[Rizzo]

I am thinking of replacing me Geforce 2gts PRO with the ATI 7500. Any reason to get a higher numbered ATI for my situation, If so what is the most prefered. I have tried to search and appaers that once you get to the 7500 not a lot of difference in performance for the money when used for HTPC, Unless I really over looked something or missed some information some where. Thanks Rizzo....

 

[Rizzo]

One more bump then I'll just take my chances and order the 7500, Thanks to any that read the post.......

 

[cdrakejr]

You might want to consider waiting for the AIW 9000 Pro which ATI just announced will now be available in the U.S. (has been out in Europe for awhile already).

The list price is $199, don't know what the "street price" will be though since I haven't found it listed on any sites yet.

There are some notable improvements which I think would be worth a short wait for anyone buying their first AIW.

I have the 7500 and have no real complaints. But, since it will soon become a "legacy" card with the release of the 9000 I wouldn't recommend buying one unless you really want to save some money. Those of us with the 7500 who wanted to upgrade to the new features in the just released MultiMedia Center 8.1 could not download it but had to pay $20 to have the CD shipped.



Here are a few links that will give you more details:

http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=505
http://mirror.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2003/4629.html
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/aiw9000pro/index.html


The problem with most of the review sites is that they focus heavily on the gaming aspects of a card when many of us would like more on the video side. The only review I found is the one from Hexus, a British site.


Surprised you didn't get more input.


Good luck!


Edit: To answer your original question, unless you are into serious gaming there really isn't any reason to go to the high end AIW's.

 

[Rizzo]

Thanks for the reply. I think I will go for a 7500 then to get my feet wet with this stuff. I am also going to by the desktop case from dig connection, and good sound card probaly revolution so to save money on video card and still get excellent performance sounds good now. Besides I can always move the Video card to my old overclocked duron 600 and get rid of its old TNT2 .......Thanks again can't wait to order this stuff....

 

[e vey]

--Edit: To answer your original question, unless you are into serious gaming there really isn't any reason to go to the high end AIW's. --


Whew. Redeemed yourself, there. The AIW nutz around here make me nutz.

 

[puckalicious]

So am i correct in assuming thie 9000AIW comes in AGP only? I too am looking to upgrade my HTPC video but I need PCI connection. The 7500AIW comes in PCI right?

 

[gnollo]

Just for your information, some users have reported that the best picture quality is obtained by 9700 or 9500 + VMR9. I use overlay + 7500 at the moment, but will upgrade in the future.

9500 for video

9700 for video and gaming

 

[kauffmbe]

I think you sjould go with the 7500. The additional DX9 extensions that can be done in hardware by the 9500+ cards currently have NO software that uses them, be it games or VMR9. Let me reiterate, there are currently no DX9 hardware specific routines in the VMR9. Supposedly, there will be support for hardware deinterlacing and color adjustment (much like the current overlay color controls) with VMR9 and DX9 hardware, but this hasn't been even close to supported by drivers yet. Considering that game development is usually ahead of the video stuff (see interlaced overlays and the ATI component dongle for painful examples of this) due to customer demand and that DX8 games are just starting to make it to market now, I don't feel it is worth it to get the 9500 cards for just video when a 7500 can be had so cheaply. Also, the 9000 is not a dx9 compatable piece of hardware so you would gain nothing over the 7500. In regard to updates and support, the 7500 cards still get all the regular driver updates and MMC updates. The MMC 8.1 update is a free download. What they were charging 20 bucks for was the new DVD filters, since they changed companies and needed to recoup the new licensing fees that they have to pay for each downloaded copy of the filters. This is irrevelent to me, as I never used the ATI filters anyway, preferring to use the stand alone Sonic or Intervideo decoders anyway.