Alright so I was lookin for a new video card to upgrade from my PNY Geforce 4 TI4200 and while i was looking I found an ATI Radeon 9700 PRO for only 259.00! So I sed cool and bought it. When I got it i first ran a benchmark (3dMark 2001 SE) on my Geforce 4 to compare to my new ati. On my Geforce I scored 9430. I then uninstalled all the drivers and took the card out and put the ati in. I updated the drivers to Catalyst 3.2 then ran the benchmark. Sadly i only socred 10766, only 1336 away from the Geforce 4 Ti4200. Should I of gotten more?? The Radeon 9700 PRO was OEM but i dont think that would of effected anything. I am running it at 8X AGP with the following computer specs.

Pentium 4 1.9 Overclocked to 2.05
SOYO - P4X400 DRAGON Ultra Platinum Edition
Antec 400 Watt Smart Power Supply
768MB PC2700 PNY Optima™DDR RAM
Microsfot Windows XP Professional
ATI Radeon 9700 PRO

The 9700 PRO is running with stock speeds

Well you can use futuremark search and compare to see how other people are doing with the same processor and card. But I would think that's about right for your processor.

Yes, OEM Radeons like most other OEM graphics cards suck compared to retail boxed cards. They are usually (always) scaled down as far as speed etc are concerend. I think your only hope is to OC it.

What about the Sapphire ATI OEM RADEON 9500?
Isnt this supposed to be a pretty sweet card? Well after a few tweaks...lol
I currently have it on my maybe list for my new rig.

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what about your settings, do you have AA or AF on, that's never good for a 3dmark score.

i disabled all of AA and AF and lowered all the details to low and the speeds show at the regular speeds. do oem's really differ from retail in speed?

I'd like to know the answer to that myself.
I've always operated with the impression that OEM was basically the same thing without the books and extras so to speak.
does this mean my OEM copy of NORTON SYSTEMWORKS 2003 Pro will find virii more slowly?
if an OEM card is "slower" by default, does that mean you can just overclock it to retail specs right out of the box or does it actually have a slower processor?
in which case it would be a different card, wouldn't it?
Am I confused as to what OEM actually means or are you?

ok after taking a close look at my 9700 pro i noticed the ram chips wern't samsung....they are infineon -3.3 ram chips. also i did some reserch and quickly found out that ATI makes there oem versions with slower componets but still keep the same clock speeds......just my luck...im gonna go cry over there somewhere now....

FeRaL was right

Knight2040 - They are not "scaled down", OEM Video Card's simply lack the retail features which are a fancy box and games or bundled software.
If you do not believe me go buy a retail box card and see for yourself. Outcast who ever told you OEM was scaled down?

Ati used to lower there clock speed on OEM parts. The 8500 is a good exp retail 275/550 OEM 250/500 That is were feral got his info probably. But as far as I know the newer r300 cards are not this way. Are you sure you have a pro knight? What are the speeds?

I have to agree Stealth. If you purchase an OEM processor vs. a Retail. Its the same Processor minus fancy box, and a Heatsink & Fan.
The OEM is the same Processor though, minus an AMD warranty perhaps, but the same chip.

Then how do you explain the infineon -3.3 ram chips and the low score? also the following sites have info on it
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/video/perfOEM-c.html

and i think everyone here trusts Toms Hardware Guides right?
Read the middle of the page.
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/...on9700-02.html

yeah it is the PRO version the sticker on the back ses ati9700pro and the drivers recognize it as a PRO my speeds are
VGA Memory Clock 310.5 MHz
VGA Core Clock 324.0 MHz

Almost no one here trust tom. He sold out a long time ago. ATI switched to infineon a while back. Though I havent seen anything on it lowering scores.

so you think its just something with the rest of my hardware? i think it might be my slow proc but still i thought i would get a bigger diffrence from my geforce

Something is not right somewhere. Here is my 9500pro score its oc.

3dmark2001

I picked up about 2500 over my 4200.

Knight I believe on Toms Hardware Guide, they are referring to problems identifying the 8500 model apart. not the 9700.

jeeze you got higher then my 9700 pro with a 9500 and i still have a faster proc and 3x your ram.....i'm not liking this

sorry about that jinx thanks for correcting me