Ok, another idiotically obvious question but I need to know if I'm right. Is it just me, or does it seem to be that the Sapphire version of the 9800np has a slower gpu and mem clock than, say, a hercules or ati build one. If so, how easily can this be overcome? If it can be overcome, what a nice OC i can run it at by changing the heatsink, and which heatsink would be best replace the original with?

Umm? It shouldn't come under-clocked, there are a couple possibilities, defective card, bad bios, retailer ripped you off. it should be clocked at 320(or was it 325)VPU and 290 memory, as for heatsink replacement, the Arctic Cooler VGA Silencer is really nice, the ZM80C-HP is also nice combined with Smart Case Fan 2 has a little noise, but it'll cool nicely. Check your on-board memory, if it's Samsung then flash to 9800pro's bios, if it's Infineon don't do it. Flashing to the pro's bios would give your VPU and memory more voltage, therefore increasing the overclockability of the card.

-Intel PIV 2.6C @ 3.575G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800np @ 432/760 -SB audigy -120G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 S-ATA150 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

Not to mention ATI forbids any deviation of clock speeds from their specifications.

53 69 67 6E 61 74 75 72 65 20 69 6E 20 48 65 78 21

ATI can go screw themselves, they can never tell the difference anyways.

-Intel PIV 2.6C @ 3.575G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800np @ 432/760 -SB audigy -120G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 S-ATA150 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

Well, I haven't bought it yet. . . but take a look at these sites and maybe you could explain to me why it seems that the specs differ.
1. http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/pr [...] &ad=pwatch
2. http://www.dvcentury.com/Merchant2 [...] 96-593-002
3. under product comparison at http://www.ati.com

They all seem to be slightly different and one seems to be significantly less.

9800SE, 9800np, and 9800pro are NOT the same thing 9800SE is the 9800 Sh*t Edition, 9800non-pro is just lower clocked 9800pro, and 9800pro is great. I recommend the 9800non-pro never touch ATI's se cards.

-Intel PIV 2.6C @ 3.575G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800np @ 432/760 -SB audigy -120G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 S-ATA150 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

Ohhhhh i was told SE was sapphire edition but its probably like special edition or something. Thanks a bunch, that completely clears things up.

SE = Junk.

sapphire edition lol actually its more like 9600 since it only has 4 pipes, so it performs much worse than 9800

hey, i got a 9800 w/3.0 inf ram, any idea where i can get a pro bios for it? or theres no way this ram would overclock well? at least its not 3.3ns

You can't flash infineon, here's the lineup for powered by ATI's 9800np's memory ranking(best to worst)

Samsung 2.86
Samsung 3.3
Infineon 3.0

There doesn't seem to be any other ones on the market. The Infineon should be able to hit 320mhz, don't excepect much out of it. They're crappy memory. Samsung 3.3ns are better.

-Intel PIV 2.6C @ 3.575G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800np @ 432/760 -SB audigy -120G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 S-ATA150 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

i have seen some bioses for 9800 w/3.3 inf though. and yes its crappy indeed, but i gotta make the most of it

Hardwareboss i've found a 9800np using 2.86ns memory built by HIS, but it's somewhere in China, i know that doesn't narrow it down, i gotta find out the customs for items going out of China. This guy doesn't speak English, and my mandarin isn't that great. So we're having 1 hell of a time communicating.

-Intel PIV 2.6C @ 3.575G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800np @ 432/760 -SB audigy -120G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 S-ATA150 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

Not all, some with 256-bit memory structure (hercules AIW/power color) can be soft modded into 9800 pro/pro AIW.

Make the game work for you, not work you into a new computer

Send him an orange.

He turned down my offer, so now I'm thinking about the Asus Radeon 9600XT because apparently it uses 2.86ns I'm still trying to find out what brand memory, and the VVPU defaults at 1.7!!

-Intel PIV 2.6C @ 3.575G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Copper 2x256 4000EL memory @ 275mhz 3-4-4-8 -Sapphire 9800np @ 432/760 -SB audigy -120G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 S-ATA150 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

Gee 9800 pro. 9800np, 9600Xt soon you'll be where I'm at TI4200.