9800 Pro 128 or 256?

[Kristi2k]

Is there any performance boost between the two? I'll be playing Doom III and HL2 and Far Cry...

 

[DarkAmeba]

256mb has no advantage at stock, but if you do a quick search you see some 256mb pro revisions are really 9800xts and are easily softmodded.

 

[jim1976]

If you take D3 benches as a guide for the future then go for the 256mb version of 9800pro.
It seems like we have reached a point where 256mb will be utilized, as in D3 where textures need a lot of memory bandwith. WTF to play it at ultra levels you'll have to wait for a 512mb gpu!!!
That of course might not be the case with HL2 engine but it will definately be used from the games that will use the D3 engine and many others in the near future.

 

[Chopstick217]

Originally posted by: DarkAmeba
256mb has no advantage at stock, but if you do a quick search you see some 256mb pro revisions are really 9800xts and are easily softmodded.

I agree, get the 9800 256 pro and flash it to a XT

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: DarkAmeba
256mb has no advantage at stock, but if you do a quick search you see some 256mb pro revisions are really 9800xts and are easily softmodded.

You can also flash/mod 128MB 9800 Pros to XTs too.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: Algere

Originally posted by: DarkAmeba
256mb has no advantage at stock, but if you do a quick search you see some 256mb pro revisions are really 9800xts and are easily softmodded.

You can also flash/mod 128MB 9800 Pros to XTs too.

However, 256 MB of RAM is supposedly helpful in handling games such as Doom3. Since the 9800 is already a year old, its longevitey at this point may be a good investment. The less you feel its age, the better IMO.

 

[apoppin]

The Radeon 9800 Pro To Radeon 9800XT Mod Guide Rev. 4.0!

Everything you need to know about the 256MB>XT flash and the 128MB Pro to XT(lite). really . . . EVERYTHING!



the "dfference" is (probably) playing Doom iii on your 9800xt at 10x7 HiQ NoAA/8xAF or your 9800p at 10x7 MedQ NOaa/NoAF

possibly 'significant'

 

[Kristi2k]

There must be some performance increase from 128-256...? Just a little.?

 

[selfbuilt]

Originally posted by: Kristi2k
There must be some performance increase from 128-256...? Just a little.?

There should be, but you don't see it on older games (check any benchmark site - no real difference). And as for Doom3, check out the actual benchmarks at HardOCP Hardware guide. For example, on a XP3200+ system, the recommended settings for both the 9800XT 256MB and 9800Pro 128MB are the same (1024x768 with High IQ, 8X AF), and the average FPS score is only 50.4 vs 47.3. Seeing as how the XT is also clocked higher and has shader optimizations over the pro, is the 256MB really worth it?

 

[Marsumane]

Either get a 128mb 9800p or get a 128mb 6800nu for around the same price (maybe like $20 more) as the 256mb 9800p. You will see much bigger difference in games like doom 3 with a 6800nu then u will by getting the 256mb 9800p over the 128mb 9800p.

 

[mrwxyz]

Originally posted by: Marsumane
Either get a 128mb 9800p or get a 128mb 6800nu for around the same price (maybe like $20 more) as the 256mb 9800p. You will see much bigger difference in games like doom 3 with a 6800nu then u will by getting the 256mb 9800p over the 128mb 9800p.

i dont think so, doom3 needs the extra memory to play on higher settings

so 256mb would go farther i'd guess than the jump from 9800xt->6800nu

 

[selfbuilt]

Originally posted by: mrwxyz
i dont think so, doom3 needs the extra memory to play on higher settings
so 256mb would go farther i'd guess than the jump from 9800xt->6800nu

Not according to the detailed benchies at
HardOCP Doom3 Hardware guide. The 6800NU 128MB clearly ourperforms the 9800XT 256MB by a wide margin on all systems where the two were compared. This presumably reflects ATI's poor showing on OpenGL, but there you are.

Regardless, the 9800pro 128MB benchies were so close to the 9800XT 256MB that it seems the 9800 core is unable to make sufficient use of the extra mem in this game (much the same issue as to why 256MB 9600s are useless). Maybe we'll see a difference if ATI's promised OpenGL improvements arrive, but nothing is compelling so far.

 

[Marsumane]

Originally posted by: selfbuilt

Originally posted by: mrwxyz
i dont think so, doom3 needs the extra memory to play on higher settings
so 256mb would go farther i'd guess than the jump from 9800xt->6800nu

Not according to the detailed benchies at
HardOCP Doom3 Hardware guide. The 6800NU 128MB clearly ourperforms the 9800XT 256MB by a wide margin on all systems where the two were compared. This presumably reflects ATI's poor showing on OpenGL, but there you are.

Regardless, the 9800pro 128MB benchies were so close to the 9800XT 256MB that it seems the 9800 core is unable to make sufficient use of the extra mem in this game (much the same issue as to why 256MB 9600s are useless). Maybe we'll see a difference if ATI's promised OpenGL improvements arrive, but nothing is compelling so far.

You arent entirely correct, but almost. Basically the extra 128mb of vram comes into play in certian instances. You will notice that on the link of the 3200+ system that compares the 9800xt to the 9800p 128mb that there is a sudden drop in frames in a place or two on the 9800p card. Due to such similar archetectures, u could only presume that there is where the extra vram would come into play and be required for an ENTIRELY sustained mid-rage framerate. This difference is obvious, but not critical to the extent where a 128mb card is required for a good gaming experiance at these settings. You will notice that the avg fps between the two is almost negligable when u consider that the 9800xt is ~10% faster on avg then the 9800p.

Also mentioned within the article, is that more ram seems to negate the effects of this drop happening. It is mentioned on one of the pages where they were trying to run the 6800u at ultra settings. They claimed that the system will use more ram if u have it to offset the effects of the lack of video memory for large, numerous textures.

The summary of the contriversy between whether or not you will need that extra 128mb, is that if you dont have it, on the same card, you may experiance a second or even less here and there of a drop in framerate.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: Jaskalas

Originally posted by: Algere

Originally posted by: DarkAmeba
256mb has no advantage at stock, but if you do a quick search you see some 256mb pro revisions are really 9800xts and are easily softmodded.

You can also flash/mod 128MB 9800 Pros to XTs too.

However, 256 MB of RAM is supposedly helpful in handling games such as Doom3. Since the 9800 is already a year old, its longevitey at this point may be a good investment. The less you feel its age, the better IMO.

If your comparing 128 vs. 256 on the same core/gfx card or the 9800 Pro to the XT, they're basically the same technology & from what I've gathered there's not much performance difference between the 2 & though there is a difference in performance between the 2(Pro & XT). It's mostly due to the difference in core & memory clock frequencies of the Pro and XT than it is the memory amount.

If not and are comparing a 128MB 9800 Pro to a 256MB 6800 GT/X800 Pro i.e., it wouldn't be a fair comparison due to different GPU marchitectures, drastic modifications, & what not.

Lastly, although the 9800 Pro is a year old, it's afterall based on the same technology of the R300/9700 series and that is somewhat more than 2 years old to date. Ergo, comparing the performance of 9700 to the 9800 series is only a comparison within the same GPU generation which usually results in a smaller performance difference than in contrast from different GPU generations i.e. NV3X-NV4X or R3XX-R4XX.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: Kristi2k
Is there any performance boost between the two? I'll be playing Doom III and HL2 and Far Cry...

If you can wait a few days, we'll know for sure. By Aug 4th we oughta know if the extra ram on the 256MB model is worth it or not.

 

[Delorian]

I've got a powercolor 9800 SE that is 380/340 out of the box and with it softmodded it has 8 pipes and an R350 core I think. This card was able to clock at 412/365(730) speeds right out of the box and is at least 90% or so of the speed of the 9800 XT with only having 128mb ram. All this for half the price. I think they are still charging too much for the XT and need to drop it lower to compete better with Nvidias offerings. I honestly think the 256 won't make that big of a difference in doom3 as much as they exadurate about it. Obviously a 6800 128mb will slaughter a 9600 256mb. OP, go with whichever is a better value and you should be happy either way.

 

[selfbuilt]

Originally posted by: Marsumane

You arent entirely correct, but almost. Basically the extra 128mb of vram comes into play in certian instances. You will notice that on the link of the 3200+ system that compares the 9800xt to the 9800p 128mb that there is a sudden drop in frames in a place or two on the 9800p card. Due to such similar archetectures, u could only presume that there is where the extra vram would come into play and be required for an ENTIRELY sustained mid-rage framerate. This difference is obvious, but not critical to the extent where a 128mb card is required for a good gaming experiance at these settings. You will notice that the avg fps between the two is almost negligable when u consider that the 9800xt is ~10% faster on avg then the 9800p.

Also mentioned within the article, is that more ram seems to negate the effects of this drop happening. It is mentioned on one of the pages where they were trying to run the 6800u at ultra settings. They claimed that the system will use more ram if u have it to offset the effects of the lack of video memory for large, numerous textures.

The summary of the contriversy between whether or not you will need that extra 128mb, is that if you dont have it, on the same card, you may experiance a second or even less here and there of a drop in framerate.

I'd say that's a pretty fair conclusion. Of course, the FPS dips only seem to apply when running 128mb cards in High Quality, or 256mb cards in Ultra High (understandably, since each is being stretched there). And it is the most noticeable between the 9800XT 256mb and 9800pro 128mb, so that is a factor to consider. You'll notice that a lowly 9600 128mb in Medium quality had no such problem (nor would I expect it to at that setting). However, this problem seems much greater for ATI cards than NVIDIA (i.e. look at the 6800nu 128, no significant dips).

 

[Kristi2k]

I'm thinking about just selling my 9800 Pro 128 for $200 and spend an extra $70 for the 256.

 

[furie27]

kristi2k, it would be worth it for the extra overhead on the ram. More importantly, you'll have a 360 core to flash to XT. And unlike the 128mb r360's, the 256mb has the temp monitoring chip. Which irks me to no end, as I'm in the dark with temps on this card.

 

[JeffCY]

Eh... $70 for an extra 3fps is not worth it. Either stay with the 128MB or spend a little extra for the 6800.

 

[Marsumane]

Originally posted by: selfbuilt

Originally posted by: Marsumane

You arent entirely correct, but almost. Basically the extra 128mb of vram comes into play in certian instances. You will notice that on the link of the 3200+ system that compares the 9800xt to the 9800p 128mb that there is a sudden drop in frames in a place or two on the 9800p card. Due to such similar archetectures, u could only presume that there is where the extra vram would come into play and be required for an ENTIRELY sustained mid-rage framerate. This difference is obvious, but not critical to the extent where a 128mb card is required for a good gaming experiance at these settings. You will notice that the avg fps between the two is almost negligable when u consider that the 9800xt is ~10% faster on avg then the 9800p.

Also mentioned within the article, is that more ram seems to negate the effects of this drop happening. It is mentioned on one of the pages where they were trying to run the 6800u at ultra settings. They claimed that the system will use more ram if u have it to offset the effects of the lack of video memory for large, numerous textures.

The summary of the contriversy between whether or not you will need that extra 128mb, is that if you dont have it, on the same card, you may experiance a second or even less here and there of a drop in framerate.

I'd say that's a pretty fair conclusion. Of course, the FPS dips only seem to apply when running 128mb cards in High Quality, or 256mb cards in Ultra High (understandably, since each is being stretched there). And it is the most noticeable between the 9800XT 256mb and 9800pro 128mb, so that is a factor to consider. You'll notice that a lowly 9600 128mb in Medium quality had no such problem (nor would I expect it to at that setting). However, this problem seems much greater for ATI cards than NVIDIA (i.e. look at the 6800nu 128, no significant dips).

Yes this is very true about the 6800nu. I wonder if it is just due to them being totally different archetectures that atributes to the 6800nu being able to handle that specific area better under its 128mb of vram. That is my best guess. I'll soon find out if this is indeed the case, for I have a system that is very close to the 3200+ system that they used (2266mhz, 1 gig ram, 9800p 128mb).

 

[Marsumane]

Originally posted by: Kristi2k
I'm thinking about just selling my 9800 Pro 128 for $200 and spend an extra $70 for the 256.

If you are going to spend that kind of money, go for the $270 6800nu. (link on anandtech front pg under video card priceguide). Ull notice this card competing with the X800pro and X800XT in many different tests and usually beating the x800pro and getting very close to the x800xt many times over.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: furie27
kristi2k, it would be worth it for the extra overhead on the ram. More importantly, you'll have a 360 core to flash to XT. And unlike the 128mb r360's, the 256mb has the temp monitoring chip. Which irks me to no end, as I'm in the dark with temps on this card.

128MB Pros with R360 cores have temperature probes too.

 

[furie27]

Originally posted by: Algere

Originally posted by: furie27
kristi2k, it would be worth it for the extra overhead on the ram. More importantly, you'll have a 360 core to flash to XT. And unlike the 128mb r360's, the 256mb has the temp monitoring chip. Which irks me to no end, as I'm in the dark with temps on this card.

128MB Pros with R360 cores have temperature probes too.

Guess I got shafted on that one, then.

 

[tlam617]

get the 256 mb version.

upgrading from pro to xt gave me a 12.69% increase in performance. great buy.