ATi has had much success since they released the Radeon 9700 Pro in 2002. The sucessor Radeon 9800 Pro didn’t represent such a milestone as the original R300 chip but none the less it is a very potent card. If you are looking for a high end videocard today Radeon 9800 Pro is one of the ovbious choices.
| Introduction |
ATi has had much
success since they released the Radeon 9700 Pro in 2002. The sucessor Radeon
9800 Pro didn’t represent such a milestone as the original R300 chip but none
the less it is a very potent card. If you are looking for a high end videocard
today Radeon 9800 Pro is one of the ovbious choices.
Today we take
a look at a handfull of Radeon 9800 Pro boards, the line up is as follows:
One thing that
you are sure to notice is that there’s not much that sets these products apart
when it comes to the actual boards. Instead the most interesting parts are
the retail bundles, availability, price and so forth. Two exception being
ATis 256 MB board and PowerColor’s higher clocked board. Let’s begin by looking
at the first two cards which are the reference 128 and 256 MB samples from
ATi.
| ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128/256 MB |
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro
| |||||
Chip: |
R350 | ||||
Manufacturing process: |
0.15-micron | ||||
Transistors: | ~125 mil.
| ||||
Core clock speed: | 380 MHz |
||||
Memory clock speed: | 680 MHz / 21,3 GB/s – 700 MHz / 21,9 GB/s
| ||||
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
| ||||
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
| ||||
Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
8
/ 3040 MP/s | ||||
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 3040 MT/s | ||||
RAMDAC: | (2) 400 MHz | ||||
Amount of memory: | 128 MB/256 MB | ||||
|
Type of memory and interface: | 256-bit, DDR-SDRAM / DDR-II-SDRAM | ||||
In- and outputs: |
VGA, DVI-I, S-Video Out | ||||
Extra peripherals: |
–
| ||||
Software: |
– | ||||
Full version applications: |
– | ||||
| Recommended price: |
128 MB: 399 USD, 256 MB: 499 USD (Exhange rates) | ||||
The three most
obvious differences between the two reference boards is the PCB and its length,
the fact that the 256 MB version uses DDR-II and that this DDR-II is clocked
20 MHz higher than the memory on the 128 MB version. Less obvious is that
ATi has clocked the DDR-II higher in order to defeat the higher latency of
the DDR-II RAM. This higher clock of course leads to a slightly higher bandwidth.
0,6 GB/s to be exact. Other than that the two boards are identical. First
let’s have a look at the 128 MB board. Please excuse the low quality pictures.
As you’ll notice further on we’ve used different cameras for the boards in
this review and thus the quality will vary a lot.
|
|
Everyone should
be familiar with the design of the 9800 Pro 128 MB by now. (though the shot
above with the black fan is a pre production board in case anyone is wondering.)
Let’s move on to the 256 MB board instead.
In the tests
today I won’t be running any tailor made tests to show the impact of 256 vs
128 MB VRAM. Instead I’ll use ATi’s own graphs to illustrate what increases
we can expect:
(These are ATi’s own scores, not NordicHardware’s)
As
we can see by looking at the procentual differences 256 MB has a large impact
on performance when using high levels of FSAA. But the problem as I see it
is that in these 11 "worst case scenarios for 128 MB" there’s only
really two tests that truly matters. I don’t know about you but personally
I could care less if I have 24 or 19 fps. Why? Simply because in any case
it’s both unplayable and even in a demo it’s pretty annoying to watch such
a low framerate. The tests that in my opinion show any real world difference
is the last test they have in UT2003 and the test in Commanche 4. These two
tests represent a difference between playable and hardly playable. So as I
see it the advantage of 256 MB is sort of a catch 22: 256 MB is often only
needed when things are going to be too slow anyway. We saw the same scenario
when we moved to 128 MB and to some extent also when we moved to 64 MB etc.
This of course will change in the future when games start to make more use
out of large textures and high polygon counts etc. But right now the advantage
of 256 MB simply doesn’t turn up during normal gaming except in the odd few
cases.
One
thing that does seem to be a tangible difference though is that some games
will offer extreme high quality modes for boards that have 256 MB VRAM. UT2003
is supposed to be one of those games according to the creators, but as far
as I’ve investigated it I can’t find anything along those lines. Perhaps having
256 MB will lower the LOD a few notches, but this is something that you could
do manually in your config without loosing much performance already on a 128
MB board.
|
|
The 9800 Pro
256 Mb is a larger board. In fact it’s almost as long as the NV30 PCB. Also
the memory on this board has heatsinks. Trust me, they’re there for a reason
too as the memory gets very hot even if it’s "only" clocked to 700
MHz.
The reference
boards will recieve no grades/marks as they are not retail boards and are
simply here for, well, reference.
| Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 Pro |
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 Pro  | |
Chip: | R350 |
Manufacturing process: | 0.15-micron |
|
Transistors: | ~125 mil. |
Core clock speed: |
380 MHz |
Memory clock speed: |
680 MHz / 21,3 GB/s
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
8
/ 3040 MP/s |
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 3040 MT/s |
RAMDAC: | (2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: | 128 MB |
Type of memory and interface: | 256-bit, DDR-SDRAM |
In- and outputs: | VGA, DVI-I, S-Video Out |
Extra peripherals: | S-video
|
Software: | Redline tweaker tool and drivers |
Full version applications: | PowerDVD XP, Soldier of Rortune II and Retrun to Castle Wolfenstein |
|
Estimated price: | 4319 SEK (Exchange rates) |
Sapphires specifications
and board layout etc. are identical to ATi’s.
|
|
As for design
and cooling Sapphire stuck with ATi’s reference design. That is at least on
the board they sent to us. They also have another version with a different
fan but since we didn’t recieve that board we can’t give it a grade either.
The board we have today uses the standard ATi cooling which is a low noise
fan that cools the card sufficiently. Nothing special but it does the job
as it’s supposed to.
|
Design/Cooling
|
||
| We take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
 |
|
Here we have
the accessories. Apart from the normal cables and drivers CD Sapphire bundle
their own overclocking and tweaking utility called Redline. This utility is
based on Rage3D Tweak, to be honest Rage3D Tweak is a better tool since it’s
updated more regularly. Other than the UI and the fact that Sapphire don’t
update it as often the two applications have identical functionality as far
as I can see. Of course it is a very nice move of Sapphire to bundle it. Especially
for "Avarage Joe" who isn’t likely to come in contact with Rage3D
Tweak.
|
|
The bundled software
is a nice package. Both SOFII and RTCW are good games even though they are
a bit old by now. PowerDVD XP is one of the nicest DVD-players out there and
the Redline utility is pretty unique as far sa bundled software goes.
|
Accessories/Features
|
||
| We look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated features. |
 |
|
When it comes
to features the one thing that we constantly keep missing on ATi’s high end
boards is ViVo-functionality. This commentis general for all boards though
and nothing specific for Sapphire.
| Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 Pro |
| Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 Pro  | |
| Chip: | R350 |
| Manufacturing process: | 0.15-micron |
| Transistors: | ~125 mil. |
| Core clock speed: | 380 MHz |
| Memory clock speed: | 680 MHz / 21,3 GB/s
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
8
/ 3040 MP/s |
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 3040 MT/s |
| RAMDAC: | (2) 400 MHz |
| Amount of memory: | 128 MB |
| Type of memory and interface: | 256-bit, DDR-SDRAM |
| In- and outputs: | VGA, DVI-I, S-Video Out |
| Extra peripherals: | S-video
|
| Software: | 3Deep, ATi tech demos, drivers and much more |
| Full version applications: | PowerDVD XP, Raven Shield Rainbow Six 3 |
| Estimated price: | 4689 SEK (Exchange rates) |
Hercules has
the only PCB that really differs from ATis reference design. Though upon closer
inspection we can see that color is really the only differential factor here.
Every other aspect of the PCB seems identical when it comes to layout etc.
Perhaps a few components such as capacitors etc. are of another type than
those used on the other boards.
|
|
The nice thing
about Hercules board is their cooling. They fitted the memory and the core
with copper heatsinks. According to Hercules this will provide better cooling
and it should also be more silent than the reference fan. Personally I didn’t
find that it was more silent than the reference fan but the heatsinks etc.
should bring better cooling. The fan is also fitted with a blue LED which
provides a cool blue light.
|
Design/Cooling
|
||
| We takes a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
 |
|
|
Hercules software
and driver CD contains loads of applications such as 3Deep and even some demos
from ATi. The latest incarnation of Tom Clancy’s Rainbox Six is bundled with
the board. It’s refreshing to see that a manufacturer chose to bundle a fairly
new and hot game for once. For DVD playback they go the standard route and
bundle PowerDVD XP. All needed cables and converters are also included.
|
Accessories/Features
|
||
| We look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated features. |
|
|
When it comes
to price Hercules is more expensive than the other boards. Personally I don’t
feel that a blue LED or memory heatsinks warrant this difference at all. But
then again I don’t really care about cosmetics.
| Connect3D Radeon 9800 Pro |
| Connect3D Radeon 9800 Pro  | |
| Chip: | R350 |
| Manufacturing process: | 0.15-micron |
| Transistors: | ~125 mil. |
| Core clock speed: | 380 MHz |
| Memory clock speed: | 680 MHz / 21,3 GB/s
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
8
/ 3040 MP/s |
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 3040 MT/s |
| RAMDAC: | (2) 400 MHz |
| Amount of memory: | 128 MB |
| Type of memory and interface: | 256-bit, DDR-SDRAM |
| In- and outputs: | VGA, DVI-I, S-Video Out |
| Extra peripherals: | S-video
|
| Software: | Drivers |
| Full version applications: | – |
| Estimated price: | 4280 SEK (Exhange rates) |
Once again,
both specifications and board layout is indentical to ATis reference design.
A bit boring isn’t it?
|
|
|
Design/Cooling
|
||
| We takes a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
|
Connect3D has
a rather "light weight" bundle. They simply bundle the drivers and
cables. No games, no extra software etc.
|
This is a pretty
boring package. However Connect3D is a budget brand so we didn’t expect much
either. Problem is that there’s nothing "budget" about the price
when compared to HIS and Sapphire.
|
Accessories/Features
|
||
| We look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated features. |
 |
|
| HIS Excalibur Radeon 9800 Pro |
| HIS Excalibur Radeon 9800 Pro  | |
| Chip: | R350 |
| Manufacturing process: | 0.15-micron |
| Transistors: | ~125 mil. |
| Core clock speed: | 380 MHz |
| Memory clock speed: | 680 MHz / 21,3 GB/s
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
8
/ 3040 MP/s |
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 3040 MT/s |
| RAMDAC: | (2) 400 MHz |
| Amount of memory: | 128 MB |
| Type of memory and interface: | 256-bit, DDR-SDRAM |
| In- and outputs: | VGA, DVI-I, S-Video Out |
| Extra peripherals: | S-video
|
| Software: | Drivers, 6 in 1 "Lite" Game CD |
| Full version applications: | PowerDVD XP, PowerDirector, Duke Nukem Manhattan Project |
| Estimated price: | 4309 SEK (Exhange rates) |
HIS board didn’t
arrive until a few hours before I published this article. Thus I didn’t have
the time to take any photos of the board or package. I will however update
this article with pictures of HIS product within a couple of days.
|
I can also let
you know that HIS have some very cool looking cooling called IceQ on the way.
We’ll be taking a look at that as soon as possible. (You can find a sneek
preview from CeBIT here.)
|
Design/Cooling
|
||
| We takes a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
|
HIS has a nice
package when it comes to software. PowerDVD XP for DVD playback and PowerDirector
for video editing. The game Duke Nukem Manhattan Project is also included,
but is perhaps not the hottest game around. The 6 in 1 "Lite" Game
CD is a nice treat. It would have been nice if they bundled a composite cable
too though.
|
Accessories/Features
|
||
| We look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated features. |
|
|
Both HIS and Sapphires
board go for 4300 SEK which is in my opinion a reasonable price for such high
end boards.
| PowerColor Radeon 9800 Pro |
| PowerColor Radeon 9800 Pro  | |
| Chip: | R350 |
| Manufacturing process: | 0.15-micron |
| Transistors: | ~125 mil. |
| Core clock speed: | 400 MHz |
| Memory clock speed: | 760 MHz / 23,8 GB/s
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
8
/ 3200 MP/s |
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 3200 MT/s |
| RAMDAC: | (2) 400 MHz |
| Amount of memory: | 128 MB |
| Type of memory and interface: | 256-bit, DDR-SDRAM |
| In- and outputs: | VGA, DVI-I, S-Video Out |
| Extra peripherals: | S-video
|
| Software: | Drivers, 5 in 1 "Lite" Game CD |
| Full version applications: | WinDVD 4, Commanche 4 and Summoner |
| Recommended price: | 499 USD (Exhange rates) |
Wow. Here’s
the first board which has a bit different specifications. Apparently PowerColor
didn’t think that ATi’s reference core speed of 380 Mhz was enough, instead
they opted for 400 MHz. They even clocked the memory higher, 760 MHz instead
of 680. Not bad! This is the type of thing that we’d like to see more often.
|
|
Yet again the
reference design..
|
Design/Cooling
|
||
| We takes a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
|
The Hynix memory
on the PowerCcolor board is rated 2.2 ns which is 910 MHz. 760 MHz isn’t even
close to that and from what we’ve gathered this is due to the memory being
under voltaged. A volt mod on this baby might do wonders in other words! Of
course the PCB tracing etc. might not handle much higher clock speeds.
|
PowerColor skipped
using PowerDVD XP and decided to go for WinDVD instead. Fine by me as both
applications are very good. The two full version games, Commanche 4 and Summoner,
are pretty nice. And PC also added a demo CD with the following game demos
on it: Ballistics, Black Hawk Down, Ghost Recon, Serious Sam The Second Encounter
and Viectcong. All of them, with the exception of Ballistics, are very nice
games and will keep you occupied for a couple of hours.
|
Accessories/Features
|
||
| We look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated features. |
|
|
This board has
a recommended price of 499 US dollars, while a bit more than the other boards
the performance nearly compensates for the extra cash. And of course street
price is likely to be somewhat lower than the recommended price.
| Test setup |
|
Test setup
|
|
|
Hardware
|
|
| Processor: |
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (333) Mhz
|
| Mainboard: |
Soltek
SL-75FRN-L (nForce2) |
| RAM: |
768 MB DDR333 @ 2-5-2-2 Timings:
2x 256 MB Corsair TWINX512-3200LL DDR-SDRAM 256 MB PC3200 OCZ PC3200 Rev2 DDR-SDRAM |
|
Videocards:
|
ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (128 MB, 325/620) HIS Excalibur Radeon 9800 Pro (128 MB, 380/680) |
|
HDD:
|
80 GB Western Digital Caviar 7200 RPM Special Edition (8 MB cache)
|
|
Soundcard:
|
Creative
Soundblaster Audigy 2 |
|
Ethernet:
|
D-Link DFE-530TX 10/100
|
|
Software
|
|
| Operating system: |
Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 1)
|
| Video drivers: |
nVidia: Detonator FX 44.03
ATi: Catalyst 3.4 6343 |
| Other drivers: |
nVidia UDA Chipset Drivers v2.42
|
|
Benchmarks:
|
3DMark2001 |
I decided not
to run many tests in this roundup since basically all we are after is the
difference between the 9800 Pro boards. We’ve already covered the 9700 vs
9800 vs 5800 in previous review/previews and thus we will not go very in depth
today. Since Futuremark has done something about the "driver irregularities"
with their new patch we can now use it for the first time to compare the FX
board to the Radeon boards.
For all tests
I used nVidias Quality setting and ATis Quality setting. All benchmarks are
thus run with full trilinear filtering, even when testing anisotropic filtering.
I have some reservations
when it comes to the Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB scores. The card simply wouldn’t
outperform the other boards except in two rare cases which you’ll notice.
I’ve asked ATi about it and they basically said not to expect a difference
unless frame buffer memory runs out. (Which it does in the two tests I’ll
show you later on.)
While I’m at
it I might as well comment Image Quality here. As far as I can tell there
is absolutely no difference between any of the 9800 Pro boards at all. They
all have very high quality in 3D, 2D and TV-out. Especially FSAA as most of
you already know is simply amazing on ATis R3X0 series. Thus all boards recieve
the same grade here:
|
Image
quality |
||
|
The |
 |
|
| 3DMark benches. |
Let’s start
off with the 3DMark benches.
|
|
In 3DMark2001
we would really need a faster processor to see any differences here. Apparently
PowerColors higher clockspeeds are in full effect and it takes the lead
by 400 points. 9700 Pro and 5800 Ultra are tied for the last positions.
Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB doesn’t really show any advantage over the 128 MB
boards here simply because 3DMark2001 doesn’t consume enough memory.
|
|
3DMark03
is a different story alltogether. After applying the new 330 patch the
FX board dropped cold. It’s down from 58xx to 41xx, a loss of over 1500
marks. In all fairness ATis scores has also dropped somewhat, I got a
59xx score with the PowerColor board before applying the patch. The 256
MB ATi board has a slight advantage in this test. This basically only
due to an advantage in Game Test 4 Mother Nature which requires loads
of VRAM.
| Quake 3 |
Does this
test need an introduction? I think not.
| |
GeForce FX
5800 Ultra rules the first set of Quake 3 benchies. I’ve seen it over and
over again. In most, especially Q3 based, games, the nVidia boards perform
better under the heavily CPU limited tests. I would expect that this is
simply due to the drivers.
|
|
Things start
to get interesting when we turn on FSAA and Aniso. At 1024×768 with 2xAA
and 4xAF the 9800 boards are faster, again with PowerColor taking the
lead, though with a small margin. As we crank up the resolution the FX
5800 Ultra gets the upper hand though closely trailed by PowerColors board.
The other boards are not far away though and even Radeon 9700 pro manages
to compete very well here.
| |
All boards
managed 2xAA/4xAF with flying colors, now how about doubling those settings?
The FX 5800 Ultra is now knocked down to the last place and even 9700
Pro is a bit faster. PowerColor starts to strech its legs here. 4xFSAA
and 8x ANiso isn’t enough to push any of the Radeon boards below 100 fps,
let’s see if we can manage to do that with 6x FSAA and 16x Aniso (8x AA/8xAF
on the FX board).
|
|
The ATi based
board have the FX board for lunch here, it simply won’t perform well using
any FSAA mode over 4x. (Which is due to the fact that it doesn’t support
more than 4 MSAA samples per pixel and thus it has to add SSAA which of
course is a lot slower.) PowerColors board is of course still in the lead
and as we can see not even 1600×1200 with 6x FSAA is enough to tax the
128 MB memory and thus the 256 MB board from ATi fails to shine. Extra
points to PowerColor for passing 1600×1200 MaxAA/MaxAF without dropping
below 100 fps. 🙂
In case you are wondering why the FX board isn’t in the 1600×1200 test
it’s simply because it runs out of VRAM.
| UT2003 |
In UT2003
we run dm-antalus flyby.
| |
GeForce FX
5800 Ultra rules yet again. I was quite surprised to see how much ass the
FX kicked in this benchmark with the new Detonator FX drivers. With pre-DetFX’s
UT2003 was one of the worst tests for the FX boards and now the tables have
turned. Not even PowerColors higher clocked version of 9800 can touch the
5800 Ultre here.
|
|
When we turn
on AA/AF the FX quickly looses the lead and instead we have PowerColor
in the front once again but strangely enough it doesn’t have the same
benefit over the other boards as it had in Quake 3 or 3DMark03. Now we
can also slowly begin to see a slight advantage of the 256 MB board from
ATi, though it’s still apparent that just raising the clock speeds is
much more important to performance than adding memory.
| |
With 4xAA/8xAF
the PowerColor board gets a larger lead. It’s interesting to see how the
FX takes the lead over the 9700 Pro. Let’s see how things turn out when
we up the AA and AF to "maximum" levels. Actually maximum isn’t
the correct term since I chose to benchmark the 5800 Ultra with 4xS FSAA
instead of 8x simply because in most cases 4xS looks better.
|
|
In 1024 and
1280 we basically continue the trend from the other benchmarks but in
1600×1200 things get interesting. This is the only test in the whole review
where we can see that the extra memory on the 256 MB actually is really
usefull. Still the avarage fps isn’t everything and all boards in 1600×1200
using these settings have a way too unstable fps to be playable and that
includes the 256 MB board.
When it comes
to performance we clearly have a king amongst the princes. PowerColor
surprised us with their higher clocked board. The extra clockspeeds are
actually worthwhile too. In actual gaming the difference is notable. For
an example in GTA Vice City I was able to use 6x FSAA instead of just
4x FSAA and still maintain great smoothness at 1280×1024 with 16x Aniso.
|
Performance:
PowerColor |
||
|
The |
|
|
The other
boards reviewed are of course also very fast boards, in fact they’re almost
as fast as PowerColors for most purposes. The board that dissapoints us
is the 256 MB board from ATi. We decided on not running "tailor made"
tests just to show the few places where 256 MB is viable. As a result
we see that in almost all normal gaming situations the 128 MB board is
fully sufficient and 256 MB adds no further performance. In the future
this is likely to change but in my personal opinion we are just not there
yet.
|
Performance:
Other |
||
|
The |
 |
|
When we talk
general performance vs the FX 5800 Ultra we can see that in some cases
the FX board is indeed faster. Especially the Quake 3 benchmarks with
2xAA/4xAF showed us that there is some stiff competition from nVidia yet.
The competitor that we unfortunatly couldn’t show you is GeForce FX 5900
Ultra. As for the 5800 Ultra I personally feel that the 9800 Pro board
deliver better performance where it counts it doesn’t really
matter if the FX board is faster when running low levels of AA/AF when
the ATi boards can run higher levels of AA/AF much better.
| Overclocking |
So it’s time
to push things to the extreme. Since all boards here are basically identical
I’m mostly interested in seeing how Hercules cooling effects the overclocking
and if I’ll be able to push the 2 ns RAM on PowerColors board any further.
Overclocking the DDR-II on the 9800 Pro 256 MB will also be interesting
as well. Here are the nominal clockspeeds I could reach without noticing
any stability problems or artifacts (3DMark03 Game Test 2 and 4 and 3DMark2001
Game Test 4 were used to detect artifacts.)
Now here’s
some, in my humble opinion, dissapointing figures. Hercules card though
it has the most exclusive cooling got the worst core overclock of the
128 MB boards. ATi’s 256 MB boards memory didn’t overclock too well, I
expected more out of 700 MHz DDR than just a 60 MHz overclock. But the
most dissapointing part of it all is PowerColor. Their 2.2ns memory is
obviously handicaped by either voltage or the PCB (could be low latencies/strict
timings too I guess). Since we didn’t get to keep it I could never test
to raise the voltage, personally I think that would have been very
interesting to say the least. As it stands now we were not able to overclock
it at all. Fact is that I even saw an artifact or two in Game Test 4 in
3DMark03 at stock speed. It wasn’t really a "normal" artifact,
it looked like the normal type of artifacts that you’d get when overclocking
the memory. The difference is that it only flashed by the screen once
or twice real quickly. Ie it was not the constant artifacting that you’d
normally get when you’ve overclocked the memory too high.
I discussed it with PowerColor and their idea was that my PSU was too
weak, which after closer inspection is quite true. All forms of voltage
were a bit too low and they also fluctuated a bit too much. I checked
the other boards too and apparently these only happened with the 256 MB
board, PowerColors board and the FX 5800 Ultra. Note that I used PowerColors
board for gaming for a few days and out of the 20+ games/applications
I ran 3DMark03 Game Test 4 was the only case where I could see these few
artifacts, thus I wouldn’t be too worried about it.
One thing that these figues tells us is that when it comes to core overclocking
luck is the dominent factor. With the exception of Sapphire all memory
reached 750/760 MHz. The core on Sapphires card, on the other hand, overclocked
very well.
Ok I know, I know I need to shut up now and show you the benchmarks. Well
here we go.
|
|
Now these results
are interesting… or not. All boards seem to even out when it comes to
memory/core overclocking granting them pretty much identical results.
The situation was basically the same in Quake 3 and UT2003.
| Conclusion |
So shall we
sum up what we’ve been looking at for the last 12 pages?
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PowerColor
recieves the Editors Choice Award. In short: this is THE board that I’d
want if I could choose freely amongst all available videocards today. I
also wanted to give them this award basically for doing something different.
The fact that almost every single ATi board out there is identical to the
next one is plain boring. Hercules did a different thing with their blue
PCB and LED fan etc. but personally I’m not into cosmetics, once the card
is plugged in the AGP slot I don’t really care if it’s brown, yellow, blue
or transparent as long as it performs to the limits and have great functionality.
Too bad I didn’t get to keep the card, else I’d voltmod that baby to see
what it’s really made of. 🙂
The only part about this card that worries me is availability. As of yet
I haven’t seen it anywhere.
 PowerColor Radeon 9800 Pro |
I meantioned
"great functionality" above which brings me to some beef I have
with the latest generation ATi boards. Why oh why won’t any manufacturer
step up to the plate and present us with a Dual DVI and/or ViVo solution
based on ATis high end chips?
The most obvious problem here is that most manufacturers simply don’t produce
their own boards. But we have seen the light in the end of the tunnel. PowerColor
showed that they are willing to go the extra length to offer us something
different at CeBIT. They had a Dual DVI version of Radeon 9700 Pro, though
this hasn’t hit the market to my knowledge I’d expect that they will indeed
bring a Dual DVI version of Radeon 9800 pro later on. I also have a faint
memory of some manufacturer showing a pre-production sample of a Radeon
9800 Pro ViVo board but right now I can’t find that link (if it ever existed
that is). Another example of what we are missing on the ATi boards is hardware
monitoring, up to this day I only know one manufacturer who can offer this
for an ATi based board and that’s Tyan. Unfortunatly Tyan will not manufacture
any Radeon 9800 Pro boards as far as I know.
In all fairness some nVidia boards also suffers from this. GeForce FX 5800
and 5800 Ultra being prime examples.
As PCBs become increasingly complex and expensive to build I fear that we’ll
see more of this stuff in the future. But then again, according to the manufacturers
I’ve spoken to they will manufacture their own PCB’s for the GeForce FX
5900 Ultra. Cross your fingers and hope for a Dual DVI + ViVo + HW Monitoring
version. 😉
When it comes
to ATis new 256 MB board I can’t really say that I’m impressed. Initial
rumors indicated that this board would run faster than the 128 MB version
but the only thing clocked higher is the memory and this is only to defeat
the added latency of using DDR-II. In some few odd cases the extra 128 MB
VRAM does make a difference though but these cases are few and far between.
If you feel that you want 256 MB to make your purchase "future proof"
I’d rather recommend waiting for the R360 which is the sucessor to the Radeon
9800 Pro.
As for Sapphire,
HIS and Hercules I’d say go for the one that has the software you like.
And if you’re into the cosmetics be sure to grab the Hercules board as it
looks darn cool with it’s blue LED and PCB. Other than that just try to
find the cheapest board.
The cheapest board was the Connect3D which was never really intended for
the American but rather it’s meant as a budget choice for the European market.
As you can see above it’s a bit cheaper but in all honesty 29 SEK out of
4300 SEK isn’t enough to warrant the lack of a software bundle, thus I find
it hard to recommend this product.
So basically my recommendation is to get HIS or Sapphires board
and if you really want the ultimate performance go for the PowerColor.
A
great thanks goes out to ATi,
HIS,
Sapphire,
Hercules,
Connect3D
and PowerColor!
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