Graphics Evesham Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB, Too good to be true?

Ive had my mind set on a Sapphire 9800pro for a long time now but they cost £150+. So while searching for a bargin on the web i came across this:

http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/DisplayInfoMain.asp?e=986F123D-48E7-45D4-92F9-BBE186BF3CA4

Its an Evesham Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB for £125 INC (yes INC) delivery. Ive read some of the review on the site and the people seem to be almost orgasmic about this card. Now with that being a website trying to flog the card im taking those reviews with a grain of salt.

Hence, i post here, what do you people think about this card? think its got a good chance of being an R360? or just better then a Sapphire Atlantis?

Anythoughts or people who know about the evesham brand would be muchos apriactos.

Thanks one again, Mord.


(Edit: Side note, is a R360 or 350 better? i though the 360 was but im a little confused)

 

My understanding is that the R350 is better for overclocking , the R360 while being newer , is running on lower voltage in the 9800Pro than it does in the 9800XT (Edit... hmmm , not according to there "comments" , but they also comment on it being 256mb also... comments don't match the "128mb" card they are selling , I wonder ? )
I dont think that the 128mb version is the big "gaming bottleneck" that some make it out to be...then throw in the price diff. between the 128mb / 256mb versions and it makes the 128mb a better buy... IMO (I read a lot of reviews before I got mine)
Sorry , I don't know about the brand though (mine is Sapphire)
DB

 

i am considering this card atm, i'm after a r360 core so it can be flashed to a 128mb 9800xt.

the xt bios allows better use of some shaders i believe and increases the performance while running the same frequency, i think the 3dm03 jump was from around 9000 to maybe 9400 due to the xt bios code.

 

To the best of my knowledge the r360 is a 9800xt

 

yes its true

get a sapphire 9800pro though they come with r360 cores

they are only a few quid more expensive if you look arround...ie ocuk...

i got one for a mate the other day...r360

 

Oh, i was expecting people to go "yes! buy this card!!!" and then id be dead set to buy one.

Since the response is lukewarm, im having second thoughts.

 

Have a read through the following thread, should tell you all you want to know about that card. I think they are R360 and can easily be flashed to an XT but read yourself to be sure £125 is the best price you will find for a 9800 Pro atm so I say you might as well splash out

http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297780

 

The only thing you really need to watch out for is 9800's with 128bitDDR, AFAIK only Sapphire (previously thought to be the best brand) make these dire cards, well dire as in 9600XT rather than 9800Pro perf. If you get the normal 256bitDDR it hardly matters if you get R350 or R360, the diffs are very small, just like the perf gap between 9800Pro & 9800XT is very small. The XT is little more than a 9800Pro o/c'ed to the max, a big reason for their prices not falling, it would be hard to ensure 9800's could run at that speed on a large scale. I've seen plenty of 9800Pro for £130-140, I myself would buy one that seems sure not to have 128bitDDR if it meant only paying an extra £10-20. 256MB on the other hand is not worth paying much extra for, by the time that extra RAM really proves useful you'll be aching to upgrade your slow-a$$ 9800 anyway!

 

Evesham Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb

Hey Dudes, First post so go easy on me ok?

I have just picked up one of the Raddy 9800 pros from Lowestonweb.com

But i have noticed my PC's PSU is only rated at 250w, so i guess i'll have to invest in a new PSU.

Can anyone pass on some info about what size PSU i need to run the raddy and any ideas about which PSU to purchase?

I also have 1X cd rom 1x dvd writer 1X 60gig hd. + (Floppy)

 

i'm running a 9800pro on a 350w enermax...

along with o/c'd tbred, 1*dvd-rw, 1*dvd-rom and 2 or 3 hdd's at once

 

Welcome. 250W is marginal for any modern system (I'll assume you're > 1ghz), definiely upgrade it regardless of gfx card. 9800Pro's aren't very power hungry for a modern gfx card, but as said upgrade that PSU before you plug it in. Brand is the most critical thing for a PSU, much like it is for RAM only more so. Top brands are Antec, Enermax and Thermaltake but other good brands are ToPower, S.Flower (TTGI), Sparkle, Seasonic, Fortron and CWT (Scan.co.uk). 300W from a good brand should be fine for your current system but I'd suggest 350W should be the minimum you go for with 400W or so ideal. If your PSU is 250W you may want to consider a new case, Antec's 3700AMB, 3700BQE & Sonata all come with good Antec PSUs making them unbeatable value. What CPU & mobo are you packing?

 

Who actually makes the Evesham card?

 

It seems people have said it's a true ATI but I would guess it is third party but with an ATI sticker (due presumably to having an ATI chipset). AFAIK ATI don't sell their own brand of cards outside of the US & Canada, haven't since the 8500 days (when pricing and availibility was often poor). The most vital thing is that people have said it is definitely using 256bitDDR and scores around 5500 marks in 3Dmark03 when stock. So long as it's using 256bitDDR brand is of little importance, the only brand I'd be wary of is Powercolor anyway. Any idea on warranty?

 

Sounds like a great deal then. I'm sorely tempted

 

To prove a 350 is not as bad as people think,
ive had a 9800 non pro r350 core, with a bios
update i got it to 400core 400mem 100% stable
with the default cooler in a shuttle.
thats from 290/275 i think (correct me if im wrong)

and "had" as i sold it, it did not die

 

mainly connect 3d afaik!

 

9800 nonPRO are usually 325mhz core and 290-310mhz RAM making them near enough the same as a 9700PRO. The old 9700nonPRO used 275mhz core and 270mhz RAM but often o/c'ed to around 360/310. 310mhz of 256bitDDR is plenty for these cards (of course more never hurts), just rem how fast a 9500Pro (128bitDDR) could be esp when the core was o/c'ed. The odd bad apple aside people should find most 9800 (inc nonPRO) should be happy getting around 400mhz core. I wouldn't worry whether you get R350 or R360 as both are very good indeed, I don't think either has a clear edge.