upgrading to a 256mb 9800 pro

**Ogrt48** · 07-26-2005, 09:33 AM

That video card still isn't going to be much different at all. 4x aa probably will lag you to much, aa doesn't really depend on the gpu's ram.

**cyanide** · 07-26-2005, 09:34 AM

thank you for the reply, but

you know this or just an opinion?

the only real issue with turning on AA with my 128mb 9800 is the stuttering & tearing, my fps are great when im not flinging my mouse around or looking in that certain spot of the map

i figured it was my video card's cache since i didnt have enough video ram, which would explain why the stuttering/tearing went away when i turned texture settings to low

**ChopperKill** · 07-26-2005, 09:40 AM

I can't believe you did that. What a waste of time. AA has virtually nothing to do with the amount of RAM. RAM is only to store textures etc so they don't have to be stored in slower main RAM or god forbid taken straight from the hard drive. Yes 256MB ram is better but only if you couple it with a faster card in general. If you were going from something like a 5200 nvidia I could understand but changing to the exact same card just with more RAM.

I doubt you will see much benefit at all.

**cyanide** · 07-26-2005, 09:42 AM

once again, are these opinions ? are you guys reading my posts?

could someone get a little bit technical in their insults instead of just blurting out "WHAT A WASTE"

i do have a couple friends who went from the 128mb 9800 pro to the 256mb 9800 XT and saw a huge difference in performance with anti aliasing enabled

once again, FRAME RATES is not the issue

**ChopperKill** · 07-26-2005, 09:46 AM

I tell you what why don't you use google and look at the tons of benchmarks out there. I've just told you in a very basic technical way what the RAM is used for. Yes it is better to have 256MB and will give you a small increase in games such as Doom 3 and BF2 if you compared it to an exact same card with 128MB, but a huge improvement? If you call around 5fps a huge improvement then that's up to you. Personally I think if you're not getting 50-100% better performance from upgrading it's a waste of time.

If someone had a crappy card then to go from that to a 9800 PRO I'd say get the 256MB without doubt but you bought the exact same card. And a 9800 XT is faster than a 9800 PRO in general so the improvment was probably down to that not the extra RAM alone.

Frame rates IS the issue because AA kills your frame rates which makes it slow and jerky. If you want AA on you have to buy a card that can run at acceptable frame rates with AA enabled. AA performance depends a lot on the number of pipelines and far less on RAM.

To run with 4xAA you will probably need a 6600GT at the very least or a 6800 or 6800GT or obviously the ATi equivalents.

**cyanide** · 07-26-2005, 10:02 AM

Originally posted by ChopperKill

I tell you what why don't you use google and look at the tons of benchmarks out there. I've just told you in a very basic technical way what the RAM is used for. Yes it is better to have 256MB and will give you a small increase in games such as Doom 3 and BF2 if you compared it to an exact same card with 128MB, but a huge improvement? If you call around 5fps a huge improvement then that's up to you. Personally I think if you're not getting 50-100% better performance from upgrading it's a waste of time.

If someone had a crappy card then to go from that to a 9800 PRO I'd say get the 256MB without doubt but you bought the exact same card. And a 9800 XT is faster than a 9800 PRO in general so the improvment was probably down to that not the extra RAM alone.

Frame rates IS the issue because AA kills your frame rates which makes it slow and jerky. If you want AA on you have to buy a card that can run at acceptable frame rates with AA enabled. AA performance depends a lot on the number of pipelines and far less on RAM.

To run with 4xAA you will probably need a 6600GT at the very least or a 6800 or 6800GT or obviously the ATi equivalents.

LOL.

how many times have i said FRAME RATES ISNT THE ISSUE

i do not get bad fps with AA on at medium settings, in fact i get AWESOME FPS with my 128mb card

i get STUTTERING when i turn my mouse too quickly, but if i turn TEXTURE SETTINGS to LOW, THE STUTTERING GOES AWAY (WITH ANTI ALIASING STILL ON)

the XT is hardly a huge jump in performance to the 9800 pro, "look at the bench marks" :laugh:

im only expecting the stutters to disapear with my upgrade, my framerates are perfect as is

can someone with an ATI card who knows what they're talking about post here please?

or actually, can someone who READS POSTS reply to me?

**fotis** · 07-26-2005, 10:04 AM

i have a 9800pro 128mb ram, it has the st core chip a R360 and it brill.

overclocked as below. i have a artic cooloer on it an i run the below RIg

top 3 options on high all others med and AA on x4

i have 1024ram
3000+ atlon xp
9800pro 128mb Overclocked

i get no slow down EVER. got to love this card

**DimmuBorgir** · 07-26-2005, 10:05 AM

a good way to find your benchmark is Everest..good program. anyway, yes get the 256mb 9800 pro. its better than 128mb for sure. im using the 9000 pro with 256gb because my brother burnt out my 9800 pro. the 9000 isnt that bad with 256mb

**UomoD1Merda** · 07-26-2005, 10:06 AM

well, i run bf2 on 1024X768 everything med, AA 2X and it's fairly smooth in all occasions... i tried AA 4X and nope... too big performance hit, really. but AA 2X runs nice on my oc'd 128 mb 9700pro so it should be ok on your 9800.
and i'd say chopperkill is right, if you want good AA without loosing too many fps you need brute force calculations from your vidcard, so clock speed, pipes and stuff. ram always counts, obviously, but not as much. but i think you can use better textures with 256mb, and it's all eye candy.
btw you maybe can get better AA performance by just overclocking your card a litttle.

**cyanide** · 07-26-2005, 10:06 AM

yeah i have a stock fan so i dont want to OC

or break the warranty on anything

**ChopperKill** · 07-26-2005, 10:08 AM

LOL dude you're funny. The 9800 PRO is an old card based on 2 year old technology. The 9800 XT was the flagship card at the time. In modern games the difference between them is around 10-20% as you can see from the benchmarks. 10% or so is not a huge improvemnt. It's nothing. It's insignificant. Just look http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...s-pcie-07.html to see.

The stuttering when you turn is because the frame rates are not consistent. They have peaks and troughs. This happens on all cards but it's about how well they handle it. I had a 9800 PRO and I was getting the exact same thing. I upgraded to a 6800GT and it runs smooth as silk.

You may get it to run with 4xAA on relatively smoothly but this is by juggling other settings around and it's always a compromise. Simply because the 9800 PRO's while still a decent card are showing their age and shortly will be pretty slow.

**NoSoup4You** · 07-26-2005, 10:10 AM

Okay here is why it is a waste....

The video cards ram although it is important doesn't by any means make a card "faster". It just makes it more capable. The real difference would be in the GPU's core speed, and the memory clock. While you will see a performance increase, my guess is that it will be minimal at best.

If you really wanted to upgrade, you should have gone with an Nvidia 6600GT. The core speed and memory clock is faster, which will give you better performance then a 256mb 9800.

Here are the technical differences:
9800 Pro:
RAM: 256MB
Core: 412mhz
Memory: 730mhz

6600GT:
RAM: 128MB
Core: 500mhz
Memory: 900mhz

Here are some 3d Mark 05 comparisions:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/vga-charts-pcie-02.html#3d_mark_2005

**UomoD1Merda** · 07-26-2005, 10:12 AM

Originally posted by cyanide

LOL.
how many times have i said FRAME RATES ISNT THE ISSUE
im only expecting the stutters to disapear with my upgrade, my framerates are perfect as is
can someone with an ATI card who knows what they're talking about post here please?
or actually, can someone who READS POSTS reply to me?

it would be easier if you knew what you're looking for...
if you have stutters when moving your mouse then IT'S NOT A VIDCARD ISSUE; EXPECIALLY NOT AA RELATED.

if you read the forum you're writing in you'll discover that many others had your same issue. some resolved it by lowering pci latency, some others simply by adjusting mouse sensibility in windows, some others don't even have fixed it yet.

so what's your problem?

btw my 9700 is overclocked but still has it's stock fan, and you wouldn't have any guarantte problems, mainly for the reason that ati's official catalyst drivers have an overclocking tool for the xt series

EDITED

**cyanide** · 07-26-2005, 10:15 AM

okay this forum is retarded

bye

upgrading to a 256mb 9800 pro

upgrading to a 256mb 9800 pro

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