Which to buy? R9800/R9600PRO/N5900

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wanderer-z

Geek Trainee
Which is the better buy for something below $250? I'm kinda poor, so I can't afford the 9800PRO or the 5900ULTRA. =)

Please advise. Thanks!
 
If you can find a Sapphire 9800 128mb under 250, grab it. Because it will likely have samsung memory which makes possible the flash with the 9800 Pro bios, which would turn your card into a 9800 Pro. The 9800 non-pro is still a very fast card. I've used both the 9600 Pro and the 9800 non-pro and imo, the 9800 non-pro is much faster.

This is at your own risk though. Chances of success are 100% if you have samsung memory. It will not work if it's infineon memory.
I did the flash and it worked. The thing you gotta' consider is that it'S possible that you don'T get samsung memory, but if you do, the flash is possible.
There's a pretty big thread on it on rage3d: http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33695811&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

If you don't wanna' do that, I strongly suggest the Built By Ati 9600 Pro. It can be oced pretty high and it doesn't get hot.

Do not buy a GeForce FX, no matter what kind it is. They have problems with DX9 games (they're slow !) and the drivers are questionnable.

Finally, considering you're on a budget, I'd go with the 9600 Pro. You'll have money left and and you'll have a great card.

You can also try and find a 9700 non-pro which would cost about 200-220. They're hard to find but they're faster than the 9600 Pro, but slower than the 9800.
You can try your luck on ebay for those, as well as 9500 pros which are a tiny bit faster than the 9600 pros.
 
I agree with harrack's post. The only FX card that isn't a POS is the 5900 Ultra, but with it aformentioned DX9 rendering issues---which have come to light durning the development of the highly anticipated Half-Life 2---you're better off in the long run going ATi. If you can wait a little bit, the 9600XT is supposed to hit shelves this November and included Half-Life 2 with it---all for $199. The XT is just a faster clocked 9600, and a little faster than the current 9600Pro. This is the price you're likely to see at Best Buy and such. I'd imagine that the card could be found for under that price online. Newegg (which I will plug over and over again) has a plain 9600Pro starting around $150, though these aren't the ones built by ATi.
 
I had completely forgotten about the 9600XT.

In addition of HL2, this card has a new feature called overdrive which dynamically overclocks the card during games, depending on the temperature of the card.
This feature will be made available when the Catalyst drivers 3.8 come out. Until then, we have no reviews regarding this particular feature so we don't know how good it works yet.

But the fact that it comes with HL2 should be enough to make you consider it very seriously.

EDIT: The overdrive feature is less appealing to hardcore ocers who prefer to do things themselves, but imo, it is a great feature for those who wouldn't overclock.
This is also perfectly legal so if you fry your card while doing this, you will get an rma.
 
I'm thinking I'll get the 9800NP and OC it to the PRO version. Now, I'm confused again. I see different version of the 9800. What's the 9800SE? What's Atlantis? I'm looking at the Sapphire model of the 9800, but even with Sapphire, there is a red board and a black board model... is there a difference between the two colors? Confusing!

How do I know or tell which one has the Samsung memory?
Will something like this do?

http://www.bananapc.com/Products/product_info.asp?product_id=10433&classif_id=

or

http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/simprod.asp?pid=7974&ad=pwatch

Thanks again!
 
The two cards you linked will not be flashable.

those are 9800se cards and they are slower than the 9800 non-pro.

Atlantis is only the name Sapphire calls their card.
They're all named: Sapphire Atlantis <something> (like 9800 Pro or 9800 or 9600 Pro, etc.)

what you need is this card: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=10043

You have no way of telling if the card has samsung memory or not. However, up until now, Saphire 9800 cards all have Samsung memory.
Note that if you get Samsung GC2A memory (2.86ns), you will not need to flash the bios in order to get pro clock speeds.
You will need to flah it only if you get GC33 memory (3.3ns), which is probably what you'll get.

The card I've linked is OEM but I ordered the exact same one from the exact same place and it came with an rca cable, a s-video cable, a DVI adapter and a s-video adapter.

If you flash the bios, the card will be recognized as a 9800 Pro. Even if you take it out yoru case and install it in another one. I suggest you save your bios but once you get the card, I'll give you more details about this, as well as the necessary files.

You will need a good psu, and the ram gets hot after the flash so I suggest you buy ramsinks.

If you want the card, I suggest you buy it now because I don't think it will last for long. There are currently 5 flavors of the 9800 gpu and one will probably be discontinued. I bet it'S the 9800 non-pro, considering what you can do with it.
FYI, the 5 cards are: 9800 128mb (the one you want), 9800SE 128mb, 9800 Pro 128mb, 9800 Pro 256mb and 9800XT 256mb.

If you want more info about the flash, go to the link I provided in one of my previous posts.
 
We'Re starting to see Sapphire cards with infineon memory. Depending on how much cards ncix sell, you may get one or the other. It's the luck of the draw.
The 9800 is still extremely fast. you won'T be disappointed.
 
Jeez am I glad to have stumbled across this topic in your forums.
Firstly let me say thanks to you Moderators who answered this guys cry out for help.

Firstly, even though it has already been said, DO NOT EVEN THINK OF GOING FOR AN NVIDIA CARD. I say this knowing that my life might already be in danger and that nVidia has already taken out various contracts on me... but hey, it needs to be said :D

Secondly, I require some help. I have also heard that the 9600xt is coming with a copy of HL2 in-box. Usually only the lucky Americans and UK ppl get deals like this, but will it reach as far as little South Africa as well?

Thirdly, some more help is required.
Since I am a Gigabyte fan, my first natural choice would be to go for Gigabyte's R9600xt board. Now, even though you have probably not seen or reviewed this above mentioned card... would you recommend it over the Sapphire and/or ASUS, which are the only alternatives that I have to choose from here in SA :)

Err, yeah... Thanks...


- Nemesis

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ @ 2800+, 512mb DDR400 (Transcend) RAM, Gigabyte GA-7T600 1394, 2x120gig SATA Drives (in Mirrored RAID Array), Winfast Geforce4 MX440 128mb (yuck), Sound Blaster Live!, Gigabyte 4x (Multiformat) DVD Writer, 17" Samsung MagicBright Monitor, etc...
 
The way it's being advertised, the XT line of cards all come with HL2. right now, since HL2 isn't out, there's supposed to be a coupon inside the box.

http://www.ati.com/buy/promotions/r360aib/index.html

At the bottom of the page, they state that the offer is availabvle while supplies last.

You'll have two choices for HL2, you can either download it or you can get it shipped to you (you'll have to pay the shipping).

In any case, it seems no matter where you live, you should get HL2 for free when you buy the 9600XT or the 9800XT.

Well I haven't used any of gugabyte's or asus' products but I'd guess that the only real difference between the major companies are the features and the software bundle. BBA cards are always a good choice but they're pricier. All I can say is that I like my Sapphire.

I'll try and look for reviews and post more on that matter.
 
Well first off, gigabyte doesn't make either of the Xt cards, so that takes care of your preference.

Second, both asus and sapphire make the card.

I think we can fairly say that both manufacturers make good products so you can't say that one company makes better cards than the other.

However, Asus put two fans on their card, whereas Sapphire stayed pretty close from the ATI standard. So from that point of view, I'd pick the ASUS: better cooling.

The ASUS also comes with ramsinks but I can't say if the back is also cooled. Their fan is also temperature controlled, so they'll run at slower rpms when the card isn't under heavy stress.

As far as software goes, Again Asus seems to be the winner as they give a large bundle of software including HL2, a 6 in 1 game pack, DVD software, etc.
On Sapphire's website, they don't mention what software comes with the card, except for HL2.

Performance should be close between the two.

Pricewise, I know you live in SA but on newegg, the Asus is $509 usd. I wasn't able to fidn the price for the Sapphire.

Finally, although I will probably never buy an asus mobo in my entire life, I'd pick the asus over the Sapphire.
 
Oh well... I ordered the Gigabyte R9600xt from my supplier today. They expect the shipment to be in South Africa in a weeks time. Pretty strange. I just hope that when my card arrives it isnt a non-existent one. cause that would be an uber waste of money... *g*

Thanks for all of your help guys
 
Not the first time something like that's happened. It might not be on the US/NorthAmerica/Canda gigabyte site, but they could be releasing it in other parts of the world. I noticed this with Iwill alot.
 
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