Originally posted by: Petiot
I can get an ATI Radeon 9800 for $250 from my local circuit city. Would it be worth it, or should I wait?
Definately worth it. If possible, try to get one with Samsung RAM chips (either 3.3ns or the 2.8ns, which are rare) over Infineon 3.0 RAM. The infineon stuff usually maxes out at 325-330 MHz, the 3.3ns Samsung RAM usually goes to 330-360, and the 2.8ns is the same stuff on the Pro card (if you get one with 2.8ns memory, which as I said is very rare now, you essentially have a Pro card).
You probably won't be able to cherry-pick a card, and you'll get one with random memory based on luck of the draw, but it's still worth it IMO. The 9800 is an awesome card, especially over something like your FX 5600.
Edit: uh, and to your other question. Overclocking the 9800 is very easy - just download Rage3D Tweak from
www.rage3d.com and install it. Personally, all I install from rage3dtweak is the overclocking utility, I don't bother with the other stuff...