Anyone know specs on Tom's R 9800 pro??

[Phrozt]

I was checking out the video card III ratings, and I was wondering who made the radeon pro 9800.... also, if anyone knows.. who is the best manufacturer of 9800s?? I was going to go with MSI because of good results I've had with them in the past, but they are saying that their memory clock speed is 338 (http://msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RX9800PRO-TD128&class=vga), which is a far cry from the 600 listed as the memory clock speed for the 9800 pro used in the benchmarks on here... Just wondering fi anyone knew about the one listed here.

 

[TheRod]

Usually the best Radeon are "Built By ATI", do you know the ATI "trade-up" program. They have good price for the Radeon 9800 :
<A HREF="http://shop.ati.com/tradeup.asp" target="_new">http://shop.ati.com/tradeup.asp</A>

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[Phrozt]

Even still, I checked on ATI's site, and they dont list clock speeds for the 9800 pro... So I can't confirm that the 9800 pro used in the tests is actually ATI that way either.

 

[TheRod]

Search a bit :
<A HREF="http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9800/radeon9800pro/compare.html" target="_new">http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9800/radeon9800pro/compare.html</A>

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[Phrozt]

I see that now.. thank you for that link .

I was wondering if perhaps there would be some sort of benchmark between the different 9800 pro vendors??? I just find it kind of hard to believe that MSI's 9800 pro would have a memory clock of 338 while the ATI has a clock of 600. I could understand the 375 instead of 400 core clock, but a change on 300mhz in memory clock speed seems a bit much.

 

[ytoledano]

You're probably mixing up the DDR speed with the non DDR speed. Most cards today use DDR memory which means it effectively works at double the MHZ. So some vendors use the DDR number (which is higher) and some the real number. I say the real number because DDR simply works on the rise and fall of the signal instead of just on the rise.

<b>Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place upon man and upon beast and upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the land and it shall burn and shall not be quenched

 

[TheRod]

All Radeon 9800 PRO with a 256bit memory interface will perform almost equally. The difference are often in the type and speed of the memory chip used. The cheapest R9800PRO will come with DDR340 (680MHz) rated memory (3.0nsec). Some vender will use 2.5nsec memory which equals to DDR400 or 800MHz.

In fact, the MSI 9800PRO exactly follow the ATI recommendation for Radeon 9800 PRO, they use 3.0nsec memory (338MHz). Don't be confused between DDR rating and actual memory speed. DDR rating is always half the "full-speed". Many vendors use full speed (Even ATI in is comparison), because the full-speed numbers are more impressive for potential customers.

So, if you don't plan to overclock your video card, any Radeon 9800 PRO / 256bit will be nearly equal. Don't get cought, Sapphire have a Radeon 9800 PRO / 128bit which is cheaper but much more slower.

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[Phrozt]

ahhhhhh.. that makes so much more sense to me now. Alright. Well I don't really plan to overclock anything anytime soon (I like my computers to last for years), but if I were to get into overclocking, would you recommend or recommend agains the MSI R 9800 pro?? (specs: http://msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RX9800PRO-TD128&class=vga )

 

[TheRod]

Of course, the MSI seems to be a good buy. But you can <A HREF="http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/Sapphire/9800Pro/" target="_new">read here</A> that the Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 Pro comes with 2.8nsec (DDR360 - 720MHz).

Many people will argue that Saphirre have made some non-ethical move in the past and since you don't plan to overclock much it may not be worth the extra to buy that card.

Why don't you consider the ATI trade-up program?

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It's tricky to use words like <b><font color=green>AMD</font color=green></b> or <b><font color=blue>Intel</font color=blue></b> in a signature some users could think your are biased.

 

[Phrozt]

right now I have a 4800SE.. so I would be going to ATI for the first time. As for the trade-up program.. I read it and read the faq, and I'm still not quite sure I understand all that's going on. Plus, I've had MSI products before, and even had a few problems and have been very satisfied with the product, how I was dealt with, and how the situation was resolved. I like the company.

 

[Phrozt]

I looked up the sapphire one and the only thing that seemed really impressive was the software bundle.... Wolfenstein!

Their core clock speed is 2 mhz higher than MSI's, and their memory clock is only 2 mhz higher. I can't tell for sure the response time on the MSI card though... where did you see that it was 3.2ns?

 

[pauldh]

Retail Box BBA Radeon 9800 pro is $180 after rebate this week at Best Buy. Nice thing about Best Buy is they'll take it back for a full refund if you decide you don't want it. The Retail Box BBA AIW R9800 Pro is $250 at Compusa AR.



ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[TheRod]

+/- 2MHz don't mean much. It's within the normal margin.

The Sapphire Atlantis edition of their Radeon 9800 PRO comes with 2.8nsec memory, not 3.2nsec.

Usually, you don't see this on web site, because Sapphire might change at anytime their memory provider, based on stock and price. At default GPU BIOS speed, any Radeon 9800 PRO will be clock at the same speed. The advantage of getting a card that have faster ram is for the overclocking potential. The Sapphire Atlantis with 2.8nsec memory chip can easily be clocked at 720MHz for the memory, because the memory support this speed.

But, as you stated, if you had good experience with MSI and their package is good. Get one!

By the way, when you will get your video card, use the official ATI drivers (<A HREF="http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-catalyst-8-03-040610a-016126c.exe" target="_new">http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-catalyst-8-03-040610a-016126c.exe</A> - Catalyst 4.7 for WinXP). They are the most up-to-date drivers you can have for your Radeon based video card.

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It's tricky to use words like <b><font color=green>AMD</font color=green></b> or <b><font color=blue>Intel</font color=blue></b> in a signature some users could think your are biased.