ATI 9600 Pro experience?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jonathan Sachs
  • Start date Start date
J

Jonathan Sachs

I'm going to replace my video adapter soon, and I'm interested in the
ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro. It has everything I need and is available
pretty cheaply, and my experience with my current All-in-Wonder Rage
128 PCI card has been very good. However, I'm somewhat disturbed by
user reviews I have read on CNet and Amazon.com. Several of them
trash the card, and particularly the drivers, blaming them for endless
crashes, glitches, application failures, et cetera.

I'm not sure what to make of this. ATI's general reputation and my
own experience with it have been good. These reviews could be the
work of one or two malicious people trying to tarnish ATI's reputation
for reasons of their own, or they could be legitimate warning signs.

Any comments? Experiences to share? Suggested alternatives?

I'm running Windows XP on a home-built system. I need an AGP card with
a TV tuner, 15-pin output, and a 1920x1200 resolution setting. DVI
output and dual monitor support would be nice, but not essential. The
9600's FM tuner is appealing to me -- I actually listen to radio a lot
more that I watch TV. Reliability and stability are very important.
Performance and 3-D features are not; my old PCI card is fast enough
for me, and I'm replacing it only because I need the 1920x1200
resolution setting.

My email address is LLM041103 at earthlink dot net.
 
Jonathan Sachs said:
I'm going to replace my video adapter soon, and I'm interested in the
ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro. It has everything I need and is available
pretty cheaply, and my experience with my current All-in-Wonder Rage
128 PCI card has been very good. However, I'm somewhat disturbed by
user reviews I have read on CNet and Amazon.com. Several of them
trash the card, and particularly the drivers, blaming them for endless
crashes, glitches, application failures, et cetera.
Click to expand...

ABSOLUTE nvidia bullshite. Been using ATI cards forever, Haven't had any of
those so called problems for years now. I use the AIW to do ALL kinds of
video stuff and play Call of duty - medal of honor - unreal whatever and
have NO- none- nada -zilch, problems at all. NOW that being said the 9600
is getting older and the brand newest games may have to have some details
cut back. But I am not interested in seeing bloody footprints or drool
coming from the mouth of an opponent for an extra 150 $. That would have to
do with DirectX 9+ full compatibility, doesn't prevent you from playing any
game.

I have had quite a few ATI's, from the original AIW 128 rage pro to the
x800, all of them performed beautifully and never had stability problems or
ever RMA'd a single one. I have had 12 of these over the years, not a one
gave me problems. My 7500 AIW is going to my brother today AAMOF, still
works like a charm.
 
The
9600's FM tuner is appealing to me -- I actually listen to
radio a lot
Click to expand...

Be careful, I searched & searched for a 9600 pro quite some time
ago and couldn't find any. Many said said they had 'em, but upon
checking it was revealed that they were not the "Pro" version,
no FM tuner. If you actually find a supply of them, i might
still be interested in getting one, although radio sux here big
time. Anyway, if you find the pro & don't mind sharing post
back. Regarding the rest of your post. Yep, I've definatly had
trouble with ATI AIWs, still have and use 3 of them though. Just
make sure you don't screw up the river installation. I recommend
using the ones that come on the disc for starters. Then the
newer web ones later if your so inclined.
 
If you actually find a supply of them, i might
still be interested in getting one, although radio sux here big
time.
Click to expand...

I'm going to wait to read more posts, but so far I've seen nothing
approaching the negative reviews that worried me, so I'm probably
going to go ahead.

I can't tell where you are from your message, but in the US, eBay is a
good source for anything of this nature. Some of the sellers
currently listing specify Pro (and FM), others do not. I don't mind
sharing eBay; it's hardly a secret anyway, If you outbid me on one
adapter I'll just bid on the next! :-)

My email address is LLM041103 at earthlink dot net.
 
Jonathan said:
I'm going to wait to read more posts, but so far I've seen nothing
approaching the negative reviews that worried me, so I'm probably
going to go ahead.

I can't tell where you are from your message, but in the US, eBay is a
good source for anything of this nature. Some of the sellers
currently listing specify Pro (and FM), others do not. I don't mind
sharing eBay; it's hardly a secret anyway, If you outbid me on one
adapter I'll just bid on the next! :-)

My email address is LLM041103 at earthlink dot net.
Click to expand...

I had some driver glitches with my 9600XT card about a year ago. They
were quite annoying, but nothing that would cause a crash - I think the
reason I had to turn the AGP acceleration down to 4x from 8x was not
driver related, but hardware related. Currently, the driver is
performing just fine, and has been for many months. So, if there was a
problem with some systems, it appears to have been rectified. I remember
a similar problem with nVidia drivers around the time I first bought XP.

Ari


--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
Jonathan Sachs said:
I'm going to replace my video adapter soon, and I'm interested in the
ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro. It has everything I need and is available
pretty cheaply, and my experience with my current All-in-Wonder Rage
128 PCI card has been very good. However, I'm somewhat disturbed by
user reviews I have read on CNet and Amazon.com. Several of them
trash the card, and particularly the drivers, blaming them for endless
crashes, glitches, application failures, et cetera.

I'm not sure what to make of this. ATI's general reputation and my
own experience with it have been good. These reviews could be the
work of one or two malicious people trying to tarnish ATI's reputation
for reasons of their own, or they could be legitimate warning signs.

Any comments? Experiences to share? Suggested alternatives?
Click to expand...
It's an old card. The reviews are based on old drivers. The current
5.xx version drivers have been very good.
 
It's an old card. The reviews are based on old drivers. The current
5.xx version drivers have been very good.
Click to expand...

Although I (and a number of people I know) have reverted back to the
Catalyst 4.12 bundle which we find to be 100% stable, the reason for
this is that we have encountered problems on a few games (e.g. 'Far
Cry') with the newer drivers.

Since you aren't interested in games this obviously won't be of
concern to you though. I used the 5.13 drivers for a while and also
briefly a few others (5.12, 5.10, 5.8 and 5.6) and the only problems I
encountered were with a couple of games.

Try the latest drivers in the knowledge that if you encounter any
problems you can always revert back to the 4.12 bundle.

My only word of caution is that some people have reported that the
card runs hotter with the most recent drivers. I have no idea whether
or not this is the case.
 
My only word of caution is that some people have reported that the
card runs hotter with the most recent drivers. I have no idea whether
or not this is the case.
Click to expand...

That sounds very odd, but I'll keep it in mind.

My email address is LLM041103 at earthlink dot net.
 
I am using an ATI 9550 in my A8V and no problems. I have also used the
rotate feature, etc. but never any problems.

-g
 
geoff said:
I am using an ATI 9550 in my A8V and no problems. I have also used the
rotate feature, etc. but never any problems.

-g
Click to expand...
The fm part is lacking. Its best for me to just have a radio for music.

2 9600 ati cards and 1 9600 aiw

xman
 
Jonathan said:
Any comments? Experiences to share? Suggested alternatives?
Click to expand...

had a 9600XT almost when it came out and ive encountered the very same
problems which many ppl report for the 9600pro as well.

the problem is (in almost all cases) incompatibility with some VIA mobo
chipsets.

anyway. i managed to get it running without hangups on my old MSI VIA
board by setting AGP speed on 4x and fastwrite to off.

it took 2-3 months for ATI to fix that and one day i tried a newer
driver and since then i can run the card with full speed and no flaws.

only on every driver install the first reboot end in a hangup (which is
documented in ATI faq - its no fault at all...), then reboot again and
everything works fine again.

the 9600XT is a great card and i think the 9600pro too.

the only problem with it is, that its getting older...
 
had a 9600XT almost when it came out and ive encountered the very same
problems which many ppl report for the 9600pro as well.

the problem is (in almost all cases) incompatibility with some VIA mobo
chipsets.

anyway. i managed to get it running without hangups on my old MSI VIA
board by setting AGP speed on 4x and fastwrite to off.

it took 2-3 months for ATI to fix that and one day i tried a newer
driver and since then i can run the card with full speed and no flaws.
Click to expand...

Using 2 9600 ati cards on dfi nf3 754 amd mbs.

Works okay for me..

xman
 
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