Thinking of getting a 9800Pro

[jammydodger]

I currently using a watercooling GeForce 4Ti and Im Im thinking of getting a radeon 9800pro. I have a couple of questions first tho:
1) Is it easy to get the HSF off the sapphire cards so I can put my waterblock on?
2) Is the sapphire 9800pro (not ultimate) a good card to go for?
3) Are prices on these cards gonna drop much more any time soon? They have gone down from >200 to £155 recently so im thinking they cant drop much more.

P4 2.6@3.38
512Mb PC4000
2x120Gb 7200.7 in RAID0
Waterchill KT12-L30
Abit AI7
Ge-Force4 Ti4200

 

[pauldh]

Can't help on #'s one and two as I am yet to try it on my Saphire 9800 pro, but others soon will help I am sure.

3) IMO, the prices of the 9800 pro are hitting their bootom (here at least). I highly doubt they will go much lower than $200, but instead supply will dry up on them. R9700 pro/ 9800 NP never dropped much below $200 and for a while if you didn't grab a R9800 NP for $200, you had to pay way more to do better. R9800 Pro was about $100 more still back then.

Your Ti4200 sure has game left in it, so you can afford to wait. Yet I own both cards and know that the 9800 Pro is so worth twice the money of a Ti4200 to me. I am thrilled with the 9800p.

If $200 is around your limit for an upgrade, then forget R420/NV40 and grab an R9800 Pro now. Waiting for games to come out like D3 and HL2 is smart too, but you may not find a $200 R9800 Pro in a few months, not from a repuatable dealer anyway. I suggest R9800 pro now and a copy of Farcry.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[Baxter]

The HSF is easy to get off the saphires since even i have done this and im a newb and the new ones have r360 cores to so u can flash em

Athlon XP 2800+, ASUS A7N8X-X, 512mb PC2700 DDR
128mb ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (430/374)
3D Mark03 Score <font color=red>6,316</font color=red>

 

[Willamette_sucks]

He means you can flash the BIOS of a 9800 Pro to that of a 9800 XT, basically giving you a 9800 XT for circa 210 dollars, or 155 L, whatever the hell that is.

Me: are you saying I can't provide?
Me: cause I know I can provide.
Me: oh and I can provide money too
Rachel: why do we need money when we can just stay in our room and have sex all day?

 

[HardWareBoss]

See if you can trade in your old card at ATI web site. US price for 9800Pro is $199.

 

[jammydodger]

I would trade in the card but I need my old Ti4200 for my second system as I just sold my R8500 so I could afford the new card. Will the memory on the 9800pro be able to handle XT speeds?

P4 2.6@3.38
512Mb PC4000
2x120Gb 7200.7 in RAID0
Waterchill KT12-L30
Abit AI7
Ge-Force4 Ti4200

 

[Willamette_sucks]

99% chance yes.

Me: are you saying I can't provide?
Me: cause I know I can provide.
Me: oh and I can provide money too
Rachel: why do we need money when we can just stay in our room and have sex all day?

 

[HardWareBoss]

It should. WS has a post on that subject.