Who Needs It?
Of course if you are one of the few that can afford to purchase the best at your any whim, there is no doubt that the VisionTek 9800 Pro is currently the best?and will cost you US$400 currently. For the rest of us, it may not be that easy as playing BF1942 from underneath a bridge can be somewhat troublesome. The 9800 Pro has already brought 9700 series cards down in price as 9700 Pros were spotted at Fry?s this weekend for under US$200. So if you are looking at upgrading from a pre-Ti4200 level of performance, this may well be a great time to make a move for little green. If you are already at or above Ti4200 performance levels, it might be worth your time to hang on and see what happens as games like Half Life 2 and DOOM]|[ draw nearer.
Of course, when to upgrade is a puzzle that only you can figure out for yourself. As product cycles have gotten so close together over the last few years, it seems as though there never is a ?right time? to upgrade without buyers remorse.
Conclusion
As for the VisionTek Xtasy 9800 Pro, we found that its performance is directly inline with the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. It uses the same core, the same memory and the same PCB design. In fact this card even used the exact same HSF, though with a better covering of thermal paste. Our sources tell us that it is very likely that this card rolls off the same assembly line as the ATI branded product. So for the most part you could currently look at them as the same card, although that is always subject to change on any given day. VisionTek still carries a lifetime warranty and has decent tech support here in the USA. That of course could all go away quickly if Hartford Computer decides that the video card business is not to their liking.
The VisionTek Xtasy 9800 Pro was rock solid as we experienced no stability or compatibility issues at stock core and memory speeds. The overclock was just phenomenal, a full 70Mhz higher then default, all with stock cooling. Just imagine if you equipped it with some better cooling or even a water block? It is incredible to be seeing ATI's .15 micron process with more then 110 million transistors reaching towards 450Mhz! There is some great engineering going on here.
From the packaging, to the bundle, to the performance possibilities with this card, we can say this is one solid card for your money. If we were in the market for an elite gaming card today, the VisionTek Xtasy 9800 Pro would be one of two cards that would be on our short list of cards to purchase for a primary gaming machine. Sad but true, NVIDIA's 5800 series is nowhere to be found on that list. Kudos to VisionTek for surviving adversity and we wish them all the luck in the world for making a strong comeback.
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