Graphics Card: The vendor vs the chipset?

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GilesGuthrie

GilesGuthrie

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CMDRTheDarkLord
So, I'm looking at graphics cards. And I quite want one based on the Radeon 9800 chipset. But there seem to be lots of vendors "branding" Radeon cards as their own.

So, I see a "Sapphire All In Wonder Radeon 9800SE 128MB", and various "Radeon 9800Pro 128MB" (Dabs, Powercolour etc).

Are they all fundamentally the same card, or are there differences between them?
 
I think they tend to use different brand memory and some have better heatsinks. I suppose it only realy matters if your a PC gamer or an overclocker. :indiff:
 
halfracedrift
Think of the vendors as tuners for cars like mine's or Spoon.

Fundamentally, they are the same card.
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👍

Well put.

The only difference between the cards you listed is the SE is different from the Pro, memory thing.

You'll want a pro.
 
Dont get an SE. It stands for "Slow Edition" ;)
 
Yea, i was onced tricked by the SE , when I was getting a 9200. Thinking it would be better then its predassor(blah can't spell).Then it turned out like crap on a stick. :crazy: :yuck: :sick: :grumpy: . But now I have a 9800 PRO , so I'm happy! :) . Pretty much they are the same card. Just sold by third-party companies.
 
Different companies sell the Radeon and All-in-Wonder series' graphics cards.

Even though they are technically the same card, there have been more error reports as you get towards the less common ones, aka. Xtasy and 3Dcolor. Your best bet is to stick with a higher end distributor, aka ATI, Asus, or Sapphire. You'll get the least problems with them.

I hope you know that the Radeon isn't like an All-in-Wonder, there is quite a difference between them. Plus, the Pro isn't like the XT at all, in that, the XT has double the built-in RAM.
 
Oh, and avoid the Sapphires. Not very good experiences with them. Just stick with plain old 'ATI All In Wonder Radeon 9800 PRO" and you'll be good. =P
 
Avoid Sapphires? uh, oh. I have a sapphire...
 
I've seen Sapphire's ratings, they aren't as bad as you might think. They rival ATI's. They typically pump out a little more for the same card, so I'd almost say Sapphire is a better product than ATI. The one I had, gave me a better pcmark than my buddy's ATI version of the same card. I had no problems with it.
 
Well, for me it was just bad. Maybe it was the store.. but I don't know.

I went in for a Sapphire Radeon 9100 (yeah, crap box, whatever)
First time I got it, plugged it in, didn't work.
Took it back
Second time, plugged it in. Didn't work AGAIN. Hardware problem.

Only the third time it worked, and by the time this happened, I was through with it (even though I'm still using it, next one surely will NOT be from Sapphire).
 
Well, I think they're all the same good-old chipsets from ATI. It's just that some of the other elements of the card are diffrent. (Memory, etc.)

I recently purchaced a Sapphire 9200 SE (Yeah, yeah. The "Sucky Edition.") But thats the best card I could afford, and I think it's got some good power compared to what I have. It should come by either tommrow or Thursday. Ill let y'all know how it is.
 
[]CiBoYs[]
I already had one before. And it sucked period. :indiff: :crazy: :yuck: :grumpy:
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Yeah. That's all I've been hearing. Sure beats the crap out of My current Intel i810 intergrated graphics.

And since I got a PCI interface, Thats the best card on the market. Or a Geforce 5200.
 
I just bought a sapphire 9600 XT 256mb. My dad bought it through a website his company uses for ordering computer parts so everything is alot cheaper. I've heard the extra money for the 9600 XT isnt worth it because performance is only slighlty better, but it was only like $10 more so I got the XT. Would I have been better off with a sapphire 9800 pro 128mb? the 9800 XT is amazingly expensive :scared:

EDIT: it's the sapphire all in wonder 9600 XT 256mb if that makes any diffrence
 
DJM PRODUCTIONS
I just bought a sapphire 9600 XT 256mb. My dad bought it through a website his company uses for ordering computer parts so everything is alot cheaper. I've heard the extra money for the 9600 XT isnt worth it because performance is only slighlty better, but it was only like $10 more so I got the XT. Would I have been better off with a sapphire 9800 pro 128mb? the 9800 XT is amazingly expensive :scared:

EDIT: it's the sapphire all in wonder 9600 XT 256mb if that makes any diffrence
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i had a saphire before.... there all good..... just that after awhile they tend to die off and be a little slugish at high res...... but just my oppinion....
 
Okay, let's give some actually useful information here. A number of the cards, including the one I have (the MSI RX 9800 PRO TD 128, which I got from Newegg), use the R360 processor core rather than the R350 one. This is the same processor as the 9800 XT, and it will actually install as a 9800 XT when the drivers are loaded in Windows. I suggest using the Omega Driver versions. And version 4.7 of the Catalyst has serious problems, so I'm using 4.6. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory won't even run on 4.7. Anyway, back to the chipset. I'm sure you're familiar with the manufacturing process for processors, they are created with a manufacturing process with a theoretical speed, but, unfortunately, the silicon stamping process used to make the chips is not infallible. So some of the chips don't reach that speed. These chips are sold as inferior models, whether they be pentium chips or graphics card chips. Luckily, the process is never inefficient enough to fail on enough chips to meet the demand from low-end consumers, so fully functional chips are sold as inferior ones. With some processes, this percentage of cheap fully functional processors is higher than others, and it's relatively high on the R360. So, what this really means, is that, using the Omega Drivers, at least, you can easily clock the MSI card to 9800XT speeds with no serious risk of failure, and it can be actually pushed much farther on stock cooling, if you have good case ventilation. The reason that I recommend the Omega Drivers is that the card can be overclocked from the display properties panel. And underclocked back, jsut as easily. And as long as you don't click the "set boot" button, it wont' boot to the overclocked speed. So you can't crash your computer to an irretrievable state by overclocking the card too much. Another electronics purchase I'm happy with, apparently...
 
toyomatt84
Plus, the Pro isn't like the XT at all, in that, the XT has double the built-in RAM.
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There is a pro version with 256 MB of RAM. If you buy the one with the R360 core, the bios can be flashed, and it can be turned into an XT. Although I'm not sure that it has the same number of pixel piplelines. But someone in the market can do that research themself.
 
I'd like everyone to know that the Sapphires and ATI cards are the exact same thing.

Yes. That is right.

The only difference is perhas color and cooler. Other than that, they make eachother's card, for eachother.

My Gigabyte 9600XT is nice. ATI core, nice RAM, and cheaper than the ATI/Sapphire choice.
 
[]CiBoYs[]
So Timmotheus, will the Omega Driver overclock my (OEM) ATI 9800 PRO just as easily as the MSI 9800 PRO?
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Yes. Use 3D Mark '03 for stability testing. If memory is clocked too high, huge parts of the screen will flash white, groups of five pixels or more. If the CPU is high, single pixels will drop out. These usually shows up first on the turtle's back in the Nature test. If your games start locking up for no reason, take the speed down again.
http://www.omegadrivers.net/
They'll overclock GeForce as well, of course, as long as you're sure to download the right ones. I had to add an extra fan to get mine to run stable at high speeds, just added one on the side, cut a hole in the case. If you're interested, the R360 core on the 9800 Pro cards is usually undervolted. This can be fixed by a volt mod, which I found directions for somewhere. But I forget where, and it will burn out the card faster, so unless you're more interested in performance than stability, I wouldn't recommend it.
 

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