|
6 Jan 2004, 17:53
|
#1
|
Wankoverable
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: wherever I am
Posts: 726
|
radeon 9800 AIW SE
So I want to buy a new videocard to replace my old gforce 4mx which has suffered enough.
I'm looking for something in the price range of 200?- - 300? (dunno how much that is in pounds). I've looked over the current range of cards and I'm planning to get a a hercules 3d prophet 9800 all-in-wonder SE. Not only is it a good card and has a lot of video-in-out features, but apparently you have a chance of 50% to softmod it to a 9800 pro too if you enable the 4 other rendering pipes that might be broken.
Do you think it is worth the gamble or would an other card fit me better?
Flayer
EDIT: my mobo is only 4X agp? should I just wait some time, and buy a new mobo with pci-express?
__________________
Don't worry, life is too long.
Last edited by Flayer; 6 Jan 2004 at 19:31.
|
|
|
6 Jan 2004, 18:16
|
#2
|
Henry Kelly
Join Date: Apr 2000
Posts: 7,374
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
What currency is that in, it's coming out as questionmarks =(
__________________
You're now playing ketchup
|
|
|
6 Jan 2004, 18:18
|
#3
|
supadupafly
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 65
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
I've read that too, and I've seen the card for £160~ which is a bargain - if you can guarantee that it will successfully softmod. I was tempted to get one myself, as even if it failed it would be a decent card to own. But with a bit more cash, £200-300 should get a Radeon 9800 Pro.
__________________
I MUST be bored
|
|
|
6 Jan 2004, 18:54
|
#4
|
Wankoverable
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: wherever I am
Posts: 726
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
it's in EUROS
also, does it matter my card is only 4x AGP? will it seriously effect performance?
__________________
Don't worry, life is too long.
|
|
|
6 Jan 2004, 23:33
|
#5
|
-=Murderous Plush Toy=-
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 971
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
the performance difference between AGP4X and 8X is unnoticable and you need not worry about it, as it stands my R9800pro is stuck on AGP1X because my mobo is being fking retarded, but gaming wise there appears to be no difference.
If you really must get an R9800SE for the media features, then make sure it has 256bit mem interface (there are 128bit versions too), you need this if you intend to mod to a full R9800pro. I believe all R9800SE's from Hercules are 256bit, but you should really check. Incidentally an R9800SE with 256bit mem interface is slightly faster than one using 128bit mem interface.
If not, i'd try stretch to an R9800NP (non-pro), I think R9600XT's are a good price and perform slightly better than R9800SE's.
What country are you in btw?
In UK for 300€ you can get an R9800pro
__________________
-Lucky #plush
__________________
Does anyone actually play this anymore?
|
|
|
7 Jan 2004, 10:34
|
#6
|
supadupafly
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 65
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luckeh!!!!
If you really must get an R9800SE for the media features, then make sure it has 256bit mem interface (there are 128bit versions too), you need this if you intend to mod to a full R9800pro. I believe all R9800SE's from Hercules are 256bit, but you should really check. Incidentally an R9800SE with 256bit mem interface is slightly faster than one using 128bit mem interface.
|
The magazine in which I read the article about this card reckoned the one they softmodded worked out of the box with the mod, and was faster than the Sapphire R9800 Pro they benchmarked as their fastest card. That's some going. Of course, the 9800XT came along...
Remember though - keep it cool! If it was meant to be a R9800 Pro, it would have been boxed has one. It's been locked for a good reason I suppose.
__________________
I MUST be bored
|
|
|
7 Jan 2004, 13:22
|
#7
|
Wankoverable
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: wherever I am
Posts: 726
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
I checked and all hercules SE cards are 256mbit. I also read that 9800SE's from hercules (only hercules) are slightly faster than 9600XT (out of the box).
I'm in Belgium, and the SE is 260? here. 9800np's are difficult to find though. I'm going to the shop right now and make up my mind
__________________
Don't worry, life is too long.
|
|
|
7 Jan 2004, 19:00
|
#8
|
-=Murderous Plush Toy=-
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 971
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by SyPh0n
The magazine in which I read the article about this card reckoned the one they softmodded worked out of the box with the mod, and was faster than the Sapphire R9800 Pro they benchmarked as their fastest card. That's some going. Of course, the 9800XT came along...
Remember though - keep it cool! If it was meant to be a R9800 Pro, it would have been boxed has one. It's been locked for a good reason I suppose.
|
it should be exactly the same really, the SE has (or should, some are lower) the same clock speeds as the pro, only difference is the 4 disabled pipes and maybe the 128bit mem interface.
unlocking the 4 pipes successfully would yield a straight R9800pro.
as for why they are disabled, ATI (and indeed every other electronics make) would test the gpu core and for what-ever reason it fails a certain test and needs 4 pipes disabled. Now, depending on how bad the fault is, you personally may not be able to reproduce the fault during normal usage, all falls on luck really.
__________________
-Lucky #plush
__________________
Does anyone actually play this anymore?
|
|
|
7 Jan 2004, 21:01
|
#9
|
Wankoverable
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: wherever I am
Posts: 726
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Well I played the lottery, bought the card.
It modded successfully, I'm quite happy now
__________________
Don't worry, life is too long.
|
|
|
7 Jan 2004, 21:51
|
#10
|
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 1,967
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Buy an SE if you like buying a dog with only 2 legs. I mean, geez get a 9600 Non-SE or pro and you will be much happier for the extra $50 USD if that.
|
|
|
8 Jan 2004, 00:44
|
#11
|
-=Murderous Plush Toy=-
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 971
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flayer
Well I played the lottery, bought the card.
It modded successfully, I'm quite happy now
|
congrats
__________________
-Lucky #plush
__________________
Does anyone actually play this anymore?
|
|
|
8 Jan 2004, 10:54
|
#12
|
supadupafly
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 65
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flayer
Well I played the lottery, bought the card.
It modded successfully, I'm quite happy now
|
If I could stretch to getting the card ( I don't have £160 ), then I bet it would be my luck for it not to work hehe.
Have fun anyway!
__________________
I MUST be bored
|
|
|
9 Jan 2004, 00:21
|
#13
|
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 421
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
gfx cards are overrated *
* overpriced
|
|
|
9 Jan 2004, 01:01
|
#14
|
Mr. Blobby
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Belgium
Posts: 8,271
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luckeh!!!!
ATI would test the gpu core and for what-ever reason it fails a certain test and needs 4 pipes disabled.
|
Not to mention that they need an x amount of GPU's for production of 9800SE cards. If yields are sufficient, ATI will be crippling fully functional cores as well as semi-defective ones.
|
|
|
9 Jan 2004, 10:30
|
#15
|
supadupafly
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 65
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leshy
Not to mention that they need an x amount of GPU's for production of 9800SE cards. If yields are sufficient, ATI will be crippling fully functional cores as well as semi-defective ones.
|
Same thing as with Barton 2500+ and 3200+ processors. All down to voltage and temperature tests blah blah. Another thing I'd like in my PC
__________________
I MUST be bored
|
|
|
10 Jan 2004, 14:54
|
#16
|
Wankoverable
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: wherever I am
Posts: 726
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
the only abnormal behaviour I am noticing is that in 3dMark03, in some tests like mother nature and the stars wars fight thing, the display is a bit bumpy (I mean it goes in little shocks, don't know how to express it otherwise ). Even though the framerate is high.
No lines or checkerboard effects though
__________________
Don't worry, life is too long.
|
|
|
10 Jan 2004, 16:30
|
#17
|
-=Murderous Plush Toy=-
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 971
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flayer
the only abnormal behaviour I am noticing is that in 3dMark03, in some tests like mother nature and the stars wars fight thing, the display is a bit bumpy (I mean it goes in little shocks, don't know how to express it otherwise ). Even though the framerate is high.
No lines or checkerboard effects though
|
you mean jerkyness?
Mother Nature has areas of extreme jerkyness, Battle of Proxycon can be aswell.
btw, framerate in Mother nature can't be that high, that test is a mofo even on the best GFX card.
__________________
-Lucky #plush
__________________
Does anyone actually play this anymore?
|
|
|
11 Jan 2004, 19:38
|
#18
|
Wankoverable
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: wherever I am
Posts: 726
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
exactly, but I reformatted this afternoon and it's fixed now. My FPS on mother nature is about 20 fps btw
__________________
Don't worry, life is too long.
|
|
|
11 Jan 2004, 23:25
|
#19
|
-=Murderous Plush Toy=-
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 971
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
must be those lingering NVidia drivers, they really don't like each other.
__________________
-Lucky #plush
__________________
Does anyone actually play this anymore?
|
|
|
12 Jan 2004, 09:20
|
#20
|
supadupafly
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 65
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luckeh!!!!
you mean jerkyness?
Mother Nature has areas of extreme jerkyness, Battle of Proxycon can be aswell.
btw, framerate in Mother nature can't be that high, that test is a mofo even on the best GFX card.
|
I stuck 3DMark03 on my system (Athlon 2100+, 512MB, Geforce 4 Ti4200 64MB) and the best frame rate I ever saw on either of those two were 8 FPS, usually at about 2/3 FPS. My overall score was something like 1400 (hahaha). I hope this isn't a future trend for games though. I had the Doom 3 beta running a 30 FPS at one point, but only steadily at about 10-15 FPS.
Will be a nightmare come release date if it stays like that because I can't even afford an 80mm fan atm
__________________
I MUST be bored
|
|
|
12 Jan 2004, 19:39
|
#21
|
-=Murderous Plush Toy=-
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 971
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by SyPh0n
I stuck 3DMark03 on my system (Athlon 2100+, 512MB, Geforce 4 Ti4200 64MB) and the best frame rate I ever saw on either of those two were 8 FPS, usually at about 2/3 FPS. My overall score was something like 1400 (hahaha). I hope this isn't a future trend for games though. I had the Doom 3 beta running a 30 FPS at one point, but only steadily at about 10-15 FPS.
Will be a nightmare come release date if it stays like that because I can't even afford an 80mm fan atm
|
3DM03 is entirely GPU based, even my lowly AXP2000+ managed to score 5000+ pts due to my GFX card.
anyway, 3DM03 isn't a very good benchmark for todays games, but no doubt in the far future games will be offloaded more to the GPU, probably the only thing left for the CPU to do is computer AI and game physics.
as for DM3 i can't say, but no doubt it would run ALOT better than the beta, your 64mb of VRAM might limit you though, apparently DM3 uses heavy texturing
PS your Ti4200 can't run Mother Nature
__________________
-Lucky #plush
__________________
Does anyone actually play this anymore?
|
|
|
12 Jan 2004, 20:22
|
#22
|
Wankoverable
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: wherever I am
Posts: 726
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luckeh!!!!
3DM03 is entirely GPU based, even my lowly AXP2000+ managed to score 5000+ pts due to my GFX card.
|
It has CPU and sound checks though. Especially the CPU tests make my framerate go down (to 1fps). Thats an athlon 1800+ btw. Apparantly it's old now
__________________
Don't worry, life is too long.
|
|
|
12 Jan 2004, 22:30
|
#23
|
Born Sinful
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Loughborough, UK
Posts: 4,059
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
I have an XP2000+ and a GeForce4 Ti4200 64Mb.
Low settings on Doom 3 for me, methinks.
However, if all goes well I might have a decently paid year in industry job (interview for IBM coming up, erk) so at the rate Doom3 is slipping I might be able to buy that entire new PC I listed in the other thread before then.
I have been informed from other sources that IBM pays a baserate of around £11k for the lowest placements on this recruitment scheme. Doesn't sound like much, but when you're a student living on about £4k for an entire year, including paying for rent, food, bills, and then (if there's any left) going out and other "luxuries", £11k is a LOT of money.
Hey, a man can dream.
__________________
Worth dying for. Worth killing for. Worth going to hell for. Amen.
|
|
|
13 Jan 2004, 01:13
|
#24
|
-=Murderous Plush Toy=-
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 971
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flayer
It has CPU and sound checks though. Especially the CPU tests make my framerate go down (to 1fps). Thats an athlon 1800+ btw. Apparantly it's old now
|
According to the formulas that FM use to calculate overall score, gametest1 contributes a small percentage to the overall score.
From the help file.
3DMark03 score = (GT1fps * 7.3) + (GT2fps * 37) + (GT3fps * 47.1) + (GT4fps * 38.7)
so according to that, GT1 accounts for about 5% of the overall score lol
__________________
-Lucky #plush
__________________
Does anyone actually play this anymore?
|
|
|
13 Jan 2004, 12:28
|
#25
|
supadupafly
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 65
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
I have time to borrow the gf's Egg card in the meantime to buy myself some bits hahah :eek:
Which one is the Mother Nature one?
I get the WW2 dogfight which looks and runs quite good, the one with that fairy tart with the sword killing the trolls and the space battle (Proxycon) so I suppose none of these are mother nature?
I got this PC in October 2002, so it's not doing too bad games-wise. I can still stick the resolution on 1024+ (1280 on some games like NFSU) and I get good framerates and not much jerkiness. Thank god.
__________________
I MUST be bored
|
|
|
13 Jan 2004, 12:37
|
#26
|
-=Murderous Plush Toy=-
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 971
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Mother Nature is the 4th Game Test, surely the name would suggest no trolls, guns or planes?
__________________
-Lucky #plush
__________________
Does anyone actually play this anymore?
|
|
|
13 Jan 2004, 13:38
|
#27
|
supadupafly
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 65
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
That had crossed my mind
__________________
I MUST be bored
|
|
|
13 Jan 2004, 17:25
|
#28
|
Wankoverable
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: wherever I am
Posts: 726
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luckeh!!!!
According to the formulas that FM use to calculate overall score, gametest1 contributes a small percentage to the overall score.
From the help file.
3DMark03 score = (GT1fps * 7.3) + (GT2fps * 37) + (GT3fps * 47.1) + (GT4fps * 38.7)
so according to that, GT1 accounts for about 5% of the overall score lol
|
So the other tests just dont count?
__________________
Don't worry, life is too long.
|
|
|
13 Jan 2004, 20:37
|
#29
|
-=Murderous Plush Toy=-
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 971
|
Re: radeon 9800 AIW SE
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flayer
So the other tests just dont count?
|
The score is only calculated from the game test frames per second, so yeah, the other tests don't count.
If you're using the free version you can just press ESC after the 4 gametests have completed to get your score.
__________________
-Lucky #plush
__________________
Does anyone actually play this anymore?
|
|
|
|
All times are GMT +1. The time now is 22:38.
| |