Is the 9800 Pro best for me ?

[Ben_UK]

(Posting on behalf of my brother)

Hello,

At the moment my graphics card is a Radeon 8500 64Mb.

Had that card for agers now and its starting to show its age

Looking to upgarde but what too ?

I will be running all my games in 1024x768, got a 17" monitor.

My maxium is £150, that can get me a 9800 Pro 128Mb

Is the 9800 pro the best card i can get for my budget ? (would like to save a little if possible)

I am not borthered about AA or AF, lived without it for long enough now

Should i be looking at NVIDIA's cards ? seeing loads of games with NVIDIA logo on does this mean it will run better ?

I dont wanna be messing around with updating drivers etc just want a card thats fast and solid in all games.

The card needs to perform well in HL2 and other DX9 games, i want my upgarde to last as long as my Radeon 8500 did.

Last point is i dont wanna be overclocking or flashing BIOS, i want to buy it put it in my PC and play no messing

Cheers

[mike_w]

9800 Pro sounds great, but you might want to wait for the next lot of graphics cards. For the same money, you can get something better, or existing cards will go down in price. Might be a while though, so a 9800 Pro is best.

[CrapshoT]

get the 9800 pro m8 you will not regret it at all i also have a 8500 in my second pc and the 9800 pro just totally wipes the floor several times over
GET THE 9800 PRO !!!!!! HL2 is too far away to worry about now lol

[Howard]

Yep it's the best for you. /thread

[[GSV]Trig]

Get the 9800 Pro chap, I did n its Great(tm)

[Korky]

If you can spend £150 then this is the only sane option!!!

[floppybootstomp]

Yes.

No issues.

Best for the budget, you'll love it.

Or you could wait for PCI Express cards due out soon, but probably not for the same price.

Best card I have is an Nvidia 5900 atm., wish I'd waited and gone for a 9800 Pro now prices have fallen, but there ya go

As for Games recommending Nvidia cards, that's total crap, just advertising, no more, no less, there's no truth in it, ATI rule

And I'm still using an 8500 on one machine, that was a very good card.

[Rod911]

If you only run your games at 1024*768 and no AA/AF, you can get away with buying a 9600XT. With nVidia, a 5900XT is also a good choice...it's more than a 9600XT but less than a 9800Pro, but performance fits accordingly to its price (between a 9600XT and 9800Pro).

[0iD]

Most 9800 pro's will o/clock to 9800 xt speeds. Got my cheap Connect Rad 9800 pro running 435 core 365 mem with a cheap Arctic VGA Silencer on it

[Korky]

As for Games recommending Nvidia cards, that's total crap, just advertising, no more, no less, there's no truth in it

Sadly this is not the case, alot of games recommending NVIDIA cards cripple radeon card performance simply because the engine is built round the shoddy cards because they cant perform as well as radeons, ala Deus Ex 2, Halo and soon to be... who know?

[floppybootstomp]

Sadly this is not the case, alot of games recommending NVIDIA cards cripple radeon card performance simply because the engine is built round the shoddy cards because they cant perform as well as radeons, ala Deus Ex 2, Halo and soon to be... who know?

I haven't tried Deux Ex 2, never did like the first one, but Halo....

On my old 8500 it was playable at 1064 x 768, but a little jerky sometimes during intense screen action. With my Nvidia 5900 it played well at 1280 x 1024. But there again, the 5900's a faster card.

So, any other games apart from those two? I didn't have any problems running any games except Halo with my ATI 8500, so I'm skeptical about this.

However, lacking any concrete proof, I'll hush up, I don't want to make a complete rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish of myself

[2800CC]

I fully agree with the 9800 pro choice. Just stuck one in my new machine and I love it to bits.
I would be prety amased if a 9800 pro with a 2.6Ghz + CPU won't run HL2 perfectly.
Yes I'm sure it is going to be the muts nuts but take a look at UT2004 on the above spec ... it looks SUPER SWEET.
Now take into consideration new physics engine, more textures etc etc, it will need more processing and require 1000's of Mtexels but can a game that was started god knows how long ago only work well on the next generation GPU's that A.) Arn't out yet for valve to test them on and b.) Will be so expensive only a few PC's will have them by the time HL2 comes out (whooorah)

Get a 9800 pro, you really won't be sorry. not for £150 you won't !!

[Skii]

If you aren't bothered about AA/AF, I believe in raw power the Nvidia is quicker, at least on a good few benchmarks ..

[JimLad]

Good deals on 9800 Pro at the moment, ~£130. Plus if you get one with an R360 core you can flash it with the XT bios

[Applecrusher]

Sadly this is not the case, alot of games recommending NVIDIA cards cripple radeon card performance simply because the engine is built round the shoddy cards because they cant perform as well as radeons, ala Deus Ex 2, Halo and soon to be... who know?

AND if they did its because both of thoes games are for the XBox... which has NVIDIA parts??
WHAT ARE THE ODDS????

but back to the topic..
my 9600 pro plays all games i have thrown at it with 1280*1024 with 2*AA and 2*AF with a decent framerate.

so it would play almost any game without a hitch @ 1064*786 without AA nad AF

[DeludedGuy]

Only game I have played that doesnt work well on my ATI 9600XT is Kingpin Life of Crime. It doesnt work online, the movements are delayed by a second.