ATI 9800pro vid card question

[Cap'n]

I'm finally going to order the parts for my new rig, but I have a question about the 9800 pro.

What is a good manufacture for the card? I've found three different ones on Newegg, but they range in price and features....

ASUS for $339. Now this is the same make as my motherboard, which may be a plus. I've also heard this is a respectable company. Plus it's seems like the only 9800pro modle to include Half-Life 2 for free. :)

ATI for $268. This one doesn't seem to come with any extra software.

Sapphire for $299. Comes with Power DVD which is a plus. Other than that though it has a few junk games with it. I also heard shady things about them.

Any other ideas as to brand, price, ect... ?

[Gaim Mastr]

Sapphire actually makes very good cards. Just don't buy those 9800 Pro Atlantis models, since they're little more than hopped up 9600's. That was the shady thing about them, not clearly telling people that some of their 9800s were only 128bit instead of the normal 256bit 9800 Pro cards.

To answer your question, you'll need to answer a couple of questions...

Are you going to hook it up to your digital television ??

You going to use it for screen capturing on your tv or hand-held video recorder ??

If all you're going to use it for are games and such on your computer, like most of us do, then you don't need to spend the extra pile of cash on the cards that support TV in/out and such.

However, if you'd like to save even more money, then you should know that the 9700 Pro performed various in-game benchmarks VERY close the the 9800 Pro, and was significantly better than the 9600 Pro and 9600 XT cards.

In most every test, the 9700 Pro performed within less than 10 frames per second of the 9800 Pro. Check out these benchmarks (http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030930/index.html) from Tom's Hardware.

I don't know how much cheaper a 256Mb 9700 Pro card is than a 9800 Pro, but if it's something like $40, $50 or more, then you're better off saving that money and getting the 9700 Pro.

[Mr. Natural]

Those prices sound high. Are you talking canadian dollars?
You should find something for around $200 U.S.
If you're going without tv and the bells and whistles, this (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-286&depa=0) should work well. It's what I have.
As Gaim Mastr mentioned Sapphire is ok, just make sure you get the 256 bit card. It'll be a little cheaper than the ATI.

[Cap'n]

No, those prices were for the 256mb versions. But if you go by the benchmarks, it looks like the 128mb version is just as good. Go figure.

I wonder what the true difference is....... besides price of course. :lol:

[0x64657200 0x6A61636B616C00]

128mb isn't what Gaim and Mr. N are talking about. :)

MB / mb is memory size. That is basically the amount of data the card can store locally during any given process.

They are talking about bits. I don't know how best to describe it, but here we go (bare with some of my translations);

You have 2 strainers, the holes on both strainers are the exact same size. One strainer has 128 holes, the other has 256 holes.

Now you turn your water tap on, you'll see the 256 hole strainer will allow more water to pass through at the same water rate than the 128 hole strainer will.

[Ojnod]

Gaim, I am impressed with what seems to be a sudden burst of computer knowledge out of you :p:. I say either you are really getting ready to build this Über computer that you have been talking about, or you have been hiding in the bushes all this time.

[Mr. Natural]

Yeah they should refer to "bits" as a "bus". Another anology would be more traffic lanes available on the highway for traveling.

[Cap'n]

Well, the 128mb-256bit version is $223.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-286&depa=1

The 256mb-256bit version is $268.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-361&depa=1

That's a difference of 45 bucks. Now I got to decide if it's worth the extra $45, or if I should put that towards a game, something like City of Heroes.

Decisions, decisions. :crazy:

[Mr. Natural]

Right now the 256 meg o' memory wouldn't help much with gaming.....2 years from now it might.
2 years from now there will be a better video card out. Unfortunately there may not be an AGP version of the card. AGP is on it's way out. I would think they would still make AGP cards for another year at least.

[Gaim Mastr]

I found a 128Mb ATI Radeon 9700 Pro at ZipZoomFly.com for $209 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=320747) (free 2nd day shipping). But if you can get the 9800 Pro for only $14 more at NewEgg.com, then that'd be the way to go. :thumbup:


Gaim, I am impressed with what seems to be a sudden burst of computer knowledge out of you :p:. I say either you are really getting ready to build this Über computer that you have been talking about, or you have been hiding in the bushes all this time.

I kinda got out of the 'loop' over the past year due to the various message boards taking up most of my time. But, I'm looking to build my first system soon. It'll be a somewhat mid to low-end system for my frist run. Once I've done that successfully I'll be looking to put together something particularly special for myself.

[Cap'n]

I think to save myself some money, I'm goining with the $223 card.

More money to spend elsewhere. :yes: