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[URL]http://uk.special.reserve.co.uk/q_GG4525_sapphire_ati_radeo.html[/URL] and [URL]http://uk.special.reserve.co.uk/q_GG8922_connect3d_ati_rade.html[/URL]
Apart from the large price difference, why should I choose one over the other? At first glance, the specs look the same...
I'm only in 'browsing' mode at the moment and won't be committing to a card just yet. I know I can get cheaper cards elsewhere but that sapphire one looks good for the price.
Opinions?
Ta.
Apart from the large price difference, why should I choose one over the other? At first glance, the specs look the same...
I'm only in 'browsing' mode at the moment and won't be committing to a card just yet. I know I can get cheaper cards elsewhere but that sapphire one looks good for the price.
Opinions?
Ta.
Page:
[URL]http://uk.special.reserve.co.uk/q_GG4525_sapphire_ati_radeo.html[/URL] and [URL]http://uk.special.reserve.co.uk/q_GG8922_connect3d_ati_rade.html[/URL]
Apart from the large price difference, why should I choose one over the other? At first glance, the specs look the same...
I'm only in 'browsing' mode at the moment and won't be committing to a card just yet. I know I can get cheaper cards elsewhere but that sapphire one looks good for the price.
Opinions?
Ta.
Apart from the large price difference, why should I choose one over the other? At first glance, the specs look the same...
I'm only in 'browsing' mode at the moment and won't be committing to a card just yet. I know I can get cheaper cards elsewhere but that sapphire one looks good for the price.
Opinions?
Ta.
Sapphire are a good brand. That one it the one I have. Fantastic card, really really good.
In saying that, Turbonutter swears by Connect3D and I have heard good things about them. I'd google them and have a look at the reviews, the cards are the same spec after all.
Bearing in mind that the XT range is basically an overclocked Pro card, and that there is actually no need for 256 Mb of memory yet, I think in hindsight the smart thing to do would have been to buy a £160 128 Mb 9800 Pro, which if I wanted I could always overclock.
In saying that, Turbonutter swears by Connect3D and I have heard good things about them. I'd google them and have a look at the reviews, the cards are the same spec after all.
Bearing in mind that the XT range is basically an overclocked Pro card, and that there is actually no need for 256 Mb of memory yet, I think in hindsight the smart thing to do would have been to buy a £160 128 Mb 9800 Pro, which if I wanted I could always overclock.
Thanks. Is overclocking easy though? I've never had the knowledge/bottle to do it.
ßulle†† wrote:
> Thanks. Is overclocking easy though? I've never had the
> knowledge/bottle to do it.
Its about the easiest piece of overclocking you can do. What graphics card are you running at the moment? If it is already quite close to the 9800 pro specs then i would probably wait until PCX.
> Thanks. Is overclocking easy though? I've never had the
> knowledge/bottle to do it.
Its about the easiest piece of overclocking you can do. What graphics card are you running at the moment? If it is already quite close to the 9800 pro specs then i would probably wait until PCX.
cookie monster wrote:
> ßulle†† wrote:
> Thanks. Is overclocking easy though? I've never had the
> knowledge/bottle to do it.
>
> Its about the easiest piece of overclocking you can do. What graphics
> card are you running at the moment? If it is already quite close to
> the 9800 pro specs then i would probably wait until PCX.
PCX?
> ßulle†† wrote:
> Thanks. Is overclocking easy though? I've never had the
> knowledge/bottle to do it.
>
> Its about the easiest piece of overclocking you can do. What graphics
> card are you running at the moment? If it is already quite close to
> the 9800 pro specs then i would probably wait until PCX.
PCX?
PCI Express I think he means.
Yeah Sapphire cards are excellent - I have a 9800 Pro, which is currently running nicely at XT speeds on both the core and RAM, on stock cooling.
Connect 3D also make some good cards – my mate has a 9600 and has had no problems with it – plus it OC’s well.
And in terms of overclocking – Sapphire cards all ship with a program called ‘Red Line’ which is a utility that enables you to easily overclock the card – even for a total noob. Although even if you don’t go with Sapphire, getting yourself a good prog to overclock the sucker will be easy – rTool springs to mind, as does Radclocker. The latter being a part of the rather good Omega driver set. Which, for the record, I am using currently.
Oh and cookie monster, I guess you mean PCI Express? If you do, then why would you advice someone to wait for this?
From what I have read the first wave of PCI Express cards are just gonna’ be the current generation of nVidia and ATI cards but re-jigged to run on the PCI –Express bus.
I would say that if you don’t pick-up a high end (i.e. Radeon 9800Pro/XT or FX 5950) pretty soon, then you might as well try and hold out for the next generation of cards – although these may not hit retail until late Q2 early Q3 of this year.
These new cards will all have native PIC Express support.
To be honest I just don’t see the switch to PCI Express being a real factor, in terms of graphics throughput on a video card level, until at least the next gen (ATI R420), although more than likely it’ll be the generation after that. Only at this stage will we start to see anything like the advantages of the PCI Express bus.
The current generation of video cards (9800XT & FX 5950) don’t use anything like the bandwidth offered by AGP X8, let alone what PCI-Express has to offer. So even if you say the next gen is going to use up all of an AGP X8 bus, it’s still someway short of PCI Express.
I think the change to PCI Express at this stage is more or a case of getting the consumer ready for the move from AGP at a retail level. Some people will be fooled into buying a PCI Express version of the 9800XT, just as some were fooled into buying the first GeForce cards that had an X8 AGP connection. All who quickly found out that they got no performance improvement at all!
At this stage, that’s all it really is, making some easy cash out of the more gullible people looking to buy new video cards, while at the same time brining in this new interface early. This way, component vendors (motherboard, video card etc) are all on the same spec sheet when the need for PCI Express in terms of bandwidth hits the industry.
Connect 3D also make some good cards – my mate has a 9600 and has had no problems with it – plus it OC’s well.
And in terms of overclocking – Sapphire cards all ship with a program called ‘Red Line’ which is a utility that enables you to easily overclock the card – even for a total noob. Although even if you don’t go with Sapphire, getting yourself a good prog to overclock the sucker will be easy – rTool springs to mind, as does Radclocker. The latter being a part of the rather good Omega driver set. Which, for the record, I am using currently.
Oh and cookie monster, I guess you mean PCI Express? If you do, then why would you advice someone to wait for this?
From what I have read the first wave of PCI Express cards are just gonna’ be the current generation of nVidia and ATI cards but re-jigged to run on the PCI –Express bus.
I would say that if you don’t pick-up a high end (i.e. Radeon 9800Pro/XT or FX 5950) pretty soon, then you might as well try and hold out for the next generation of cards – although these may not hit retail until late Q2 early Q3 of this year.
These new cards will all have native PIC Express support.
To be honest I just don’t see the switch to PCI Express being a real factor, in terms of graphics throughput on a video card level, until at least the next gen (ATI R420), although more than likely it’ll be the generation after that. Only at this stage will we start to see anything like the advantages of the PCI Express bus.
The current generation of video cards (9800XT & FX 5950) don’t use anything like the bandwidth offered by AGP X8, let alone what PCI-Express has to offer. So even if you say the next gen is going to use up all of an AGP X8 bus, it’s still someway short of PCI Express.
I think the change to PCI Express at this stage is more or a case of getting the consumer ready for the move from AGP at a retail level. Some people will be fooled into buying a PCI Express version of the 9800XT, just as some were fooled into buying the first GeForce cards that had an X8 AGP connection. All who quickly found out that they got no performance improvement at all!
At this stage, that’s all it really is, making some easy cash out of the more gullible people looking to buy new video cards, while at the same time brining in this new interface early. This way, component vendors (motherboard, video card etc) are all on the same spec sheet when the need for PCI Express in terms of bandwidth hits the industry.
So should I upgrade now then?
I have a GeForce 4 Ti4600, 128mb RAM. I can't run games like Far Cry, Splinter Cell 2 (demo) and CounterStrike Condition Zero. It must be my card that is causing the problem - everything else is brand new and set up sweetly.
I have a GeForce 4 Ti4600, 128mb RAM. I can't run games like Far Cry, Splinter Cell 2 (demo) and CounterStrike Condition Zero. It must be my card that is causing the problem - everything else is brand new and set up sweetly.
The answer to that lies in when you want to upgrade the rest of your system. Have you got a fairly new CPU and RAM? If so, then you wouldn't be looking at upgrading them for another year, maybe two. In which case I would say just spend £160 or so and get a 9800 Pro now.
If on the other hand the whole system is a bit on the old side then you might want to consider waiting a few months then upgrading to take advantage of a whole bunch of new things, like AMDs Socket 939, which is the future for 64 bit, S-ATA etc, things which on a system more than a year or so old you wouldn't have.
If on the other hand the whole system is a bit on the old side then you might want to consider waiting a few months then upgrading to take advantage of a whole bunch of new things, like AMDs Socket 939, which is the future for 64 bit, S-ATA etc, things which on a system more than a year or so old you wouldn't have.
Safedisc_V2 wrote:
> Oh and cookie monster, I guess you mean PCI Express? If you do, then
> why would you advice someone to wait for this?
If he already had a pretty decent card then waiting until pci express ;) would be the next logical step on the upgrade path, theres no point in getting a card that will be quite quickly made redundant. If you see what i mean.
> Oh and cookie monster, I guess you mean PCI Express? If you do, then
> why would you advice someone to wait for this?
If he already had a pretty decent card then waiting until pci express ;) would be the next logical step on the upgrade path, theres no point in getting a card that will be quite quickly made redundant. If you see what i mean.
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