ATI Radeon 9800se

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by Parmenion, Jan 6, 2005.

  1. Parmenion

    Parmenion Member

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    Hi Folks,

    I'm interested in buying the 9800se and using soft mod to turn it into pro. There seems to be a lot of different models/version out there though can anyone tell me which one to get?
    SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -BULK
    SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "100566L-Red" -RETAIL Lite Box
    POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9800SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "R98E-SC3/BULK" -OEM
    POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9800SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "R98SE-C3" (OEM, BAREBONE)
    And also is using soft mod difficult?
    Any help gretly appreciated.
     
    Parmenion, Jan 6, 2005
    #1
  2. GrandpaBW

    GrandpaBW Active member

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    3 out of the 4 that you listed are OEM models. I stay away from those and get retail.
     
    GrandpaBW, Jan 6, 2005
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  3. Parmenion

    Parmenion Member

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    Thanks GrandpaBW,

    I presume that sapphire and powercolor etc are just re badged cards and are in fact the exact same? Or is there a particular one I should go for?
     
    Parmenion, Jan 7, 2005
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  4. stonecld

    stonecld Member

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    Ya get a real 9800 pro for 199.00 visiontech brand or a 6600gt apg version for 222.00 from price watch or new egg 9800se slow compared to these and cant soft mode anyways cause se only has 4 pipelines and 9800pro has 8 so there
     
    stonecld, Jan 8, 2005
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  5. DMW

    DMW Regular member

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    isn't that what the soft-mod is for? To open up the extra pipelines? at least thats what I thought, it then is basically a 9800, to achieve pro standards it needs some clocking. The saoftmod is basically a bios flash which opens up the extra pipes, but you must be careful, if those pipes were cut off due to a fault, then reenabling them will bring back the fault.
    (I had a similair expereience with a Duron, but thats unrelated)

    I personally, if you are set on buying a 9800se, would buy the last one in your list. yes, it's OEM, but it's also the only one listed as being 256bit, the retail "Lite" version was one of the first 128bit 9800 series cards.....and it DOES make a dfference in the latest games, I had the "pleasure" of seeing one in action on HL2 and it was no where near as good as a 256bit model.


    Hope I havent clouded the issue anymore, but on a side-note, I would go for a 6600gt, they are cheap and do outperform the 9800se by quite a margin, not sure on your cost differences though.

    C'ya guys.
     
    DMW, Jan 8, 2005
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  6. Parmenion

    Parmenion Member

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    Thanks for the info guys.
     
    Parmenion, Jan 10, 2005
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