9800 to 9800xt

[vega]

I bought my ati 9800 pro (oem) some months back and have enjoyed using it thus far.
However, with two imminent blockbusting titles only weeks ( I hope) from release and with the introduction of new cards by nvidia and ati, am thinking that its time I upgraded again but I can't afford any of the new cards, being limited to a maximum £200 budget, however, I'v noticed that the 9800xt range of cards have come down to a more reasonable level but my question is - would upgrading from a plain 9800 pro to a 256 meg 9800xt show a significant leap in performance or should I save up for the x800 series?

 

[Arris]

I'd save up Vega. If you have a 128mb card then the upgrade might make Doom 3 a little smoother to play but to be honest I don't think a 9800 Pro -> XT upgrade will do that much for your performance. You would be better off with an Arctic Cooler for the card and overclocking it a little. You can see a comparison between stock and the arctic cooler (available from about £12 online) here. Might even get you up to 9800XT speeds.

 

[agissi]

Nah no way thats worth it... you dont get (that) much more performance, a little more but not much. Defently not worth £200.

Go look at some benchies.

 

[vega]

As always, excellent advice lads.
I'v gone ahead and ordered the cooling unit from jab-tech for $13.95 - hope its money well spent.
I have an iceberq 4 fan unit I was going to use but opted for the more powerful arctic - if anyone wants the iceberq, just pm me & its yours.

 

[Arris]

I have several online friends that have used these on 9500/9600 flavours of cards and had good results overclocking. I very nearly ordered one myself for a 9800 clocked at pro speeds, but ended up bashing my credit card instead and getting the X800 Pro.

 

[DigitAlex]

Some 9800 Pros are really XT boards with underclocked R360 chips ! Not really worth byuing another card, try to check your card PCB first ! (search for another thread about that started by me, there are pics in there and some instructions)

 

[vega]

A couple of weeks have passed since I posed this thread and as a result, here's what happened - I have bought a arctic cooling unit for my 9800 pro and as a result, am currently enjoying faster fps's across the board but heres the quandry - I'v had an exceptionally busy (and profitable!) weeks work and as a result am in a position to upgrade but first, my specs - AMD 2400 and overclocked 9800 pro - both work great but what would you upgrade?
Should I buy a faster processor or should I go for a 128 meg 6800?

 

[oulooool]

Well I was in the same situation as you I upgraded to the Athlon 64, I got an Asus K8NE Deluxe mobo for like 129$ and the processor ran me around 200$ 3400+ Athlon 64 with 1mb Cache

And you can also easily turn your 9800pro into an XT if it's not that old, as was mentioned digitalex you can flash the bios of your 9800pro with that of an XT, if you have a r360core on your card you pretty much have an XT and now that you have the cooling you should be good to go, if you don't have the r360 core then just overclock it, I use ATiTool that will actually run your vid card through multiple test's and overclock if it for you :grinthumb It takes quite a bit of time but it runs it through numerous frames tests and heat tests. I would look more into Making your 9800pro into an XT and possibly upgrade to the 64 if you have the cash?

Oh yea how much money are you willing to spend is the real question here

 

[vega]

$oulo, Yes, I had a great and profitable couple of weeks work but not sufficiently great to be able to afford all the kit you mention - your talking more along the lines of a lottery win!
Following the tips from the above guys in relation to making the most of my 9800, I now enjoy significantly faster frame rates due to a new, chunky piece of fan and diligent o/c'ing but after posting yesterdays query, I sauntered along to Toms Hardware guide and checked out the video card comparisons for doom3 and was staggered to find that my speedy 9800 was waaaay slower than even the lowliest nvidia 6800 so it was immediatly obvious what I was going to buy so after an half hours search, I found Dabs selling an xfx 128meg 6800 for £191 inclusive - I ordered this last night and with a little luck, should be expecting a brand spanking new card next week - happy days!