Radeon 9800SE is a 9500XT???

[justagamer]

just a question for anyone who might have some info. I recently bought myself a powercolor radeon 9800 SE. I was told that this is the second edition of the 9800np and also could not find any info about this on the net. now the problem that i have is, if i run dxdiag, and check the display options, the name of the card is " radeon 9800 SE", but the chip type says it's a "Radeon 9500 XT". Nowhere on the box or manual does it say anything about using a 9500 chip, just that it has a 9800 vpu. Now for the same price, considering that this might be using the 9500 chipset, i could have gotten a 9700 pro, which would have been a better deal. But i'm not sure if i'm missing something. Could anyone with some info please reply. THanks.

 

[apac]

SE = slow edition

 

[kylebisme]

info

 

[Corporate Thug]

9800 SE is a 9800 NON pro with 4 pipelines

 

[First]

WTH? So a 9800 SE is a Radeon 9500 Pro with slightly higher mem and core clock speeds?

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb
WTH? So a 9800 SE is a Radeon 9500 Pro with slightly higher mem and core clock speeds?

yeah, that is a more accurate way of describing it

 

[stardust]

wow, so marketing has gone to this

not only is the 9800SE a 9500, but it probably also lacks the ability to softmod the card into an 8 pipeline 9700pro.

 

[Questi4110]

No, you can mod it to 8 pipelines. Check out the link to rage3d forums that I posted below, this guys shows you how to do it.

Link To Enabling All 8 Pipelines on 9800SE


Look at the 9th post down, that guy shows you how to do it with some Rivatuner and other changes.
Apparently Rivatuner's tweaks improve the performance of the card tremendously.

Good Luck

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: shady06

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb
WTH? So a 9800 SE is a Radeon 9500 Pro with slightly higher mem and core clock speeds?

yeah, that is a more accurate way of describing it

Not if its the 4 pipeline SE, if its 4 pipelines, a 9500 is what to call it, if its 8 pipelines with 128-bit mem bus, 9500Pro is what to call it.
So it's both.

And it makes sense probably from a manufacturing point of view, I would guess, means pretty much all their chips get used.

 

[JSSheridan]

From the specs at the Powercooler website, it has a 256 bit memory bus and four pipelines. BTW, let us know if the soft mod mentioned earlier works. If you can get the remaining pipelines enabled and working, there will a battalion of AT'ers line up to get one of these.

Instructions on enabling all 8 pipelines

Peace

 

[Pete]

Originally posted by: justagamer
I recently bought myself a powercolor radeon 9800 SE. I was told that this is the second edition of the 9800np

You were lied to. Get the 9700P or a regular 9800, they'll be twice as fast. And know that "SE" in computer hardware and software usually means a partial/incomplete/inferior edition.

Evan, the 9800SE is like a 9500, not a 9500P--half the pipelines as well as half the memory bus. I'd imagine no hier-Z buffer, either, like the 9500.

 

[Viper96720]

Don't get a powercolor they like to do that with products. Did it have the actual specs on the box? Probably not I remember their overclocked 9700Pro giving some stability problems. With artifacts and stuff on screen.

 

[Loobusk]

SE = slow edition

Lol

 

[Killrose]

Ati should not allow this to continue. They should create a new chip designation, they should be aware that this is going to cause customer dissatisfaction and abuse. Shame on them.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Killrose
Ati should not allow this to continue. They should create a new chip designation, they should be aware that this is going to cause customer dissatisfaction and abuse. Shame on them.

Its business.

 

[justagamer]

THANKS FOR THE REPLIES, much appreciated, but now i've read about enabling 8 pipelines which is a bit of a relief, but also that it seems to cause artifacts, which is not so good!!!!! so if it comes down to it, would you rather get a radeon 9700 pro or a radeon 9800 SE (both powercolor)???? i'm thinking the 9700 pro. I call on you once again to offer me your advice!!!
THanks!!

 

[Pete]

Like I said, get the 9700 Pro or a 9800, and toss the 9800SE back into the pond for uninformed consumers.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yeah it's far too much of a gamble ... and like the 9500nonPRO modding it's likely to become harder and harder. So basicly go for a 9700nonPRO (easily hits 9700PRO/9800 speeds) which can be found as cheap as FX5600ultra cards and are WAY faster than those and any 9800SE. Otherwise it's best to look at the 9700PRO or 9800 as said ... or of course the 9600PRO!

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustin
Yeah it's far too much of a gamble ... and like the 9500nonPRO modding it's likely to become harder and harder. So basicly go for a 9700nonPRO (easily hits 9700PRO/9800 speeds) which can be found as cheap as FX5600ultra cards and are WAY faster than those and any 9800SE. Otherwise it's best to look at the 9700PRO or 9800 as said ... or of course the 9600PRO!

FYI: the EZ version of a 9600 pro is the same as a SE version of anything else...it all translates to "suckass" because you wanted to save a few bucks, i hate them crippling hardware like that, cheap memory and other things,....my bro got a 9600 pro, i thought "awesome, bet it will oc like crazy"...

it was the EZ version, bah to him!

 

[AnAndAustin]

The thing that annoys me most is when manu's release their version of the card and quietly give it lower clocks and cheaper RAM and yet still call it by it's full name. Eg EVGA's 4200-64MB should have 250/500 but used 250/440, it wasn't called the 4200 64MB XE, EZ or Lite but simply GF4TI4200 64MB. Another example is the AOpen GF4MX440-8X 64MB which used 250/330 instead of the official 275/512, this made the card way slower than a GF2TI instead of within a few % of the GF4MX460! Again it was simply called GF4MX440-8X 64MB, no SE, XB, etc. Final eg (I have personally witnessed) is the Mentor GF-FX5200 128MB which used 250/330 clocks instead of 250/400, once again sold as a full GF-FX5200 not some cut down version. To me that is way worse than mis-naming like GF4MX (vs GF3), Rad9600PRO (worse than 9500PRO), Rad9800SE (128bit worse than 9600PRO, 256bit worse than 9700nonPRO). Also worse than EZ type monikers as with this and mis-naming a little research (or guess work) should reveal the particular card's inferiority. Surely something should be done about the underclocking?

 

[justagamer]

FYI....,

i returned the 9800se(based on what it says on the box is not what's in the box), and got myself a new cpu, 256 mb ram and got a radeon9500np.

i was unable to mod the 9800se to use all 8 pipelines, and that convinced me to take it back. i know have the 9500np which i have been able to mod to use all 8 pipelines(theorectically, now using a 9700 pro).

3dmark2003 score:

9800se = 3500
9500np(modded) = 4200. (bear in mind this is a newcpu. from athlonxp2000+ to 2600+). but in this test the cpu frame rates have not changed much from the old cpu.

9800se cost R3000.
9500np cost R1500.

half the price, better score.

thanks for all the replies.