[Bane]

It sounds like your mind is made up already but here's my two cents anyway:

I had a PNY Vertego GF4 Ti4600 that worked flawlessly with Windows 98SE and MOHAA. After upgrading my OS to XP Home the card ceased to work. Old drivers, new drivers, beta drivers...didn't matter. I fiddled with it for three days and nothing worked.

Fed up, I bought the ATI R9700 Pro. It worked perfectly straight out of the box. I haven't had a single problem with it. I was surprised to learn it needed it's own connection to the power supply and the recommended minimum was 350W. My power supply is a 350W and it works great.

The ATI gave me a better MadOnion score by around 1,500 marks and jumped up my fps a little, too. I was playing MOHAA graphically maxed-out with the Ti4600 and still do with the R9700 so it didn't really help there.

If you plan to use the card for things other than straight gaming (TV out and such) I'd check the software they come with to be sure it will meet your needs. I've heard around the grapevine that ATI lacks in this department but I wouldn't know personally as I don't use the other functions.

Good luck and welcome to 128MB!

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