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At the turn of the year, I figured it was about time to upgrade from my Intel P4 2.6C to an AMD 64. I bought the Gigabyte K8NNXP Motherboard, AMD 64 3000+ (I know I know, shoulda got the 3200 but whatcha gonna do ;( ), and 512MB PC3700 OCZ 2.5-4-4-7 RAM. I decided to still use my Gainward Geforce4 Ti4800 SE. After installing everything, I benchmarked my system, and to my surprise, received only a 400 point increase on 3DMark2001. I knew my card was bottlenecking my system, but I didn't think it'd be THAT bad.
At any rate, I invested $340 into an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro AIW. This was my first encounter with ATI, and I gaurentee it won't be the last after my experience.
After simply installing the card and loading 3.1 drivers off the cd-rom, I got a 5800 point increase. I was so thrilled to be obtaining these results, I went and bought a Thermaltake VGA cooler, slapped that bitch on there and overclocked to 420/380 right now (after getting ram sinks I figure I'll oc some more as well). Now I'm up to 19600. I still need to update to Catalyst 4.1's.
The TV tuner on the card is phenominal as well. With features such as "Thruview," it makes the experience even more enjoyable than I previously thought. Hell, now I can watch Comedy Central and program at the same time!
My Zalman 7000a comes in today, so I'll be oc'ing my 3000+ probably 200mhz, depending on how hot the cpu runs.
I highly reccomend this card, but do not buy it refurbished. It is extremely important that you get the accessories.
Lastly, can anyone link me to a program that will tell me the temperature of my card? I would love to know how hot it gets.
Thanks!
-Alex "Jaden" Moore
At any rate, I invested $340 into an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro AIW. This was my first encounter with ATI, and I gaurentee it won't be the last after my experience.
After simply installing the card and loading 3.1 drivers off the cd-rom, I got a 5800 point increase. I was so thrilled to be obtaining these results, I went and bought a Thermaltake VGA cooler, slapped that bitch on there and overclocked to 420/380 right now (after getting ram sinks I figure I'll oc some more as well). Now I'm up to 19600. I still need to update to Catalyst 4.1's.
The TV tuner on the card is phenominal as well. With features such as "Thruview," it makes the experience even more enjoyable than I previously thought. Hell, now I can watch Comedy Central and program at the same time!
My Zalman 7000a comes in today, so I'll be oc'ing my 3000+ probably 200mhz, depending on how hot the cpu runs.
I highly reccomend this card, but do not buy it refurbished. It is extremely important that you get the accessories.
Lastly, can anyone link me to a program that will tell me the temperature of my card? I would love to know how hot it gets.
Thanks!
-Alex "Jaden" Moore