Ok all you nVidia fans, (of which I am one), If you have a pre-order in for a new GeForce FX you MAY want to cancel it.....

reading This Article at The Inquirer could change your mind.

ATI's revised 9700 will boats performance gains of up to 25% over its already industry leading 9700 which in recent (albeit beta card tests) benchmarks was BARELY beaten by the yet unreleased GeForce FX card.

Wahoo!

Looks like I may buy an ATI?!?

whats next? An intel inside?

From what ive read, the 9900 pro's only real difference is going to be the gpu and the speed of the gpu. Im not saying dont get it. I was just stating what ive read. They are hoping to get it 400mhz. I cant remember if they will bump the memory speed up any. I would think they would for proformance. ive never had the top of the line anything, so Ill probably upgrade my ti4200 to a 9700 pro when the fx and 9900 come out. Im sure the prices will drop some what.

BZA,
First off the new R350 chip on the new 9700 based cards is believed to be faster and more powerful but will not be proven until it is realised in GERMANY first. Here is part of the article:

"However, we have learned that ATI's next generation R350 chip which will compete with the Geforce FX is now in mass production, and will definitely be in retail stores in April. It will be officially announced at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany on March 12, 2003."

Looking at the beta benchmarks according to MaximumPC, the Geforce card is much faster and more powerful then the 9700 by about 25%.

"The R350 chip which powers the new series of graphics cards is expected to run 15-25% faster than ATI's current fastest chip. It is aiming to deliver the new chip at a speed of 400MHz, though many pundits suspect it will end up settling on 375MHz. Either speed should put it comfortably ahead of nVidia's yet-to-be-released GeForce FX, which only just beats the current ATI flagchip. Those famous nVidia driver optimisations will need to come thick and fast. "

Geforce FX will be running at 500Mhz. Still making the Geforce faster. You should not tell people to cancel their orders yet as I believe this card might be 2x more powerful then any ATI card on the planet for a while.

Another thing I noticed is that nVidia based drivers for their cards are very stable and most of the time (not always) ATI drivers are garbage that needs to be updated at least 3 times to function porperly.

well its all speculation since NEITHER card is released yet.. I was joking about canceling orders and sited the article for specifics, it was just a news-blurb, take it with a grain of salt and dont jump down my throat for posting news.

anyway.

btw, the whole 500 mhz vs 400 mhz makes about as much sense as the 3 ghz vs XP 3000 Intel vs AMD debate.

Retail products with retail drivers is the only thing that will tell the true tale.

I just thought it was interesting.

If you are a 3D designer or movie maker, them im SURE the FX will suit you better...but i digress.

never believe anything you read and only half of what you see.

Yeah BZA thats true, never believe from what you read, learn from experience. Go to the store and try the cards on the demo machines, lol

The core speed doesnt really matter anyway. As BZA said its like comparing a 3 ghz vs a XP 3000.

Its all about ram. ATI has the bandwidth. 256bit DDR1 comepared to 128bit DDR2. Yes DDR2 is much faster than DDR1 speed wise but with 256 bit DDR1 its got the bandwidth lead by about 3 gigs a second. 9700pro is like 19 gigs a second while the FX will be around 16 gigs a second.

Oh by the way Gladiator the FX didnt blow the 9700 pro away by very much and if you look at the benchmarks run with AA and other filters turned on the 9700 pro beat the FX. 25% is by no means blowing away. Its good jump though.

Maverick, If you did look, ATI 9700 has been out for a few months and the FX is still in BETA. I do think there is a reason why maximum pc listed beta around 5 times on their review page. another thing, the speed of the ddr 2 makes up for the bandwith.

I do not really know for sure, I guess we should just wait and see.

I know its stil beta. I read the article more than a few times. I guess if you really look at it all the early tests are good for is making people argue. lol. Waiting is probably the best thing to do.

This thing is SO LOUD. (g-force fx that is) Have a listen.
http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic...rce_fx-06.html

They fixed that problem FUBAR. And Gainword has one that only puts out 7db's. A whisper is 30db's. And it keeps it nice and cool. Who knows if its true or not. A spokesperson for the company stated that.

Why does everyone keep going on about crappy ATI drivers? have you even used the 9700pro?

This card is rock solid

who said anything about crappy ATI drivers?

Yeah, the 9700 drivers are good, but have you ever dealt with 8500 or 9000 or older ATI ALL IN Wonder-cards?

I am not a huge fan of NVIDIA, but I for sure know that their products are worth the money. Not saying ATI sucks, ATI is also a very good company in graphics but they tend to lack somethings that NVIDIA does not.

I had a 64mb ddr vivo from ati. atleast until my soyo dragon fried it. I never had problems with its drivers. I have heard people say bad things about ati drivers but never have had a problem. I dont have a favorite card. My first graphics card was a voodoo 4, then i got the vivo and when it died i got my current card the ti4200 128mb. My next card will probably be a 9700 pro. I have a 9000m in my dell laptop. No problems there either. Both companies make a good product. As you stated Gladiator ATI does seem to lake something.

fubar did but editted his post

techie people who still hold on to old truths are truly behind the curve, its like saying chaintech boards suck, yeah they used to but they kick serious ass now.

its just a pet peeve of mine, i hate it when people complain about an issue that has been resolved already

oh ok. I was wondering cause i didnt see it. anywhere.

ATI is going to bring nVidia to its knees like tha ho that it is

_______________________________________

"If i throw a stick will you leave???"

That was a very educated statment. lmao!

Quote: Originally posted by abyssling fubar did but editted his post techie people who still hold on to old truths are truly behind the curve, its like saying chaintech boards suck, yeah they used to but they kick serious ass now. its just a pet peeve of mine, i hate it when people complain about an issue that has been resolved already

I did what?

If you are referring that I some how trashed ATI drivers... I did not. My edit was this (g-force fx that is)

I have an O/C 9700 Pro. And it's great. I did have some driver problems but everything has been perfect since Catalyst 3.0

Keep reading thru that Inquireer article folks, rumor has it Nvida is canning the GForce FX.