What to get??

[OtterPop Junkie]

What should I do, I have a choice bewteen a Radeon 9700 pro or getting a Radeon 9500 pro and having money left over for other stuff. I would probably spend the extra money on a water cooling stuff :D.

[mOOkie]

I'm gonna say go for the 9700Pro cos I am totally biased... and anyway how much money would you have spare anyway?

[JC Denton]

Well if you buy direct from ATi go 9500 Pro, over 9700 Pro. Why? $200 price difference.

[mOOkie]

You are shitting me? Bloody hell. That's a lot of money dude... ok forget my first answer then.

[AMGpower]

Woa 300 smackers. Thats way more than I thought. :o

[Haysoos]

Radeon 9700 PRO powered by ATI, made by Sapphire, is going for $322 @newegg... i've got my eyes on it, but might go for a 9700 non-PRO if the prices are decent cause its just a change in clock speed, and thats easily solved if it becomes a problem...

[JC Denton]

Ya, the price difference is killer. 9500 Pro is almost on par with the 9700 (non-pro) according to Tom's Hardware. So for the price, the 9500 Pro is the better deal. I plan on getting mine straight from ATi, I so don't trust these third party peeps with my baby.

[Haysoos]

I want the 9700 because its not different from the PRO except clock speeds, so with a little OC i could basically have a 9700 PRO if i wanted... but it still has the memory bandwidth, which im thinking will be important down the road... And im getting Sapphire. I've read a few reviews of there 9700 PRO and not only did they have good things to say about the card, but they also had plenty of good things to say about the company. I've never heard of them until now, but they've always made ATI cards, and have been for awhile, and are good quality.

ADDED - i completely repeated myself at the beginning... <_<

[mOOkie]

Yeah the Sapphire card got 90% in a recent magazine review over here in blighty. They basically said the software package was abit paltry, but the card was excellent. Mine is the Gigabyte Maya2 which is apparently the best one (just pipping the Hercules version) due to the extra large heatsink and ramsinks plus bountiful software... of course I ended up paying way over the odds but it hsa been worth it.

[OtterPop Junkie]

Well I think Im am going to get the 9500 Pro. And as for m00kie I will know how much extra money I have after I get my student refund thing, susposed to have been mailed last Friday. I not really worried bout the big heatsinks and such because I plan on having it watercooled within the next couple of months. Thanxs for all the ideas and info :).