Radeon 9800 Pro Warning

7 Jun, 2004 at 11:08pm ET Article published in Tech

Guru3D reports some interesting info about a cheap version of the Radeon 9800 Pro ATI graphics card that is apparently doing the rounds at the moment. Check it out.

I was just checking our forums and noticed that people are able to buy a Radeon 9800 Pro in the 170-180 USD range, and they have no clue why the card was so cheap. Fantastic price, yet a way too low price. It’s a Radeon 9800 pro alright, yet equipped with 128-bit memory where it should be 256-bit. Basically frame buffer bandwidth is cut in half and despite full eight pipes it’s placing itself in the mid-range segment as core and memory clocks are lowered also. This will have a serious effect on overall performance. Take a Suzuki Hayabusa motor cycle which can do like 300 KPH yet it is forced to drive on a small road where it will never exceed 100 KPH. Look at the Suzuki as the Radeon 9800 Pro and the road the memory bandwidth.

Source: Guru3D

Comments

8 Jun 2004 ~ 12:23am entropy oh god ... is there a way to verfiy you have 256 bit memory? i bought my 9800 pro from buyxtremegear (NO ONE EVERY BUY THERE, IT'S CRAP) but mine said ATi, and it has a silver heatsink ... so is there a test or some program that can tell you?
8 Jun 2004 ~ 12:41am entropy Dzhedaj
Member Guru

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 67
The 128bit version uses different memory (called BGA I think)
The memory is not square but the size ratio is rather 1x2. I think that's the only visual difference...Some of them use different heatsinks, but that depends on the company selling the card....

i saw this posted on the guru3d site's comments on this article ... can anyone verify this?
8 Jun 2004 ~ 6:24am Mt_Goat The 128 bit version is being sold everywhere, including Newegg. They have a Saphire 128 bit but if you read all of the print you will see it.
8 Jun 2004 ~ 6:37am hooj This was taken from www.scan.co.uk

You can tell if a 9800 has 128bit interface by the memory chip configuration on the PCD. If they are in a straight line (looks like a 9500 Pro) its 128bit. If its a 256bit card, the memory has an 'L' shape configuration, 2 along the side & 2 along the back.
8 Jun 2004 ~ 9:15am kanezfan a lot of the 9500 pros had L shape configuration too
8 Jun 2004 ~ 9:24am entropy yep, mine are square shaped memory blocks, and they are in L configuration .. whew ... i thought i was getting screwed for a minute there lol
9 Jun 2004 ~ 11:26am EyesOnly My 9800 pro is a 128 mb but i know that. If i would have gotten the 256 version it would have costed as much as a x800. BTW mine's a saphire so i know it's good. What's so wrong with the 128 mb version.
9 Jun 2004 ~ 11:37am TheBaron no no no they aren't talking about the 128 MB vs 256 MB versions, they're talking about the 128-bit vs the 256-bit versions.

for example, if i bought a 128-bit 128mb 9800 pro it would be about half as fast as a 256-bit 128mb 9800 pro, because the memory bandwidth has been cut in half
9 Jun 2004 ~ 12:37pm Omega65 Basically it's an updated 9500Pro card. As the original 9500Pro was a 128bit version of the 9700Pro.