9800se by sapphire

[unfalliblekrutch]

What are the chances this card will unlock to 8 pipes? Pretty good?

1) the newegg reviews mostly say it was unlockable to 8 pipes, but i'm afriad these may have been just the ones to pass the censor.

2) Since 9800pros are no longer made, shouldn't there be a good chance that perfectly good cores have been used to make these?

Also, a few of the reviews say they got a 256bit card, does anyone know about this? I've heard that ATI advertises all 9800se's as 128bit to distinguish it from the other 9800s. Obviously the picture shows an inline memory configuration(signifying 128bit), but the picture could be wrong.

EDIT: forgot to include linky
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102587

 

[LW07]

I wouldn't go for a 9800SE. Just save up and get a better card.

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2005&p=4
Read at the end. It says at the end that a 9800se is slower than a 9600pro in most cases. You might even get unlucky and get one that doesn't unlock, leaving you with a poor-performing card.

Save up for this instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102666
X1600pro, which is comparable to a 6600GT, which is faster than a 9800pro.

or this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102687
X1300, which is comparable to a 6600, which falls somewhere between a 9600XT and 9700pro.