I want a video card under $250 256 mb 9800pro ok?

A

[A]MD-Fan

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 24, 2002
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Looking to get a video card for under $250 (i hate spending too much $ on computer stuff) that will run Doom 3 and Half Life 2 with high details (dont care about AA/AF)

I can get a ATi 256 mb 9800pro for $230 and this so far looks like the best deal. However it does have DDR2, and I've heard that sometimes it can make it slower than a regualar 128 mb 9800pro?

Also can this be flashed to XT?

Thanks
 
No, only the R350(I *think*, could be the 60) cores can be flashed, and without the DDR2 RAM.
 
Thats fine. I honestly don't think I would have done it anyway, I'm way to freaked out about graphic card soft/hard modding.

I think I'll just overclock it a bit
 
If you spend an extra 30 bucks, you can get a Geforce 6800 Non-Ultra, which would be a much better plan.
 
cappy said:
If you spend an extra 30 bucks, you can get a Geforce 6800 Non-Ultra, which would be a much better plan.
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Yeah but it only has 128 mb RAM....

And isn't the 6800nu only a bit faster?
 
the 6800nu is faster until aa and af are turned on becuase of the 128 mb ram and the increase of bandwidth with them them turned on.
 
rancor said:
the 6800nu is faster until aa and af are turned on becuase of the 128 mb ram and the increase of bandwidth with them them turned on.
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Sorry I don't understand what you said. Is it faster with AA/AF turned on and with them turned off?

Theres no way the 256 mb 9800pro is faster with AA/AF is it?
 
[A]MD-Fan, what resolution are you planning to game at? Be aware that High Detail automatically enables 8xAF.....and while you can turn it off using a simple config file tweak.....you really don't want to, the game looks MUCH worse without 8xAF when you can see the differences side by side. The reason I'm asking you what resolution you're planning on is because even though I have double the memory you do, our cpu speeds (my stock to your oc'ed) are FAIRLY comparable.....and I'm running a 256MB 9800XT at stock clock, which is only SLIGHTLY faster then that 9800Pro. I just did a LOT of testing with my 9800XT at every possible resolution combined with every possible detail level.....let me show you what I found for High Detail:

1280x1024: 32fps average
1024x768: 45.3fps average
800x600: 51.2fps average
640x480: 57.7fps average

As you can see, these numbers are nothing to brag about, and yours wouldn't even be quite that high at High Detail because of a couple differences in our systems. If you're looking for relatively smooth gameplay I would NOT recommend 1280x1024, as it slows WAY to much when you're hit by fireballs and such.....1024 is alright, but 800x600 is the "sweet spot" for me where it stays above 40fps basically all the time, and is right up at 60fps VERY often. Don't be discouraged by that, 800x600 High Detail still looks very nice, and if you've read [H]'s Guide, you'd know already that resolution doesn't play AS big a role in the IQ with Doom3 as it does in other games.

I'm not here to discourage you at all, I'm merely here to show you what you can expect, just so that you dont get your hopes up at all, cus you'll be hitting frame rates right up around what I'm bringing in right now.....I'm only trying to help clarify things.

Just for a little bit of extra info, at High Detail when my cpu was overclocked from 2.8GHz to 3.43GHz these are the results:

1280x1024: 32fps average
1024x768: 46.8fps average
800x600: 62.1fps average
640x480: 71.8fps average

As you can see, the 9800Pro and 9800XT show very little gain from the 600MHz faster CPU at high detail because the cards just aren't fast enough to benefit from it to the same extent as a 6800Ultra or GT would.

I hope I could help, I'll have the complete listings of all my results posted up very soon if you want to keep watch.
 
^^^^

Great post, thanks for being very thorough.

The system in sig doesn't reflect my true system specs. This will be coming to me on Tuesday:

Athlon 64 3000+ (newcastle)
Chaintech VNF-250
2x512 Kingston HyperX PC4000
all other components the same
and of course deciding on the video card.

I usually just game at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 (obviously with my PNY card I have never been able to experience AA/AF)
 
[A]MD-Fan said:
^^^^

Great post, thanks for being very thorough.

The system in sig doesn't reflect my true system specs. This will be coming to me on Tuesday:

Athlon 64 3000+ (newcastle)
Chaintech VNF-250
2x512 Kingston HyperX PC4000
all other components the same
and of course deciding on the video card.

I usually just game at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 (obviously with my PNY card I have never been able to experience AA/AF)
Click to expand...

All I can say is that with that 1GB of ram coming, and the A64, even if you get the 9800Pro 256MB you'll be outdoing me for sure. The on-die memory controller on the A64's allow Doom3 to see your system ram as one huge pile of cache.....and Doom3 benefits greatly from higher cpu cache. I'd like to have a S939 A64 setup right now instead of my P4 in my sig, cus I game a lot more then I used to, and A64's simply own in games, even all my favorite sythetic benchmarks are being dominated by A64's. I think this fall I'll start working towards selling off my whole P4 setup and replacing it with a nice FX53 uber rig. Probly after I finally get my water cooling though. ;) :cool:
 
cornelious0_0 said:
All I can say is that with that 1GB of ram coming, and the A64, even if you get the 9800Pro 256MB you'll be outdoing me for sure. The on-die memory controller on the A64's allow Doom3 to see your system ram as one huge pile of cache.....and Doom3 benefits greatly from higher cpu cache. I'd like to have a S939 A64 setup right now instead of my P4 in my sig, cus I game a lot more then I used to, and A64's simply own in games, even all my favorite sythetic benchmarks are being dominated by A64's. I think this fall I'll start working towards selling off my whole P4 setup and replacing it with a nice FX53 uber rig. Probly after I finally get my water cooling though. ;) :cool:
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Heh yeah I don't have the $$ for S939, but I think I'll won't really need it for a while. My next huge upgrade will be when nforce4/S939 and really good PCI-E cards come out, which shouldnt be for a while seeing how 8x AGP is still overkill

edit: my only other worry about purchasing a mid-end nvidia card is Half Life 2 performance; this will be the major game that I will probably be playing for the next year or so with all the multiplayer mods, etc (hopefull CS Source, etc).
 
After reading some reviews I guess I'll be going with a 6800nu for around $280-290
 
[A]MD-Fan said:
my only other worry about purchasing a mid-end nvidia card is Half Life 2 performance; this will be the major game that I will probably be playing for the next year or so with all the multiplayer mods, etc (hopefull CS Source, etc).
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If you're REALLY that worried about HL2 then just wait until Fall when the game is (hopefully) released.....by then we'll be able to see exactly how our next-gen beauties are performing, and availability/stock of these sought after cards will have mellow'd out a little bit. It would be a shame to pop that Ti4200 into your A64 setup, but if you're really thinking about HL2 more then Doom3 then do what you think is best, don't listen to what some !!!!!! pushes on you, no matter where you are. I'm not saying that the 256MB 9800Pro is going to "kick ass" in HL2, because we don't know that.....but it sure as hell isn't going to suck either. That's about as blunt as I can put it, and honestly, nobody else has the right to go more indepth then that, as NOBODY has any idea exactly how any of these cards will be performing in HL2.
 
cornelious0_0 said:
If you're REALLY that worried about HL2 then just wait until Fall when the game is (hopefully) released.....by then we'll be able to see exactly how our next-gen beauties are performing, and availability/stock of these sought after cards will have mellow'd out a little bit. It would be a shame to pop that Ti4200 into your A64 setup, but if you're really thinking about HL2 more then Doom3 then do what you think is best, don't listen to what some !!!!!! pushes on you, no matter where you are. I'm not saying that the 256MB 9800Pro is going to "kick ass" in HL2, because we don't know that.....but it sure as hell isn't going to suck either. That's about as blunt as I can put it, and honestly, nobody else has the right to go more indepth then that, as NOBODY has any idea exactly how any of these cards will be performing in HL2.
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Well the only qualm with that is that I go to school outside the US, and I need to have the system built by August 28 :(

Otherwise its me waiting till spring time when I am back in the US (I'm going to London, and computer parts are basically twice as expensive as the US)
 
[A]MD-Fan said:
Well the only qualm with that is that I go to school outside the US, and I need to have the system built by August 28 :(

Otherwise its me waiting till spring time when I am back in the US (I'm going to London, and computer parts are basically twice as expensive as the US)
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Ah, ic......yeah, in that case I'd probly go with the 6800NU.....you said yourself you dont really care about AA, neither do I.....and you'll be happier then hell taking the 6800NU over the 9800Pro if you had the chance to try out both of 'em. :)

Happy fraggin'
 
the 6800nu is faster then the 9800 pro 256 and pretty much about even or a bit lower with it when aa and af is turned on.

clicky
 
[A]MD-Fan said:
Hmm....

I just can't see the extra $60 warranting a purchase with performance difference so small. I'm probably only going to be gaming at 1024x768 with details on high maybe 2xAA to smooth out some jaggies.

I've played Far Cry on a 128 mb 9800pro with all details on high at 1024x768 and the game ran flawlessly on a friends pc. And I dont think we'll see any games more demanding than Far Cry/ Doom 3 engine/ Source engine until the new Unreal Tech engine is out (2-3 years?)

Additionally I could care less about anything over 45 fps as I just can't see the difference. And as it is now I think the ATi card might just be as fast as a 6800nu or maybe even a bit faster (but I dont have the option of waiting)

I think I'm going to go ahead and order the 9800pro and be happy with my purchase. My ti4200 served me well and did do Doom 3 very well with low details, but I think its time I get something better.

Thanks for the responses guys
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I think maybe we're just trying to make sure that you're future proofing yourself as much as possible, as we never know what'll happen in the future, and you might be "stuck" with this next card for longer then you might like. Personally, even for the kind of performance gains the 6800NU has over the 9800Pro I'd GLADLY plop down the extra $60.....because there's also a great deal of technological advantages (hardware and software based) that the 6800NU carries that WILL become that much more apparent as time goes on.

I can understand what you're saying about the engines, but you're being kind of short-minded. Look at Quake III Arena, runs great, and we had countless PC's clearing 500fps on a regular basis. Take into account however what has been done WITH the Q3 engine.....look at Call of Duty and RTCW: ET for example.....the games are not NEARLY as easy on a persons computer, and they do look quite a bit nicer.

What I'm trying to say is that there are going to be a great number of games that are BASED off the D3 engine, but will quite possibly be more demanding, and we're most likely gonna start seeing THOSE types of games rolling around before we see anything based of the new Unreal tech.....as that's even farther off in the future.

I trust you'll make the right move.....and I still do want to see you pick up the 6800NU.
 
cornelious0_0 said:
I think maybe we're just trying to make sure that you're future proofing yourself as much as possible, as we never know what'll happen in the future, and you might be "stuck" with this next card for longer then you might like. Personally, even for the kind of performance gains the 6800NU has over the 9800Pro I'd GLADLY plop down the extra $60.....because there's also a great deal of technological advantages (hardware and software based) that the 6800NU carries that WILL become that much more apparent as time goes on.

I can understand what you're saying about the engines, but you're being kind of short-minded. Look at Quake III Arena, runs great, and we had countless PC's clearing 500fps on a regular basis. Take into account however what has been done WITH the Q3 engine.....look at Call of Duty and RTCW: ET for example.....the games are not NEARLY as easy on a persons computer, and they do look quite a bit nicer.

What I'm trying to say is that there are going to be a great number of games that are BASED off the D3 engine, but will quite possibly be more demanding, and we're most likely gonna start seeing THOSE types of games rolling around before we see anything based of the new Unreal tech.....as that's even farther off in the future.

I trust you'll make the right move.....and I still do want to see you pick up the 6800NU.
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I decided on the eVGA 6800nu just before you posted that :D
 
[A]MD-Fan said:
I decided on the eVGA 6800nu just before you posted that :D
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Looks good, just don't end up "teeter tottering" back to the other side while I'm at work. ;) :p
 
cornelious0_0 said:
Looks good, just don't end up "teeter tottering" back to the other side while I'm at work. ;) :p
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Hehe I won't I decided that $60 was pretty stupid considering the amount I spent already. And I am convinced that the 6800 is faster which is all that mattered; I guess in the back of my mind the extra 128 mb of ram on the 9800pro just made it seem faster
 
[A]MD-Fan said:
Hehe I won't I decided that $60 was pretty stupid considering the amount I spent already.
Click to expand...

Heh, I love looking at it that way.....that's why I usually do a few major purchases all at once, that way I dont really have a hard time justifying throwing in something little for an extra $50 or so. :p
 
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