Fellow Simmers the world over, I am looking into the buying some 'top-end' hardware and was wondering what the diffenece between the following two cards is: "Asus Radeon 9800 XT/TVD 256Mb Half Life 2 Bundle" & "ATi Radeon 9800Pro 128M OEM" apart from the former costing 150 quid more!!! I've checked out my motherboard and I'll probably go for the following CPU "Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 3.2C Ghz 800Mhz". This should allow my to haul the mail a little quicker I believe from my current P4 2.4Ghz/Geforece4 Ti4200. Although I don't expect the world I'm sure it will give me abit more than the 7.5 fps I get with scenery like HeathrowPro/FlyTampa.. All and any help/thoughts greatfully received, and thanks in advance... Stan HarveyEmiratesVa20nm SW of EGKK.

Hi Stan,I'd recommend you wait for a few weeks to make a decision on a new VPU. Last week we saw the first previews of the nVidia 6800 based card, and should be seeing something on the new ATI R420 based cards any day now. These cards are the next gen technology.Hope this helps,Greg

I wouldn't buy the XT, it isnt much better than the Pro, same GPU actually, with a slightly higher clocks frequency. Either wait for the new cards or get the Pro, which is excellent value for money right now. If you consider the Nvidia 6800 remember that you should have at least 480W powersupply also.- Oyvind

Thanks fellas you've been a great help, nice to clear up the XT vs PRO thing. That new Nvidia card sounds like a real power hog!!!Stan HarveyEmiratesVA

I recently bought a 9800 Pro that has the R360 GPU on it. A quick BIOS flash turned it into an XT. Alot of card manufacturers are dumping their inventory at this time, so alot of the Pro cards are being built with the XT core.Evenso, I'd wait for the new cards. I bought the Pro because I had a good buyer and price for my year old 9700 Pro. The 9800 ended up costing me $50.00US out-of-pocket expense. I wouldn't have done the deal otherwise... the new cards are worth waiting for IMHO.Greg