I think that’s probably why reviewers haven’t mentioned it. They can’t exactly report on problems they’re not experiencing. ;)
Playing devil’s advocate, if, according to your post, you’ve had zero problems of your own, why would you say that the card is “finicky?” Because you were told so by someone else?
I’m not trying to bust your balls, I’m just saying that simply because Wumpus cries bloody murder every time he has a problem with the card (or with life in general), that doesn’t necessarily mean a thing.
In this case, especially since the rest of you aren’t having problems with this game, the likely cause of Wumpus’ issues are that he keeps swapping out video cards, which has probably left some flotsam floating around in his system.
I think that’s probably why reviewers haven’t mentioned it. They can’t exactly report on problems they’re not experiencing. Playing devil’s advocate, if, according to your post, you’ve had zero problems of your own, why would you say that the card is “finicky?” Because you were told so by someone else?[/quote]
No, because ATI recognizes (and has been addressing reasonably well, in my experience to date) the problems the card has had with several recently released games, and some older ones (and I did encounter the Battlefield 1942 problem, and had to make some adjustments to play FreeSpace 2).
I am not, at all, complaining about any of the magazine reviews or the initial reviews at any of the hardware sites – you reviewed the product based upon your experiences, using games/systems available at the time – all fine. My comment was specifically directed at the Hardware news sites, like Anand and Toms Hardware – guys who put up content every day and, to my knowledge, haven’t addressed any of the frequent driver updates (and the reasons for them) that ATI has been releasing.
Judging by usenet and forum posts, Wumpus’s experience is by no means unique – the guy also plays about 10 times as many games as I do, so he’s had more opportunities to encounter problems. Whether those problems are related to issues with his set up, or specific hardware incompatibilities, or systems with clogged registries – that’s the kind of discussion I’d like to see those dedicated hardware sites at least address. I expect more from those sites providing ongoing coverage – to allow me to make an informed purchasing decision based upon the very latest information and experiences.
Definitely a valid point, and I wasn’t honestly suggesting that the card isn’t without its peccadilloes. ;)
If I had to guess, I think the reason these sites aren’t mentioning the problems is that the majority of them were fixed with the new .dll/7.77 drivers. It’s only now that “new” new games are coming out that more issues seem to be presenting themselves.
For example, I’m running 9700 PROs on two systems, and I can’t get the new Need For Speed demo to work on either of them. I can access the starting option menus, but when I try to start a race, my system locks. When I reboot, I see the same message Wumpus saw after CFS3 crapped out on him: paraphrased – “Your system crashed. It’s the 9700’s fault.”
When it comes to hardware, I usually do as much research as I possibly can before blowing wads of cash on a new video card.
However, I think it’s been said before here – benchmarks mean jack when a card won’t run the game you want to play.
I personally have always had issues with games and ATI cards. I loved the All In Wonder RADEON but trying to play Giants, or even any lithtech based game (NOLF 1, Die Hard (yeah, I admit it – it was fun), was just an exercise in futility at the time.
I don’t care about 3dmarks, I want the GD card to run my games. This is why people buy consoles. You can play Unreal Champ on Xbox and not have to pull up the console and decide if mipmapping should be on off or “3”. Or whatever, you know what I mean.
"Nvidia GeForce 4 TI4600 Cards
You may experience display problems when running in Safe Mode on GeForce 4 TI4600 cards. To fix this problem, raise the Image Quality setting in the Display Options dialog box. "
I find that hilarious that the fix for the nvidia issue is to RAISE the image quality. teehee
(ati got my money long ago for a doorstop, never again. fun to watch them try though)
Personally, I think the only beneficial thing about the Radeon 9700 PRO is that it will force Nvidia to make a major leap with their next card rather than the milk-the-market smaller incremental gains they probably had planned for the next couple of cycles.
ATI has never impressed me with support, that’s for sure. I don’t care if it can render every grain of sand on the beach in realtime if I can’t expect timely updates.
