What's the fuss about Radeon 9800 XT

shohoku

Golden Member
Aug 19, 2003
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So what is it so different with 9800 Pro 128MB? Anyone who got it, what's your impression? I have it but don't see too much difference. In other words, waste of $500 bux! :|
 

modedepe

Diamond Member
May 11, 2003
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The only difference is it's clocked a few mhz higher than a pro. I agree that it's not worth an extra $200 over the pro.
 

jiffylube1024

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
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Welcome to the world of high end overpriced cards. Population: The Radeon 9800XT and 9800 256MB and the GeForce FX 5950 and 5900 Ultra!
 

nRollo

Banned
Jan 11, 2002
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The fuss is it's arguably the best and fastest video card for gamers currently available, and it looks like it will till next spring. Some people are willing to pay premium for that.
 

Vonkhan

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2003
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I have a 9800XT and the extra $ that I spent on it was well worth it. Its stock speed are well above the 9800Pros ... but what really kikz azz is the overdrive & vpu recover feature
 

rbV5

Lifer
Dec 10, 2000
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Don't worry, your 9800pro is still a nice card. People with 9800np's say the same thing about 9800 pros too.
 

rbV5

Lifer
Dec 10, 2000
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There is only $11 difference between an OEM 9800XT and Retail 256MB 9800pro at Newegg, so it could be worth it to some folks.
 

rbV5

Lifer
Dec 10, 2000
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256 is pretty useless for the 9800 pro
Well, probably not all 256 MB's:), but I'd say the 9800xt is as useless as a 256MB 9800pro with a slightly better feature set for only a couple bucks more.
 

dguy6789

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2002
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9800 XTs are clocked higher, and have 256MB of memory, so they may be worth it. 6XAA in 1600X1200 would probably take advantage of the extra mem.
 

SilverBack

Golden Member
Oct 10, 1999
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rolleye.gif


If you're playing at 1600x1200 you don't need 6x AA anyway. That's complete overkill.
We don't need anymore AA, we need more complex modeling!

/me rants ;)
 

jzodda

Senior member
Apr 12, 2000
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We don't need anymore AA, we need more complex modeling!

Yep! Exactly...play morrowind at 1600x1200 with or without 6X AA and see very little difference
 

Mardeth

Platinum Member
Jul 24, 2002
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Originally posted by: shohoku
So what is it so different with 9800 Pro 128MB? Anyone who got it, what's your impression? I have it but don't see too much difference. In other words, waste of $500 bux! :|

:D

Yep pretty much a waist of 500$ if you had a 9800pro. The performance difference is probably 5% on average.
 

sswingle

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
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Originally posted by: Vonkhan
I have a 9800XT and the extra $ that I spent on it was well worth it. Its stock speed are well above the 9800Pros ... but what really kikz azz is the overdrive & vpu recover feature

All overdrive does is overclock the card, and not by as much as you can get by manually overclocking.
Secondly, VPU recover was a feature added to all Radeon cards.

 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
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Exactly pwddesign said, The VPU recover works on every Radeon card using the Cat 3.8 drivers (or higher).
 

Ackmed

Diamond Member
Oct 1, 2003
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Originally posted by: modedepe
The only difference is it's clocked a few mhz higher than a pro. I agree that it's not worth an extra $200 over the pro.

It also has 256meg, not 128megs. Thermal diode to read the core temps. Overdrive. New fan design that covers ram too. And HL2 for free.

As you can see, more than just "clocked a few mhz higher".

 

modedepe

Diamond Member
May 11, 2003
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Originally posted by: Ackmed
Originally posted by: modedepe
The only difference is it's clocked a few mhz higher than a pro. I agree that it's not worth an extra $200 over the pro.

It also has 256meg, not 128megs. Thermal diode to read the core temps. Overdrive. New fan design that covers ram too. And HL2 for free.

As you can see, more than just "clocked a few mhz higher".

You can also get the 9800 pro with 256mb of ram, so I don't consider it to be adding much. Besides, I consider 256mb more than we need currently. I also believe sapphire is supposed to make a 128mb version of the 9800xt.

The temp monitoring is nice. I'm shocked that it hasn't been adopted for all cards. I find it fairly handy for monitoring temps on my cards.

And yes, it does have a nice new fan. Overall though, I don't think these ehancements are worth $200 more. I'll let you decide if a bump in clock speeds plus the other additions make it worth it to you though.
 

Vonkhan

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2003
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All overdrive does is overclock the card, and not by as much as you can get by manually overclocking.

doesnt void the warranty :D and saves me the trouble of finding the highest OC tht my card gets me
 

SilverBack

Golden Member
Oct 10, 1999
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The 9800XT simply isn't worth the money. It's not a revolutionary card, in fact it's not even a evolutionary one.
The onboard thermal diode has been around for a while, of course not on video cards, and frankly doesn't really bring any truely useful function to the scene.
If you overclock your card and you get artifacts, guess what, it's clocked to high.

For small 5% increase in overall speed ATi is doing nothing more than taking advantage of those less educated about what thier getting at a premium price.
This is very similar to the situation between the 9800 and the 9800 Pro, except of course in reverse.

I have a 9800 Pro myself and I do like the card, however my card does XT speeds already.
It would be better to wait until Spring before rushing out and paying to much now.

You know for the extra that you pay for the XT you could go out and get a decent watercooling system. <<<< A much better idea all the way around :D



 

PaperclipGod

Banned
Apr 7, 2003
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I got myself a 9800XT... and id say its worth it. Call it $450 since it will (eventually) include HL2. Regular BBA 9800 Pro's are going for ~$350, so its only $100 more for an extra 128 megs of ram and faster mem/core.

It's really not as expensive as everyones making it out to be.
 

Pete

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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The XT is supposed to have a tweak or two in its pixel shaders, allowing it to perform faster than previous 9800's in PS-heavy benches, clock for clock.

ATi isn't ripping people off with the 9800XT. For the same price as the 9800P 256MB, they now offer a faster card with cooler memory and an excellent bundled game. What's not to like?

All of you arguing that's it's smarter to buy a 9800 and OC it to XT levels conveniently avoid the fact that OC'ing is not guaranteed and requires extra work on the user's part. Not everyone wants to put in the extra time.