Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128

[tomyhill598]

Hello to all...I am new (obviously) here, and I am intrigued by everyones intelligence on these forums because there is so much to learn, and it seems like most of you know much of what there is to know about anything dealing with computers. Anyway, enough of my greeting...I just recieved a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro video card, and it has 128 MB of DDR Ram (not like you dont know that). How much of a difference is there between the regular ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and my card? I sit here while looking at this card, and I keep thinking I should have bought the ATI one. I have searched, and I cant find any comparisons between the two.

Also, I was just curious as to which type of memory I have on the Sapphire card...the module's read: K4D263238E-GC2A...i am assuming from what I have read on one of the other threads that I have 2.X ns RAM? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[rooboy]

go to www.samsung.com, search through till you find the memory link, then the Graphics DDR, then look for a search box. Type in that number and you'll get the specs of your RAM. From memory that's the same stuff on the ATI card. The only real differences between 9800 boards is if they have a different cooling solution and/or RAM sinks on the memory. The ATI stock cooling is pretty small and noisy, some other card manufacturors put on beefier HSF etc.

 

[stardust]

Originally posted by: tomyhill598
Hello to all...I am new (obviously) here, and I am intrigued by everyones intelligence on these forums because there is so much to learn, and it seems like most of you know much of what there is to know about anything dealing with computers. Anyway, enough of my greeting...I just recieved a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro video card, and it has 128 MB of DDR Ram (not like you dont know that). How much of a difference is there between the regular ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and my card? I sit here while looking at this card, and I keep thinking I should have bought the ATI one. I have searched, and I cant find any comparisons between the two.

Also, I was just curious as to which type of memory I have on the Sapphire card...the module's read: K4D263238E-GC2A...i am assuming from what I have read on one of the other threads that I have 2.X ns RAM? Thanks in advance for any help.

There are 9800pro 256mb models. Saphire company makes Built by ATi cards, so their cards are virtually the same. If you ask me, I prefer saphire because they provide quality samsung memory almost all the time on their cards. If I remember correctly, you have 2.8ns memory.

 

[Matthias99]

Only ATI makes "Built By ATI" cards. 🙂

All OEM cards are "Powered By ATI". All of the 9800 Pro boards (except the cheaper Sapphire 9800Pro) use the reference board design, although some switch out the RAM for faster chips (allowing better overclocks). Performance at stock for any 9800 Pro should be identical.

This is the cheaper Sapphire 9800 Pro (it's built on a 9700 Pro card, but it's a 9800 Pro core/logic/memory):

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=14-102-304-02.JPG/14-102-304-03.JPG/14-102-304-01.JPG

 

[stardust]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Only ATI makes "Built By ATI" cards. 🙂

All OEM cards are "Powered By ATI". All of the 9800 Pro boards (except the cheaper Sapphire 9800Pro) use the reference board design, although some switch out the RAM for faster chips (allowing better overclocks). Performance at stock for any 9800 Pro should be identical.

This is the cheaper Sapphire 9800 Pro (it's built on a 9700 Pro card, but it's a 9800 Pro core/logic/memory):

I could've sworn Saphire signed a contract with ATi back in Spring of 2003 for manufacturing the "Built by ATi" 9800 series.

Link from previous thread Read what glitchny says... i'll do some googling later, but im pretty sure about this because I was at a spring conference when these deals were mentioned in the Bay Area.

 

[Matthias99]

Ah. That's different. Sapphire may indeed be *manufacturing* ATI's cards, but they also sell "Sapphire" branded ones which are NOT the same (warranty, price, software bundle-wise) as "Built By ATI" (the "ATI" branded) cards. It wouldn't surprise me if physically the cards are identical, though.

 

[tomyhill598]

This is interesting...thanks for the info guys.

 

[nRollo]

I bought a Sapphire 9800Pro retail as well, expected to get the round "orb" type fan I saw in reviews. The card I got looks exactly like a BBA, even says "ATI" on the fan.

LOL- the card in Mathias post is what I expected, the card I got looks like this:
"Sapphire" 9800Pro

 

[Rogodin2]

"Only ATI makes "Built By ATI" cards."

Sapphire has been making "built by ati cards" since 2001.

They are contracted out to build the boards using the cores that have validation by ati.

Both of my sapphire cards have been wonderful overclockers.

9700nonpro ran 385/370 with only a bios flash and stock cooling
9800nonpro ran 443/405 with only a bios flash and stock cooling

Out of my two personal expereiences with sapphire (and about a dozen others with my clients rigs) I am more than willing to recomend their cards.

My 9800nonpro has the 3.3ns samsung and it overclocks so far that it's amazing-your 2.8 with a memory volt mod will bring it over 420 I'm positive.

Just use a multimeter and silver solder.

rogo

 

[stardust]

Originally posted by: Rogodin2
"Only ATI makes "Built By ATI" cards."

Sapphire has been making "built by ati cards" since 2001.

They are contracted out to build the boards using the cores that have validation by ati.

Both of my sapphire cards have been wonderful overclockers.

9700nonpro ran 385/370 with only a bios flash and stock cooling
9800nonpro ran 443/405 with only a bios flash and stock cooling

Out of my two personal expereiences with sapphire (and about a dozen others with my clients rigs) I am more than willing to recomend their cards.

My 9800nonpro has the 3.3ns samsung and it overclocks so far that it's amazing-your 2.8 with a memory volt mod will bring it over 420 I'm positive.

Just use a multimeter and silver solder.

rogo

Thnks, then i wasn't hallucinating at Silicon Valley's Srping Expo 2003 😉. ATi DID sign that contract for the 9800 series cards with saphire.

 

[tomyhill598]

Originally posted by: Rogodin2My 9800nonpro has the 3.3ns samsung and it overclocks so far that it's amazing-your 2.8 with a memory volt mod will bring it over 420 I'm positive.

Just use a multimeter and silver solder.
rogo

I was ecstatic when you mentioned my card being able to reach around 420, but then you mentioned this "volt mod"...please tell me you are kidding about the multimeter and the solder :wine:...I have absolutely no idea where to even begin. 😱 I am guessing I shouldnt attempt to even learn about this volt mod because I dont know much about electronics at all. Maybe when I get to college I can take up a course about electronics or something like that. I just searched for the voltage mod, and some stuff came up like this but that really doesnt say too much. People are saying that the vgpu mod is the easiest, but I am too retarded to do whatever it takes to perform that.