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Thread: Is Radeon 9800 Pro a good buy?????

  1. #16
    Senior Member chriswhitelaw's Avatar
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    YEAH DUDE THE 9800PRO FREAKING ROCKS MAN, right on!
    the prince of all saiyans will not fall again!

  2. #17
    Ultimate Member CrazyCrusher's Avatar
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    Originally posted by chriswhitelaw
    YEAH DUDE THE 9800PRO FREAKING ROCKS MAN, right on!

  3. #18
    Ultimate Member scottluebke2003's Avatar
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    9800Pro is a great buy.
    ~A life without Jesus is a life that's never fixed~

  4. #19
    Member namrak's Avatar
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    From my perspective, I have to agree. I made the erroneous mistake of purchasing an MSI GeForce FX5700 w/ 256MB without doing my research first. Big mistake. It turns out that either overclocked or at default settings, I was seeing video artifacts on my screen even when not gaming. I tinkered with the card for a week and finally decided this was unacceptable.

    Took the card back to the store and exchanged it for a Radeon 9800 Pro. Suffice it to say, I had none of the visual issues that plagued my earlier FX5700 after I popped the card in. In fact, this video card ROCKS!

    I just wonder if I purchased a board that got passed MSI qc or its indicative of MSI video cards in general...?
    Last edited by namrak; 06-15-2004 at 05:09 PM.
    AMD Athlon 2500+ (oc'ed to 3200)
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    ATI Radeon 9800 Pro w/128MB oc'ed

  5. #20
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    While the artifacts were due to a defective card, there is no doubting that the FX5700 is a far less powerful architecture than the 9800. 5900XT is a different story

    And I see you were another one of the people who got pulled into buying a card with a whole stick of RAM on it. I suppose selling lower-end cards with lots of RAM helps sell them, even though it makes the cards more expensive to manufacture

  6. #21
    Member namrak's Avatar
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    And I see you were another one of the people who got pulled into buying a card with a whole stick of RAM on it.
    Ain't this the truth heh. Which is exactly why I shouldn't have done the impulse buy when it came to the video card. I was set to purchase a brand spanking new processor and motherboard based on information I gathered, but I didn't really dive into what the current crop of video cards had to offer in terms of performance. It resulted in a poor decision on my part. However, I was fortunate enough to rectify the situation by exchanging the FX5700 for the Radeon 9800 Pro and paying for the difference.

    In regards to the extra memory onboard (256MB versus 128MB). Its always nice to have extra space to store textures for games that will make use of it. However, I doubt that the FX5700 architecture would have suited my needs as games such as Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 will require so much more horsepower from the video card than just extra onboard memory to store textures.
    AMD Athlon 2500+ (oc'ed to 3200)
    Asus A7V600 motherboard
    1GB Kingston Hyper-X PC3200 memory
    ATI Radeon 9800 Pro w/128MB oc'ed

  7. #22
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    Bingo. The core is maxed out well before only being able to use say 128MB or so creates a bottleneck.

  8. #23
    Member challenger's Avatar
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    So is it everyone's opinion that if you want to buy a 9800 Pro it's unnecessary to buy a 256mb version? I'm thinking of purchasing one before the Doom 3 release and I'd like to get a 128mb card so I can save money. What will I be sacrificing by getting a 128 vs. a 256? If anything?

    Thanks
    Challenger

  9. #24
    Ultimate Member CrazyCrusher's Avatar
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    well the 256 will give you some results when you max the load your system can take. for example, if your computer will run a game fine with all the details but one turned to max, but when you put that last detail (say "rain and wind" in a flying game) all the way up it gets choppy, then the 256 will help give your system the little extra boost it needs.

    the downside to the extra 128 megs is that its more expensive to get a card with it, and it only gives you marginally better results.

    it isnt as if you actually have twice the power in the video card. in the end your better off to invest the money in a card with a more powerful chipset.

    IMO I think 256 is a little overkill, wait until games come out that give you the recommended requirements of 256MB Video.

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