Graphics After a good 9800 Pro AIW

I'm kitting out my shuttle SN45GV2 and I'm after a graphics card. The system will be used as a media/gaming PC so I'd really like to have a AIW/digital TV card combo.

The 9800 pro is a good (budget) card and as I haven't got the cash for a 6800 it's gonna have to do....

The powercolor 9800 pro AIW has recently price dropped to £150 and I was wondering if this is a good buy. 128mb of RAM, 128 bit etc, etc and has some good reviews.

Any good?
Has anyone had a compatability issues with using a second tuner with this? Anyone think it's c**p?

Let me know ,

Scotty

 

don't bother with a 128-bit 9800 Pro if you want to play games in any seriousness - it's about as fast as a 9600 XT, and it isn't a real Radeon 9800 Pro. A real 9800 Pro has a 256-bit memory interface, and thus has double the memory bandwidth. Memory bandwidth is one of the most important things with today's titles, along with a very efficient pixel shader.

 

If you want to game then dont go AIW.

If you insist on Last Generation GFX then You can get a Sapphire Radeon 9800pro for about £130 (Overclockers, Microdirect, Komplett, Lowestonweb), but really you would be better saving for a bit longer and getting a card with some balls.

 

Very true. hanks for the suggestions. I was eyeing up the saphire before the AIW caught my eye. I think it's a good card but something like a 6600 would really be nice!

Is there a quiet and powerful 6600 (GT, vanilla, whatever) at around the £200 mark?

 

6600 is a nice card,a nd it's in the same kind of pricing bracket. It also has the advantage of noot being an ATI card.

dont get me wrong, ATI cards are good cards (My 9800pro was REALLY powerfull), but I hate the driver system for ATI's, I much prefer the Nvidia driver system (Less bling, more ooomph!). So do a lot fo ATI owners, hence the widespread sue of Omega drivers.

If you can afford it go with the 6600GT, Current generation and pretty dan hot too.

 

...Wow, lots of AIW hate going around here. I have the built-by ATi 9800Pro AIW and I love it. There is lots of contraversy about how it is an underclocked, dumbed down version of the 9800Pro, but if you throw a better hsf on there (the stock one sucks to make room for the TV Tuner), the mem will clock up to regular 9800Pro speed, and score pretty much as well. I know there is the 128-256 bit dealio, which on paper makes a ton of difference, but the only game that I can't play at highest detail is Doom3, and even there I could play at 1024x786@32-bit, and most other settings at high. I love this card, so that's my two cents...Plus, whenever I don't feel good about it, I open up the TV program and either watch TV, or play PS2 through it's integrated capture

EDIT: Was looking around Newegg, and apparently there is now a 256-bit 9800Pro AIW, fully clocked to the standard 9800Pro mem clock of 680Mhz.

 

Ive got a 9800SE AIW pro that softmods to a pro (full 8 pipeline, and 256bit mem) and i can play HL2 at 1280*1024 at full detail and the game looks great with no slow downs.

If its really going to be used as a media PC aswell as games then go for the AIW card (but rem that it has to have 256bit mem otherwise your in for a big performance drop).

The 6600GT will beat it hands down in gaming and can be had for about £150 (from OCUK), and id go for it if the lack of AIW didnt bother you. If you want to go up to £230, then pcworld componant centre are doing the 6800GT at that price and its a real bargain for what it is.

 

It's not hate - I have a 256-bit AIW 9800 Pro, and I love that too. He stated that he was looking at a 128-bit AIW, which I would not recommend.

I would recommend the 256-bit AIW for definite, very nice card (just lacks the pixel processing power of an X800 XT Platinum Edition ). For £130-150(ish), it's a very good buy. You have to determine whether you are wanting the video card for it's all round features, or for its gaming performance, though.

If you can find a 256-bit AIW 9800 Pro and you want the extra features that it has, I would highly recommend it, because the features are awesome - it just lacks the radio that you get on the AIW 9600 XT, and I would shoot for that if I wanted features over game performance. For the balance of features and game performance, the AIW 9800 Pro comes out top trumps at the moment IMHO. For our and out game performance at £130-150, I would recommend the GeForce 6600GT AGP, as it's the best midrange AGP-based video card at the moment.

 

Thanks again for all your replies, I've decided to plump for the MSI 6800 card. Kicks ass speed wise, overclocks like mad and is quieter than 9800s and many other 6800s from what I've seen.

 

regarding...

hi scotty6435,
have just read your first comment and was just wondering where you heard about the Powercolor 9800 Pro AIW 128mb 128bit?
As far as i know Powercolor only do a 256 bit version of their 9800 Pro AIW!
If you could let me know a.s.a.p. where you have found one - or if it was a simple mistake that would be great.
cheers,
funk.

 

has anyone here heard of a Powercolor 9800 Pro AIW 128mb 128bit graphics card?

 

another option in the £150 range is MSI 6600GT VIVO, has video in, not exactly aiw, but its close my mate has vivo, and he watches TV via vcr connected composit in, works a treat

 

I did indeed make a mistake, it's a 128mb card with 256-bit memory interface. It's pretty good but I can live with only 1 TV tuner so I've got the 6800. Will arrive tomorrow and I'll be able to install next thursday. I'll post back with some benchmarks

 

hi all,
scotty6435, how did you find out in the end that it was a 256-bit interface? I only ask as i have been researching for a while now and want to make double sure it's 256-bit. By the way, what features does the MSI 6600GT VIVO have. havent seen that one. any better than 9800 pro aiw card?
cheers
funk.