The ATI 9700PRO Vs. Geforce FX

There has been a lot of speculation as to whether the ATI or the GF card will be the better choice for running Doom3. While I don't know a lot about the technical mumbo-jumbo talk about which card has better features, after reading some of the reviews and benchmarks about the cards, the GF seems to be slightly better performance wise than the ATI. only in certain instances has the GF been beaten FPS-wise, with that 3d benchmark program thing. Geforce does have it's cons in other ways, mainly from what ive heard is the sheer size and the sound of the cooling mechanisms. Hell, I don't even know when the GF comes out, or if it is already out, because all of the sites i have read about it say it is supposed to be released in february. that only leaves 15 more days.

Which card would you people recommend to anyone getting either of these cards, as people say both can support all of doom3's features.

1) The Geforce 5800 Ultra is being cut short at 100,000. The lower clocked Geforce 5800 will still be released.

2) ATI will have the R350 (basically a hyper-boosted R300) out in March or April which is basically kicking Nvidia when they're down, not that I mind though. I like competition.

3) The Nvidia card is LOUD as hell. Not to mention taking up 2 slot spaces. The vacuum cleaner they have on there wasn't even part of the original design. They ripped it off from Abit and put it on there to get their clock speeds that as you can see, do nothing.

4) This card has a 128-bit memory bus, had they gone 256 they would have beaten the R300 which DOES have a 256-bit memory bus.

soooooooooooooo.......you recommend the radeon???

Wait for the NV35 vs. R350 battle!

Shaviro said:

Wait for the NV35 vs. R350 battle!

I agree wait to see what Nvidia pulls out with the NV35.

Assuming money isn't a problem, you can either wait for the slightly better (if that) nvidia card , or you could buy the 9700 now. You really can't lose no matter which one you buy. The 9700 is a great card (so I hear ;P), and the the new nvidia cards should be too although not making huge technologically surpassing leaps over the 9700.

Just trust me, the NV35 wont be out for a long time.

The NV30 has a 4 pipeline design (its great how nVIDIA pulled that one right over EVERYONE's head), and 2 TMUs. Because of this, it MUST run 16bit precision shaders or the performance is a 100% dropoff.

The R300/350 are the only ways to go until the NV40.

Why is this? The NV35 is a NV30 refreshed, and the NV30 itself is garbage. Its GPU limited, not bandwith like many thought. If it was bandwith limited, underclocking the GPU would allow it to reach 90-95% the maximum single-texturing fillrates, and that it can not do (More like 50-60%).

I'd buy a Radeon 9700 Pro right now and overclock it to higher speeds. The NV30 defaults to a lowerquality path, the R300 uses ARB2 out of the box :)

lol, im gettin really confused here. what the hell is a nv300, nv30, nv35, r300, r350? gah!!! too many nicknames!

Goat said:

lol, im gettin really confused here. what the hell is a nv300, nv30, nv35, r300, r350? gah!!! too many nicknames!

nv30 = Geforce FX
nv35 = the card after Geforce FX

r300 = Radeon 9700
r350 = Radeon 9800

nv35 should be interesting as well.

when does the r35 and nv350 come out? i dont think anyone shuold get the n30 cuz its just not as good as the r300, and its still too loud. what will the difference be between the r350 and the 300, and the nv30 and the 35? i bet the 35 wont be out for a long time, cuz the 30 isnt even out. for those without a newer gpu, would u recommend they wait for the r350? and are there any sites about it?

the r350 and the rv350 are coming out in april. i am really looking forward to these cards

Hmm, if you want to compare R300 and NV30 right now then I travelled in Futuremark's homepage and found out theese interesting numbers:

3DMark03 (DX9 based):
R300 maximum result -- 6865 (Radeon 9700 PRO)
NV30 maximum result -- 5390 (GeForce FX 5800 Ultra)

3DMark2001 (DX8 based):
R300 maximum result -- 23114 (Radeon 9700 PRO)
NV30 maximum result -- 16767 (GeForce FX 5800 Ultra)

As we can see, NV30 can run DX8 based "neutral non-optimized" applications about two times slower than R300. While doing DX9 stuff then NV30 is still slower than R300 but not THAT slow.
Ofcourse while dealing with MAXIMUM RESULTS then obviously both cases PCs were OC'd, but there we can see what GPU CAN do more.

What about DOOM III then I'm sure that Carmack does good job with the engine and both GPUs run DOOM III pretty good.

But R350 and NV35 fight should be interesting.

Don't ever trust 3dmark comparisons!

Bestbuy will be getting in cards around 3/3/03 for teh R350, which is actually an amazing feat, seeing as the FX was now pushed back to the end of the month of March in every store, some even to April. Considering the R9700 Pro is already the best card, ATI are just de-crowning their own card...

While doing DX9 stuff then NV30 is still slower than R300 but not THAT slow.

Yeah it is. It renders things at 16bit precision internally, making it able to compete. When it renders 32bit you've got a 100% performance dropoff.....

But R350 and NV35 fight should be interesting.

The NV35 wont be around until the R400 is (maybe paperlaunched, but not mass-produced). As I said the R350 is beating the NV30 to the market...And from what I'm understanding, the R400 will be like NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN. Much greater than the "puny" difference between a R200 (8500) & a R300 (9700 Pro), which was not puny in itself.

Radea` said:

And from what I'm understanding, the R400 will be like NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN.

That's what they said about the nv30! >:)

I keep imagining a guy in a red & white bodysuit kicking a guy in a red, white & blue bodysuit. He's kicking at at a rate of about 1.7 kicks per second, in the ribs, while the guy is sprawling and spinning on the ground.

Radea` said:

And from what I'm understanding, the R400 will be like NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN.

Give me a break. That's what they always say. And they're always full of it.

And from what I'm understanding, the R400 will be like NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN

Standard marketing strategy - always make your product seem so much more than it is.

AndrewB said:

I keep imagining a guy in a red & white bodysuit kicking a guy in a red, white & blue bodysuit. He's kicking at at a rate of about 1.7 kicks per second, in the ribs, while the guy is sprawling and spinning on the ground.

You've got serious emotional problems.

Hah...nVIDIA said that, not others who actually tried some of the prototype silicone...

ATI themselves werent really excited over the R300 (And look how its turned to be the most succesfull upper market launch since Voodoo Graphics), but very optimistic about the R400, and we all know how good the R300 launch was.

R300 = Brute force
R400 = Smart technology

You'll all see when the card is out, it should be taping out within a few weeks.

Radea` said:

Hah...nVIDIA said that, not others who actually tried some of the prototype silicone...

ATI themselves werent really excited over the R300 (And look how its turned to be the most succesfull upper market launch since Voodoo Graphics), but very optimistic about the R400, and we all know how good the R300 launch was.

R300 = Brute force
R400 = Smart technology

You'll all see when the card is out, it should be taping out within a few weeks.

NV25 = Brute force
NV30 = Smart technology

Which was the better release?

A video card's brand new capabilities are irrelevant until the 2-3 years until the features are actually put into place.

NV25 = Brute force
NV30 = Smart technology

Which was the better release?

Hello? Oviously the NV30 is. And incase you hadnt notice, its also the biggest performance increase NVIDIA's had since...well as far as I can remember actually.

The only different thing, ATI makes better hardware, and this time they had a piece of hardware out 6 months earlier with good software coupled with it (as that was a first, usually it takes 4 months for perf to show on ATI cards)

I know you're doubting it now, but the people under NDA's are hinting at it right now.

Radea` said:

Hello? Oviously the NV30 is. And incase you hadnt notice, its also the biggest performance increase NVIDIA's had since...well as far as I can remember actually.

No. The better release was the NV25. It completely smashed its opponents with performance well over the top. Will NV30 do that? No. NV25 made a lot of money, the NV30 won't. (High-end ofcourse)

A Doom 3 Alpha Benchmark

http://content.guru3d.com/article.php?cat=review&id=22&pagenumber=15

Doom III
800x600
1024x768
1280x1024
1600x1200

Radeon 9700 Pro
48
34
23
17

GeForce FX 5800 Pro
51
37
25
18


I settle for the 9700 Pro

how do u guys think the nvidia gforce 4 ti4200 will run doom 3?

errer said:

how do u guys think the nvidia gforce 4 ti4200 will run doom 3?

Just fine..

Alientank said:

I agree wait to see what Nvidia pulls out with the NV35.

I think that Nvidia is going to die like vodoo did.

Demons Hand said:

I think that Nvidia is going to die like vodoo did.

lol...nvidia won't die, trust me.

Shaviro said:

lol...nvidia won't die, trust me.

Why do you say that. Vodoo closeing its doors came out of noware.It could happen.Well I guse im one sided cuz I like useing Ati cards.