9500 pros??????

[WoLFe]

I can't find one anywhere! i really want one now, its the only card i want...anyone no anywhere i can find one?

[Stoo]

eBay, or http://www.kl1128.fsnet.co.uk/vga.htm (I think some of the others have use that site)

The 9500 np softmod/pro's have been discontinued for a while now and replaced with the 9600np/pro versions, so you'll have virtually no chance of getting them through the usual retailers.

[WoLFe]

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

what u think? i have enough £££ to buy that, but you think its safe to buy things like that off ebay?

[Stoo]

It's that same bloke selling them as in the link I posted.
I'd imagine you'd be fine as a few others have bought from him in the past.

[fondie]

i've bought from him (a 9700pro for a friend). arrived fine, works etc.

[WoLFe]

ok, cheers for the feeback. how much was a pro with him?

[Austin]

But generally I'd avoid buying technical stuff off the likes of Ebay, esp expensive stuff. It's far too easy for someone to try passing off a 9500nonPRO for a 9500PRO, 9500PRO for 9700PRO etc. Esp so for that family of cards as they were all virtually identical and most programs had a very hard time telling them apart (esp with a BIOS flash). That link in partic show a 9700nonPRO for £149 (currently) but there's a £17 P&P fee and a £10 additional fee (if I read that right) bringing the total cost to £176 and new prices are ...

Rad9800 £210
Rad9600pro £129 (okay slower but look how much cheaper and new with warranty too)

The 9500PRO link seems to only sell 9500nonPRO cards which really suck I'm sad to say. The 9600pro (£130 BTW) uses 4 pipes just like the 9500nonPRO but the 9600pro is optimised and clocked at 400/600 compared with 275/540 of the 9500nonPRO. So the optmised 9600pro with a 45% core and 11% RAM advantage is still only at GF4TI4200 speeds (minus AA+AF and DX9) and still 15% slower than the 9500PRO stock. I'd say get a 4200 (£90) or 9600pro (£130).

[WoLFe]

surely theres a way of telling if there trying to send me a fake card?

[pmk24]edit to take away the bad word[edit]

[Rave]

Originally posted by Austin
The 9500PRO link seems to only sell 9500nonPRO cards which really suck I'm sad to say. The 9600pro (£130 BTW) uses 4 pipes just like the 9500nonPRO but the 9600pro is optimised and clocked at 400/600 compared with 275/540 of the 9500nonPRO. So the optmised 9600pro with a 45% core and 11% RAM advantage is still only at GF4TI4200 speeds (minus AA+AF and DX9) and still 15% slower than the 9500PRO stock. I'd say get a 4200 (£90) or 9600pro (£130).

The price for the 9700 all in delivered is £161, or £141 for a 9500 that he guarantees will softmod properly. I was skeptical but he has a 99.9% positive feedback rating. If I had the money I'd buy from him.

Rich :¬)

[CrapshoT]

i bought that grandmars 9700np off him but i paid £10 extra for the gaurenteed 300/300 board with ramsinks and its well worth the money m8 its modded up to a rad 9700 pro and im o/cing mine to core 357.75 memory 325.00
first 3d mark 2001 scored 13,200 out of the box now im getting over 16,000 with o/cing
now if you pay £15 your gaurenteed a 300/310 2.8 samsung red pcb mem card
i know its ebay but everyone on there isnt a evil rip off merchant im a good guy really but these cards are well worth a look
a think hexus should get hold of one and put it thru its paces properly

[Austin]

CrapshoT it's just that buying via auction or 2nd hand means you give up practically all rights as a consumer, you can only gain reimbursement if it's falsely described and even then it's privately through the small claims courts (IIRC) and evidence can also be difficult too.

Anyway I take it you bought your card directly from http://www.kl1128.fsnet.co.uk/vga.htm ... what payment method did you use and how was the experience?

[WoLFe]

Also, did you just slip in a extra £10 in the post to get the 300 version?

[Austin]

; )Well most std 9700nonPRO should happily o/c to above 9700PRO clocks (and therefore speed), 325/300 should virtually be a given as 350/310 isn't unusual but it's nice to have certainty (and presumably a warranty a the increased speed). Of course a 9700nonPRO @ 350/310 can easily take on the 9800pro and FX5900ultra!

[WoLFe]

Originally posted by Austin
; )Well most std 9700nonPRO should happily o/c to above 9700PRO clocks (and therefore speed), 325/300 should virtually be a given as 350/310 isn't unusual but it's nice to have certainty (and presumably a warranty a the increased speed). Of course a 9700nonPRO @ 350/310 can easily take on the 9800pro and FX5900ultra!

is it worth the extra £15 for the 9700 pro clocks and ram sinks then?

[SilentDeath]

one thing to remember is that the sapphire european 9700nps are factory unlocked - no bios flashing needed to clock them, this may also be for other cards or there may even be ways round it with locked cards but i havent heard of any, and flashing vga bios with an unofficial one, esp if u only have bios for a diff manuf card is risky

also about 9600nps they are suppost to clock well beating 9500pr0s

[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.