Upgrading in the next month (Decision Made)

[Ardan]

I will be getting 2x512Mb of DDR400 RAM eventually, but I am definitely not new to hardware and I know that my 512MB of DDR333 will be just fine for now. You can see my rig in my signature, if you want to see that. I do play games, and for my 21st birthday I would like to ask for Far Cry, so I know I need to update my GF4 Ti4200, but I am not going to the extreme with that (it is not needed). I am trying to decide between a Radeon 9800 Pro-128Mb from Newegg $206 from Sapphire or BFG's GeForce 5900XT OverClocked card (128Mb RAM) for $194.99. I am inclined to go with the BFG, because I own a BFG GF4 card and it has given me years of unwavering quality. I am also a linux user (most of the time, actually) so I am leaning towards nvidia as well. I know that ATI is surging forward with Linux development...I don't need help in that area and I am not asking for it.

I have a 350W Enermax PSU in this computer and I *know* the rails definitely aren't taxed, but if I ever have troubles I will go with a different PSU without question. I don't need help on that either. What i'm curious about is the 5900XT (OC from BFG or not) and the 9800 Pro. I am not sure if I will buy HL2 as I initially planned, but I am sure both would run that fine. The thing is that I will buy a 17" LCD screen or a 19" CRT in September (most likely) to replace my 7 year old CRT (which still looks great), and I definitely need a video upgrade before a monitor upgrade. I also watch a LOT of DVDs on my PC (when both big TVs here are in use), so I am leaning towards the ATI because of how often they've been the video kings.

Is the 9800 Pro from Sapphire quieter than most 5900XTs, or does one of them run a little cooler? How about game compatiblity. Does it still stand that I would probably get less image errors in my games (Need For Speed: Underground, BF1942, some others) with the Radeon than with the nvidia card? I'm not sure if someone asked this precise question before, because I can't afford to spend 2 hours scouring the archives here today, sorry . Oh yes, what about Power Consumption? Does anyone know which one consumes less power? That is also important to me, whether I have the proper PSU or not.

Thanks for all your answers and descriptions!

 

[fwtong]

Get the BFG because it's cheaper.

 

[AristoV300]

If you do plan to go with a 9800 pro DO NOT buy a Sapphire one. They are crap...

 

[fsstrike]

Originally posted by: AristoV300
If you do plan to go with a 9800 pro DO NOT buy a Sapphire one. They are crap...

Uggh how the hell are sapphires crap? They are exactly the same. They even look identical to the ATI brand ones.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: fsstrike

Originally posted by: AristoV300
If you do plan to go with a 9800 pro DO NOT buy a 128 bit Sapphire one. They are crap...

Uggh how the hell are sapphires crap? They are exactly the same. They even look identical to the ATI brand ones.

Corrected.

 

[estew33]

If you decide to go with the 9800 Pro, why not spend the few extra dollars, get the ATI, you receive a 3 year warranty wit the ATI card

 

[GeneralGrievous]

this is your best bet

 

[fsstrike]

Originally posted by: MDE

Originally posted by: fsstrike

Originally posted by: AristoV300
If you do plan to go with a 9800 pro DO NOT buy a 128 bit Sapphire one. They are crap...

Uggh how the hell are sapphires crap? They are exactly the same. They even look identical to the ATI brand ones.

Corrected.

Gotcha

 

[AristoV300]

Yes the Hercules are great cards. I am just saying from personal experience and friends of mine whom have had Sapphire cards. I have had to RMA 2 of them that were defective at purchase. Their customer support is horrible. I would recommend you read their own forums and judge for yourself. They even have a website dedicated to boycotting Sapphire...

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: AristoV300
If you do plan to go with a 9800 pro DO NOT buy a Sapphire one. They are crap...

hmmm....something tells me you are a n00b.


ive used 3 of em, 0 problems. look at the other 800000 5 star reviews at newegg...

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: AristoV300
If you do plan to go with a 9800 pro DO NOT buy a Sapphire one. They are crap...

hmmm....something tells me you are a n00b.


ive used 3 of em, 0 problems. look at the other 800000 5 star reviews at newegg...

he might be a n00b but you doN'T read "edits" - the 128 BIT one

128bits suck for a 9800Pro . . . and we're not talkin RAM.

If prices are close, get the ATI Radeon 256bit/256MB Pro and flash the BIOS into an "XT"

In THIS case - the Sapphire 9800Pro -256/256's HS IS crap and you'll need a VGA cooler (my "ati" 256/256 Pro>"XT" has a HS/fan that will work for the Xt except to O/C further).

:roll:

 

[AristoV300]

I don't want to start a flame war. I am sure there are Sapphire cards that work just fine and people may be happy with them. Only thing I can say is they do usually have great game bundles with their cards.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: AristoV300
I don't want to start a flame war. I am sure there are Sapphire cards that work just fine and people may be happy with them. Only thing I can say is they do usually have great game bundles with their cards.

No flames . .. just the faqs.

Sapphire is guilty of deception - they were packaging a 9800Pro 128BIT and somewhat misrepresenting it as a 256bit card.

Whether or not you want to defend them - Sapphire ALREADY apologized and offered to make their "problem" - right.

:roll:

i know of ONLY ONE other issue of Sapphire using cheaper "parts" and that is specifically the HS/fan of the 9800Pro - 256/2566 version - even there it is "sufficient" for the Pro but not the XT.

 

[vshah]

if you're getting something in a month, you might want to wait for the 6800...will kick the 9800 and 5900 all over the place, price should be reasonable.

-Vivan

 

[Ardan]

The thing is that I don't want to spend more than $250 on a video card, because I don't need anything higher and I have some planned upgrades. See, I am gunning for a DP930SB in September or a good 16ms LCD screen (I do WAY more movie-watching and text-reading than gaming) if I budget my money properly.

I figured on one of those because I could make room later on for a quality 17" LCD screen that could be adequately powered in games. Yes, I do plan on an Athlon 64 upgrade later this year (November or December), which will really boost all the source-building in linux I do.

I'm thinking of a 9800 Pro 128MB card. Is that alright? It seems to be faster than the 5900 XT OC...can anyone provide me with links to reviews that have them both in there? (doesn't have to be the 5900 XT OC card) I'm having a hard time finding them. What was this 128-bit nonsense here? All of those cards say 256-bit on them .

 

[DrMindbender]

Either one will be cool. They are practically the same. For the 5900XT get the Gainward. It's five cheaper and is overclocked more(450/780) than the BFG. Although BFG has nice support.

 

[BFG10K]

Get something this generation like the 6800 or the X800. If you can't then definitely get the 9800 Pro as it's a lot faster at times.

If you do plan to go with a 9800 pro DO NOT buy a Sapphire one.

AFAIK Sapphire manufactures ATi's reference cards.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: fwtong
Get the BFG because it's cheaper.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Ardan
I'm thinking of a 9800 Pro 128MB card. Is that alright? It seems to be faster than the 5900 XT OC...can anyone provide me with links to reviews that have them both in there? (doesn't have to be the 5900 XT OC card) I'm having a hard time finding them.

digit-life's monthly 3Digest usually has all the recent/current cards, although the tests are a bit limited.

What was this 128-bit nonsense here? All of those cards say 256-bit on them .

Sapphire recently put out a "9800Pro" with a 128-bit memory interface (which cripples performance pretty significantly). There were numerous complaints, and they have since changed their naming. The issue here is that for the 9200 and 9600, the half-memory variants have an "SE" postfix -- but for the 9800, the "SE" is a 4-pipe/256-bit card, and they somehow decided that an 8-pipe/128-bit one was NOT an "SE".

 

[Ardan]

Thanks for the link! Wow, now thats bad news. I didn't even realize that Gainward had those clock rates either! I have changed my mind, and will decide between the Gainward 5900XT or a Radeon 9800 Pro from ATI.

I want the best for my money, so I think it may just come down to how much money I have for a video card purchase at that time.

BFG10K, I know what you mean but I can't spend that money at the moment. What my plan to do is to get either of those cards, and then save up for a very nice 17" LCD (12ms or 16ms response time) screen. I *could* buy one of those, but I'd have $50 in my account after everything is said and done this summer

Edit: After seeing that link, and looking at others, I have decided on an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.
It was clearly faster, and I completely forgot about the agony caused my nvidia's lack of progress on linux drivers! I'm talking about current troubles, including the 4k stack size that nvidia's driver can't handle.