Son_of_Thunder

well guys, i got the wrong card from newegg...a 9800pro w/ the old heatsink and the r350 core instead of the green msi 9800pro. newegg finally responded to my emails and gave me an rma w/out the 15% restocking fee. should i take it and get a x800? or should i be happy w/ my 9800pro?

either way i need more ram...512 Value select just doesn't cut it anymore...i need 1024

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pr0digal jenius

i'd definately get the x800 if i could afford it, as your system is plenty fast ot notice a difference

drakesteakn

X800 if possible.

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No_Style

Going in circles here, first you got a 9800.. then you returned it. Then your mother offered a X800, but then you got a 9800 PRO cuz money was tight, now you're considering a X800 again?

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CDsDontBurn

defenitly (?) the x800. WAY better performance than the 9800pro/xt

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ViRuS2k

X800 Pro Vivo Modded www.overclockers.co.uk 16PIPE.

btw this has to be a mistake LOL (AMD XP 2800+ 2.312ghz 370fsb)

@370FSB LOL

Son_of_Thunder

i never know how to write my FSB, do i double it or not? i see a lot of places (newegg included) that will show the FSB as 333MHZ, or 400MHZ, but then i see a lot of places that have it as 166 or 200. what is the proper way?

as far as going in circles, the first 9800pro was a mistake. then i went w/ the MSI 9800Pro because it really had good potential, and i really liked it's design. plus the r360 core was the thing i really wanted.

what i got was a r350 core, samsung ram and a crappy heatsink. now newegg will take it back at no cost to me, but i don't get my money back, i get store credit. (it's very specific about that in the letter they wrote me) now newegg no longer sells MSI 9800pro's, and that was really the only 9800pro i was considering.

so that leaves me deciding between the x800pro and xtpe again. i still have the money, but the thing is if i spend it on this card, will i need it for something else down the line. so it's a risk.

the best my card overclocks to is XT speeds...and that at that speed i get bad artifacts in the pixel shader 2.0 test.

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ViRuS2k

333mhz and 400mhz are rateings on memory speeds
you never double FSB speeds...

say if you where running a 2500+ CPU @200fsb that would then be running your memory at 400mhz = 3200 DDR speeds

its not hard to figure out and if a 2500+ CPU @166fsb means runing your memory at 333mhz = 2700 DDR speeds.

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hope this helps...........

No_Style

Just stick with the 9800 PRO if you're worried about finances.

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Son_of_Thunder

so when i go to buy a processor, and it says 400mhz fsb, they are talking about the working ram speed and not the actual fsb?

bah...stupid newegg...

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inet

I say go grab the 6800GT or the 6600GT (around xmas) instead. The tides have turned and it is nvidia's time to shine in late 2004 and 2005.

SLI and sm3.0 support

jfs1967

There is a "huge" difference between the 9800PRO and the X800PRO. With the 9800 the best playable resolution with all the eye candy on is really 800x600. Even then, intense fire fights cause some stutter. The X800PRO plays at 1280 by 1024 without any real hiccups.

I have used both cards with the following:
1GB Kingston HyperX PC3200
P4 3.2GHz

No_Style

What game are you refering to?

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riles9262

Exactly. The 9800pro plays pretty much all games at high settings very quickly. The only game that I've had problems with is far cry and 90% of the time it runs well at 1024x768 with no aa and 8xaf. But on my machine that's a given. All other fps i play (ssam se, rtcw, et, medal of honor) all run flawless with 8xaf, 2x tempaa and 10x7 res.

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A beer a day keeps the doctor away.

Son_of_Thunder

w/ my 9800 i get a decent fps in most newer games, but i have drops down to unplayable levels...also it makes me mad that i can hardly tell a difference between the performance of my 9000 and the 9800...that's why i've decided to return it.

i do need help picking out a x800 though...

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jfs1967

I'm sorry. I am referring to Halo.

I got the 9800 pro after seeing how badly the nVidia cards (5900Fx) rendered cloaking.
It may have to do with the kind of Shader 2.0 support. With the nVidia cards, when your cloaked you basically look "invisible". With 9800PRO cloaking looked amazing: like molten glass instead of some basically transparent 3d object.

So, do you research and do it well concerning the kind of image quality you want. For all the talk about how much faster the nVidia cards are with DOOM3, I run it on a Visiontek X800 at 1280 by 1024 on high quality and the framerates rarely stutter and never enough to distract me. Well, sometimes after you defrag your drive, things can be a little dicey until you play the game a few minutes or so, for some reason.

The kind of FPS you will be getting for the next 2 years with an X800 will suffice.

No_Style

....Halo?! Halo is a poorly converted game in the first place. Bad example, but I agree with your point of X800 PRO being able to handle 1280 x 960 with higher settings on more games in general.

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jfs1967

Check out this think if you have not already made a decision:

http://www.nordichardware.com/review...ndex.php?ez=13