I DEFECTED FROM NVIDIA.....FOLLOW ME!!!!

[gosta 0]

Hi all, I used to have that too with the 9700pro, but it also went away with the new 3.1 drivers. I don't think it's related to left-over nVidia drivers, as I had a Radeon 7200 before. Anyway, instead of alt+tab, you could try the 'Window' button (next to the 'Alt' button on most keyboards)Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

[Guest Tim13]

Well, I too made the switch. I have an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro sitting in my living room just waiting for my attention. It's next to a computer case, P4 processor, ram, etc... that sometime this week will be assembled into a computer.I will say that it took some courage on my part to switch, especially after reading the "horror stories" over at the rage3d forums. Tim13

[gosta 0]

Hi Tim,while the 9700 pro may certainly have had a lot of teething problems after it first came out, they appear to have been resolved.Even if you do experience problems, I found their customer service to be excellent - I had to RMA my card twice, and got a replacement two days after e-mailing the request. Of course I'm referring to North American standards of service, where there's next to no consumer protection - if you're in the EU, just take it back to the shop and demand an immediate replacement or full refund... So, even if you have problems with the card (which is much more unlikely than it was a couple of months ago), I'm sure you'll be pleased with the end result.Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

[sskoup 0]

John,"The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.David Friedman"I disagree with this because I've been told by my wife that I can fix "anything" with a "sledge hammer", a "big screwdriver" and a "large pair of pliers"Sskoup

[Guest ha5mvo]

happy the sim works nicely for you!!beside the improved vid card I think that the upgrade of the processor from 866 to 2.2GHz played some role....

[Guest]

Absolutely, this guy did more than just upgraded his videocard. The results he is getting have to be meted out to other factors as well, CPU, motherboard....Robb

[JimmiG 244]

I also have a 9700 Pro. Great card. I went from a Ti500 to this card...With the Ti500 I played FS2002 at: 1024x768, 2x FSAA/4x bilinear-Anisotropic filtering. OK framerate.With the 9700 Pro: 1280x960, 4x AA/16X Trilinear-Anisotropic. Very smooth framerates except at big/detailed airports where it drops a little.Using it on an XP2400x at 185x12 (2220 MHz), 8RDA+ and lots of goodies. What's funny is my mobo is using the Nvidia chipset and I'm using an ATI Videocard :-lolI had the ALT+TAB problem. It was not there with Catalyst 2.5. It was defeinetly there with Catalyst 3.0. I haven't tried with Catalyst 3.1, I hardly alt+tab out of FS2002 anyway. You don't have to run it in Windowed mode all the time to work around the bug, you only use alt+enter instead of alt+tab when you need to get to the desktop :)The Catalst 3.1 driver set is very good. I haven't had a single issue with the new drivers. They also iinclude the much needed FSAA in 16-bit mode, so you can enjoy all your old sims with FSAA and anisotropic filtering to the max.

[Bill McQueen 0]

Jimmi, In preparation for me recieving my card next week I downloaded the Catalyst 3.1 drivers and the Radeon control panel utility. I take it that the driver has to be installed first before the control panel thingy ?Like you I am upgrading from the GF3 Ti 500 and should (or should I say hope! ) expect to see a significant increase in performance :-)Bill

[Guest]

>> Anyway, this is what I went from:>> Geforce 3Ti200>> And this is what I went to:>> ATI 9700 non pro ($225)"I defected from Skoda to Ferrari and I like the Ferrari better"Why is that not a surprise?I mean, defections based on uncomparible hardware is easy.Not to be blunt but I think you can't blame NVidia for comparing a GF3 with a 9700.......Be honest and use a GF4-4600, cooled in a machine you have now and see what you get.I for one tried and don't see too many differences in FS2K2.Maybe the 9800/FX battle will be one to watch.

[JimmiG 244]

The difference between a GF4 and a 9700 Pro is quite significant, easily 200% when using FSAA. FS2002 is already pretty CPU limited so the difference there isn't that great. But set both cards to 1600x1200, 4x AA, maximum AF (8x for the Geforce, 16x for Radeon) and watch the Radeon FLY past the GF4.It's actually a shame really. I would love to see more use of advanced 3d features in FS instead of the outdated, barely DX7-spec engine that FS2002 uses.Pixel shaders could be used for all sorts of things - realistic water, niiiice water drops on the windshield, heat ripples, reflections and bumps on the aircraft body, cloud effects, water/snow un runways, the list truly is endless. Vertex shaders could be used to animate the aircraft and free the CPU for other things. That would be a huge benefit on R9500's and above as far as I understand.The 9700 Pro is already holding up well against the GF-FX. The new 9800 Pro makes the FX look downright silly. Nvidia is already preparing the NV35 which they hope will be better than the lackluster NV30 (which every single hardware site claimed would beat the R9700 Pro...).

[JimmiG 244]

Yes, you install the main driver, reboot and then install the control panel.Also, make sure you uninstall the Nvidia drivers before you even remove your old card from the PC. Many of the problems people are having with Radeons are caused by them having remains of Nvidia drivers on their systems. I recommend Detonator Destroyer (try Google - I'm not sure where to find the program), it's supposed to completely remove old Nvidia drivers. The very best solution is to reformat and reinstall completely, but that's not always very practical.

[Guest Bigshot]

All you folks new to the 9700/9700 Pro, check out a good power DVD movie. It'll blow your socks off. I watched Band of Brothers on mine and I couldn't believe it. Whew!! The blood and gore on the 9700 Pro was an experience for lack of a better phrase.

[Guest]

Come April... nVIDIA will have the better Mainstream lineup, the $200 FX5600 Ultra which is said to be upto %50 faster than ti4600 with fsaa on and will smoke the new Radeon 9600Pro. The $150 FX5200 Ultra, which will run at ti4200 speeds, and get this the $80 FX5200 which runs at gf3ti500 speeds. All are DX9, and no the lower models are not crippled like the MX series. I'm not denying ATi has the lead right now, but ATi's answer against the $80 DX9 FX5200 is a pathethic 8x agp DX8.1 Radeon 9200 (8500/9100), which should be around $100. The FX5800 and Ultra are not cancelled at all, infact you should start seeing them in stores now, the NV35 out this summer will whoop anything ATi will have until next year. I'm not denying ATi has the better high-end product, but nVIDIA made the wiser decisions and now has the better lineup under $200, i mean c'mon a $80 DX9 card, i could just see Dell run and grab this one. I'm waiting for the FX5600 Ultra, i'm not ready to stay with ATi yet as i'm using a 8500 and am currently unhappy with it, i'm going back to nVIDIA now.

[Guest Bigshot]

You are ignoring the 9600NP??The 9600 NP will be priced competetively with the 5200, why is everyone listening the Nvidia PR crap here, ATI states in the launch video quite clearly the 9600 NP is their low end entry DX9 card and depending on board makers will be in $100 range.So 9600 NP is $90-$1005200 is -$80Why is it that the 9600 NP is ignored. This budget card will give the Nvidia budget cards a good wooping performance wise!!!! We'll just have to wait for the benchmarks, I guess!!

[Guest]

No, nVIDIA budegt card will give ATi a whooping, nVIDIA is msarter than ATi, they know how to be on top.