Which 9800 to get ?

[DigitAlex]

Hello guys.

I'm about to get a Radeon 9800 and here is what I think I will get :

http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/9800proatl.asp

It will cost me € 226 here in Belgium (9800 Pro 128 MB 256bit).

What do you think, is that a good choice ?

If not, here is other stuff that is available ....

I also can get a 9600 XT 256 MB for €183 (link ) so I wonder if the performance difference between these two are worth the extra €43, also considering the 9600 XT has 256 Ram instead of 128 for the 9800 Pro. What would you advise me to do ?

 

[Didou]

The 9800 Pro without hesitation.

Just make sure it's a 256-bit card. If it would turn out to be a 128-bit card while it was being advertised as a 256-bit card, Sapphire is obliged to replace it for you with a real 256-bit card.

Have fun.

 

[Didou]

Another card that might be worth a look is this one -> Asus 5900 Ultra 128mb for €244 (2nd from the bottom of the page) or the MSI 5900xt 128mb for €241 which has Video-in & a nice software bundle.

 

[DigitAlex]

Yea, prices are the same but what about performance / issues differences ?

They have 2 VGA it says ? means a DVI and a VGA or 3 outs ?

What software bundle ?

What's the diffs ?

 

[agissi]

I want to see/know how much worse a 128bit really is.

 

[Didou]

The 9800 Pro & 5900 Ultra are pretty much neck & neck when it comes to performance except when running Pixel Shader 2.0 code (DX9 games) where the 9800 has an edge, even with nVidia's new drivers.

Anti-Aliasing is pretty much the same on both & nVidia's Anisotropic filtering is slightly better on nVidia (on certain angles ATI cards do not apply any Anisotropic filetring).

As for the bundles, the Sapphire card doesn't come with much. The Asus card comes with Black Hawk Down, Battle Engine Aquila, Gun Metal, 6 in 1 Game Pack (dunno what that is), ASUS DVDXP, Power Director Pro, Media Show, Home theater, Remote Control, Webcam (ASUS is watching you ), ASUS Utilities & Driver.

The ASUS card also has Video-in features so you can watch TV with it.

As far as the noise factor goes, I can't tell which card is more silent.

The MSI card also has Video-in & a nice bundle too (Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Sum of All Fears, IL-2 Sturmovik, Serious Sam 2 lite, Rally Trophy, Beam Breakers, Zax: The Alien Hunter, Oni) but since it's a 5900XT, it's clocked slower then the ASUS card. I do know for a fact that it's very silent though.

 

[DigitAlex]

Your asus card has to be ordered online right ? I don't really like this kinda stuff, prefer having some whop I can go complain at if something is wrong heheh. The only thing that whould be interesting about the NV cards is that hey seem to have TV-in !

What about the 2 VGA + DVI ? Do they really have 3 video out then ?

 

[DigitAlex]

I think I will pick the 9800 Pro for 226 euros, it's bulk without any software but well. I don't use the video in nor video out anyway and I already have a webcam. As for the software, it's easy to get what you want elsewhere ...

What do you think

 

[agissi]

Ya go for it

 

[LNCPapa]

I have one of those cards DA - and I love it. Just be realistic when you configure your games. For instance, don't try to run FarCry at 1600 with AA/AF on - it just won't run well. Older games you can go nuts on - and even UT2K4. I run it at 1280 with AA/AF on and it runs nice and smooth. There is a single DVI output and a DB15 out - with a DVI>DB15 adaptor in case you need 2 DB15 connections. It also has an S-Video out. Watch out for the AIWs if you need dual display - as you lose one if you get that model. I forgot about that and found out the hard way so now my AIW is on my secondary machine.

 

[DigitAlex]

AIW ??? what's that

 

[DigitAlex]

Just installed and tested the 9800 Pro. As I read from the Hardware.fr forums, the one I got is very likely a 9800 XT with a 9800 Pro BIOS, so I can overclock it like crazy ehehe

Anyway, even without o/c I'm very glad of the 3DMark score : 5465 3dMarks

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Congrats with your new card!
And good luck with the oc'ing

 

[agissi]

Nice!

AIW is All-In-Wonder, which means you can use your PC as a TV

 

[DigitAlex]

Oh yea ok I see

 

[DigitAlex]

From the BIOS of my 9800 Pro 128MB it looks it has a R360 chip and Hynix memory modules which makes almost sure it's actually an underclocked 9800 XT !!

I increased the frequencies to the standard XT ones and I see some artifacts (mainly when I o/c the core). So i guess it may be a XT which has not passed the tests successfully, so they sold it as a Pro.

Anyway, I'm running with 400/360 instead of 378/338 defaults and it's fine.

My score in 3Dmark increased by 400 points and reaches 5872 now.

 

[DonNagual]

I have heard about these underclocked 9800XTs being sold as 9800 pros.... how can I find out if that is the case with mine? Is there a way to do it without removing the heatsink?

 

[DigitAlex]

Yes, you can use ATItool from www.radeon2.ru to get the BIOS of the card and then use their BIOS editor to check if it's a R360 / Hynix BIOS. If not, then it's sure it's a real Pro. If yes, then check if your card can handle the standard XT core / memory speeds (with ATI Tool). If so, it's very likely it is an XT. You can also check your card to see if it has the chip used to check the GPU temperature on the back of the card (LM63 chip)

 

[DonNagual]

The card should be delivered in a few more days, so I don't know the answers to the question above... in the meantime, I have also heard that if you have a R360 chipset with Samsung memory you can flash it to a XT bios. Is this true? Has anyone done this?

 

[Svoboda]

to agissi, about the 128bit 9800 pro.

I ordered one, (thought it was 256bit) and when i tested it i got about 3600, and i have almost the same system as DigitAlex, so thats 2000 points less than him, it sucked. I sent the card back, and i'm waiting for the 256bit version to come

 

[Didou]

DA, are you able to read the temps from the core then or do you have to flash the card with a 9800xt BIOS to do so ?

 

[DigitAlex]

no I have to flash the BIOS
the funny thing is that the drivers say it's a R350 and the BIOS string is R360 ...

 

[agissi]

Originally posted by Svoboda
to agissi, about the 128bit 9800 pro.

I ordered one, (thought it was 256bit) and when i tested it i got about 3600, and i have almost the same system as DigitAlex, so thats 2000 points less than him, it sucked. I sent the card back, and i'm waiting for the 256bit version to come

Im sure your computers differ a great deal, let me know the comparsion of the two cards when you get the 256bit thanks

 

[DonNagual]

Originally posted by DigitAlex
Yes, you can use ATItool from www.radeon2.ru to get the BIOS of the card and then use their BIOS editor to check if it's a R360 / Hynix BIOS. If not, then it's sure it's a real Pro. If yes, then check if your card can handle the standard XT core / memory speeds (with ATI Tool). If so, it's very likely it is an XT. You can also check your card to see if it has the chip used to check the GPU temperature on the back of the card (LM63 chip)

I went to the website above, but it is not English and I couldn't figure out where to download the software.

Anyone have an English link for me?

 

[olefarte]

ATi Tool