5900 Ultra or 9800 Pro

[2800CC]

Hi all,

I'm planning on getting a new GPU. I'm looking for a 128MB card for about £250 - £300 not much more. I'm ruling out the 5950 and 9800XT so the question is which to go for ??

I have a 17" flat screen but only run the resolution at 1024 X 768 (It seems people always run higher but I find the menu's etc get too small to read)

I am looking at either the Gainward 1200XPGS or the Hercules prophet 9800 Pro. I have read LOADS and LOADS on the web about the ATI having better vertex shaders (dunno what this means in the real world) but the 5900 Ultra being faster at low resolutions with AA on etc.

Anyone who has either of these cards can you help out, or can anyone just point me in a good direction. Is one REALLY the clear better GPU ?

ThanX

[Enverex]

The Ultra scores better in some raw power tests, but the Radeon 9800 Pro is the better card as it can handle DX9 better which on the 5900 has to be cut down and doesn't run as well or look as good.

Basically, the 5900 will be a bit faster with old games, but the 9800 is better for future games and will be faster on them.

See if you can get the Radeon 9800 TX as it is a bit faster than the 5900 which will pretty much eliminate the old game gap completely, leaving no reason to get the 5900.

[Aaron]

What Enverex said basically.

The nVidia card wins on raw power, the ATi wins in pretty much any game using DirectX 9. So if you want to play Halflife 2, the 9800 Pro is the card to get.

[micovwar]

aggreed.

[2800CC]

Cheers all,

To be honest I was never keen on the 9800 Pro and the only reason was that I have never had an ATI before only 3dFx and Nvidia but I'm going for the ATI now thanks to you guys.

It confirms what I have read but if's it a load of pants I'll be expecting you guys to refund my money .... only kidding

Cheers all.
9800 Pro here I come
(Goes back to bank manager)

[Korky]

another vote for 9800pro

[fullspizz]

I would go for the 9800pro.
Just my 2p's worth.

[Spud1]

erm no your all forgetting something...

first i would agree that at the moment, if your buying a card you should get a 9800pro simply as its the cheapest of the two cards. But remember this

the 9800pro STILL has some MAJOR compatability issues with games. (Eg screen flickering in Jedi Knight 3, or C.O.D Crashes, or Halo randomly having no textures)
Ati are trying to eliminate them with each driver release but these do not occur on Nvidia cards. The problems are nowhere near as bad as they used to be but they still exist.

Also the nvidia cards are techincally more advanced than atis current breed. Its all to do with the way that they process the information. Ati cheat and only use 24-bit 'processing' (note i can't remember the exact thing thats done this way - i think its the pixel shaders but i'm not sure) whilst Nvidia use full32-bit - something that the Ati cards cannot do. However at the moment no DX9 games are written to support the full 32bit mode, therefore Nvidias cards have to do more work to output the image - hence the lower performace with the current crop of games. In the future this will change tho, when developers write games to support this 32 bit 'processing'

However despite this i still have a herc 9800pro - why? I can't justify the extra cost of a 5900ultra when the perfomance gap is so small. however ,if you have the money go for the 59900ultra, no contest

[Kezzer]

"apparently" the 5900 has trouble rendering certain features in games although i have seen no proof of this and a mate has a 5900U and it works absolutely fine. Personal choice and experience would determine the buy imo

[Trash Man]

I bought a 9800 Pro about 4 months back now and I love it Yes there are a few issues with a few games, these are soon fixed though.

[Shad]

the 9800pro STILL has some MAJOR compatability issues with games. (Eg screen flickering in Jedi Knight 3, or C.O.D Crashes, or Halo randomly having no textures)

Halo has no problems with the 9800, but has problems with 9200's and 9600's. I've had absolutely no problems playing Halo on my system (other than the sound.. grrr).

[Agent]

If you can wait a month or 2, you can save yourself some major cash.
I'm holding off an ATI for the main reason that Nvidias driver support is superior to ATIs.

With the latest drivers, the performance gap on DX9 games using the 24bit precision is smaller (but the ATI does still win), but when the higher precision DX9 games come out Nvidias should have a performance gain (Probably not a huge amount though).

Time will tell, but hold if if you can, your wallet will thank you later

[pyro]

Why not get an aiw with that money?

[MurphmanL]

Nvidia all the way in my opinion. ATI drivers tend to have many problems with games or with other processes in the OS environment. Where Nvidia on the other hand are now focusing their new drivers to give users better performance and never intefere with any games or other OS processes.
The ATI cards may have a slight gain in speed, but not enough to warrant a purchase considering the lack of support ATI offers.
I am currently running a card i have just purchased and have had no problems, plug and play, update to latest drivers and thats it! No problems on any games, i can run just about anything full steam on high resolutions.
Also, the performance issue in DX 9 games wont be noticable to the naked eye, just to people who strive to get the extra spark on an explosion or slightly higher frame rates... Nvidia get my vote, and i am currently enjoying upgraded gaming from a Geforce 2 MX 400 64mb to a Geforce FX 5600 Ultra XT 256mb hasnt't let me down so far and Oc's quite nicely too

[chrisf6969]

9800 Pro between those 2 (& you're spending that much)

or save some $$ and get the 5900 non ultra (great deal) thats as fast as the 5900 Ultra for cheaper

[Spud1]

Shad i have probs with Halo and my 9800pro..its all the 9xxx series