Radeon 9800 256mb reccomendation?

[royce]

Which manufacturer do you reccomend that I purchase a Radeon 9800 256mb from? Gigabyte, Sapphire, or Connect3d(sp?) ?

[BlackSheep]

Originally posted by royce
Which manufacturer do you reccomend that I purchase a Radeon 9800 256mb from? Gigabyte, Sapphire, or Connect3d(sp?) ?

tbh I wouldn't even consider 256Mb on a Radeon 9800 Pro for the price - what's the point, there is no *usable* performance increase in going 256Mb and you will just end up paying £100 extra for nothing. The only reason there are even offering 256Mb cards is so look better on paper when compared with nVidia's offering (re: 5900).

I would be very tempted to go with a Crucial 9800 Pro as they usually stick right with the reference design, which is a good thing ... and their customer service is superb. Sapphire are also good as are Hercules but with Sapphire I have heard people having problems RMA'ing stuff.

You couldn't go wrong with Crucial at < £300 inc

[dgr]

I agree. Unless you are running stupidly high resolutions, theres not point in the 256mb of VRAM. The only benefits are the slighty higher clock speeds, but tbh you could OC a 9800pro 128mb slightly and get the same speed

dgr

[Jcb33]

Saphire one it will come in handy in future games and already in them eg UT2003 which has a great increse in quality with one

[BlackSheep]

Originally posted by Jcb33
Saphire one it will come in handy in future games and already in them eg UT2003 which has a great increse in quality with one

some sense you do not make

[Jcb33]

Buy Radeon 9800 Pro
Help in future games
Help in some games today eg UT2003
Help How? By increasing texture quality and makeing it a little faster specialy with AF and AA on

[BlackSheep]

Originally posted by Jcb33
Buy Radeon 9800 Pro
Help in future games
Help in some games today eg UT2003
Help How? By increasing texture quality and makeing it a little faster specialy with AF and AA on

The original question wasn't whether to buy a Radeon 9800 Pro, but what manufacturer to go with - I merely suggested 128Mb instead of 256Mb as the benefits are pretty much non-existent.

The merits of having a 9800 Pro per se are many and obvious, but to what are you comparing the increased texture quality?

[steve threlfall]

The benefits of of having the extra memory are a few barely noticeable frames a second at super high 1600x1200 resolutions. I agree with black sheep, its not worth the extra cash. If your absolutely minted and you really must then go for the sapphire 256. If you decide 128 then the hercules 9800 pro is the best 9800 pro card available

[Jcb33]

i sais saphire lol

[BlackSheep]

Originally posted by steve threlfall
The benefits of of having the extra memory are a few barely noticeable frames a second at super high 1600x1200 resolutions. I agree with black sheep, its not worth the extra cash. If your absolutely minted and you really must then go for the sapphire 256. If you decide 128 then the hercules 9800 pro is the best 9800 pro card available

Yes if I had the $'s and didn't have a 9700Pro I would go for the hercules 128Mb as the Herc 9700Pro was consistently the best overclocker (see 3dmark03 scores on www.futuremark.com).

As it stands I'm happy to w8 for the next generation, and seeing as Doom3 has now been delayed to March '04 (most likely) by that time the next wave of gfx cards should be out! (not to mention a shiny new NF3 with Hammer 2.2Ghz - or maybe I'm being a tad optimistic with the clock speed LOL)


/sighs at Jcb's spam

[steve threlfall]

/me also sigh at jlo's spam

Waiting for the next generation seem like a good idea mate. Im gona get me a cheap fx5600 ultra or maybe a rad9600pro to see me through for a while as when the next gen come out a super expensive card will be just as obsolete as a midrange

[acidrainy]

Ive got a Connect 3D 128mb, does the job

currently the cheapest 9800pro if im no mistaken as well

[Jcb33]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by steve threlfall
[B]/me also sigh at jlo's spam

Whos Jlo? Any way i think the 256MB Saphire version is the best one got the Saphire 128MB one clocks well and i get 18000+ Marks on 3D Mark so i suppose what you lot are saying makes sense tho ok 128MB is anuff i submit

[acidrainy]

ive had over 20k with this card.....



21k at one point im sure (not got the screanshot of this score though)........

[Jcb33]

How?

[Jedi John]

Yeah, I wouldn't waste your money on the extra RAM. The only thing its gonna be usefull for is playing the beta release of Doom ]I[