re: amazingly cheap radeon 9800 pros recently

Tazzle

I for one was quite skeptical about the low price surrounding the cheap radeons so I steered clear. And I'm glad I did.

http://www.guru3d.com/newsitem.php?id=1539

silverside

Well I have one and it runs fine at stock speeds (378/338) - it doesnt overclock reliably, but I guess that's because of the heat in my small case, not because of the card itself. Some people here have had better luck, reflashing them to 9800XT's - not bad for under 200 euro.

As an alternative to a 9600, it does the job. What I can see happening now is the 9800pro replacing the 9600 as a midrange card, and the X800 replacing the 9800XT as the performance option.

RicardoSmith

It really shouldn't be sold as a 9800pro if its hobbled. ATI fiddling with their card drives me nuts. You never know what you are getting.

silverside

Howja mean 'hobbled' ? - It gets 5700 odd in 3dmark'03 - thats fine by me, to get much more i'd be paying double the price.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by silverside
Howja mean 'hobbled' ? - It gets 5700 odd in 3dmark'03 - thats fine by me, to get much more i'd be paying double the price.

Did you read the link. Its performance will be lower than that of a true 9800pro. I'm not arguing with the performance or the price, but if you have two products named the same but that aren't the same then you can be sure that someone somewhere is getting stiffed. By keeping the names the same ATI are basically adding to the confusion. They also have a habit of switching core and memory speeds, so it very hard to know if you are getting what you paid for or not.

Its like buying a 1.4 car only to find its actually a 1.2.

silverside

Yes I read the link.

1) I don't know if those 128-bit cards have appeared here yet. Has anyone actually got one or is this just US scaremongering?

2) I don't think I have one of the cards they are talking about as mine has a R360 core, but I got it for a very good price. No need to be suspicious of everything cheap.

I agree if there is a significant performance difference, then they should be clearly advertised as '128-bit'. However if there is no big performance hit, then it doesn't matter.

KinSlayer

I see they're coming to komplett for €205

RicardoSmith

What about the difference between different brands and the differences between oem and different retail version of cards. You can never be sure of the memory speed or the core speed. Why are ATI products not clearly marked with these things.

That messing has been going on for years. Drives me nuts.

Col_Loki

Cheers for the heads up on that one, i definetly wouldnt have copped it until too late. ATI the buggers , thats messed up.

Woden

god i never would have spotted that good stuff, i think the cheapest proper 256-bit one may be the powercolour version, go for that if anyone is looking for one

Dman_15

Jees, i got lucky then. i never knew about this when i bought mine. would have been very careful if i did though. it is a sly one from ati callong both cards 9800pro when one is way better than the other

BArra

i downloaded ATITool and ive luckilly got the 256bit version

although it says my chip is the R350 - what problems occur here if i ever wanted to overclock?

Col_Loki

Guys this is more a "watch out" thread than check what you have one.

The cards are new out in 128bit, and only comming on stream in europe now so chances are if youve bought one recently your still perfectly fine . Alot of people thinkin they might have got screwed when they didnt.

The ones for €195 on www.jes-computer.de are 256bit and sweet as hell. Think they got fooled by kompletts one and lowered there price (mabye)

The_Conductor

Is that the: 128MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Lite-RTL

http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=162_103&products_id=14064

??

Thks,

Shane

Stephen

No, that one states in the specs that it has a 256-bit memory interface. I have the same one myself.