Sapphire 9800 pro

[gobeavers]

About 200 dollar budget, and wanting a new video card. Newegg has "SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -BULK" for ~220, is that a good buy for the pricerange? Here's the lising http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-268&depa=1

Anxiously awaiting yamhill....is it here yet?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by gobeavers on 02/04/04 11:54 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Vapor]

$220ish is a really good price for a 9800Pro.

EDIT: changed +9.. to 9800.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Vapor on 02/04/04 12:08 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[cleeve]

It's very good, probably the best price/performance/longevity buy out there.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9500 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(hardmodded 9500, o/c 322/322)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>2600+</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 2400+ w/143Mhz fsb)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>4,055</b></font color=red>

 

[Matt8594]

I'm confused at the 9800Pro Sapphire price at the moment. There is one card called Atlantis http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/9800proatl.asp
which is much cheaper than the Atlantis Ultimate
http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/9800proult.asp
But I can't tell the difference, for some reason the cheaper one is far cheaper than any other 9800Pro brand.
Does the performance of the Sapphire reflect the low cost?

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Ultimate edition is Passively cooled (no fan). Unles you NEED a quieter rig, not worth the extra money.

Picture of an Ultimate Edition (XT in this Case);

<A HREF="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/sapphire-9800xt_2.html" target="_new">http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/sapphire-9800xt_2.html</A>


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Vapor]

You could also attach a 80mm or 60mm (or any other 60mm+ size really) fan to it and OC it more than you could with a normal cooler. All that cooler is is a Zalman HP80C. I have one on my Ti4400 with some 80mm fan mounted on the side...always cool to the touch and less obtrusive in terms of noise than the stock HSF, not that I could hear either over my case fans and HDD coolers.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I know, and the XT comes standard with the 80mm fan (not sure about the PRO thoug. But from what I've seen they don't overclock as well as those cooled with very good HSF solutions. But that's just what I've seen in the reviews.

The Zalman is a good solution, but really, unless you have specialised needs, I wouldn't recommend the added expense. But of course to each their own. I'd LOVE to have the heatpipe on it, but it's not something I'd pay a premium for, because my case while having whisper fans is not completely quiet, and the heat issue isn't as bad for my personal situation with an R9600series card.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[pauldh]

I just installed my new Saphire Radeon 9800 Pro last night. Lovin it so far. For $220, it's a bargain.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9500 Pro, Santa Cruz, Antec 1000AMG, TruePower 430watt

 

[Vapor]

That little 80mm does a surprising amount of cooling...but I'd imagine non-silent fans do a lot better. I don't see a difference between my fan at full blast and when turned down with my fan controller...it's always cool (which is why I really wanted to do the voltmod).

I can send my core up a good 15MHz from the 300MHz I had, but there was pretty much no performance gain. So I upped the RAM, which was stable at 615 or so at most...then got greedy and did damage (650MHz maybe wasn't the best idea with Samsung 3.6ns...just when I was starting to get back into gaming, too!). Oh well, bought that thing on a whim anyway...no noticable noise difference with my system either.

Off topic, but could RAM error affect gaming (e.g., crashes, loading problems and texture problems...I'm getting lots of errors in pretty much every game that I think are related to either my Ti4400's RAM and/or my system RAM)? Seems to be more than just driver problems...happens in benchies, games, and demos; not just select ones either--pretty much everything.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Usually RAM overclocking problems shows artifacts more than anything. But could be, hard to really tell from afar.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Vapor]

Ooops, sorry. When I said RAM I meant system RAM. I run memtest and I get TONS (thousands upon thousands) of RAM errors (forget the number, but well north of 10000 after one pass). Could this lead to gaming problems (I have yet to see any of the effects of the RAM errors in daily usage or when I use this system as a workstation)?

I have mainly loading (getting a 'loading...' every minute or so in Vice City for instance), texture problems (completely not loading or displaying the textures) and crashing with messages of the like: Unhandled exception: c0000005 at address: 005c2d21 (it's about that address 75% of the time)...stuff that wouldn't usually be related to a bad graphics card (I've always had these problems and no one else's computer here does anything like it, nobody will allow me to switch graphics cards with them for even a short amount of time...they think their GeforceMXs are better and that I'm trying to trade up). The 'Loading...' screens and error/crash messages in EVERY game are what get to me...a lot.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[Matt8594]

Bargain! I got the ultimate edition for only £20 more than the regular edition at its lowest price:
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?action=info&sku=119628&p=&t=278&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=24&GrpID=1&cks=PRL
It was £309 on overclockers, generally the cheapest UK site, and only £202 inc delivery on the site I just ordered from.