I am about ready to spring for it...to spend my "part" of the tax
refund. ;)
But, all I have is a 4X AGP MB...it's an older VIA KT266a part.
Should I do it or wait until I can upgrade to an 8X MB first?
Advice...BASED ON EXPERIENCE...is appreciated.
Thanks,
Ted
yes...older motherboards will often create artifacts and/or texture
tearing. ISI sims seem more prone to these problems.
I went from an older Asus mb and had lots of graphic glitches to a newer
Abit mb and just that cleared everything up. 9800Non Pro. Is the SE a
lower priced model? I'd try for the Pro if at all Financially possible.
dave henrie
My advice is to get a 9600XT is you reallt need something now or better
still, wait for the new Radeons to be released (which isn't far off) and
prices will plummet.
> Been researching the Powercolor 9800 SE...looks like a decently priced
> 3D upgrade and it might even have the optional softmod upgrade
> feature.
> I am about ready to spring for it...to spend my "part" of the tax
> refund. ;)
> But, all I have is a 4X AGP MB...it's an older VIA KT266a part.
> Should I do it or wait until I can upgrade to an 8X MB first?
> Advice...BASED ON EXPERIENCE...is appreciated.
It's important that you get 256 bit version though, not 100% sure if
*all* Power Color cards are 256 bit, but according to those who have
done a fair bit of trial and error, this is the card to get for soft
modding, some guys even flash it with the 9800 XT BIOS and get quite
good results
Once I finish rebuilding my *** rig it will replace a soft modded
R9500 PRO
However, the price difference up to a 128 MB 9800 PRO isn't exactly
massive these days, so unless you're like me and like to tweak just for
the hell of it, it may be worth it to splash out the extra cash and get
the "real" thing
Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy
"goyl at nettx dot no"
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
"A man is only as old as the woman he feels........"
--Groucho Marx--
But it's fast enough in most things, including recent releases like
Far Cry with its taxing dx9 features, and the card certainly runs
faster and better with fsaa engaged. And that's at x2 AGP (I have yet
to see any real world evidence that we should lose any sleep over AGP
speed).
If I was spending the money again I, er... probably wouldn't :-) But
that's because the AIW side of things has been a pain in the neck, and
because I have a 9700Pro in the machine that I normally use for sims.
If the card softmods successfully it's a bargain. It is doesn't, you;d
have been better (IMO) paying for a 9600Pro/XT... or maybe even a
9700Pro if you can still find one.
Andrew McP
--
Mike Beauchamp
http://www.therevox.com - custom electro-theremins and stuff.
http://www.mikebeauchamp.com - mike's personal site.
> > Been researching the Powercolor 9800 SE...
> yes...older motherboards will often create artifacts and/or texture
> tearing. ISI sims seem more prone to these problems.
> I went from an older Asus mb and had lots of graphic glitches to a newer
> Abit mb and just that cleared everything up. 9800Non Pro.
The 9800SE appears to be a deliberatly "crippled" version of the
9800...with only has four shader pipelines, instead of eight. (Rumor
is the 9800SE chip is a 9800 Pro chip that didn't make the grade.) You
can get the 9800SE in various bit-flavors, 128-bit or 256-bit.
Retail price difference, from the various places I've been looking,
puts it a few dollars more than a 9600 Pro and about the same price as
a 9600XT. Which is also about $50 less than a 9800 Pro, nowadays, all
things being equal (which is rare).
But according to what I've read, if you get a 256-bit version of the
9800SE, it MAY be possible to get it working as 9800 Pro, by running a
soft mod and overclocking. You have to run some special drivers and
such, and that may be messy. Still a gamble in any case, because you
may or may not have some artifacts in the images when you mod it.
Although, if I buy it from a place with a decent return policy.....
--
Mike Beauchamp
http://www.therevox.com - custom electro-theremins and stuff.
http://www.mikebeauchamp.com - mike's personal site.
> > > Been researching the Powercolor 9800 SE...
> > yes...older motherboards will often create artifacts and/or texture
> > tearing. ISI sims seem more prone to these problems.
> > I went from an older Asus mb and had lots of graphic glitches to a newer
> > Abit mb and just that cleared everything up. 9800Non Pro.
> Hmm...well maybe I should spend the first ~$100 on moving up to
> something like an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe, then worry about the video
> card later.
> > Is the SE a lower priced model? I'd try for the Pro if at all
Financially
> > possible.
> > dave henrie
> The 9800SE appears to be a deliberatly "crippled" version of the
> 9800...with only has four shader pipelines, instead of eight. (Rumor
> is the 9800SE chip is a 9800 Pro chip that didn't make the grade.) You
> can get the 9800SE in various bit-flavors, 128-bit or 256-bit.
> Retail price difference, from the various places I've been looking,
> puts it a few dollars more than a 9600 Pro and about the same price as
> a 9600XT. Which is also about $50 less than a 9800 Pro, nowadays, all
> things being equal (which is rare).
> But according to what I've read, if you get a 256-bit version of the
> 9800SE, it MAY be possible to get it working as 9800 Pro, by running a
> soft mod and overclocking. You have to run some special drivers and
> such, and that may be messy. Still a gamble in any case, because you
> may or may not have some artifacts in the images when you mod it.
> Although, if I buy it from a place with a decent return policy.....
> When you say 128-bit and 256-bit, do you mean MB of memory, or something
> else?
128 bit memory path and 256 bit memory path, PowerColor's 9800SE cards
use 256 bit just like the POR cards unlike most other manufacturers that
use 128 bit, which is why the PowerColor cards have become all the rage
for soft modding, some people speculate that a lot of their SE cards are
sinply 9800 PRO cards with defective pipelines that didn't pass
inspection, all I know is that my 9800SE card OC's like something that
OC's really really well with both core and memory running faster than
stock 9800PRO specs, which suggests that it's not using a sub standard
GPU or memory compared to a PRO card
Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy
"goyl at nettx dot no"
http://www.theuspits.com
"A man is only as old as the woman he feels........"
--Groucho Marx--
Or I COULD get a refurbed 9700Pro for $149.....
decisions...decisions ;)
> > However, the price difference up to a 128 MB 9800 PRO isn't exactly
> > massive these days, so unless you're like me and like to tweak just for
> > the hell of it, it may be worth it to splash out the extra cash and get
> > the "real" thing
> Hmmm...well newegg.com lists the Powercolor 9800SE at about $157 and
> the 9800 Pro is $209. A little bit of a price spread, still.
> Or I COULD get a refurbed 9700Pro for $149.....
> decisions...decisions ;)
However, ATI is releasing their X800 series these days, so there might
be a decent price drop on the current cards in the not too distant
future
Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy
"goyl at nettx dot no"
http://www.theuspits.com
"A man is only as old as the woman he feels........"
--Groucho Marx--
