Powercolor 9800 SE - opinions?

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. Thanks, Ted

[email hidden] (Ted D.) wrote in news:d1999e86.0404301604.6e482d78 @posting.google.com:

Quoted text (17 lines)

> 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. > > 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

If your CPU is less than 2GHz I wouldn't recommend it. The 9800 SE isn't as good a value card as the 9600 XT which is a fair bit cheaper and usually outperforms the 9800SE. The softmod option is very hit 'n' miss too. You usually end up with at least graphic corruption and even if it works you still don't get anywhere near the full speed of a 9800 Pro/XT. 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.

"Ted D." wrote:

Quoted text (13 lines)

> > 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.

I have a 9800 SE from Power Color myself, it OC's like there's no tomorrow and performs quite well, I've tried the soft modding which enables the remaining 4 pipelines, and while I get bad artifcating in certain tests in 3DMark03, I didn't get any in N2003 and Max Payne2, the only 2 games that are important to me 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 gaming 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.theuspits.com "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" --Groucho Marx--

[email hidden] (Ted D.) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>... > Been researching the Powercolor 9800 SE > But, all I have is a 4X AGP MB...it's an older VIA KT266a part. This PC is an xp1700+/512Mb sdram/Abit KT7a/x2AGP and I used to run a GF4 4200 in it, which I replaced with an AIW 9800se earlier this year. I wanted the AIW part and got tempted by the potential soft-modding of the ATI card. Mine doesn't mod successfully (artefects ruin the image) and it isn't that much faster in benchamrks and general gaming than the 4200 it replaced. 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

I picked up an ATI 9800 Pro 128 today for $299 CDN ($220 US) at futureshp... I don't know what the price difference is between it and the SE, but I know there's a decent performance difference.. -- Mike Beauchamp http://www.therevox.com - custom electro-theremins and stuff. http://www.mikebeauchamp.com - mike's personal site. "Ted D." <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > 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. > > Thanks, > > Ted

Dave Henrie <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted text (9 lines)

> [email hidden] (Ted D.) wrote in news:d1999e86.0404301604.6e482d78 > @posting.google.com: > > > 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? -- Mike Beauchamp http://www.therevox.com - custom electro-theremins and stuff. http://www.mikebeauchamp.com - mike's personal site. "Ted D." <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Dave Henrie <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>... > > [email hidden] (Ted D.) wrote in news:d1999e86.0404301604.6e482d78 > > @posting.google.com: > > > > > 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.....

Mike Beauchamp wrote: > > When you say 128-bit and 256-bit, do you mean MB of memory, or something > else? Something else :-D 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--

Goy Larsen <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>... > 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 ;)

"Ted D." wrote:

Quoted text (15 lines)

> > Goy Larsen <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>... > > > 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 ;)

Mhm....my 9800SE OC'ed very well, so even without the soft modding it's still a decent performer, but then again, Power Color's 128 MB 9600 PRO also OC's well, they use very high quality memory on their cards, my brother has one of those and on a P4-2.4 OC'ed to 3.0 it scores between 3500 and 4000 in 3DMark03, and those are pretty cheap right now 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--