Huge Difference Between Radeon 9800 pro and Radeon 9700 pro?

[tomster2300]

Hey,

I'm wondering what the main differences are between the Radeon 9700 pro and the Radeon 9800 pro. Due to budget crunches, I may have to go with a 9700 pro. Will I be losing much of anything? I know that the 9700s are able to be modded into 9800s, but I'll most likely be keeping mine at default settings. What do you guys think. I currently have a Geforce 4 ti4800se. Do you think it's time for me to make a switch? Thanks for any and all help.

Also what do you guys think about buying electronics off ebay? I'll either be purchasing my card from ebay or newegg.com, or possibly tigerdirect, depending on the best deal I can find. I bought everything but my case from newegg last summer when I built my computer, so I know they have great service, but right now I'm looking for the lowest price. Thanks.

[sleepypost]

You WILL be seeing lower performance with the 9700 Pro. We're not talking about a situation where the better card is overkill, because I can assure you, the 9800 Pro is not overkill anymore. With games like Farcry pushing the 9800 Pro to the limits (and it still clips and pops up a lil bit), you will definitely be more restricted with the 9700 Pro in the near future.

There is no HUGE difference though. Any of today's games will play nicely on the 9700 Pro, and that card will be good for at least another year or so.

I think I am not alone when I say to buy from newegg. I ONLY buy PC parts form newegg because I have not seen a retail company like it online before. They trust their customers and they treat them as if they were wholesalers. I have dumped at least $5,000 into Newegg in the past year on parts for me and my friends' PC's. Ebay is always good though. Never had a problem there

[kram 2.0]

Well, right now, I think that the Radeon 9700 pro is a little more expensive since ATI no longer manufacturers the VPU. Personally, I think there is not much difference between the 9800 Pro and the 9700 Pro - they're both good. The PowerColor Radeon 9800 Pro 256-bit is 206 USD - pretty good price.

Hope that helps,
kram

[tomster2300]

Powercolor 9800 pro 256mb for $200? Where can I find that? Newegg?

I found it. I originally misread your post and thought you said 256 mb, which would be quite a deal for $206. I think the ATI one is just a few dollars more. Does it matter which brand I choose? Ex: ATI, Sapphire, Chaintech, Powercolor, etc. Why are some more expensive, and less expensive, than others?

I also found a 9800se pro. SE (special edition) cards are usually clocked slower than their comparable brethren...at least I know my gf ti4800se is slower than a usual 4800. So the 9800se pro is slower, right? (Just making sure) How much slower would it be? The 9800se pro is also a good deal cheaper anyways. Thanks.

[ric449]

What happened to the 9700? They still make the 9600 parts, so why not the 9700 parts?

[kram 2.0]

Hey,

The Radeon 9700 series are pretty old - they were made in I think 2000 as the first 256-bit card. I believe with the release of the Radeon 9800s, they were discontinued because apparently, like the Radeon 9500 series, they were eating from the newer cards. I do think the Radeon 9700 series are very good cards, however. Remember also that the Radeon 9700 Pro was at the price range of the now current Radeon 9800 Pro 128-bit card - competition overrun.

Also, don't get the SE cards - they mean "Second Edt" but are often branded "slow edition" around here. They permenantly have four rendering pipelines blocked which makes them pretty much no longer a 9800 card. They are considerably slower. I would also avoid the Radeon 9800 Pro versions which have 128-bit buswidth. If you seriously need to save money, a good card to replace the Radeon 9800 SE would definately be the PowerColor Radeon 9600 Pro which will perform better.

And you seem to have confused yourself here:

Originally posted by kram8806 The PowerColor Radeon 9800 Pro 256-bit is 206 USD - pretty good price.

There, I should make a distinction. This is a 128 MB onboard DDR memory - the memory it uses. However, the buswidth - the bandwidth for which the signal or path for the instruction can travel is 256-bit. 256-bit is better than 128-bit because that means more graphic instruction can travel through at a given time.

I seem to be putting down a lot of info in one post - tell me if it's confusing and I'll try to clarify it


Hope that helps,
kram

[tomster2300]

It makes sense. I didnt think about the bus before. How about this one?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-286&depa=1

It's made by ATI and looks like it fits the specs.

What're the differences in brands? I know they all use the 9800 pro chipset, but why does each brand differ in price? Are some better quality than others?

The 9800 pro or XT are the cards to get, right? I know the new x800 is out, but besides that one, this is the best thing, right? I think I want to try out Radeon this time around instead of Nvidia again.

[ric449]

Some manufacturers overclock them a little, some downclock them, some use more memory than others, some use bad quality parts, you get the idea. Also manufacturers throw in extras along with the card to make you buy it. The card looks like a winner to me.

[fedz]

That's the powercolor card. They make the basic, cheap 'n good cards. Sapphire normally add in a few extra cables and software, and sometimes a nicer hsf. Powercolor include everything you need; good ram, cables etc. and they have good prices as well. That card is probably the best bang-for-buck card at the moment, so go for it!!

fedz

[kram 2.0]

Originally posted by tomster2300 It makes sense. I didnt think about the bus before. How about this one? http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-286&depa=1 What're the differences in brands? I know they all use the 9800 pro chipset, but why does each brand differ in price? Are some better quality than others? The 9800 pro or XT are the cards to get, right? I know the new x800 is out, but besides that one, this is the best thing, right? I think I want to try out Radeon this time around instead of Nvidia again.

Yep - that's a good card. I would say if you get that, that's pretty good. The Radeon 9800 Pro/XT are the ones to get, but if you're going to get the 9800XT, get the X800 Pro as I think the X800 Pro's cheaper but far better.

Hope that helps,
kram

[tomster2300]

I cant find the x800s on newegg at all. Do they sell them, and how much are they?

Nevermind, I found them. $500 is way too much for me.

So is powercolor a good buy? How much of a difference is there performance wise when compared to the other brands?

[kram 2.0]

Well, the difference, if there is any, is very minimal between brands. They can only overclock or downclock so much before ATI has a word in their manufacturing . Generally speaking, if it's the same VPU, same bus width, same onboard DDR, then it's better to go with the less expensive one.

Hope that helps,
kram

[tomster2300]

Alright, thank you for all the help kram and everyone else. I'll just keep looking and tell you what I did when I'm done.

One last thing. Will my pc2700 ram be a bottleneck on the Radeon 9800 pro? If so how much would it be? I have 512 mb of pc2700 Buffalo ram. Thanks.

[ric449]

Your RAM has nothing to do with the graphics card, it is to do with the processor. Since you have a processor which uses a 333MHz FSB, PC2700 is the highest you can go.

[kram 2.0]

The only time you have to worry about your graphics card and memory is when you utilize onboard graphics which I presume you probably won't . Your memory will run just fine with that GPU (seems like ric already covered most of what I said )

Hope that helps,
kram

[tomster2300]

So my AMD 2500+ only works with pc2700? I thought I could go up to at least pc3200.

[tomster2300]

Why was my post moved?

[HAL9000]

No need to ask the same question twice... one of the mods felt it was better suited in this section.

[kram 2.0]

Originally posted by tomster2300 So my AMD 2500+ only works with pc2700? I thought I could go up to at least pc3200.

Nope - it can technically work with almost any speed of DDR RAM. However, the speed matching your FSB is PC2700. It can handle PC3200 but it will downgrade to match the FSB of your CPU - which would be PC2700. Getting PC3200 leaves a good bit of room for overclocking, though.

Hope that helps,
kram

[tomster2300]

Alright. Thanks for answering so many questions. So your final saying is to go with the 9800 pro -- the cheapest brand -- since they aren't that much different. Thanks again.