Ati 9800

[ForsakenOne]

Hey all had a question i am currently building my new rig and leaning toward a ATI 9800 is the 256
DDR worth the extra $100.00 over the 128?

 

[Guspaz]

It is 0% faster. Ask yourself if a performance increase of 0% is worth 100$...

Let me put it this way, when I bought my new card, I had the cash for a 9800, but I decided the 30% performance increase was not worth the 150$ CDN premium. Would I pay another 100$ on top of that for NO speed increase? No way.

Proponents of 256MB cards will probably spout something about future games requiring a 256MB card, but the truth of the matter is that by the time these games of the future come out, there will be much more powerfull 256MB cards. It's like buying a GeForce FX 5200 for it's DirectX 9 capabilities; they're useless since it will be too slow to run DX9 games.

Now, this is an exageration, and the Radeon 9800 256MB will probably run these future games just fine. However, it will likely not run them much faster than the 128MB card.

 

[SmuvMoney]

Guspaz hit it on the head. Right now, it isn't worth the $100 IMHO. I was in the same quandry before I bought my Hercules 9800 Pro. I read one or two reviews where the performance increase was minimal at best. I was surprised that ATi didn't increase the actual speed of the card - 380/350 (256) vs 380/340 (128). If they pushed the core/mem up 10% or so, i.e., 420/380 or so, I may have considered purchasing it in spite of the RAM. I think ATi's next refresh may push it to that level, but consider that pure speculation.

 

[Rogozhin]

Smuv is correct-don't waste that $100-put it to good use for extra ram, upgraded mobo, or headphones.

rogo

 

[Thor86]

Future proof yourself if you can afford it. Most new games will most definately make use of more video ram. Look at VietCong for example, it has the option to use video ram and system ram for caching textures.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Thor86
Future proof yourself if you can afford it. Most new games will most definately make use of more video ram. Look at VietCong for example, it has the option to use video ram and system ram for caching textures.

What He Said. It also depends on how often you upgrade and/or buy a new video card. If you don't plan on buying one anytime soon, or within 3 or 4 years, then yes, you should spend the extra $100 on the 256mb version.

 

[SickBeast]

IMHO a r9800 is a waste of money right now as it is the king of the hill. I would buy a 128mb r9700 non-pro with 2.8ns memory.

 

[BoomAM]

Its about 5% faster not 0%. The clock speeds have been increased as well, not by much though. Its faster in situations invloving very high res texures, and higher levels of FSAA/AF.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
IMHO a r9800 is a waste of money right now as it is the king of the hill. I would buy a 128mb r9700 non-pro with 2.8ns memory.

It is a waste right now. But what about in the future? Games like Doom 3 I suppose will take advantage of it at high detail settings.

 

[BoomAM]

I thought doom3 only used upto 80mb of textures. Thats still 38mb for everything else on a 128mb card.

 

[jaaron]

Originally posted by: ForsakenOne
is the 256
DDR worth the extra $100.00 over the 128?

No

The 9800pro 128 is a great card!!! (why worry about the "future"... If you do? 'hint' ~ I think it's about time you trade in that 486 system for a new one... And if you still have that extra 100 bucks burning a hole in your pocket... I suggest you take your girlfriend out to a nice dinner or something...

You're gonna need to suck up to her when she gets pissed at you for spending the next 2 nights tweaking