help choosing a graphics card

SoBe

hope this is in the right place :-)

i want to up grade my graphics card currently i have a geforce 2 and want to get something to replcae it with,honestly though im getting confused with all the 9800's on komplete you know what i mean 9800xt,9800se,lite,etc.i want something thats good value and will last me for another while and stop me getting murdered in battlefield vietnam cus the card i have now is slowing everything down.so please let me know which would be the best one to get or even where the cheapest place to get it is if you can,thanks for all the help its very apreciated. :-)

Woden

how much you have to spend?

the typical upgrade would be a radeon 9800 pro which would set you back around 200-250

data

BabyEater

I think the 9800 pro is about the best value you should be able to get one for about €200 . The 9800XT is quicker but not by much and the 9800se is very slow. If you see a lite after the name it means you dont get much with the card i think it is the best way to go.

SoBe

yeah id be spending round the 200 euro mark but would spend a bit more if i thought it would be better value,guess ill wait for one to pop up on the weekly specials or get the girlfriend to bring one back from the states.

Woden

yeah thats cool, anything around the 200 mark we recommend the 9800pro, as baby eater mentioned avoid the SE, its slow mainly as it has half the pipelines that the pro version has i.e. 4 instead of 8.

while the XT version has the same number of pipelines as the pro but slight higher clock speeds, but not high enough to justify the large price difference.

they may pop in up specials if your lucky. if not this one is fine

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=120304&cks=PRL

SoBe

cheers data.me whips out cc as we speak...lol.thanks for the help lads.

Woden

no problem, i have that powercolour myself, theres also a sapphire one for around the same price if you have a preference for a third party manufactuer, they both stick closely to the ati reference design though iirc. sapphire would be a more well known brand but the card for the same price as the powercolour is the lite version i think.

the powercolour comes with tomb raider angel of darkness if that floats your boat

good luck

data

SoBe

just having a look round us sites at the min,she will be here in a little over a week and i might save some euros.if not ill go with komplete,like their service :-)

Dman_15

the sapphire "lite" versions have an R360 core.
i got mine a few weeks back and flashed it to xt. works perfect. probably worth the extra few quid to buy an artic graphics cooler aswell

Woden

yeah some of the cards have R360 cores which are XT cores while the others are R350 cores which are 9800 pro cores.

so its possible to flash the bios on the R360 ones on a 9800pro to give you the 9800 XT frequencies.

saying that though my powercolour i've no idea what core it has but it has samsung memory and with the stock cooling it goes quite away over the 412mhz core frequency of the XT it does about 452 while the memory did up to 392mhz, so what i'm saying is that even if you don't get an R360 core its quite possible if not probable that you will be able to put it to XT frequencies

data

SoBe

ok guys u lost me now...lol.i wasnt planing to overclock it or anything main reason for this is i wouldnt have a clue how to...lol.still keep the advice comming i still havent put any cc numbers down anywhere yet

tuxy

just out of interest what spec is the rest of you pc
you might not notice much of an imporvment unless the rest of your pc is fairly good

SoBe

good point there but it would have to be an improvement,i have a p4 2.4(bought on boards not too long ago,upgraded from a p4 1.5),got 2 sticks of ram a 512 and a 256,350w psu.im just trying to update my pc a little here,besides i was thinking if i built a new one the card could be moved to the new one.so what do u think ????

Woden

if ya don't plan on overclocking then it pretty much doesn't matter what card you buy.

if you do plan on overclocking it still doesn't matter to much what you buy as it can be luck of the draw.

basically the original 9800pro's where based on what was the R350 core. while the 9800 XT's where based on the R360. however afaik the 9800pro's would still be more popular to by and as the supply is greater they just rebadge 9800 XT's as 9800 pro's and give them 128mb of memory instead of 256mb

so you can end up with a 9800pro based on the 9800XT which means that by changing the bios you get yourself a 9800pro with 9800XT frequencies.

a similar principle applies to computer chips, which can be underclocked even if they are capable of higher frequencies as the demand is lower then the higher frequency chips.

so if you have a 9800pro with an R360 core you should be able to get 9800XT frequences no problem. however even if you have a R350 core you should still be able to overclock to the 9800XT frequencies no bother.

with regards to overclocking a graphics card there is not much to it. there a few tools on the market that i'm aware of that will sort you out. rage3d, powerstrip, ati tool and there is also drivers you can install called the omega drivers which have an inbuilt overclocking tool called radlinker.

the overclocking is done in windows and you just up the frequencies of the core and memory and test using something like 3dmark, when you find artifacts basically things that look wrong or the whole screen gets kinda messed up you know you've gone to far and you need to back off. tis all good fun

SoBe

so basicaly i would be better off with a 360 core?cus i would like to improve it.it would surely have to be better than a gf2 with the system i have wouldnt it?

tuxy

Originally posted by fli
so basicaly i would be better off with a 360 core?cus i would like to improve it.it would surely have to be better than a gf2 with the system i have wouldnt it?

yup that system is good enough to see a nice improvement with a new 3d card

SoBe

ok so according to d-man i should go for the saphire lite version with the 360 core.ok i think im getting it now....lol

SoBe

so basicaly it comes down to what data recomends or this one http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=122901&cks=PRL
mmm choices choices choices

Woden

theres not much difference apart from the fact that the sapphire doesn't have any games, sapphires a good make and the games aren't great, i'll give ya my tomb raider if you feel left out

someone else may see the thread and tell ya if its better to have the r360 core or not, but theres a good chance the core on the powercolour is r360 now anyway. anywho my point is it won't make much difference at the end of the day which one you order, it will be a fairly big improvement over the gf2 and the small differences you get between one core or another won't be noticeable really on the grand scheme of things

SoBe

cheers for the advice data.no ive had enough of tomb raider from my playstation one days....lol.thanks for the offer though...lol.gonna order one now on komplete cus not worth the trouble buying it in the states.ill let u know how i get on with it later :-)

Dman_15

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=300462&cks=PRL

this confuses me

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=122901&cks=PRL

Anyone care to point out the difference? apart from one being out of stock

SoBe

i just noticed that too,was looking at that one as well cus i spotted it on another thread,mabey it was a special or something.

Dman_15

post it in the komplett forum and patman should be able to advise you.

Col_Loki

Product Description Sapphire RADEON 9800 Atlantis Pro - graphics adapter - RADEON 9800 PRO - 256 MB

That looks like a komplett mistake. The cheaper one says its 256mb ..............

TBH id just go with the cheaper one anyway. Once your getting a 9800pro wheather 128mb or 256mb its the cheaper option and it cant vary much......... ie its a good deal no matter what.

tuxy

max ram is a mistake yes shouldbe 128
the differnce between the two is one comes in a retail box with a install cd
the cheaper one does not

Col_Loki

U mean the cheaper one is "bulk" packed if you like? And the other one is "lite" which is basically the card with cd's excluding games?

Would make sence alrite!!

tuxy

yup the bulked packed one might even have a cd
looks like you have to pay 30 euro for a box lol

Deadwing

Anyone know if theres a difference between the branded 9800's (ie powercolour, sapphire etc) and the regular ATI 9800's?
I was just wondering, as i bought a 9800pro in the states last year, and apparrently ATI dont ship the one i bought to europe (or at least according to an email thier customer support sent me they dont). Mines just 'Radeon 9800pro', no fancy powercolour or anything like that, ive always just wondered what the difference is?

neokenzo

Originally posted by Deadwing
Anyone know if theres a difference between the branded 9800's (ie powercolour, sapphire etc) and the regular ATI 9800's?
I was just wondering, as i bought a 9800pro in the states last year, and apparrently ATI dont ship the one i bought to europe (or at least according to an email thier customer support sent me they dont). Mines just 'Radeon 9800pro', no fancy powercolour or anything like that, ive always just wondered what the difference is?

if I'm not mistaken, I've read somewhere that the ATI 9800 pro is just a Sapphire's 9800 pro repacked and rebadged. As for the Powercolour, some of the fastest samsung memory bios are the fastest among the rest.

SouperComputer

Originally posted by fli
so basicaly i would be better off with a 360 core?cus i would like to improve it.it would surely have to be better than a gf2 with the system i have wouldnt it?

tis like chalk and chees mate. Even the 9000 whoops its ass!

Col_Loki

Think www.overclockers.co.uk had / have them.

There isint much of a difference at all to be honest, the ATI's are highly reguarded by most. There just as good as the powercolor / sapphire / herc etc and sometimes better! Its the luck of the draw with the cards, and which memory you get is a big part....... more so than the brand.

neokenzo

Originally posted by fli
ok so according to d-man i should go for the saphire lite version with the 360 core.ok i think im getting it now....lol

Not all the sapphire lite has the R360 core. It depends how lucky you are. Mine is a sapphire light and it has a R350 core. Either way, you should still be able to overclock them very well. I wouldnt worry about the core too much as the 9800 pro is pretty good even at default speeds.

SoBe

thanks people for all the advice,think ill order it tomorrow :-) ill let u know how i get on