Powercolor 9800 PRO or ATI 9500 PRO @ 128MB?

[LordOfTheBlings]

Powercolor 9800 PRO = $375.00 Here

ATI 9500 PRO = $183.00 Here

that's about a $200 savings. what should i do? how much extra can i expect to get out of the 9800? every review i've read about the 9500 has been outstanding...

gimmie a push in the right direction.......please

 

[Pete]

Radeon 9700NP ~$205 at either GameVE or Mwave.

 

[LordOfTheBlings]

naw Pete, im definitly going with the PRO.

i just recently bought an Asus P4C800 Deluxe MoBo, an Intel P4 2.66 Ghz CPU, and two sticks of Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512MB DDR SDRAM. so i don't want to skimp, however, i don't want to pay $200 more for something that may very well become obsolete in a short time...

 

[Harabecw]

The 9800 Pro won't become obsolete any time soon unless you're running 10000x10000 X64AA/x128AF DX9 games, in which case yeah, it'll perform bad

Seriously, its a great card, lots more performance than the 9500 if you use AA too.

 

[Corporate Thug]

for half the price, i'd rather get the 9500 pro

 

[mchammer187]

you are willing to get a 9500 Pro but not a non pro 9700 wtf

the 9700 pro is at least 60% faster than the 9500 pro for 20 dollars more if you want bang for your buck that is it

and you call going 9700 non pro skimp ?

you are not making much sense here

 

[LordOfTheBlings]

im not making much sence because i don't really know what im talking about, hence my avatar. so im really putting my neck out on the line by even posting here.

what i am trying to say is, if im gonna buy something, i want to buy the best possible version (within reason of course; i wouldn't pay the extra money for a 9800 PRO @ 256MB). if i were to buy a 9700, i would buy the PRO. that's all.

but i keep reading these articles saying that if i come accross a 9500 PRO that i should snatch it up because they are such great deals and i would be a fool not too, etc etc. im asking for help, if you can tell that i don't know what im talking about, spend the time it would take to critque my lack of knowledge on giving me some sound advise.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: mchammer187
you are willing to get a 9500 Pro but not a non pro 9700 wtf

the 9700 pro is at least 60% faster than the 9500 pro for 20 dollars more if you want bang for your buck that is it

and you call going 9700 non pro skimp ?

you are not making much sense here

if you overclock both, the performance difference will prolly be something like 10% in favor of the 9700 NP

 

[Harabecw]

only in low res with no AA/AF. the difference grows when you up the eye candy.
its just a matter of how much you're willing to spend.

 

[whitetiger]

where can you get 9500 pro, i thought that one is face out already, but i like to go for 9700 np, now price might be around 199 , good deal, plus, powercolor's video card also come with seve free games, cool.

 

[Pete]

The 9500 "Pro" may be the best card in the 9500 series, but it should stand to reason that even the slowest 9700 will be faster than the fastest 9500. A look at prices and benchmarks should confirm this.

$185 9500P 8x1 275MHz core 270MHz 128-bit memory
$205 9700NP 8x1 275MHz core 270MHz 256-bit memory

To be very clear: A 9700NP is exactly the same as the 9500P, except it has twice the memory bandwidth. Which do you think will be faster?

The 9800P is brand new, and, as such, it will command a premium, so it won't be the best price/performance, though you certainly won't be disappointed with it. A 9700NP for $205 is currently the best value in high-end video cards, though. GameVE sells the Powercolor 9700NP, and Mwave sells what appears to be the Sapphire 9700NP (but you should e-mail to confirm). Buy one of those.

 

[yhelothar]

i don't think you understand what the pro is...

the only difference between the pro and non pro for the 9700 is the clockspeed...
by your logic of saying, must get the pro version of 9700, you must buy 3GHz P4 and 3200+ athlons?

well anyways... 9800pro is much faster than 9500pro if you use really high resolutions like 1600x1200+ without really using much AA/AF...

i went from 9500pro to 9700pro, and my UT2003 fps went up at 1600x1200 with no AA/AF, from 40fps to 90-100fps... that's over a 100% boost...

if you are like most people with small monitors... that play games at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 with lots of AA/AF.. then 9500pro won't be much slower than 9800pro..

 

[Pete]

Here's a review with 9700P and 9500P scores. Keep in mind the 9700NP will score about 10-15% lower than a 9700P, simply due to its lower clock speeds. Note that the 9700P outscores the 9500P considerably, generally at 12x10 and above, and particularly in the more stressful (recent) benchmarks.

 

[LordOfTheBlings]

thx for the input guys, i really appreciate it.

 

[waylman]

Originally posted by: Pete
Radeon 9700NP ~$205 at either GameVE or Mwave.

this is definately best bang for your buck right now.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

who cares about best bang for the buck. if the cards slower, its slower. i got the powercolor 9800 and love it.

i dont care about cards that are almost as fast. the cards paid for and done with and its fast as hell

JBLaze

 

[LordOfTheBlings]

does anyone know what the seven games that come with the powercolor 9800 are?

 

[mchammer187]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
who cares about best bang for the buck. if the cards slower, its slower. i got the powercolor 9800 and love it.

i dont care about cards that are almost as fast. the cards paid for and done with and its fast as hell

JBLaze

everyone cares about bang for buck

would you pay $800 for a R9800

i hope not

bang for buck means not paying 50-100% more money for 10-15% more performance

 

[Pete]

Check the Powercolor website. I think it's just the full version of 4x4 Evo 2, and six "light" versions (meaning either demos or just the first level or two).