9800 pro or 5900 NON-ULTRA?

[ad_rach]

I realise that this is a can of worms but i have just found an online retailer which sells the sapphire 9800 pro for £268 (i am in the uk and that is a very good price here!).However, i notice that you can get the 5900 NON- ultra for about the same price.From the latest comparison on THG, the two look about the same performance-wise.Which has the edge?

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[simwiz2]

It depends which games you play. Overall they both offer similar performance.

 

[Guest]

search the forums.



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[Willamette_sucks]

Don't support the Nazi party. Get a 9800 Pro!

"Mice eat cheese." - Modest Mouse

"Every Day is the Right Day." -Pink Floyd

 

[ad_rach]

I have searched but i haven't found a thread directly comparing these two.If you know of one, i would be grateful if you could direct me to it.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Well there are these;

<A HREF="http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=3x5900u&page=1" target="_new">A review</A> which show the R9800Pro performing very well against the FX5900<b>ULTRA</b>, so one would think that it will do better against a non-ultra.

And then <A HREF="http://www.ukgamer.com/article.php4?id=97&page=1" target="_new">HERE's</A> another recent review that put them head to head. Now be sure to disregard most of the UT2K3stuff with AF as there is an AF issue for he FXs. However the other tests once again show them trading blows.

So I would say an R9800Pro is superior to, not equal to and FX5900non-ultra. It's true equal is the ultra. IMO.


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[ad_rach]

Thanks.It seems i shouldn't pay so much attention to Lars and the likes!I have come across a lot of articles etc which said that the 5900 Ultra blew the 9800 pro away but these two seem to suggest otherwise.Now all i have to do is justify the expense of buying the 9800 pro to myself!Hopefully i can suppress my conscience .

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[JHoxley]

** SHAMELESS PLUG **

cant help notice your in the UK... if you want my "spare" GF FX-5900 non-ultra card for £250, you can get it off ebay at the moment

<A HREF="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2743943085&ssPageName=ADME:B:LC:UK:1" target="_new">http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2743943085&ssPageName=ADME:B:LC:UK:1</A>

Jack

 

[Guest]

I was also wondering what is the speed difference between a FX5900 and 5900ultra. The extra 128 doesnt seems to make much of a difference for the radeon9800pro, you guys have any input on that?Also the GPU clock is 50mhz slower. Other then that they are the same.
I can grab a brand new boxed FX5900 non ultra for 500$ CAN no tax... Im wondering if I should go for it because my 5600non pro aint that powerfull in game. I'm thinking i could overclock it some and almost compansate.
ANyway if any of you got benchmark for the 5900 VS 5900ultra I would appreciate if you could post them.
THanks

 

[JHoxley]

the extra 128mb (128->256) on either card is a tad pointless currently, unless you're planning on playing games at 1600x1200 on a regular basis...

if you do the maths... 2x32bit frame buffer + 24bit depth buffer etc... then you can rarely get more than 10-15mb of "required" memory... every other bit of space is just for textures and what not..

particularly given that the ultra variant costs another £75 ($100??) I really cant see why you need it. Paying £300 is expensive, but adding almost a 1/3 AGAIN just to get 5-10fps difference is ridiculous!

Jack

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the additionnal input Jack, thats pretty much what I tought. I think im gonna grab that card, for something like below £250(500CAN) its a really nice deal. I'd like to see some benchmark between the ultra and the non-ultra tough. Not many of these around...

 

[JHoxley]

if it helps, my FX-5900 non-ultra got:

3DMark 2001 - 15,500
3DMark 2003 - 5,300

in a 3.06ghz-HT pentium 4 system with 1024mb RAM.

I cant remember the exact scores, but the above is acurate to the 100's which is probably good enough...

Jack

 

[Guest]

What brand is your Fx5900? Have you tried to overclock it to get closer to the ultra? My guess is if you raise the clock enough you might be able to have a card almost on par with the ultra. The on I can grab is a Leadtek the cooling solution seams really efficient so i wonder hats the overclocking potential of the gpu...Anyway thansk for the 3dmark score give me an idea.

 

[cbarger]

Ti4200 P4 3d mark 12500.

 

[JHoxley]

What brand is your Fx5900

Micro Star International (MSI), their TD128 retail package

Have you tried to overclock it to get closer to the ultra

nope, dont believe in o/c stuff.. but I've seen from reliable sources that the card I had will clock FASTER than the ultra variant and still be cooler - MSI did a wonderful job with the HSF solution.

overclocking potential of the gpu

I'd say its extremely good if thats what you wanna do I personally reckon its fast enough as it stands!

just for the record, I dont actually own this card (sold it a few hours ago on eBay) due to some other issues I had with it - as such I'm investing the money I made in a 9800 pro... but the FX-5900 is a top card for just playing games.

Jack

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the info really appreciate. My friend sale some hardware and he ordered this Leadtek card now he's kinda stuck with it cuz they charge 15% to take it back almost 100$ hehe. I didnt think id buy a 5900 but for 500$ -225$ for my fx5600 -75$ cuz I sold a rig from him to a friend. End up shelling out 200$CAD not a bad deal jsute needed some more input so thanks, now I think im going to take it...It was hard to have a 5900 in the box and wrapped on my desk w/o being able to even open the box!