Buyers Remorse

[russmon]

I just got a BBA 9800 non-pro retail for $249. I saw that Compusa had the BBA 9600 Pro retail for $129 (after rebates). Should I stick with the 9800 non-pro? The 9800 non-pro does rock but seeing my friend 9600 Pro, I can tell much difference at 1024x768.

 

[Ganache]

with games like HL2 or any DX9 games, your invest ment will pay off. 9800 has double the pixel pipelines so it will make a good difference.

Try 1280x1024 at least or enable AF or AA. your 9800 will stand out. You can overclock to 9800 pro levels easily too.

 

[cleeve]

Ru at higher resolutions or with 4x antialiassing and 8x anistropic to see the difference.

Mmmmmmmmm... candy.

------------------
Radeon 9500 (hardmodded to PRO, o/c to 322/322)
AMD AthlonXP 2400+ (o/c to 2600+ with 143 fsb)
3dMark03: 4055

 

[russmon]

Yea - AA/AF cranked up does look tremendous. Things look crystal clear. I just don't run much over 1024x768. I guess that would mean the card would have a longer life span. I guess the people that bought their 9700 Pros sometime ago can still say it was a solid investment at the time.

I also like the fact of owning a card that ATI does "want" the market to have anymore.

 

[bdaley]

You can only OC to Pro levels if you have the Samsung memory. With the Infineon, you can't OC very much.

Unfortunately, my 9800NP has the Infineon. Great card, but I would've loved to get Pro speeds out of it.

"I'm a man armed with a fork in a land of soup."

 

[HardWareBoss]

Stick with your 9800NP.

 

[russmon]

Thanks all - I am gonna stick with the 9800np. The Infenion memory doesn't overclock that well but I am stable at 380/330 which is worlds above my old GF4 4200.

 

[HardWareBoss]

Big differance in your new card to old TI4200?

 

[russmon]

HUGE difference. The 9800np blows the TI4200 away in pretty much everything I am playing. I can crank graphics setting to the max and not see even a studder in performance. The benchmarking I have been doing also shows a dramatic improvement (3DMark01, 3DMark03, AquaMark3) and some game benchmarks. 3DMark was like 1500 and now it is at 5375 on my system (AMD2500/1GB Corsair DDR400)

 

[HardWareBoss]

Thanks that gives me something to work with on my next upgrade. Waiting for price to drop.

 

[russmon]

The 9800 np's will be gone before the price drops. Circuit City has a batch of them now for $249 - so get 'em while they last.