PowerColor Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB. Is it worth it?

[Chissler]

Hello there. Hoping someone can help me out here, since my research on other sites have proven fruitless.

I have a 2.4 ghz Pentium 4 with 512 Mgb ram. I am considering buying a new graphic card ( PowerColor Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB ) so that my girlfriend can get my old one ( Nvidia ti4200 ). But a lot of people have said that buying Powercolor cards is not really worth it, because they are clocked to low, or actually have faults. Is this correct ? Will it actually give me an increase in performance ?

Thanx for all answers

PS Sorry for any spelling errors. Not that fluent in english

 

[dhlucke]

Powercolor is shady. I wouldn't buy from them. They do clock their cards lower and although I'm sure you could find a card that doesn't from them I would just go with another brand.

<font color=red>_______________________________________________</font color=red>
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

 

[ytoledano]

Yes, that is kinda true, reasons to get a recommended manufacturer:
1. People report less problems and when there are problems they're solved easily.
2. Better overclockability (you can overclock higher). Matters only if you overclock.
3. "Creative" labeling technique, they sometimes add names to the product and clock it differently, things like Pro Lite and Gold should draw your attention, also, it helps if the memory and core frequencies are mentioned where you buy the card, compare these to other cards, or better, to ATI's site.

Abit IS7 @ 275 FSB, OCZ PC4200 RAM @ 550Mhz, P4 2.4 @ 3.3Ghz Vcore @ 1.625, Sapphire Radeon 9800P @ stock, for now.
Thermalright SLK-947U, P3 HS @ NB.

 

[Chissler]

Okey, Think I will NOT buy the powercolor card then. You guys know if this is a better alternative ?

Read some reviews saying that this was a pretty good card for its price class ( And its faster than the ti4200 )

Sapphire Radeon 9800 Atlantis PRO 128MB AGP,ATI9800PRO,DVI-I,TV-Out, Lite-Retail

Sorry for the cut and paste, but I didnt know what information was important for the post.

 

[dhlucke]

Sapphire is a good choice. People are very happy with them. Your other option is a trade in option directly with ATI. Just send them an old card and they give you a decent price. Check first with newegg.com though if you live in the USA since they have good prices.

<font color=red>_______________________________________________</font color=red>
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

 

[Chissler]

Btw, I got a Abit BD7II card, that only supports 4x agp. How big a difference will this in fact make ? Is 8x in fact twice as fast as 4x? And will the performance double with 8x ?

Thanx for all replies

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Chissler on 04/29/04 05:50 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[sirak]

I agree, go with Sapphire.

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PIV 2.4c @ 3.12ghz
1gig PC3200 (512mbx2)
ASUS P4P800
GF3 Ti200 64mb (soon to be replaced)
WinXP Pro
3DMark2001SE: 6453
3DMark2003: 746

 

[coylter]

AGP 8x is not not faster than 4x or 0.0000000000001% faster

Athlon 2700xp+ (oc: 3200xp+ with 200fsb) , Radeon 9800pro (oc: 410/360) , 512mb pc3200 (5-3-3-2), Asus A7N8X-X

 

[lik]

I've had some powercolor cards passing by me and not even 1 was clocked lower that the normal stockspeeds. The thing is...very bad quality! Its worth to spend extra bucks in a well knowned brand like Asus, Saphyre, MSI, Ati etc etc

P4-2800->FSB800, Asus P4P800, 512DDR-400, Radeon 9800 Pro - 128Mb

 

[Woodman]

Didn't see it in the FAQ, but have you guys heard anything bad from Grandmars?

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