ATI's Revolutionary Radeon 9700 Pro

A history on ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro. Check out more #GPUJune videos here:
• Official #GPUJune Play...
Link to the EETimes article that was immensely helpful during the history portion of this video: www.eetimes.com/the-startup-t...
0:00 PixelPipes Store Promo
0:19 Intro
3:45 History
11:42 About the card
15:04 Its legacy
18:22 Outtro
Platform specs:
Pentium E5800 @ 3.75GHz
2GB OCZ Platinum Ed. PC3200 @ 400MHz
ASRock 775i65G (Intel 865G)
128GB SATA SSD
Windows XP Professional SP3
Drivers:
-Radeon 9700 Pro: Catalyst 10.2 (Legacy)
-Radeon 8500: Catalyst 5.5
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Intro Animation By Ken Gruca Jr - Inquire at [e-mail]

[@philscomputerlab]

Fantastic video! The 9700 Pro is one of my favourite graphics cards and it was such an exciting time compared to what we get these days...

[@C4nn15]

Think about it, back in the day we would get great sound cards, great graphics cards and the leaps and bounds were actual leaps and bounds. Now it's like well you can play this game at 4k at 120FPS vs 60FPS.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@C4nn15 You know when even decade + old computers with 8GB DDRII, an OC AMD Athlon II X4, a cheap SSD, and with a lowend GPU like an AMD R7 240 2GB can still run many modern titles at 720p - 1080p low settings getting 60fps, or close too it running a lightweight Linux Distro like Manjaro Mate then we have hit a peak of sorts in terms of tech IMHO! I truly don't get the excitement these days that I did back in the 80's - mid 00's seeing each leap forward in tech.

[@miu-kb2ue]

That was an exciting year indeed

[@AliceC993]

@@CommodoreFan64 My current system is from 2012 with only a GPU upgrade to a 1050 Ti, and I can _still_ play most games at decent settings, at 1080p. Granted, it's definitely time for an upgrade, but considering I've gotten _9 years_ out of this platform, it's certainly much different from how things used to be. I recently acquired a Pentium II-based IBM Aptiva, and a system like that would have been hopelessly obsolete by the time this card (Radeon 9700 Pro) would debut, despite its very high performance just five years prior.

[@dyslectische]

No the 9500 pro with a bios of 9700pro. That is the card . I had one with a aftermarket cooling like a blower. Thing overtune like shit.

[@littlestarbright]

As his wife I can verify that he did, in fact, bring the card on our vacation lol. It's so good to see all your hard work completed in such a fantastic way. This is your best video yet. 💙

[@CuttingEdgeRetro]

Just seeing Mr Rodney Reynolds back in a video again takes me back. Very nice and in-depth video look at the good'ol 9700 pro

[@revnto7k]

I had both a 9700 and a 9800 Pro they were fantastic graphics cards and ones I won't soon forget. I miss those times.

[@NightMotorcyclist]

I made the jump from a GeForce Ti4200 Golden Sample from Gainward to an ATi Radeon 9700 Pro when I built a brand new system based around the nForce 2 Ultra kitted with an Athlon XP 2500+ and 512MB of DDR1 Corsair CMX Platinum which allowed me to OC the CPU to 3200+ levels at a much lower price. The jump was incredible and I was playing all my current games at higher res on my 19" Trinitron monitor. I remember working for 3 months to save up the cash (fast food and being a teen meant minimum wage) after hearing the news of the pending release and bought the card a few weeks after release.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Oh man! The legendary 9700 pro, the card that sparked my collection addiction after I found it in a box 2 years ago. I enjoyed every minute of the video. Just Excellent in all regards 👍

[@classic_jam]

This card was also one of the first cards I added to my collection a few years ago. I technically had stuff before then but I didn't consider it a collection until then.

[@mapley2167]

My day was genuinely made brighter when I saw this pop up after a long day. Thanks!

[@SUCRA]

This video was legendary. A perfect tribute to an awesome piece of hardware. I couldn't be happier to support this channel considering the kind and form of content it brings. On another note, this video will be a great reference for my own next week. If the big brother and the little brother out to battle next week had a middle sister, it would be the Radeon 9700 pro. Thanks for your work!

[@kuolastech]

Good to see Radeon 9700 Pro taking vacations and enjoying retirement.

[@necro_ware]

Very nice video! I remember, that I desperately wanted to get a 9700 Pro, but as a student, I just didn't have the money to buy it. But there was a solution! With some luck you could modify a 9500. Shorting two contacts with a drop of electric varnish you could enable all 8 pipelines and with some overclocking get it on the level of the 9700 Pro. This was what I did eventually and I had luck. I added a better cooler and even overclocked the card over the usual 9700 Pro frequencies. I used the card for a quite long time and still think, that it was one of the biggest steps in real time 3d graphics technology. Thanks for the memories!

[@jigpu2630]

Same fond memories of unlocking and overclocking the snot out of my 9500. While my memory clocks were never terribly impressive my core went to the moon!

[@Druze_Tito]

thank God someone mentioned this. Good old days! P.S. - I never had the money to afford myself those Radeon cards. But I knew about all of them and all their capabilities and possibilities. Wonderful memories.

[@repatch43]

Was part of the verification team at ATI in Markham for the R300 (Khan). It was a BEAST, it stretched all our tools and processes trying to fit, but we got it done. Still remember some of the issues that were discovered. This video brought back alot of memories, thanks!

[@andrewpomianowski5190]

This was a remarkable product to be a part of working on - I spent many hours developing pre-silicon verification tests, and then later on driver optimizations, including for Doom, as well as the adaptive anti-aliasing technology. I felt incredibly fortunate to get the chance to work on it.

[@PixelPipes]

You helped create something truly influential!

[@connarcomstock161]

"What would surprise everyone is the longevity" ATI FineWine *TM* technology

[@JanMachovec]

I get sentimental with this, what a greatly put video. The fact that you can still use this card on Windows 11 is just nuts. The official Vista 64bit drivers works when you install them through Device manager just fine. The die shrink (RV370) of this on PCIe (X600) runs even on my modern AM5 PC with CSM enabled, connected to my LG 4K OLED TV through DVItoHDMI adapter. Yes, it DOES RUN CRYSIS. Revolutionary chip indeed. It's such a nostalgic feeling to have this working on my main PC, playing the classic games I had on my first PC that I got on my 10th birthday.

[@colinsmith6340]

I remember the day i got my 9700 pro... the speed of that thing absolutely blew me away.

[@hardwarechronicles9178]

Yes the 9700 was truly a milestone in gpu history i remember reading magazines about it i was so baffled by its specs back then

[@gen_angry]

I was fresh out of high school when this came out, this was the card I always wanted but could never afford back then. I believe every computer nerd has that one piece of hardware they always wanted to get but couldn't afford at the time. Mine was the 9700 Pro. Nearly 20 years later, I finally put a 9800 pro in a 2003-2004 era P4 rig. Thing shreds...

[@406Steven]

I was just entering high school at this point and remember how the 9500 Pro was the overclocking champion, the 9700 NP (non-Pro) could be modded/overclocked to insane levels, and the 9800 Pro couldn't be beaten by NV even once they finally showed up to the party. I wish I hadn't thrown out the cards I had back then ("those slow old things haven't been relevant in years, why do I hoard this junk" mentality) but I have rebuilt my collection with a 9500 Pro, 9800 Pro, as well as X1950 XT and FX 5950 Ultra (always wanted one but they were too expensive). Fortunately I still have the same computer as I did then. I keep my 5600 Ultra in there to keep the power supply load easy (this is when PSUs had a max output of about what my 3080 pulls) with the same 60 GB WD hard drive though I have maxed the board out at 1 GB of RAM (up from 128MB) and it has Windows 7 because back then it was amazing how it could run on "only" 1GB of RAM. Back before Roku sticks this was my streaming machine once its duties as gaming machine were retired.

[@RETROHardware]

I like this video style, you are best teacher, good work!

[@Elios0000]

Voodoo5 5500 required external power in 2000 in fact it need more then the 9700 and used a full Molex connector

[@PixelPipes]

You are right and I got this wrong.

[@zippityzop]

I wish AMD hadn't retired the ATI brand. I miss that red logo.

[@BrassicGamer]

To be fair to AMD, they hung onto it for another 4 years after the takeover. But yeah, I was sad when it just became AMD.

[@mraaron1584]

the Canadian ati office is still located in Markham ON of course with AMD signs now a days but at least the original Headquarters is still around

[@zookajoetech]

This is a great video! I personally have it's slightly-stronger sibling the 9800 Pro, and it was absolutely wild to play with a card that put NVIDIA *below* ATI, something that now-a-days is just a pipedream! I need to rebuild my Socket 754 machine and get that card back up and running ASAP.

[@Justin-do7ll]

Excellent video. And I love that I got to see Rodney Reynolds recommend another Kickass product just a few minutes in. That earns a sub. Thanks dude.

[@bivitabrata3188]

Back in my old days, I started with Riva TNT2 64, and then moving up to GeForce MX 440, and finally made a huge jump to this 9700 Pro.

[@MadMac5]

I loved this video, and I loved my 9700 Pro when I bought it used in 2004. I do find it amusing that the interview clip with John Carmack had him talk about how fast the R300 could render real-time shadows, though. When Doom 3 was first released, the cards in the R300 family were under-performing until a programmer in the community realized that the driver calls for computing shadows were remarkably inefficient. He wrote a patch that replaced those instructions with more simple equivalent math, and performance increased by a VERY noticeable amount! It was so good that ATI integrated it into their next Catalyst driver revision, and it was mostly forgotten after that. I still have the file, even though it's not needed anymore unless one is using Catalyst drivers from before 4.9 or so.

[@128bz]

The cinematography in this episode is simply amazing , wonderful video! Also I learned the 9700 Pro Released on my birthday .

[@bigdeagle1331]

This card was so special to me! The 9800 pro ati was the first high end card I ever bought!

[@jamescarter8311]

My first ATI card! Coming from the 3Dfx Voodoo 3, I could not fathom going Nvidia. My 9700 Pro has it's own place on my shelf next to my Voodoo cards.

[@TechAmbr]

So this video's the reason all the 9700s are expensive right now! XD Great video, Nathan! I, too, could only ever dream of owning one of these beasts back in the day.

[@classic_jam]

More to do with failure rate and the other videos over the last 3-4 years. Mine died the day after watching this video :\

[@TechAmbr]

@@classic_jam Oh no! : (

[@birdsoup777]

I had the Geforce2 Ti when Battlefield 1942 came out. I got low fps and stuttering no matter how low the settings. Upgraded to the 9700 pro and wow. BF142 on med to high settings, zero fps drops or stuttering. 9700 pro is 1 of the best gpu's I owned.

[@Yellowswift3]

Excellent video, thoroughly enjoyed watching this! :)

[@blastfromthepast3073]

Back in the days i couldn´t afford the Radeon 9700 so i waited for Radeon 9500. I bought a Gigabyte Maya II and it was quite good. The Omega Driver set the 9500 on Fire... it was awesome.

[@Choralone422]

Back in those days I had a 9500 Pro which was the 9700 Pro's slower but still quite capable brother. It was amazing to see what that card could do, especially compared to the Radeon 8500 & Radeon DDR cards I had owned before the 9500 Pro. I was crushed when my PC was damaged as part of my divorce in late 2005. I was able to salvage the rest of the machine but sadly the 9500 Pro never worked again.

[@wavez177]

Loved UT2003 with my Northwood P4 2500MHZ@2800MZH, 256MB and the 9700pro. I think I payed about 480 Euros back in 2002. Golden Times...

[@papalazarou7880]

I had the GeForce 4 Ti4200 when the 9700 Pro was out. I got the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb the year after. Monster!

[@leotide1990]

Hot damn, this is a fantastically produced video

[@aemerox5773]

I ended up buying one on Ebay... you guys were telling the truth!

[@foxxy46213]

Never had a 9000s card but always looked at them with awe...these were the best days.. unlocking driver features with tools an if you was lucky enabling extra shader pipes like was it on the 9600 to 9700pros an the 6600 from Nvidia had versions that could be turned into 6800s... I looked at my locked shaders in my 6600gt in riva tuner an wishing I could unlock them...tho my 6600gt was as quick as a stock 6800 in most stuff due to the insane clocks it had...but still those extra 8 shaders an 4 vertex shaders would of been a treat...an the fact they was physically on my chip made me cry

[@SlaV0]

These were such a great times for computer technology to evolve. In fact then we could really see revolution with almost every generation of hardware. Something like this can not happen today. Pity. My colleague had 9800Pro and it was a BLAST on our whole neighbourhood. Nothing could compete with that monster at that time.

[@vinhphan946]

That GPU has done more travelling that I have during this Covid pandemic

[@Darkknight512]

This is a kickass product! Man it has been years since I've seen 3DGameMan.

[@TheBig451]

I was thinking that too! Gooood times man.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Same, and I hope he's doing well, he is a true OG in the video review space.

[@matthiasvanohlen2239]

That Intro! Memories :)

[@nokken9]

I had the Radeon 9700 TX, a special version of the 9700 that was Dell OEM. That card was so awesome for it’s time.

[@detmer87]

This was such a huge step in performance!

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

Radeon 9800 XT is when things got really good. Also something really cool, ArtX designed the GPU on the Gamecube and since ATI bought them once the design was done the Gamecube GPU is 100 percent ArtX design. The Gamecube TEV was all them. Amazing.

[@DanielLopez-up6os]

A historic Card, that shall always Stay in out Memory!

[@realbadtech9318]

The first PC upgrade I convinced my dad of was a Radeon 9600 SE - I had heard about the legendary 9700 Pro but was too young to know what a 64-bit memory bus meant and how cut down that card was compared to its bigger brother. Later I referred to the card as the 9600 Sucky Edition lol. Funny now looking back at that with the recent 6500XT 64-bit bus controversy!

[@merlin704]

I remember going from my GF4 Ti4600 to the 9700 Pro when it launched and being in awe at how much faster it was. Even more so as the drivers developed.

[@TheBig451]

I don't think I've ever clicked a video so fast!

[@rodhester2166]

I still run a ati aiw 9800 pro.. Love the card and all its features.. tuner still works with a digital to analog converter and a tv antenna .. used to to convert vcr tapes to dvd.. saved family videos.. play games.. ect. ect..

[@gen_angry]

Likewise, although I think the composite in has went on mine. The image is completely messed like those macrovision copy protection all the time. The rest of the card seems to work fine though, strange.

[@rodhester2166]

@@gen_angry that stinks.. It is heart breaking when they finally give out..

[@wilburt6131]

Aww man! Brings back fond memories! Water cooled Athlon xp 2500+ and volt modded 9700 pro on GPU and memory. I remember ripping off the voltage regulator on the back with the heat spreader in it 😢wanting to put a proper heatsink on it! I got a nice O.C from it until one day I come back to the pc in two colour mode, just black n white. CPU waterblock leaked onto my beloved Radeon!

[@evilqtip7098]

I had the ATI X9800Pro 256megs of ram with Quad pump DDR3. That card was outstanding.

[@nothingelse1520]

I went to CompUSA(remember them?) and they didn't have any 9700 Pros in stock, so I headed over to Best Buy and they had ONE left. I brought it home to replace my 8500 and was blown away by the speed. It was so fast that it was CPU limited. When I replaced my CPU the next year my minimum FPS went up a ton. Eventually replaced it with a 6800 GT which was faster but not nearly as cool.

[@dignes3446]

When Doom 3 alpha leaked (late 2002), the average graphics cards at the time could only run it as a slideshow at low-medium settings... this card could run it just fine at high quality.

[@Ares14]

Had a 9600xt from 2003 to 2006 and have nothing but good things to say about the card. Even when it was chugging out low frames at its end when i eventually upgraded to an x1650 pro... Love the old tech.

[@ibazulic]

I had a Radeon 9500 in my computer. Sadly, it couldn't be modded into 9500 Pro but it was still an amazing card.

[@davidbolha]

I had/have a 9500 Pro & remember unlocking it with Kip Hardina's Warp11 BIOS... 🤔😊😄

[@ibazulic]

@David Bolha i tried to unlock mine with modified ATI drivers. While it did work and I was able to get extra pipelines working, there were artifacts on screen. For instance, I'd have a mesh of equally spqced rectangles on the screen along with visible video distortion.

[@Tre_Selor]

Nice, I had the good fortune to live through this time as a PC enthusiast. I didn't get the 9700 Pro, instead I went for the 9700 and flashed the bios and turned it into a PRO

[@Hazardteam]

03:15 I just found exactly that heatsink some days ago in a box somehow. I loved that era when these cards came out.

[@bigdeagle1331]

I had the 9800 pro! To this day! My all time favorite card! Special card for a special time! Far cry!

[@frankhu130]

9700Pro - showed up in my dreams countless times back in the highschool days ;)

[@szneka12]

LOVE the format of this video!!

[@RetroAmateur1989]

ATi: your confidence is your weakness Nvidia: And the faith in your cards is yours And with directX 10 Ati went from original trilogy to Disney trilogy.

[@angrygamer69]

Great video, was a blast to watch at work instead of working!

[@Baulder13]

Thanks again Nathan for another awesome video!

[@shanekelley3064]

Oh yeah.. the 9700pro was the single most extended use video card I ever had. Used it for many years. I still have it in the box on the shelf too. Loved Pipe Dream! I still have that installed on my current computers. It even runs, and looks amazing 🤩, with my Nvidia 3d vision monitor and glasses setup.

[@tomgjonaj9965]

Awesome video, miss this Era of tech!

[@classicvga2797]

very nice intro and video! I remember that pipes ATI demo, I played it countless times :) Good work!

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Terrific video all through. The passion for the topic is a given but the composition and editing is simply top tier. Well done and a great watch!

[@KingRat543]

A bit late to the party, but this vid had me looking over my small gpu collection...I pulled the 9700 out and admired the job I did putting heatsinks on everything, and the artic-cooling silencer that replaced the original hsf....also took a look at the x800 pro I'd flashed to XT (successfully btw), and that one has a big copper Zalman hsf on it....thanks for the memories.

[@uk4890]

That videocard was perfect in that era the first DX9!! Great video thanks!!

[@Lee2k4]

Beast of a card back in 2000 I remember always trying to beat 3dmark scores on it over clocking it

[@pur-8145]

Bonus points for Pipe Dream intro

[@AetiusPraetorian]

I had a 9500pro I got from a friend for free. I benched that against an Nvidia FX5900xt and while the 5900 won, it was not by much. I even had fun and installed the bios from a 9700 in that 9500pro just for the heck of it. When it ran it displayed 9700, fun times back then.

[@BBoyProspect]

Amazing video man! This card was easily one of my favorites. I remember using thermal adhesive on pennies and stacking them on the memory chips to use as heatsinks 😁

[@cybercat1531]

The audio on this, something changed. It's got a different vibrant ambiance. Also a very well done video !!

[@StonedSolid]

Always a fan of your videos and this one, in my opinion. is your best yet. True documentary level quality. Great work man.

[@PixelPipes]

High compliment! Thank you!

[@foch3]

This is my favorite GPU of all time. It's such a compact powerhouse. Oh dude you freaking nailed it again. I paused the video to type something about ArtX and you are already all over the scene. A+++

[@Brukner841]

Stellar narration man!

[@PixelPipes]

Thank you!

[@PatricksRetro]

That was really an awesome video! I was a Nvidia user at that time because the Radeon cards were a pain to work with under Linux, so hearing all those details now is super interesting. Thanks so much!

[@thecontentfactory8957]

Wow what a great video!

[@NOXXism]

Damn you really blew it out of the water with this one! I'm not one to usually comment or particularly care about production but this video was very very well made, arguably the best one on the channel so far. So nostalgic to see 3DGameMan, I remembered him always being peeved about cases not having removable motherboard trays hahaha and the classic Kickass product ratings! Wonder what the hell happened to him, everything about him disappeared including his websites etc

[@Carstuff111]

I remember going from a heavily modified and overclocked Nvidia GeForce 4 4400, to a heavily modified and overclocked Sapphire ATi Radeon 9800 Pro when my roommate upgraded to a Sapphire ATi Radeon X850 Pro (that he pretty much instantly modified and overclocked) and was blown away at how huge the difference was not only in performance, but over all picture and rendering quality. ATi was absolutely killing it, and even as Nvidia started catching back up and eeking back their performance lead, their picture and render quality still lagged behind side by side. This being the era of the CRT still, ATi was better at both its 3d rendering and all of the digital side, while providing superior clarity, color reproduction and overall analog performance as well. This to me, was the most fun time in the computer industry as a whole.

[@bigalexg]

I'm late to this party but well done sir! The choice of the animusic demo was brilliant. I loved that thing back in the day. I could not afford the 9700 pro or the 9700 but I did buy the 9500 and hard modded to 9700 status (unlocked 4 extra pipes!) and played all these demos you were running to check it out. I was ecstatic with the frames I was getting from an inexpensive 9500. That mod is worth a video too. Eventually drivers came out that soft modded it. The Omega drivers. I had forgotten this whole era in the long history of my PC hobby and that is just sad! This video brought that all back so accurately and lovingly. Somehow I missed GPU June when it ran but I'll check out the playlist. Liked and subbed!

[@CPUGalaxy]

Amazing video. The best video card review i have ever seen so far. Lot of information from the technical and historical point of view. Lots of feelings and great camera shots. Thanks for 20 great minutes of this day. 👍🏻👍🏻

[@PixelPipes]

Thank you very much!

[@PatientXero607]

The performance benefit of the 9700 Pro was massive in comparison to the 8500LE that I had before it. My 9700 Pro was the AIW version. I had to get the AIW as the regular 9700 Pro was not in stock at the time. Computer stores in my area couldn't keep them in stock due to their popularity. They were also creaming FX series GPU's from nVidia. It was only when the 6800 GT came out that I replaced my 9700 Pro AIW with it, when VRAM was now becoming a focal point of future gaming.

[@BadManiac]

So happy I have one of these in my collection, with the shim removed so it'll hopefully last.

[@PixelPipes]

Shim removal is a must, for sure

[@BrassicGamer]

That's a lot of research! Well, I learned a lot in this video, because the 8500 was the last graphics card I bought brand new. Since then I've been quite a few generations behind, so I completely missed the significance of the 9700 at the time.

[@winj3r]

I had one of these and itr was a beast of a card.

[@NikiDaDude]

Oh man I recognize the music, that was a great tech demo.

[@mindphaserxy]

I didn't have a 9700 Pro but I did have a 9550 and it was amazing. It's price to performance ratio was superior.

[@Meatpipeify]

Had a 9600 Pro back in the day. That was a beast of a card for the price.

[@cszolee7979]

Oooh, I had one of these, bought to play Far Cry. It had a giant Zalman passive heatsink on it. It cooked itself. I replaced it to a 8800GTS to play Crysis, and it cooked itself. After some years with midrange stuff, I got a GTX 970 to play DOOM 2016. Put giant superadvanced Arctic cooling on it so it does not cook. ... it cooked itself.

[@CashewBestofNuts]

One of these was my first upgrade to a compact Presario tower I had so I could play HL2 and CS:Source effectively in 2006

[@randomsam83]

Modding a 9500 Non-Pro to a 9700 Pro is the biggest achievement in my life.

[@Digi20]

I also have very fond memorys of the card. In fact, it is the only ATI/AMD Card i have ever used (as in my top tier system) in all of my years of PC (Gaming), apart from the Rage 2+ in my first PC. Coming from a originally-not-so-shabby Geforce 2 Ultra, i was amazed by its DX9 graphics and, thanks to its wide design, the ease it seemed to have running all titles at high resolutions with anisotropic filtering and even FSAA. i dont know how many hours i clocked in elder scrolls III morrowind with it, must have been easily four-digit... like you, later i moved on to a 6800 GT to feed that sparkling new 1680*1050pixel TFT on my desk, but even than it still didnt felt like a completely outdated card and was still able to run new titles (with a bit more modest quality settings) until the DX10 age came around.

[@classic_jam]

Another legendary video about a legendary card. Now it's time to cover the true champion of this generation, the Radeon 9250!

[@PixelPipes]

I didn't have time to make a three hour long video.

[@JamesSmith-sw3nk]

I had a 9500 that I soft modded to a 9700, close enough? 😁

[@raresmacovei8382]

The 2002 era 9700 Pro could play games "3 years after it launched". Meanwhile most people: were playing Crysis, Timeshift, Half-Life 2 EP2, STALKER, CoD4, Gears of War, Portal, Jade Empire, Halo 2, Resident Evil 4, in 2007 and 2008, The longevity of 9700 Pro was only recently eclipsed by the RX 470/480/570/580, GTX 1060 and GTX 980 Ti.

[@PixelPipes]

Yep nowadays it's expected

[@valadi7698]

I loved my 9700 pro. A Hercules 3D Prophet. With a blue PCB. When the cruddy little fan by Hercules died after a few months I bolted an Arctic Cooling Silencer onto it. It still works as well, which is getting quite rare for AGP cards from that era. Though I'm not quite sure if it's more revolutionary then for example a Voodoo, Riva TNT, Geforce256, or later the Geforce 8 / Radeon 2000. Especially the latter were a big revolution, with the introduction of true parallelisation with unified shaders and such.

[@d00s0n]

Ahh... the times of top end gpus at $400 to $500 mid $200 to $250 and low end $100 to $150

[@djpirtu2]

My first really expensive display card that I bought in 2003 was Radeon 9700 non-Pro. It cost 300€ if I remember right. Flashed it immediately to Pro -model and later overclocked beyond that with Vmods and Zalman VF700 copper-cooler. I still have that exact same card, amog with 9800Pro and 9800XT that I got later.