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Radeon 9500 to 9700/9700 Pro


Postby James S » Jan 16, 2003 @ 8:01pm

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Postby iddqdSchool » Jan 16, 2003 @ 8:49pm

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Postby James S » Jan 16, 2003 @ 9:59pm

My System:
1.3GHz AMD Athlon
512MB's 266MHz DDR SDRAM

3DMark2001SE benches:
Geforce3 6443
Radeon 9500 8614
Software 9700 9801

With the Radeon 9500 (3.3ns memory) there is a short pause in display after I close down any 3D application. Not after shutting down out of a 3D display mode, but out of a 3D application. 3DMark can play all its benchmarks and go back to windows, but when I press its close X I get a short pause in all display.

With the Software tweak to 9700 I do get purple checkerboarding, which is very disappointing. However, I get it in the oddest places, such as bitmap images or low contrast textures. In some games it's not there at all, in others it's all over the place. It seems to be only on certain textures and only certain colors in textures. I get the impression that certain colors in the textures become transparent and this checkerboard is behind them, much like Photoshop's transparency.

Also, in the first half of the 3DMark tests there were no checkerboards at all. It's as if they started to appear as the card began to warm up. Half way through the Nature Game 4 demo is when they first appeared. And they NEVER appeared in a single test that actually used the 8 software enabled pipelines, such as the fill rate test.

With it's 3 display outs and dual monitor support this is a very nice card to have, even at just 9500 levels. However, when faster is possible it's hard to be satisfied. But it's also much quieter than my Geforce3, almost NO fan noise.

I'm wondering if there is a way to fix this or if I should pay the 15% restocking fee and shipping to try a different 9500 from newegg.com. I don't know if it's worth another $30 and 5 days to risk that I might get an 8 pipe friendly card.

Comments, suggestions, laments...
iddqd, tell me how it goes with you. If you get a good card from newegg.com then that might make me more inclined to try exchanging it.
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Postby goatCE » Jan 16, 2003 @ 10:25pm

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Postby James S » Jan 16, 2003 @ 10:33pm



This is the absolute WORST checkerboarding that I have with this card, and I can't say that it's terrible, either. Take a look.
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Postby goatCE » Jan 16, 2003 @ 10:39pm

I just remembered, try taking your clock speed down some, it's suggested that it will reduce artifacts.
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Postby sponge » Jan 16, 2003 @ 11:18pm

holy internets batman.
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Postby James S » Jan 16, 2003 @ 11:38pm

Alright, I tried RivaTuner's Soft9700 script and it's a whole different ball game in the artifact arena. With RivaTuner I get no artifacts in the immediate texture area. It seems like highly compressed distant textures are the only ones affected, and pixel shaded shadows. Here are the absolute worst images I could get with the 9700. The cap3.jpg image is the only time I could get a snap of the green checkerboard (left of character) that only appears sometimes in pixel shader areas. It disappeared within a second and moved fluidly along with the cloud's shadow.





turning off "Cloud Shadows" in Asheron's Call 2 removes the majority of the artifacts. Cloud shadows are pixel shaded areas. Maybe if I completely turn of pixel shaders it will get rid of them completely.

I'm curious as to why one software tweak gave me different amounts and kinds of artifacts (green checkerboard on in pixel shaded areas and purple in distant textures only). Maybe a software tweak can ... counteract this behavior.

Does anyone know the clock speed of the 9700 Pro? I didn't see it mentioned on ATI's website. I'm going to try to clock mine as high. Underclocking increased artifacts for me.
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Postby James S » Jan 17, 2003 @ 1:28am

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Postby goatCE » Jan 17, 2003 @ 3:07am

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Postby James S » Jan 17, 2003 @ 3:14am

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Postby goatCE » Jan 17, 2003 @ 3:43am

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Postby James S » Jan 17, 2003 @ 5:45am

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Postby damian » Jan 17, 2003 @ 6:47pm

Hmm... this is why I'll just pass and get the Ti4200. It's $30 cheaper anyway.
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Postby James S » Jan 17, 2003 @ 7:08pm

I think I'll email newegg.com and tell them I'm an ethusiast and have already ordered a card from them but it did not meet my overclocking needs and before I exchange it for a new one i'd like them to test it for me with the settings I'll be using.
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