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[RaymondCarver]

Best could mean several things, but what I'm looking for is performance for the dollar. I've been told Sapphire are not that great and then that they're ok. some benchmarking only slightly lower than others. I see that Sapphire 9800 PRo's are $130 and Powercolor are $149 at www.pricewatch.com


Sapphire

Power Color

Or something else?

What's your take on the situation?

 

[gohepcat]

Man I can't stand video card companies.

Those are "special" 128bit 9800 pros. How can you tell? Well it's really friggin hard becasue they are now starting to sell products in with the same name that are tottaly different. 9800 are supposed to have a 256bit memory bus...That's the main reason they were so great.

If you are looing for a real 9800 pro you are going to have to pay about 200 bucks. Otherwise you are basiclly getting a 9600.
Just go to Newegg.com

 

[royale]

Check out the MSI 9800 pro. Its got the R360 core which is used in the 9800xt.

It will even be detected as a 9800xt in windows and other benchmark tools. So, essentially it is an underclocked 9800xt with 128MB instead of 256MB ( not to be confused with 128bit bus, the MSI is still 256bit bus).

Also, for the price and don't think any other card has comparable bundled software. It really is amazing how shit they packed into that box. Of course, if you decide to go OEM route then just go with what's cheapest.

PS : Beware, there are two versions of MSI 9800pro. One has a green PCB, which i think is 1st gen card. The newer ones have a red PCB. I'm not 100% sure of the exact differences, but I believe the green one is better (larger heatsink).

Here is a review of the MSI RX9800pro

edit: I think the red MSI is designated with an "SP" which is bundled with different software also. (ie. newer games)

 

[Oh! My Car!]

I have the Power Color 9800 Pro card and the fan that comes with it is very loud and it's R350 core as well. To me the MSI sounds like a much better purchase.

 

[RaymondCarver]

Ok, the best 9800 is the MSI RX9800PRO-TD128. It's basically the R9800XT.

www.Overclockers.co.nz/ says

We highly recommend MSI RX9800PRO-TD128 128MB to anyone who is seeking great performance without having to deal with the devil.

And here are the comparative framerates from overclockers.co.nz :

It looks like the MSI is the most bang for the buck for 9800's, so the extra $50 over the cost of a 9600 looks justified.
However.... Is it better to buy a 9600 with 256-bit memory or a 9800 with 128-bit memory?

 

[RaymondCarver]

And your wager? (pause) Anser: Texas.

256-bit, and that's the bottom line.





One hundred and ninety three here:

green PCB: http://www.buyxg.com/store/item.asp?key=VC-124-126


OR, newegg has refurbs of the red PCB for $165

 

[marsomega]

Best could mean several things, but what I'm looking for is performance for the dollar. I've been told Sapphire are not that great and then that they're ok. some benchmarking only slightly lower than others. I see that Sapphire 9800 PRo's are $130 and Powercolor are $149 at www.pricewatch.com

Ignore the 9800 PRO's completely.

The vanilla X700 is going to hit 149 and on average outperforms the 9800 XT.
X700 Review
VGA Charts 4 for 9800 XT comparissons.

Wait for the X700 AGP variants. ATI is doing a great job at getting the X700 line out. Two days ago I was at best buy and they had them on the shelves after a two to three week anouncement. Even faster online. Real boxes with video cards inside not the "X800 buy online" empty boxes. The X700 AGP variants will be following up soon to put the 9800 line to rest.

 

[dark10x]

This one needs you...

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

Go 9800 Pro threads!!!

Seriously, if you want that Non-Doom3 playing 9800 Pro pictured above, knowing that it's a flawed piece of tech, PM me and we'll talk.

 

[marsomega]

Go 9800 Pro threads!!!

Seriously, if you want that Non-Doom3 playing 9800 Pro pictured above, knowing that it's a flawed piece of tech, PM me and we'll talk.

Don't listen to him. X700 all the WAY!!!

Incase you skipped over it...

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

I agree, don't listen to me. That card deserves nothing more than a flaming death in the middle of the street.

But hey, I'm prolly willing to be rid of it ofr cheap.

 

[RaymondCarver]

hmm... I was wondering if the X-series were only going to appear in PCI-Express. That's all I've seen so far, but I guess the AGP varients are finally coming.



Thanks for the heads up! I was thinking the X700's would have something to offer, but I didn't know when I'd see anything on them. PLUS, the 9800pro's performance could use a little more kick. I've been reading their comparison charts daily on TomsHardware.


Awesome.

 

[RaymondCarver]

UPDATE: Yes, as far as I see the X700's are only going to be in PCI-E. Grr.

 

[teh_pwn]

Just make sure you get a normal 9800 Pro spec wise.

Earlier, I slammed Sapphire as being too slow. Well it turns out my machine lagged in benches because of Intel Chipset Drivers. The ones that came with my mobo didn't like Ati's Smart Gart service, which optimizes performance and stuff I don't know about.

Anyway, anyone with an Intel board that can't get Smart Gart to work should immediately update their intel chipset drivers. It should be provided at your motherboard's manufacturer support page.

Doing so will increase game performance a lot in new games. And I bet there's a ton of people out there with this problem considering that most prebuilt PC owners know jack shit, and they're almost all intel boards.

Before Update:

3Dmark 2001 SE -- 17094
3Dmark 2003 -- 5579
3Dmark 2005 -- ~1500
Aquamark 3 -- 19277


After Update:

3dmark01 19541
3dmark03 5990
3dmark05 2363
Aquamark 3 48317

My specs:
Abit IC7 Max 3
P4 3.0 C @ 3.45 GHz (soon to be 3.8 once I get an SP-94 HS, and a better cpu fan)
Sapphire 9800 Pro (a REAL pro)
1 GB PC4000 OCZ gold ram
Audigy 2 ZS