9800pro 128 or 256?

[TSx]

I saw that newegg has the sapphire 9800pro 128mb for $233, quite a bit down from mwave's $269 which was the lowest I had seen previously. I've been looking at the BBA 9800pro 256mb from mwave, at $325.

Is there enough difference in the 128mb to the 256mb to make it worth nearly $100? The charts on tomshardware showed the 256 at like 1-2fps better on most games, which made me wonder if it was worth it.

As far as I know, sapphire and ati basically help on each others cards don't they? I didn't think there was any real reason to pick one brand over the other.

Also, are the stock fans on those cards any good? I like the fan on the xt models, and I love the fan on the GF FX5900, but I don't much care for the ones on the 9800pro models. I know they overclock pretty nicely, but of course you'd need a new fan/heatsink for that...without going all out on a voltmod or something, how do the cards handle, are the fans enough to keep them cool?

 

[Mikey20]

I was wondering the same thing but in the end i went with the 128mb version

 

[TSx]

I'm leaning towards the 128mb now just due to the price, but still indecisive.

 

[Dillusion]

its 239$ now

 

[Moofasa~]

Well right now the reason there isn't a big difference is games aren't taking advantage of the extra 128mb (look what happend when we went from 64->128, in the very beginning 64mb cards were still better than the 128mb cards because the games couldn't use the extra 64mb). However, newer games like hl2 and doom3 will use the extra 128mb, and I think when higher resolutions are selected and when higher aa/af is enabled, the more useful the 256mb cards become. Also the 9800 Pro 256 isn't using cheap/crap ram either (its DDR-2 thats clocked higher than the regualr 9800 pro 128 ram), unlike the 9600 256mb cards, so if you do purchase one, the 9800 Pro 128 should never be better than the 9800 Pro 256 (technically). So the question boils down to this, how much better will 256mb be than 128mb in future games, and will it be worth the extra cash? I bought the 9800 256mb hoping the extra performance gain will be worth it. We will have to see...

-MoOfAsA~

 

[Dillusion]

if you go for a 9800 256, dont settle for the 330$ ass-crap saphire one with the crap-job cooler on it. get the real one with the ramsinks and the ati cooler

 

[FiZ]

The only game I can't play with everything maxed out is Call of Duty with the Extreme general textures (jerky in spots when the textures are loading). Those with 256mb 9800Pro/XT say it runs without a hitch. I would bet HL2/D3/etc. performance will benefit greatly for those with 256mb cards.

 

[TSx]

http://www.buyxtremegear.com/ati9800128o.html

that site has the ati radeon 9800pro 128mb built by ati model for $222 with $5.75 or so ground shipping to the US. I believe that's the same card mwave has for $269. Also newegg has the sapphire brand 9800pro 128mb at $239...I think it was $233 this morning, must've gone up already.

The cheapest I've seen the 256mb is on mwave, the ati brand 9800pro 256mb at $325.

I play mostly mmorpg's and the like, so I'm more worried about having 50-100 people around me to cause lag. I want to reduce that lag as much as possible without going bankrupt. I'm also often worried about my card heating up and/or overheating when playing a game for an extended period of time...like say, leaving it on for a few days. Personally I didn't think either the sapphire or the ati brand fans on the pro models looked worth a shit, but who knows, maybe they are.

edit: the card on newegg is the same as the one at the url listed above, at least based on the picture showing ram sinks. The one on mwave doesn't show it having ram sinks, nor does the one on ati's site.