Help !! Should I upgrade to a 9800 Pro or wait? !!

[Thorn2003]

I have always liked Nvidia products, I owned a GF2 MX 440, now a GF4 ti 4400 and haven't had too many problems up to now when I try to put the resolution up or play a DirectX 9 game. Saying this though I have been keeping up with all the latest news and events, I have been scouring the internet for some advice, but I would like your opinion.

I was looking at upgrading to a ATI Sapphire 9800 Pro, now this is a substantial purchase, about 850 dollars Australian, I want to know whether it is worth it, I mean how much difference will I see compared to my GF4 Ti 4400? I also want to be able to run the upcoming HL2 and Doom III in 1280X1024 with very playable framerates and with AA and AF on if possible. Is it worth upgrading now, or should I wait untill the first half of next year for the upcoming PCI-Express cards to flood the market? I would like the peformance now, but not at the expense of getting a card that is soon to be suprceded? You guys can see my predicament, what do you think?

PS ( I was looking at the 5900 Ultra but it seems that Nvidia are having performance problems with directX 9.0 games due to their shader engine)

How much of a difference will I notice between the 9800 Pro and my GF4 Ti 4400? Is it worth the upgrade, also should I get the 256 meg version?

The rest of my system is sufficient:

P4 2.8 533mhz FSB
512 meg of PC2700 DDR RAM
RAID ATA 133 80 gig Seagate Harddisk.

 

[nick1985]

wait till those games actually come out.

 

[1ManArmY]

The ATI 9800 PRO can handle any game out including the few DX 9 or Pixel Shader 2.0 games. The9800 NP with Samsung memory flashed to a PRO was the best bang for the buck but they are hard to come by now.

 

[videoclone]

a fellow Aussie hihi .. i live in Artarmon Sydney ... for $500 bux u can get an ATI9800 Non Pro from

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au

The 128MB card should be find but if i was you i would just save your money who knows when half-life2 will come out its looking like next year something ..

The Ti4400 plays all your games fine if your getting any slow down maybe an Athlon 64 will make your gaming better ....either way you will be kicking yourself if u blow 850 on a ATI9800 Pro when u can get one for $600 from auspcmarket .. they deliver Australia wide i'm sure
Matrix Micro Systems is also a good place to get Vidcards from great price's

 

[Robor]

I don't think a 9800 is going to play Doom3 or HalfLife2 at 1280x1024 with AA/AF enabled and be "playable". Both games are 4-5 months away. I'd wait if that's why you're buying it.

 

[Reliant]

I'd wait.

 

[Necrolezbeast]

I dunno about Australia...but I bought a 9800 Pro 128mb from CompUSA and paid extra for the 1-year warranty, and when I decide it is time to upgrade ya tell them that it is broken and they let you go over to the vid card section and pick out a new card for the same you paid for the current one you are returning...

 

[modedepe]

Wait till the games you want to play are actually out. The cards currently out won't do any spectacular job at running them.

 

[Thorn2003]

Originally posted by: videoclone
a fellow Aussie hihi .. i live in Artarmon Sydney ... for $500 bux u can get an ATI9800 Non Pro from

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au

The 128MB card should be find but if i was you i would just save your money who knows when half-life2 will come out its looking like next year something ..

The Ti4400 plays all your games fine if your getting any slow down maybe an Athlon 64 will make your gaming better ....either way you will be kicking yourself if u blow 850 on a ATI9800 Pro when u can get one for $600 from auspcmarket .. they deliver Australia wide i'm sure
Matrix Micro Systems is also a good place to get Vidcards from great price's

Hey I am from Melbourne !! Anywayz thanks for the links I will check them out

 

[Thorn2003]

I just didn't want this for Doom III and HL2, but I would like it to be playable in those games when they arrive, looking at some of the benchmarks using those engines it looks like the ATI 9800 Pro plays them ok with around 60 fps on average... that is smooth enough for me I guess, have a look on Anandtech.com and Tomshardware.com they have some bechmarks using the Doom III and HL2 engine.

My GF4 Ti 4400 is ok untill I try to put the resolution up to 1280X1024, the problem is I need to play the games in that resolution at the least because I recently bought a Philips 109B40 19 inch monitor, because the screen size is bigger than my old 17 inch (16 inch in reality) I need the extra detail. Besides the manual for my monitor suggests putting the res up to 1280X1024 as standard. But I can't play even the current games like C+C Generals in that sort of detail, even with AA and AF off completely, and the drivers set to performance, as soon as I get in a firefight I get really choppy framerates, and I know this isn't to do with anything else in my system because it is quick enough. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and go and buy one for the current games, and I am sure it will run Doom III and HL2 reasonably, I mean the release of those 2 isn't too far away, and unless there is going to be a whole suite of new vid cards before early next year, the developers of those games would be crazy not to make sure that their games run on the current cards? Wouldn't make sense right?