Hi, I think Im gonna buy a powercolor 9800 pro, has anyone heard of these and are they any good (they are nice and cheap)?

Does anyone think I should go for a different manufacturer?

Finally what are the 9800s like, Ive heard the 9800 pros dont have very good overclockability, so can you het the 9800's at or over the 9800 pro clock settings, and if so is there then any difference between the 9800 (clocked) and 9800 pro.

thanks

As in ANY graphics card, it's the luck of the draw as to how well it over-clocks. I don't really think the manufacturer of the card makes much difference ... although that said, there are manufacturers who "hand pick" GPUs and ram for their particular boards (based on either measured performance or a particular batch of chips they know will perform well).

There was a BIOS download on this site a week or so ago with instructions on how to "patch" (via the graphics card's BIOS) a 9800 to a 9800 Pro but I didn't save the link. I'm about to purchase a (generic OEM) 9800 Pro myself and wasn't that interested.

To answer one of your questions, my experience with over-clocking non-pro type boards and expecting them to reach "Pro" specs has been a mixed bag. Most of them probably will at least approach those Pro levels, however, they'll NEVER reach Pro over-clocked levels. At least that's been my experience.

Like I already stated though, it's ALWAYS the luck of the draw. I've seen reviews on boards that were SUPPOSE to be highly over-clockable and by the end of the review it was pretty obvious the card was a dog. That doesn't mean though that they're ALL dogs. It just happened to be that particular card fizzled when it should dazzled.

I've had extremely good luck though over-clocking OEM cards (particularly the ATi 9700 Pro) so I'm going with the OEM Pro card. I'll also be strapping a Swiftech TEC water block on it though and that ALWAYS makes a difference. In the end though, I don't really care that much HOW well it over-clocks as long as it's stable and performs well at whatever upper limits I can hit with it.

To be honest, I've read some rather bad reviews both on web sites and in forums about the Powercolor boards in general. That an a buck and a half will get you a cup of coffee because I've read just as many bad reviews on every other board out there as well.

Take what people say in here with a grain of salt (or a shot of Tequila if that wets your whistle) because NONE of us can predict the future (meaning NO ONE can tell ahead of time whether you'll get a dog or a Cheetah BEFORE you buy it).

Later.

some friends of mine havent had too good experiences with powercolour. all the time it was a result of too cheap ram modules that couldnt handle factory clock speeds, so they had to underclock it to make it work properly. but all these cases was from the pre-9xxx series. I dont know if they have improved since then.

I have had a ATi Radeon 9800 Pro OEM for what 3 months its a great card the last ATi i had was a ATi Rage 3D 128 Pro (16Mb Card) then moved all the way through the Geforce Range from 1 right 4 (top models of course ) but after all the problems i seen and heard in the Geforce FX 5800 and a little think of problem the same for 5900 i desided to Give ATi another chance and by GOD was it a GOOD Choice.

I haven't OC'd it yet but at stock i find its superb with my AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0Ghz), 512Mb Corsair 2700 DDR, ONLY every time i have rendered my pc almost useless is sticking it on full MAX 16x AA etc and loading Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 on MAXed at at 14FPS but eveything on default its like 50 FPS!

Ive got a R9700 Pro from powercolor. Not same card as you but I must say I was not satisfied at the start. Maybe because I started off with poor drivers (Cat 2.4), or because I wasn't that good with computers and badly set it up, but now I must say that I am satisfied. My 9700 is now "discontinued" so they are fully on the 9800's. My bet is that if its the cheapest in the bag, try it out :D

Hi, I think Im gonna buy a powercolor 9800 pro, has anyone heard of these and are they any good (they are nice and cheap)?

Does anyone think I should go for a different manufacturer?

Finally what are the 9800s like, Ive heard the 9800 pros dont have very good overclockability, so can you het the 9800's at or over the 9800 pro clock settings, and if so is there then any difference between the 9800 (clocked) and 9800 pro.

thanks

I don't know if this is unacceptable or not but I'm going to post this anyway. By the way, I have NO affiliation with this or any other website, store, retail outlet or any business associated with either the buying or selling of computer hardware.

I just ordered my next video card --- the Ati Radeon 9800 Pro ... and I think I got a pretty good deal on it ($287). It's an OEM card so it doesn't come with any games or anything extra. Just the basics. I bought it from OC System (an on-line store). Their normal price (at the moment) is $297 but if you take a look at their "OCSystem Enhanced ATI 9700+ Pro Level I 128MB" board, you'll see in the very first sentence that you can get $10 off the Radeon 9800 Pro 128 by entering this code (r98p10) when you check out. Apparently they're trying to discourage folks from ordering the 9700+ Pro Level 1 card by offering a discount on the 9800 Pro (works for me).

So ... that's exactly what I did and in fact did get $10 off making the base price for the 9800 Pro $287. That's about as good a deal as I've been able to find anywhere on the Internet. I also ordered it with the "OCSystem Level 1 Cooling kit by Thermaltake" ... which if you go back and look at the "OCSystem Enhanced ATI 9700+ Pro Level I 128MB" board you'll see exactly what it looks like. It's the SAME HSF that Tyan uses on their Tachyon line of cards. Good stuff and only $16.

Again, I don't know if posting this kind of information is kosher or not and if it isn't, I appologise. You can take away my birthday and send me to sea. I don't mind at all (been there, done that). I just thought that for those of you out there looking for a good deal on a 9800 Pro, this IS a good deal.

These are the same folks I bought my 9700 Pro (OEM) from, by the way, and I've been extremely happy with it's performance. OEM cards tend to get a bad rap ... for NO good reason. Just like with Full Retail versions of cards, they're either good over-clockers or they're not. It's the luck of the draw ... no matter HOW much you pay for the card.

There is no spoon ...
Later.

For me, go for the Gigabyte if you are uncertain. They sure make a good Graphic board, but little expensive then the power color.

I have just ordered a PowerColour radeon 9800 pro. They are ok.
They are an OEM product as I know for a fact that HIS (HongKong company) use exactly the same card for their version of the 9800 pro.

Checkout :http://www.nordichardware.com/reviews/graphiccard/2003/Radeon9800Roundup/

This shows the PowerColour up against the big boys. It performs pretty well. What gets me is that the HIS card should performed the same as the PowerColur but it doesn't. they are definately the same because I have both of these cards sitting here in front of me! the are the same even down to having identical production "Quality", s/n barcode stickers on them!

They are use SAMSUNG K40263238E-GC2A memory. You can check out how overclockable the Powercolour is from the Nordichardware site. Its comparable to the rest. How this reflects the 9800 overclockability I do not know.

I currently live in the UK but these cards are much cheaper in the US than here, are the US cards exactly the same (ie. could I buy it there and have it shipped over and it would work exactly the same as the UK one in my machine)?

Does anyone know any companies that will ship to the UK?

Are the mainland europe cards cheaper and work the same, and if so does anyone know ant companies that would ship here?

Thanks for your help

www.e-bug.de is selling a Club Radeon 9800 Pro for 335 EUR, and they ship to the UK. Why is hardware so expensive in Great Britain?

Because in case you haven't noticed, EVERYTHING is expensive in the UK... :P

www.e-bug.de is selling a Club Radeon 9800 Pro for 335 EUR, and they ship to the UK. Why is hardware so expensive in Great Britain?

the problem with e-bug is: bug ..... like the name says.....

i got only bad experiences with them!!! used parts-sold as "brandnew"
available listed parts- 4 weeks later still no packet .... and so on and on...



so i don'T trust them anymore!