600nonPROs are seriously slow. The 9600PRO needs to o/c 20% to take on a stock 9500PRO so there really is no way a 9600nonPRO can do that. The 9600nonPRO's main disadvantages are:

1. That's where all the naffest 9600 cores will go and hence o/c'ing may be hit & miss.
2. The RAM is set to 200mhz by default and I doubt you'll even get 4.0ns RAM which would only be good to 250mhz anyway (target would be 350mhz).
3. Passive cooling or poor active cooling; easily killing a core o/c.
4. 4 pipes is still very limiting almost regardless of clock speed, 9600PRO needs 500/350 to take on an 8 piped 9500PRO @ 275/270.

Look at the specs...

9600 . . . (0.13) 325/200 128bitDDR 4pipes 6.4GB/s, 1.3Gp/s
9500PRO (0.15) 275/270 128bitDDR 8pipes 8.6GB/s 2.2Gp/s