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9800 pro vs x800 pro speed increase

K

Kahnvex

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 5, 2001
Messages
3,297
HI all,

I just had the opportunity to upgrade from a 128mb 9800pro to an AGP x800pro, for the grand total of $77. My 9800pro went bad and Best Buy let me get full credit towards the x800pro and all I had to pay was the difference in price.

I was curious if any users out there could tell me what kind of speed increase I can expect over my 9800p. I tried to find some performance reviews that included comparisons between the two cards directly, but I came up short.

I've got an A64 3400+ rig with a 1GB of ram. I'm really curious as to the ballpark increase I'm looking at, I don't need anything totally concrete as I'll have the card in a few days, but any info would be greatly appreciated for now.

My main question is, should I be looking at getting the 6800ultra OC from BFG they have at outpost in http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=865049 instead?

I'm not sure I could get BBY to match that price, but if they did, the costs would be very similar.

Thoughts?
 
You'll definitely notice a difference at higher res with aa/af. If you overclocked the 9800 pro to say XT or slightly better, of course it would get more narrow. The X800 pro is faster though.
 
Since I just came from a 9800np, with the core overclocked to better than Pro speeds, but RAM about 325MHz, to an X800 Pro, the difference was quite dramatic.
 
I had a 9800 pro and went to an X800 pro.
I get close to double the framerates in HL2.
The two cards dont even compare. The X800 is WAY faster.
 
Yeah, definitely quite a noticeable difference between my old 9800NP and my X800 Pro.
 
Awesome. This thing just came in the mail, so I'm getting ready to try it out.

I had to use an old GF4 mx440 in the meantime while I waited for the new card to show up. So I'm REALLY going to notice a difference now.

Too bad I can't unlock the pipes like with the Vivo's.


Thanks for all the info, I appreciate it.

T
 
^ Ya it's between 50-100% difference, depending on the game/situation. Does BBY have any X800 Pro VIVOs you could flash to XT Platinums?

The Ultra will put up better numbers and it's worth a bit more, but you lose the better IQ of the ATi cards. AA looks a bit chunky on the 6800s, from what I've seen. The deal on Outpost is kickass, but you'll probably be paying closer to $450 after taxes and shipping before the rebate, which makes it much less cool. BFG does pay out their rebates pretty quickly though.
 
Well, I got the card. You guys were all right.

Installed it and everything is going great so far. I really appreciate the responses I've gotten. It's nice when you can ask a question and get some nice, no BS answers around here.

BBY didn't have any Vivos I could have gotten for the amount I paid in difference (unfortunately). As it was, I had to use their Customer Fulfillment system to get this card as they didn't have them in stock at the store. That service is pretty decent BTW. I could have had my card Thursday had I been home when UPS came calling, and I ordered it Monday. Not bad for free shipping.

I thought about the GF6800 deal at Outpost, but as sleepeeg3 pointed out it would have been a big difference in cost. And I really do value IQ over the FPS.

I've played a few games with it, and the one thing that I'm enjoying the most is the ability to turn on AA and AF to the max and get phenomenal gaming results. I'm resolution limited to 1280x 720 widescreen due to my monitor being a samsung 22" LCD HDTV. Wish it was a higher rez, but it works with my Xbox, PS2, Satellite and Gamecube, so for all that connectivity I can not complain.

I'm a big RTS fan, and so far Generals: Zero Hour runs awesome with all options and AF maxed. That game really cleans up well. Played the SW: Republic Commando demo and it was very nice. I've got LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth coming in the mail, and I can't wait to play that.

Far Cry is very pretty on this card, but I had to turn the AA down a tad due to some frame dips. 6x was killing performance.

3dmark 2k5 comes out around 3800~ but I haven't done any research on whether thats hot or not. I Don't really care much about it, but it sure is a cool looking benchmark to watch in action.

Two more questions.. :)

Hows the overclocking, and how do you guys like the the new omega drivers?

Thanks again for all the info,

T
 
What drivers are you using? Also, what speed is your processor? My x800Pro with some old 4.10's or 4.11's got around 4400-4500 in 3dmark 2005. It was slightly overclocked, but not like I have it now.
 
Right now I'm running an a64 3200+ and 1gb of Kingston Hyper-X ram 3200.

drivers are the Cat 5.1's from ATI.

Everything is at bone stock speeds and nothing is tweaked or overclocked. Normally I'm quite the tweaker, but I got this board a few months ago, and I just haven't had it in me to mess with it. I'm planning on trying out the Omega drivers, but I was waiting on some feedback first.

I'm sure theres some performance to be had in this thing that I could eek out of it, right now the ram is not set agressively at all, nor am I doing any FSB tuning. The last systen I ran was an AXP 2500@3200+ speeds with agressive timings, so I know the ram is good to go.

This motherboard is a K8Vse deluxe running the original bios.



I really should be ashamed of myself shouldn't I? :(

T
 
Kahnvex said:
Two more questions.. :)

Hows the overclocking, and how do you guys like the the new omega drivers?

Thanks again for all the info,

T
Click to expand...

Can't say about the Omegas because I don't use them. The one time I tried them they about hosed my whole system. ATi direct releases for me.

As for overclocking, my card has done quite well. I'm at 540/515 on the core/RAM, and I haven't even found the top end yet. I'm just having too much fun actually playing my games with the all eye candy. I'm sure as time goes on I'll continue to fiddle around and find out where it tops out. Then again, I haven't even found the top end for my A64 3200+, which is currently at 2.54GHz (254 x 10) and still not even showing signs of getting finicky.
 
At lower resolutions there will be no major speed increases. However at 1280 or 1600 the speed increases are significant. The X800pro will allow you to play at higher resolutions with some degree of AA and AF turned on. Equalling better image quality, higher speeds.
 
That is exactly it.
If you play at the same resolutions, without turning up the eye candy/aa/af it wont seem much different
But, you should be able to CRANK them up now. In hl2 there is no reason you wouldnt be able to play multiplayer at 1600x1200 4xaa 8xaf AT LEAST.
 
I turned off all my AA and my 3dmark score jumped to 4987. Still low apparently, but much more normalized than it was. I still haven't tweaked the ram or the board really.

I'll see how she runs later with some fiddling. Going to do a reformat soon anyway. May as well take a day and do it all then.


This card is great, theres nothing I can't run so far with exceptional frame rates and AA/AF cranked to the max.

T
 
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