Sapphire 9800Pro $166

I don't know man. I got a Sapphire 9700 Pro from them a few months ago, and I had some strange problems. Sometimes my computer would boot up and the screen would have garbage all over it once it reached the desktop, and it would be on the POST screen if I restarted. It would be gone if I shut down and started up again though. Sometimes my computer would randomly shut down while I played a game too. I replaced it with a new 9800 Pro and haven't had any of those problems. The 9700 Pro is currently in my secondary system and hasn't had any problems so far.

I dunno, it's flighty. I think paying an extra $40 is worth the guarantee of a perfectly working card. I sure wish I bought the 9800 Pro in the first place.
 
if i am not mistaken, you can RMA a defective refurb with newegg, just not with the manufacturer (or visa versa)
 
Jozone said:
are you sure? I thought there was a card that was a 9800 pro that was 128bit that they later renamed to 'atlantis' to differentiate from a 256bit 9800 pro.
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Look at the link, it says 256-bit right in the title. Only the SE comes in 128bit, all the pros and XTs are 256-bit.
 
It wasn't just the SE's that had 128bit memory. Sapphire came out with a 128bit card with almost pro clocks and the pro name. After much backlash they decided to take off pro from the name and just keep it as 9800 Atlantis.

See image
 
I think this whole 128 and 256 bit thing was a mistake on neweggs part.. i think they labeled their products on their website wrong..

EDIT: sorry i read what the person before me posted.. so that's what happened huh?
 
Thanks for the headsup, I ordered one, just in time for Doom3 maybe.
Had bought 2 9800se's, but they were duds, (they are 256 bit though) Not worth trying to soft mod, they don't even o/c well. Anyway, time to finally upgrade from my trusty ole 9500 softmodded. ;)
 
knucklehd said:
Thanks for the headsup, I ordered one, just in time for Doom3 maybe.
Had bought 2 9800se's, but they were duds, (they are 256 bit though) Not worth trying to soft mod, they don't even o/c well. Anyway, time to finally upgrade from my trusty ole 9500 softmodded. ;)
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Let us know how it turns out...if it performs same as a new one, this is a steal
 
UPDATE: I received the card today, I had really no hopes of a great success story with the card since it was such a good deal being a refurb, and if it did not please, then I would just sell it off in one of the systems I build to sell.
The card looks brand new, there is no dust or anything in the fan or heatsinks.
Haven't ran it through all the benchmarks, but right off the bat it is 50 fps faster than my softmodded 9500 in quake3 @1280x1024. The visual quality is noticeable better as well. I use it for my HTPC on my 73" mitsubishi HDTV.
So I try one overclock so far, 420/380. It works perfectly, over 60fps faster now, so I move on to Far cry and UT2K4, most certainly faster, i am completely satisfied! And the good news about Doom3 being gold today, wow, I can't believe I finally got a good deal. Thanks again! Will try more O/C later :D
 
Not sure. Some Sapphires are r350 and some are r360. The only care I know of that for sure comes with the r260 core is the MSI 9800Pro. Otherwse knuclehead....feel like popping off the heatsink and finding out what core it is. It should be engraved on the core...second line. It will say R350 or R360
 
I will tackle the heatsink later on, I am real busy with other things now, but I did look in sandra AGP bus section, and it says Radeon 9800 Pro (R350) Bios date is 10-17-03. Regardless, it's a nice card at a great price, thanks again yall.
 
knucklehd said:
I will tackle the heatsink later on, I am real busy with other things now, but I did look in sandra AGP bus section, and it says Radeon 9800 Pro (R350) Bios date is 10-17-03. Regardless, it's a nice card at a great price, thanks again yall.
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If thats waht sanda says, ill take its work. Regarless, you should tackle the heatsink, and replace it with a VGA Silencer. Glad to hear a that he refurb works like it should...and that my link was helpful to someone :D
 
I got my 9800 Pro refurbed from NewEgg just alittle after they were released and it's still running strong. :)
 
A while back I got a 9600XT for $129 (they were like 170 then).

That card was great! It worked right out of the box. It just didn't come with cables though...
 
Ok, I read the whole article. Everything looks as if I have the right card to flash to a 9800xt
I got the samsung 2.5ns 8e2a batch 404 memory, and the black pins that hold the cooler on
too. I downloaded all the stuff to flash it, I am going to shutdown now, remove the heatsink, make sure its the 360 core, then ill be back to post about it. Here goes. :eek:
 
Ok, sorry for the delay, but I had forgot about my DR's appointment, and was almost late...
I do have the R360 core, I now have a 9800 XT! It certainly runs hotter, while I had the heatsink off, I was going to add another one, but I couldnt find anything that would work correctly. Pain messing with the little heatsink. Anyway, soon as I tried to put the clock speeds back to 420/380, I got artifacts, and notice they were indeed correct in saying the stock cooler won't cut it for an XT. What heatsink is recomended now? The card does work perfectly at default speeds 412/365 I put the ram to 375, I guess the core really is working harded with the XT pixer shader optimizations or whatever. Oh yea, I ordered 2 more from Newegg! :cool:
 
I don't know if you really want a 9800p with an r360 core.. It reduces the core OC A LOT! I've got mine at 480/425, but with an r350 core I'd be well into the 500s..
 
Mag Master said:
I don't know if you really want a 9800p with an r360 core.. It reduces the core OC A LOT! I've got mine at 480/425, but with an r350 core I'd be well into the 500s..
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If you get lower clock speeds, why would they use it on an XT which is a faster card? OCing varies from card to card, maybe you just got one thats a bad OCer
 
knucklehd said:
Ok, sorry for the delay, but I had forgot about my DR's appointment, and was almost late...
I do have the R360 core, I now have a 9800 XT! It certainly runs hotter, while I had the heatsink off, I was going to add another one, but I couldnt find anything that would work correctly. Pain messing with the little heatsink. Anyway, soon as I tried to put the clock speeds back to 420/380, I got artifacts, and notice they were indeed correct in saying the stock cooler won't cut it for an XT. What heatsink is recomended now? The card does work perfectly at default speeds 412/365 I put the ram to 375, I guess the core really is working harded with the XT pixer shader optimizations or whatever. Oh yea, I ordered 2 more from Newegg! :cool:
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And for you check out www.frozencpu.com. Get a VGA Silenver (cheapest, yet best cooler there is) and some OCZ Copper Ramsinks (you can get a diff. brand if you want coz these are the most expensive, but tehre the best and I know tehre small enough to fit under a VGA silencer
 
You dont have to pop out the heatsink, you can use AIDA32 or go into graphics cards properties to see what core it has..
 
Viper87227 said:
And for you check out www.frozencpu.com. Get a VGA Silenver (cheapest, yet best cooler there is) and some OCZ Copper Ramsinks (you can get a diff. brand if you want coz these are the most expensive, but tehre the best and I know tehre small enough to fit under a VGA silencer
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Thanks, I'm going to get me one, they are out of stock though.
Hmm, well, Newegg has it for a dollar more, shipping is 8 bucks from frozen, 5 from newegg.
I'll look around some more.

On the topic of why would you wont a 360 core. The simplist answer, I guess, is that it is faster running at lower clock speeds because of the optimizations. It showed faster results at default XT speeds (412/365) than it did at 420/380. Perhaps only in newer games that utilize them, I don't know. I guess if you don't play the laest games, then you would want to flash to the stock bios, so you could o/c the card more. Maybe more benchmarking is needed i suppose. Either way, it's good to know at least it can be an XT if it wants to.
And this new vga cooler is sure to help it o/c in either mode. :D
 
knucklehd said:
Thanks, I'm going to get me one, they are out of stock though.
Hmm, well, Newegg has it for a dollar more, shipping is 8 bucks from frozen, 5 from newegg.
I'll look around some more.

On the topic of why would you wont a 360 core. The simplist answer, I guess, is that it is faster running at lower clock speeds because of the optimizations. It showed faster results at default XT speeds (412/365) than it did at 420/380. Perhaps only in newer games that utilize them, I don't know. I guess if you don't play the laest games, then you would want to flash to the stock bios, so you could o/c the card more. Maybe more benchmarking is needed i suppose. Either way, it's good to know at least it can be an XT if it wants to.
And this new vga cooler is sure to help it o/c in either mode. :D
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aha...amkes sense to me..and yeah the VGA silecner actaully not onyl helps your card OC better, if till help case temps because it ehausts air out the back of your case instead of just spewing hot air into your case. Ramsinks are advised to, but agian, be careful that you get some that will fit under the VGA silencer. If anything, get 4 of the samller ones for the core side of the card and 4 of the monsters for the otehr side.
 
OK, Well, I've decided to try one of these "economical" powerhouses. If all works well, I'll be fortunate enough to have one that can be flashed to an XT. If not, I'l be upgrading to a 9800Pro from my 9700np (w pro bios @ 350/300). Then the 9700 will be making an appearance on Ebay to help pay for this modest upgrade. VGA Silencer Rev 3 is also on order for the new "used" card. Wish me luck with getting an XT in Pro disguise.
 
I ordered a power color refurb 9700 pro [$135], I had checkerboard almost immediately.

I returned it and ordered a new powercolor 9700 pro [$185] which im using to write this up.

Also ordered the VGA Silencer a few weeks ago [~18]. Everything works great now.

Both cards from newegg, VGA Silencer from SVC...

Needless to say I'm wary of buying another refurb high end video card...
 
Yeah, I know there is no promise as to what I will recieve, if it is bad, then I will send it back and try a second time. If that doesn't work, then I'll get a new 9800PRO. I'm in no hurry, as my 9700 w/ VGA Silencer is almost at pro speeds and is acceptable. I figure If I can get $125 for the 9700 on ebay then it will end up being about a $60 upgrade, unless someone here wants it.
 
tylerhskate said:
You dont have to pop out the heatsink, you can use AIDA32 or go into graphics cards properties to see what core it has..
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They just read from bios.
 
Just got mine today, unfortunately it looks like a dud (major artifacts). On the bright side, it came with all the accessories! :p

Now my dillema is whether to order another 9800p or take the plunge on a 6800GT. I can't afford either, but hey it's Doom time!
 
You cant RMA a video card back through the factory if it is a refurb?
 
Not sure, if mine arrives tomorrow night and it is a dud...I will definitely look into it and get you an snwer. My invoice from Newegg says nothing about it being a refurb or being used. So as far as Sapphire (ATI) would know, it would just be an OEM. Unless someone else has more information.
 
Sapphire RMA sucks anyways, dont bother. Newegg has a 14 day return on all refurbs tho, so if it doesnt work you can sent it back to them. The issue is that sapphire wont RMA a card unless you have proof you baught it over a year ago, so from when your 14 days grace with newegg expire to this time next year, your card isnt RMAable (or not easily, you may be able to fight sapphire for an RMA, not sure)
 
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