Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB or 256MB

There is a very good reason you are not seeing much of a performance difference between the 128MB and 256MB cards. There really isn't any games or applications that will use that much video memory. I would stick with the 128MB card more for price reasons.

Crucial Performance Lab

www.crucial.com
The Memory Experts(SM) at Crucial Technology is now on board to give you straight answers to your memory-related questions.
cpl@micron.com

Get the 128 MB version. There is no advantages to the 256 MB version. I think some of the 256 MB cards may even use slower memory than the 128 MB ones.

i am also thinking about the future, i want this card to last my 3 years at least, will 128MB be enough for future games as far as you can see

According to Newegg, they have a ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB for $266. The new 6800 Non-ultra is being released for $299. Granted the card is only 128 MB, but currently the 6800 Non-ultra is faster than the 9800XT.

This is an interesting thread. I am trying to decide what video card to put in my new system I am building and I was going to go with a ATI X800XT 256meg just so I would have the latest and greatest and not have to worry for a few (hah!) years. Even with games like Doom III and Farcry, 256 meg cards are not fully being utilized? My system so far will be Abit IS7, 1 GB Crucial 3200 Ram, p4 3.0ghz HT, Raptor 10k drive and an Audigy 2.0 ZS Plat. Ed. I would not be against getting a 128 card and waiting if a 256 X800 is a waste of money right now. Current I use a Ti400 64 meg card (I think it's in my Dell). I just want to be able to play my Battlefield Vietnam with the graphics jammed up which I currently can't do on my existing p4 1.7   Thanks all!