POST YOUR 3DMARK 2003 SCORES HERE!!!!

[ComPooTer]

a popsicle sounds good right now............stupid hot summer..................... no the popsicle is too tempting!!!!! aaah gotta save for a new HSF to keep my high temperatures down lol

Step #1: Radeon 9600 COMPLETE
Step #2: Vantec Aeroflow IN PROGRESS
Step #3: 400+ watt Brand name PSU INPROGRESS

i sure like my generic PSU tho it kicks *** GO GENERICS GO!!

i should make a whole generic computer with the parts i replace, HEHE then ill try benchmarking with it, generic ram, generic case, generic PSU, GENERIC EVERYTHING!!!! with a 3dmark03 of 6000 haha i wish

[cwin]

Nooonooo, dont get a Radeon 9600! You will be dissapointed!
I you can find one, get a 9500 Pro
or save your £££ and get a 9700 Pro

[dj4play]

Or even better source a 9500 non-pro 128mb, with a red pcb and L shaped ram.... and voila, in about 3 mod steps u have a 9700 pro

[ch0wdy^]

And if you get the checkerboarding which about 50% of the people softmodding are getting, then viola! You have a sub ti4200 card which cost $50 more. Get a 9500pro

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Yup, i would go for the 9500Pro, better safe than sorry, and you can always overclock it

--Jakk

[Ammok]

he's already got the 9600 pro cos you can't get 9500 pro's now, we both tried.

What ya mean disapointed, my 9600 is a bog standard cheapie, and I'm getting 2906 3d03 marks and 10500 3d01 marks, I'm pretty chuffed.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

you can't get 9500 pro's now

You can. Theres this big myth that 9500 Pro's are extinct, theyre not by any stretch of the imagination, they may be in short demand, but any decent, large retailer shoudl have them in stock or have them readily availiable within the space of a week

As for the 9600Pro, at stock speed i wouldnt give one a second glance, but its rather impressive overclocking ability makes it a decent buy for those on a tight budget or only a casual interest in games

--Jakk

[Ammok]

great if you can find one, but as you say the 9600 are fantastic overclockers great price too. As for casual interest in games, mine is currently knocking spots off Vietcong, ETM, and IGI2 so for the price a great game card too.

[Roadhog]

Ammok

I thought you were wrong about not being able to get a 9500Pro. I looked around, and man, you are right. They went fast, as just a couple weeks ago there were plenty to be had. I did notice the 9500 with Red PCB and 128meg mem for like $130(Pricewatch). What is the difference between the 9500 and 9500Pro, as I thought it was only mem 128 vs. 64?? Glad I got my pro when I did. Maybe the 9600 pro can overclock OK, would like to see some scores any one?? --RH--

[Bigjakkstaffa]

The 9600 Pro can overclock well, i think Hardocp did a comparison of the 9600 and the 9500Pro and overclocked, the 9600 can almost match up to the 9500 Pro..although once you overclock the 9500 Pro..you overtake the overclocked 9600 by some gap.

As for the difference between the pro and the non-pro, its texture pipelines, the non-pro has four, with the other four disabled, the pro has 8, like the 9700/9800 Pro cards. This makes quite a difference in terms of performance. However, SOME 9500 non-pro's can be modified through software and BIOS flashes and all 8 piplines can be unlocked, giving the user effectively a 9500Pro and even a 9700 Pro if flashed and overclocked. The only problem with this is you are not guaranteed a sucessful modification and it only works with paticular 9500 non-pro cards

--Jakk

[Roadhog]

Bigjakkstaffa

By working on "some" 9500 cards, is there a way to tell. On pricewatch, I noticed some said right there in the cards description, that is was a red PCB. I notice my 9500Pro is also a red card(and also another one I had from Circuit City--found the best over clocker(after bios flash) and returned the other for full refund before the 10 days ran out--as it turned out, I kept the one from NewEgg, as a much cheaper price). Any way -- both red PCB's. If that is the deciding factor, the $130 cards from pricewatch would be a good deal. --RH--

[Rugor]

It's not so much the color of the PCB as the layout. All the ones which can be flashed to a 9700 just happen to have a red PCB.

In order to understand it you need to understand what a 9500 Non-Pro is: namely the same R300 (Radeon 9700) VPU with half the pipelines disabled. Now some 9500's were 9700's with flaws so some of the pipelines didn't pass the tests. The others are 9700's that were surplus to needs and just had the BIOS flashed, and half the pipes disabled. Unfortunately there is no way to tell if the disabled pipes are defective or not without trying it.

Now in order for this to work, you not only need a chip where all 8 pipes work, but it needs to be on the right PCB as well. First, it has to be the 128MB model, since even if you could enable the extra pipes on a 64MB card they won't work because they don't connect to the RAM. So you need the 128MB card to begin with. Then you need the one on the 9700 PCB, with the chips arranged in an 'L' rather than the 9500 Pro PCB where they are all in a line along one edge.

If you have the right card you have about a 50% chance of a successful mod.

[Ammok]

faster than ***** off a shovel, my local store had some thursday night and I went over Friday morning and they was gone!!

plus all my online favs were out of stock, no big deal the 9500 pro is by far the bettercard, but th9600 and 9600 pro 128mb will still give your eyes a feast and play any DX9 games that come our. Plus they oc well and give a respectable 3dmark.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Well me and my ego finaly plucked ourselves up to it and ran 3dmark 2003

Final score, 1195, which im quite impressed with given the age of my gfx card

AMD XP2400+(2Ghz) @ 2.31ghz (171Mhz FSB)
512mb PC2700 CL2.5-2-2-6
Geforce ti4200 64mb (*wince*) @ 280/600Mhz
Soundstorm audio

All in all thats not a bad score for the system im running, i reckon if i could get this bleedin thng to run at 200Mhz FSB i could break the 2000 points mark

--Jakk

[x51out]

Hold on Bigjakkstaffa, I'm working on a reply . I'm running 9.5x200 right now, but 3Dmark crashes at 200. I'm still ironing out the creases. I'll figure it out.