another 9800 vs 5900 question

[Elminster]

well got a 9800 for about 165 to replace my ti4200, been a while since I had my 8500 so forgot how much a pain in the ass ati drivers are. spent several hours just to get it to work right. its also got infineon memory so doesn't overclock terribly well. now 165 was a good deal I am thinking but wondering if I would be better off with a 5900 that costs about the same and overclocks better and gives less problems, would love some opinions.

 

[CaiNaM]

if it were a pro, i'd keep it and try and straighten out the drivers.. ati's come a long way since the 8500 🙂

if it's a non-pro, i'd go the 5900 based on the oc results everyone is getting... of course, your mileage may vary, but looks good so far.

 

[Pete]

Care to elaborate on your system and problems? There may be a simple solution, and a 9800 seems to be a more future-proof card (read: will be faster, longer), thus seems worth working for.

 

[modedepe]

With or without overclocking, you won't be that much better off performance wise with a 5900. I would try to fix your problems first, if possible.

 

[McArra]

Originally posted by: Pete
Care to elaborate on your system and problems? There may be a simple solution, and a 9800 seems to be a more future-proof card (read: will be faster, longer), thus seems worth working for.

Exatly, and you can overclock de gpu to pro+ speeds, which will increase performance dramatically.... Ram clock isn't that important since the bandwich at for example 300mhz will be quite high and surely not the limiting factor in upcoming games. And PS2 shaders in ATI are much more powerful than Nvidia's.

 

[Elminster]

I pretty much fixed the problems, just an issue of getting the drivers installed correctly and making sure old ones are gone. and its a regular 9800 not pro, seems to be a low overclocker on processor and ram, will do some more testing to find out.