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[koam]

Hi, I don't play games too often but I'd like to get a new videocard for some that I missed out on. I saw that Futureshop is selling the ATI AIW 9800 PRO for $200 canadian (I wouldn't mind having TV-in). I'm just wondering how this card compares to newer cards and more importantly, is it worth the money?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Crazymoogle]

9800 pro = good previous gen card, and you get the AIW functionality if that floats your boat. I think the 6600GT probably has it beat across the board, but if your CPU isn't so hot the 9800p might make just as much sense in the short term.

Honestly though I'd check anandtech.com - the price guides (guide tab, obviously) are in US dollars but they also have a 6600GT vs. 9800pro review somewhere on the site too.

 

[Pimpbaa]

I used to get vid cards with tv in, but I found it's better to just get a seperate card to do that (like a tv wonder pro or something). Then you ain't limited to what video cards you can get.

 

[koam]

9800 pro = good previous gen card, and you get the AIW functionality if that floats your boat. I think the 6600GT probably has it beat across the board, but if your CPU isn't so hot the 9800p might make just as much sense in the short term.

Honestly though I'd check anandtech.com - the price guides (guide tab, obviously) are in US dollars but they also have a 6600GT vs. 9800pro review somewhere on the site too.

What time frame did "previous generation" cover?

P.S My PC is a Athlon 1.4Ghz, 512 DDR (going to up that to a gig soon).

 

[Crazymoogle]

What time frame did "previous generation" cover?

P.S My PC is a Athlon 1.4Ghz, 512 DDR (going to up that to a gig soon).

Definitely get the 9800 instead of something a bit beefier then. 1.4GHz is in the slow, near laptop category now. Most of the boost that the 6600GT could give you could very well be wasted by the lack of CPU horsepower.

I'd consider previous gen now to be the AthlonXP 2200-2500 category, with the current stuff being the 3200-4000 or X2 lines.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

9800 pro sucks IMO, it is the single most overrated piece of technology I have ever bought. I was under the impression that this card could easily handle Half Life 2, Doom 3 and other games but the fact is that it can't.

If your PC has other faster components like 1GB RAM, a fast processor, AGP 8X etc then go for it.

btw I am talking about the ATI 9800 Pro manufactured by ATI themselves: not the one made sapphire or other manufactures, futureshop doesn't have those.

 

[gohepcat]

9800 pro sucks IMO, it is the single most overrated piece of technology I have ever bought. I was under the impression that this card could easily handle Half Life 2, Doom 3 and other games but the fact is that it can't.

Huh? It absolutely can. The 9800 can handle all those games at a +40 frame rate with almost all effects turned on.

btw I am talking about the ATI 9800 Pro manufactured by ATI themselves: not the one made sapphire or other manufactures, futureshop doesn't have those

The 9800pro made by anyone is exactly the same as the ATI one.

My I ask what were the specs of the computer you put this card into?

 

[Doom_Bringer]

The 9800pro made by anyone is exactly the same as the ATI one.

No it isn't! They all have different clock speeds etc and some of them can be over clocked and modified while others can't be. It is extremely important to buy the card from a certain manufacture if you want the best version of the card.

My I ask what were the specs of the computer you put this card into?

I bought the card when it was getting all the hype from Valve and other developers, "blah blah blah, 9800 pro can easily handle HL2 at high settings..'' and other bull shit.

2.4GHz P4
512 DDR Ram
Creative Soundmax Audigy 2 ZS
80gig Seagate HDD
350 + PSU < I upgraded my PSU after listening to some dumb fuckers at Rage3d who said I might be getting low performance because my older PSU was around at least 250Watts and the recommended was a 300/350 one.

This card is a bunch of bullshit! It can't run bf2, bf Vietnam and I had a lot of slow downs in HL2. I am just happy that it runs BF1942 perfectly and is a lot better than my older Nvidia GEFORCE 4 MX card.

 

[Crazymoogle]

My old setup: Athlon 2400XP, Radeon 9800 (not even the pro mind you), 1GB RAM

Half Life 2 ran great, Doom 3 ran great and chunky depending on the level. It was a mid level setup for it's time and the 9800 did a great job. DB is right about other OEMs changing card clocks, but your best bet really is the built-by-ATi brand, which also gives you a better warranty and some future upgrade possibilities without falling into the possible bad RAM or bad driver possibilities of other brands (ie: Sapphire).

I think it's a great solution for a lower end PC now since it has the pipelines and the DX shader support needed to actually get stuff done, and the AIW features are pretty cool to try out if you haven't had that kind of functionality before. (Pimpbaa is right about standalone cards being a better solution for that, but this is not an easily ignorable discount). Considering the CPU, it's about as far as I would venture in terms of power yet should be good enough for a steady 800x600 experience with many games and at least compatible with the rest if not doing so hot on performance.

Of course, everything else seems a bit slower since I upgraded to my new setup.

 

[Uncle Dukey]

Best deal you can possibly get right now is this assuming ATI comes through.. There's a coupon code, "1010" as well.

 

[koam]

What came after the 9800? I know it was the x series but what is the numbering system for that series.

Also, what's decent in the GeForce series? What would be the 9800 or better equivalent in that series?

The final question, I'm assuming geforce is a bit better in performance nowadays, is this correct?

 

[Crazymoogle]

Dukey: That's american dollars though. Likely a good deal for AGP users, as you say, although on the PCIe side I'd probably say the X800XL.

What came after the 9800? I know it was the x series but what is the numbering system for that series.

After the 9800 was the X series. The 9800pro and X700 are basically the same card performance wise, but with the AGP/PCIe difference. X300 and X600 are low end, while the X800 XT/XL variety is the high end.

Nvidia's line is the 6x00 series - the 6600GT (note the GT) being better than the 9800pro but competing in the same market segment, while the 6800GT competes against the X800 line (and fails/wins depending on where you look and what card you compare).

Nvidia's performance advantage right now is the GeForce7800GTX - it's their new generation card (so ATi doesn't have a competitor to it out yet), and it's basically 2x the speed of the 6800GT for 2x the money. If you want the best there is nothing better right now, period.

In general I think both companies are well matched - the X300 has some advantages over Nvidia's competition there, the 6600GT has a slight but definite improvement over the 9800/X700, and conversely the X800/X850 line has some improvement over the 6800. I think it's close enough lately - and I'm speaking as a guy with an X800XL at home and a 6600GT at work - that you should honestly go for the deal and not stick to a specific branding.

For tiebreakers, though, I would recommend aligning the video card and motherboard chipset when possible; ATi bridges with ATi cards are a lot easier to deal with than mixing ATi and Nvidia, and the same goes the other way.

 

[Uncle Dukey]

For tiebreakers, though, I would recommend aligning the video card and motherboard chipset when possible; ATi bridges with ATi cards are a lot easier to deal with than mixing ATi and Nvidia, and the same goes the other way.

I assume that's normally true, but one exception I've come across are the 6800 series cards paired with nForce-3 motherboards. There's a number of people including me that get nasty freeze issues when using drivers newer than 66.93.

 

[koam]

Dukey: That's american dollars though. Likely a good deal for AGP users, as you say, although on the PCIe side I'd probably say the X800XL.



After the 9800 was the X series. The 9800pro and X700 are basically the same card performance wise, but with the AGP/PCIe difference. X300 and X600 are low end, while the X800 XT/XL variety is the high end.

Nvidia's line is the 6x00 series - the 6600GT (note the GT) being better than the 9800pro but competing in the same market segment, while the 6800GT competes against the X800 line (and fails/wins depending on where you look and what card you compare).

Nvidia's performance advantage right now is the GeForce7800GTX - it's their new generation card (so ATi doesn't have a competitor to it out yet), and it's basically 2x the speed of the 6800GT for 2x the money. If you want the best there is nothing better right now, period.

In general I think both companies are well matched - the X300 has some advantages over Nvidia's competition there, the 6600GT has a slight but definite improvement over the 9800/X700, and conversely the X800/X850 line has some improvement over the 6800. I think it's close enough lately - and I'm speaking as a guy with an X800XL at home and a 6600GT at work - that you should honestly go for the deal and not stick to a specific branding.

For tiebreakers, though, I would recommend aligning the video card and motherboard chipset when possible; ATi bridges with ATi cards are a lot easier to deal with than mixing ATi and Nvidia, and the same goes the other way.

Thank you so much! That sounded very unbiased and was exactly the overview I was looking for. I haven't followed the video card scene since the GeForce 2 was huge (which, get ready to laugh, is what's in my machine right now).

Definitely get the 9800 instead of something a bit beefier then. 1.4GHz is in the slow, near laptop category now. Most of the boost that the 6600GT could give you could very well be wasted by the lack of CPU horsepower.

Funny you should say that because my laptop which I bought early this year is 1.4Ghz I bought my PC back in 2001 and haven't upgraded it at all (my specs were pretty impressive back then hehe).