Radeon 9800

[Happyn00dlez]

Hi, I need to know a few things about the Radeon 9800. Right now, my PC specs are as is. 2.5ghz,1gig ram, Gforce 4 4200 128mb. Im wondering if the 9800 Pro 256 is worth buying now and where. If you know any sites please tell me. thanks!

[Doobz]

well, i can tell you i upgraded from a 4600 to a 9800 Pro and there is a huge difference, i can now crank the AA an AF up and my games look absolutely beautiful, especially with the Omega drivers


but, it's a waste of money for the 256mb version, almost no games will be taking an advantage of it in the near future, and it's a buttload more money, my 9800 Pro 128mb runs absolutely fine, there is no need to spend an extra 100 bucks for 1 fps

second, it's a waste if you don't have the power supply to support it, the 9800s are power hungry, make sure you have at LEAST 350 watts output on your power supply

if you need a power supply, go over to newegg and search for 400 watt ATX power supplies, the allied 400 watt should come up, it's what i bought, 30 bucks and it's outstanding, even outperforming some name brands like Antec. you can basically find anything you need, video card included over at newegg

[Daleon]

There is defintely a large jumped from ti4200 to 9800 Pro. I also suggest going for 9800 Pro/128 over the 256. I have the 128 and could upgrade to the 256 for just the difference in price but I don't find its worth it. Only a handful of tests have proven any real difference and they were all at settings almost no human would actually use. The only real positive the 256 has is its 256 megs of DDRII ram instead of DDR. It is clocked down fairly low also and can be cranked up some if you want to OC.

[TF_MrA]

i agree, but in the near future, the 256 will be useful. with games like half-life 2 coming out that will need a bare minimum of 128mb of video ram to run, i would suggest getting the 256mb version. yea it is expensive. i didnt have the money, so i bought the 9600 pro 128 which is fine with every game i have tried. and another thing, if u get one, make sure to get the pro. much faster

[Doobz]

Gabe Newell himself has stated that the 256mb makes jack shit difference in HL2 now

[Daleon]

Buying a 256 meg card today hoping it will help in future games is not a wise way to shop. Because of the lack in differences between scores of the 128 and 256 cards, its clear that not only do almost no games take advantage of the extra memory but the card doesn't actually put it to very good use at all. Its very clear that the r350 chipset is optimized to work with 128. Not until the r400 should you actually expect the chipset to properly use 256. Maybe by then games will use it also but expect most game makers to still aim at 64 and 128 video cards because thats where the majority of their customers are at.

[TF_MrA]

id like to see him run hl-2 witha 128 card at 1280X1024. no way will u get fps very high.

[Doobz]

of course you will, they ran it at the E3 demo at 1024x768, and the only thing holding that 9800 Pro 128mb back was the refresh rate on that plasma screen.

Gabe has answered specific email questions and such, and I distinctly remember somebody asking him if a 9700 Pro would run it with the settings maxed at 1280x1024, Gabe said that it would run it no problem.