Sorry to beat the old "What Video Card?" horse some more, but I have an opportunity to pick up a Radeon 9500 Pro for $229.99. I don't recall seeing this card discussed here and wondered if anyone has any experience flying FS9 with it. Is there a better choice for that money?Thanks,Bluemax

Blue,If you couldn't find a reference to it on these or the hardware forums you weren't using the search function good enough Lol.But to answer your question, the card is probably one of the best mid level VC built. The problem is finding them anymore. $229 doesn't sound bad but the last one I bought last month for $190 from Newegg.com.With the latest cat drivers and a slight overclock this little card can post numbers very close to the 9700Pro. Add DX9 support and you have yourself a killer budget card. The only thing to consider is for around $50 more you can get your hands on a 9700Pro. The choice is up to you. Either way you can't go wrong.Bobby

Actually with $20 to $70 more depending on where you look you can get a 9800 NP ....Something to consider.Joe

>Actually with $20 to $70 more depending on where you look you>can get a 9800 NP ....Your right joe but the only thing your gaining is clock speed. No biggie as my 9700Pro will do 391/364 all day long. That's 9800Pro Speed.Bobby

I agree, the 9500 is a good card - but $229 is a little steep. You should be able to score one for under $200, including shipping. Newegg's price/service combo can't be beat. You may also want to check out pricewatch.com for the rockbottom price.ed

Thanks for the info. I'll look into Newegg!

I own the 9500 pro and have no compaints what so ever. I am getting solid 26 fps, because that is what I have it locked at. As long as the rest of your computer is up to snuff you shouldn't have any issues. I purchased mine about 3-4 months ago for about $200.00. So $230.00 sounds a bit pricy. I would talk them down if you are really interested in it. I wouldn't pay no more than $125-150. Since there are many newer versions of the ATI card out on the market.Again, it is a great card.....

Hi Bluemax.Make sure you get a guarantee of return for the card if found defective.ATI no longer makes this card, and whats left out in the field may represent a high ratio of already returned cards ( yes, sometimes defective RMAs do get sent back out ).Dick

>Your right joe but the only thing your gaining is clock speed.>No biggie as my 9700Pro will do 391/364 all day long. That's>9800Pro Speed.>>BobbyOnly difference clock speeds. Don't think so... Have a look at this...http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati...iew/default.aspI am impressed with your memory clock speeds though. Are you using any kind of cooling? Excerpt follow:"How does it compare to the 9700 PRO?In comparison to ATI

"This gives the RADEON 9700 PRO a slight performance advantage in most benchmarks when both cards are operating at stock speeds."They are reffering to the 9800 and not the 9800Pro which is about $120 more than the 9700Pro.Trust me I know the capabilities of both of these cards. I own both of them (Actually Own the 9700Pro and the 9800Pro256). What I was pointing out was that you can have a 9700 for about $60 more than the 5600Ultra. Features aside, the 9700 will benchmark better than a regular 9800 in most benchmarks. I made my reccomendation based on it's intended use. FS9 not DOOM3. I purchased my 9800Pro for use specifically with D3 when it arrives :)To me, unless I'm going to lay out the extra cash for the Pro version of the 9800, I'm going to buy the 9700, clock it to 9800Pro speeds (which most will do with the stock HS and some memory sinks) and enjoy the benfit of the extra 1 gig of bandwidth. :)Click here to see what the 9700 can do at 9800Pro speeds :) http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6956345 yep that is 19K+ ;) http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=1246602 So close to 6K ;)As far as my cooling goes, $10 Compusa chrome HS's cut down to fit the memory chips and a Zalman HeatPipe w a 40mm fan on the cold plate side.With the loss of the 9500, the 9700Pro is without a doubt the best choice in VC's for around $250Bobby

Thanks Bobby,I was actually referring to the 9800 non-pro (not the PRO) in my original post. I bought the 9800 non-pro two weeks ago for $249 and in general it's retailing between $249 to $299.What did you use to attach the sinks to the memory chips? Some kind of thermal adhesive or "sticky" thermal pad? I would like to find a way of doing this that makes the card visually suitable to ship for repair :-) if I ever need to do so.

229 is way too much, a friend of mine got a9600 pro for about that much canadian just a few weeks ago.I was over and watched it running fs2004, it was pretty damn decentradeon 9600pro2500+ barton512mb pc 2700 ddrall settings maxed it was running constant at his 20 fps frame limit

>229 is way too much, a friend of mine got a9600 pro for about>that much canadian just a few weeks ago.>>>I was over and watched it running fs2004, it was pretty damn>decent>>radeon 9600pro>2500+ barton>512mb pc 2700 ddr>>>all settings maxed it was running constant at his 20 fps frame>limitDer 9600 isgnot is fasts as dat 9500pro, but der FX5600ultra is fastser andk yar costs mar monee.

Someone call the troll police......

A note: I got a 9500 pro and believe me, you have to remove 110% of whatever card's drivers you had in before installing one. I never did get ALL of my nvidia out..so daughter got the 9500.