9800 Pro

[Panda On Smack]

Is the 9800 Pro worth getting over the 9700 Pro?

Is the extra money worth it?

Ta

 

[Jonty]

Hi Panda

If you're buying now, then the 9800 Pro is a great card, and outperforms the 9700 Pro in pretty much all areas. However, there are two things worth considering. If you already have a 9700 Pro, then I wouldn't upgrade, since the peformance difference usually isn't that great, and although the 9800 Pro packs in many updated features, they're still largely wasted on today's games.

The second factor, if you don't own a 9700 Pro, is price. You can now purchase a 9700 Pro for a relatively cheap price, whereas a 9800 Pro will set you back significantly more. When you look at the marginal performance difference, you can't help but feel that, if you're on a budget, the 9700 Pro stands out as a good buy. But of course what's considered good value for money is entirely subjective, so check some prices and see what you think.

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. If you plump for the 9800 Pro, don't go for the 256Mb model, since it's just not worth the extra money at this moment in time.

 

[TheJkWhoSaysNi]

I've been looking at Radeon cards too. it seems to me that the best card out at the moment is the 9800 non-pro. Although they seem few and far between they are cheaper than the 9700pro and it looks like its easily overclockable to 9800pro speeds anyway. As far as I can tell it contains all the features of the 9800pro just with lower clock speeds.

Price wise, its a bargain at £186.50 compared with the 9800Pro which costs £249.95 (I really want to know what makes it cost that extra £65) or the 256mb 9800Pro which costs a fortune: £319.95


PS, All these prices are without vat and come from the Sapphire page on overclockers.co.uk

If anyone knows of any benchmarks of the 9800 non pro compared with the 9800pro, the 9700pro and the 9700 non pro i'd be very gratful

 

[Panda On Smack]

Cheers people

I currently have a GF3 NEATO!

Im tempted to go staright for the 9800 Pro but is monty python boy talking sense?

Ta

 

[Jonty]

Don't go for the non-Pros! hehe. They're usually limited on the hardware side, often in the number of rendering pipelines used, which can restrict performance significantly. Yes, you can often overclock them, but still, in my opinion, it's just no worth it (the above is based on the 9500 Pro and 9500 non-Pro, so I can only assume ATi have continued the trend).

[H]ard|OCP have an article comparing the 9700 Pro against the 9800 Pro (no surprises which wins ). 9700 Pro vs 9800 reveiws seem harder to come by. At a guess (and I have no evidence for this) I'd say the 9700 Pro and 9800 non-Pro probably perform around the same, with the 9700 Pro slighly in the lead in some tests, but with the 9800 non-Pro packing the updated features which the 9700 Pro lacks (if that makes sense?!) so it's just swings and roundabouts.

Kind Regards

Jonty

Edit ~ In terms of 9800 Pro vs. the 9800, the latter seems to be clocked slightly lower, and has around 2% less bandwidth, but I'm not sure whether it has half the rendering pipelines of the 9800 Pro or not, but at a guess I'd say not, but don't take that as gospel

 

[Panda On Smack]

Yeah, i think i will bite the bullet and stick a 9800 Pro on the old Visa ;o)

Cheers Jonty

 

[Jonty]

Okay If you need any help finding good prices, just shout.

Good luck!

 

[Embattle]

I say go for the 9800 Pro...although I would say that

 

[Panda On Smack]

Price me up scotty!

If anyone know of a bargain place to get one then please let me know.

Fanks

 

[Jonty]

All prices are for a Radeon 9800 Pro (128Mb) and include VAT but exclude delivery.

• 
  Overclockers UK
• Connect3D - £288.93
• Sapphire - £293.69
  
  Dabs.com
• Connect3D - £288.00
• Crucial - £280.09

I also checked eBuyer, MicroDirect and Komplett but their cards were usually in excess of £300, but they did have Hercules, Gigabyte and other cards available (which sometimes include custom cooling solutions, large bundes etc). There's another good site for ATi cards (http://www.blisware.com/) but sadly it seems to be down at the moment.

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S These prices may not be the absolute cheapest, but I doubt they're too far off

 

[TheJkWhoSaysNi]

I think I'll have to stick with the 9800 not pro, I cant afford to spend much more than £200 on a graphics card.

Besides it performs almost identically to the 9700pro The only comparision between it and the 9800pro and the 9700pro was in french, but the graphs still make sense http://www.hardware-fr.com/articles/456/page7.html

 

[Panda On Smack]

Thanks guys

will let you know what i get as im sure you all care

 

[Panda On Smack]

9800 Pro is cheaper this week at OC

down to 300 quid

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_This_Week_Only_25.html

worth it?

 

[Clowneh!]

no graphics card is worth 300 quid

 

[Panda On Smack]

clearly, but its cheaper than normal

 

[-Ultimate]

Looking at that site Jonty recommended (it was down at the time he did but back up now), there selling Connect 3D Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB for £276.11 inc. VAT with free shipping. Probably the best deal your going to get, unsure how good a make Connect 3D are though.

Check it out here

 

[Panda On Smack]

thanks dude

 

[Jonty]

Hello!

That Hercules card is cool Panda, Hexus recently reviewed it and gave it 8 out of 10. Unlike many other brands, Hercules tend to go beyond ATi's reference design and modify the cards they produce. In this case, the cooling is different (it even has an LED which glows), RAMsinks have been added to the memory modules, the core clock speed has been increased from 325Mhz to 380Mhz, and the memory clock speed is also up from 630Mhz to 680Mhz. The performance obviously increases with all these modifications, but whether the gains are worth the extra money is for you to decide.

As for the Connect3D card -Ultimate found on BlisWare (thanks for checking that, -Ultimate), that looks to be a fairly good deal. I've never actually bought anything from BlisWare, so I can't vouch for them, but their transaction system seems to be secure and their prices are relatively low, especially with free shipping. As for Connect3D, I believe they're based in the UK and essentially produce solid, no-frills, ATi cards. Unlike Hercules, Connect3D seem to stick the standard reference design, and as such their cards are fairly cheap, especially as their products tend not to come with large, expensive, bundles.

So it's either pay the extra for the Hercules and enjoy the benefits, or save your money and stick to the standard, and by no means slow, Connect3D card. Or, of course, you can wait for ATi and nVidia's forthcoming products, but the wait may be a little too long.

Kind Regards

 

[lovedaddy]

another benchmark of the 9800

Originally posted by TheJkWhoSaysNi
I think I'll have to stick with the 9800 not pro, I cant afford to spend much more than £200 on a graphics card.

Besides it performs almost identically to the 9700pro The only comparision between it and the 9800pro and the 9700pro was in french, but the graphs still make sense http://www.hardware-fr.com/articles/456/page7.html

Firing squad:

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9800/

The 9800 is a little lower in most tests, but not by a massive amount. Looks like a nice card.

 

[flownalk]

Id love a herc 9800pro..... arrrr someone hide me cc