Announcement: Radeon 9800 Pro Review!

[Guest Max Cowgill]

ATI delivered an uppercut to Nvidia with the Radeon 9700 Pro, it appears as though they're going for the knockout with the 9800 Pro :) Just announced, the 9800 Pro will be shipping *THIS MONTH* (128MB version) with a 256MB DDR2 version to follow in April. This card is all about high-end performance, so if you like eye candy, this card could be your very best friend :) Go here for the review: http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDM5 I won't spoil the results of the review for you, but let's just say this is one fast video card ;) I wonder how fast the 256MB DDR2 version will be... Makes me somewhat glad I went with that cheap GF4 Ti 4200 128MB card instead of that shiny 9700 Pro afterall :)-Max Cowgill

[Guest Max Cowgill]

hehe, guess I'm the only one up at 3:00 AM (CST). That's what I get for working until after 1:00 AM though... Anyway, here's a bump for all you early risers/night owls (depending on how you look at it) and a middle-of-the-day bump for all you folks across the pond :)-Max Cowgill

[Guest Fabio Miguez]

Hey Max.I'm up! Thank you so much for the link. I was waiting to find an online review, but you beat me to it!Sounds like ATI has gotten their stuff straight after all, and that the 9700 was not a freak child, but the beggining of a revolution at ATI. Good. nVidia needed some good competition.Can't wait for the prices on the 9700 to go down ;-).

[Guest Max Cowgill]

>Hey Max. >>I'm up! Thank you so much for the link. I was waiting to >find an online review, but you beat me to it! >>Sounds like ATI has gotten their stuff straight after all, >and that the 9700 was not a freak child, but the beggining >of a revolution at ATI. Good. nVidia needed some good >competition. >>Can't wait for the prices on the 9700 to go down ;-). No problem bro, and Amen to the price drop too! I've been wanting a video card that can actually handle AA&AF for flight sim and my GF4 (sadly) isn't that card. I really want the 9800 Pro but I doubt I'll actually blow 400-500 bucks on one... Maybe I'll get a 9700 Pro @ a more reasonable price, say maybe 200 bucks :)Here's a link to another Radeon 9800 Pro article that had a lot of good info in it as well, including a comparison of the 9800 Pro @ stock speeds (380MHz core/340MHz mem(680 effective DDR)) and @ 9700 Pro speeds (325/310(620)) vs. the 9700 Pro itself. http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/ati/r350/-Max Cowgill

[Tabs 2,790]

Wow - Nvidia is finished if they don't come up with somethign that competes really soon. This card is more than 30FPS faster than the GFFX in quite a few of those tests and doing 1600X1200 with FSAA at 60FPS is just unheard of. I'm getting this card for my new system in May or June I think ;)

[Guest]

At the same clock speeds the new R350 core is no less than 30% faster across the board with 4X AA and 8X Quality Aniso enabled, not too shabby at all. ATI's improvements in their compression algorithms and the memory controller clearly come in handy when AA and Anisotropic filtering are turned on, effectively making the Quality Anisotropic filtering mode a useable option with the Radeon 9800 Pro.With both 4x FSAA and 8x aniso enabled, the Radeon 9800 PRO gets to play both of its trump cards, easily beating the FX 5800 Ultra hands down. The performance increase over the 9700 PRO is also nothing short of impressive. Robb

[Guest Fabio Miguez]

Hey Robb.Right on. Not to mention overclocking the GPU to 420MHz without locking up or even artifacts! And memory up to 380MHz, same thing! Now THAT is impressive on a 0.15 micron core with cooling that only takes one slot, instead of GeForce FX's "superduper" cooler, that steals the next slot to the AGP so it can fit.Oh, and by the way, the memory is only air cooled in the new 9800. Not even heatsink! Imagine what we will be able to do once the cooling mods come out?ATI has definetelly improved the architecture of their chips, as exemplified on the above overclocking speeds, and that only means one thing: They care.

[Guest Bigshot]

Look at the overclocking with no artifacts: The highest stable core overclock with no artifacts that I was able to reach is 440Mhz. The highest stable memory overclock with no artifacts that I was able to reach is 370Mhz (740Mhz DDR). At these speeds the HSF remained only warm to the touch, it didn

[Guest Stratus_Fractus]

Wow! I'm getting it. ;-) NVidia is going to be dead very soon.

[Guest]

"NVidia is going to be dead very soon."In no way will NVidia "be dead very soon" - they've got cash up the wazoo (compared to, lets say, 3DFX when they were *really* going to be dead very soon). Not to mention some of the brightest minds in the industry. And OEM confidence throughout the industry - still. Really, you'd better hope they never get in such a bad position as to "be dead very soon": or you'll be paying $699 for that brand new top-o-the-line video card from ATI and $399 for the mid-range, both of which wouldn't be near as good as they could have been with fierce competition. Lets not forget what the industry looked like when 3DFX had it locked up for that short period (remember 3-card-combo Voodoo 2 SLI prices anyone?). That is, until NVidia came along.NVidia screwed up and bet the cycle on a process that wasn't ready. That is plain and clear. They missed an entire, full cycle and lost the lead in the industry. They are still a cycle behind - but closing the gap (their current cycle won't be their typical 6 month period - its looking like they're shooting for a 4 month one). Two or three more cycles and they'll be caught back up if ATI keeps to its new cycles.ATI rocks and rules right now. Thank heaven, because NVidia was in some serious need of real competition all these years while ATI was the one falling severely behind. ATI may now shorten their own cycles to try and keep NVidia from catching back up, but its highly unlikely they will fully succeed doing so. NVidia has proven time and again that they can be a leopard hard to match - exactly why they are who they are and have plenty of capitol in the bank. They are a different company today of course, much larger with more red tape and politics, but the underlying qualities of NVidia as a company are still quite sound. Can you imagine the card everyone would be drooling about right now if NVidia hadn't missed a cycle and was releasing the NV35 today? What would the 9800 have looked like if that was so?Again, I'll repeat. NVidia missed an entire, full cycle. ATI didn't and took full advantage. In no possible circumstance will NVidia "be dead very soon". ATI is the top of the roost right now and executing on all pistons - and NVidia is doing everything they can to re-compete as soon as possible.Which is great for us all.Take care,Elrond---Not enough bandwidth to display this signature! Don't reformat hard drive? (Y/N)

[Guest]

Hello,I just wanted to add some info. from Anandtech.com.I noticed that they used the benchmark of a heavy cpu dependant flightsim,Comanche 4, and in this case it was clear to them that in this type of benchmark,the 9800 gain isn't so significant(at least at 1024*768). http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1794&p=9So it may be that the 9700pro could become the very best value overall.Paul

[Guest Bigshot]

Yes; there's no doubt that the 9700Pro is still a top card and a very good value. Just not number 1 anymore. Reports are showing they're priced around $269 right now. Look for those prices to drop even more when the 9800Pro becomes available which will be very soon. I noticed the anandtech review used the GFFX Ultra. They've been cancelled. I thought the www.hardocp.com review was very well done using the GFFX (non-ultra) which is the card that will be released retail. The extremetech review was obviously biased toward Nvidia (as usual).Guess my 9700 Pro makes me second class again. Oh well. BTW; where is that GFFX (non-ultra)? ;)

[Guest]

I also can't stress enough that the card to go with is the 9700 Pro. It is the Best Bang for your buck! It will be more than enough horsepower and then some for FS9 when it's released.

[Guest BrianC]

We'll learn more later today when previews are up, but I'm thinking the 9600 will be the price/performance leader in the mid $100s, especially on something like CPU-bound FS2002.

http://brianc.vip.warped.com/kpwk_sig.gif

[Guest Bigshot]

Elrond; from http://www.gamersdepot.com/hardware/video_...9800pro/001.htm Quote:_______________________________________________________________If you