well after some thinking, I decided to get a high-end graphic card instead of a p4 setup now... I can't decide on 3 cards... -9800 pro 128mb -GForce FX5900 128mb -Parhelia512 128mb now I got a 9600 128mb now... I like it... but I can't really use AA and AF because the frame rate drops too much... I tought about the parhelia since I got 3 monitors and it would be great to game on 3 monitors. but 3 monitors gaming is icing on the cake... and the cake has to be great so that the icing worth it I don't know much about the parhelia except that it's supposed to be great. How does it compared against the fx5900 and the 9800pro? which card will give me the better performance overall? thx for your time
iirc, the parahelia is designed more for 2d work... 9800pro = the win.. my mac one is awesome (flashed sapphire 9800pro to a mac bios)
Yup, the Parhelia isn't known for its stellar 3d performance, it'll be worse than your 9600 for sure. The top Parhelia in 3dmark2k1 gets about the same score as a Ti4200 or thereabouts, maybe a bit lower even. The 9800 Pro is the way to go at the moment in my opinion.
9800 pro definately, nvidia are only in the game with one card for performance (5950ultra) and i suspect thats just some good dx7 and 8 wrapping for dx9...but thats another thread.
ok so looking at the results and opinion, it's clear that the 9800pro is the card that I should get... now I saw that there's a fairly good price difference between the saphire and the ati built... (50$ cad) is the saphire built 9800 really more powerful than the ati build? is it worth it?
Find the core and memory clock speeds of each, if the difference isnt that massive, save your penies towards that p4 system
well I've decided to drop the idea of a p4 system... I got a predy decent system... it wouldn't give me as much as a 9800... anyways thanks for your inputs really cleared things out
i've got a sapphire one and i'll say it has its issues, as does my sapphire 9600XT... but i;ve never had a problem with my ati built 9600pro
9800Pro all the way If your thinking of AA and AF, the 9800Pro is definetly the way to go. Im not sure which is better between saphire and built by Ati, but i f i remember saphire actually builds the built by Ati cards . . . Good luck
UK does not have "Built by ATI cards", We generally get "Powered by ATI". The Sapphire and PowerColor ATI 9800 Pro's are pritty much exactly the same.
Eh? I was just stating a fact to you about the UK (where you live), you read too much into my post I was not replying to the thread originator. But you are right there is a good indicatations that Sapphire do the equivilant of the "Built by ATI" In the end there is not much difference between all the ATI 9800 Pros all of them are built within decent tolerances. There is no way you can really recommend a brand over an other.
you could get a plain 9800, since i found out the non-Pro version is clocked at 325mhz core and 580mhz mem... if you got some ram sinks n **** you could OC it.. neweggs got'em cheap.
performance wise the 9800 pro (256) is about the same as the 5950 but cheaper, i've never had an ATI as have always bought when nvidia were on top. So can comment on ATI sa i hear the drivers are quite buggy, where as the nvidia have always performed quite well IMO
well I don't beleive in the buggy drivers since I haven't got a single problem with my 9600 since I bought it 6 months ago.
you hear a lot of that from nvidia owners (nothing personal), but its those same people that claimed that their nvidia cards performance would be much higher with each next release of the detonators.
Each new Detonator release is supposed to increase gaming performance by 15-20%, I dunno how ATi are keeping up The myth that ATi drivers are buggy is now only being kept alive by the stories of the few people who will have problems, no matter what the piece of hardware. Before the Catalyst 3.2s came out, the drivers were very buggy, but ATi have worked very hard to put them right. I'd like to hear some examples of what you're talking about, if you would, batsman
