The Sapphire 9800 pro with the floppy power connector...

CaxusCaxus
edited October 2003 in Hardware
I'm getting really close to ordering the cheaper oem sapphire 9800 pro that uses the floppy power connector unless someone can give me a reason why it shouldn't perform as well as the other ones. They're only $300 at new egg. Does that weaker power connection affect the performance in any way at all?


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Comments

  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    it's probably just cheaper to use the floppy connector than a molex. probably has cheaper ram too
  • CaxusCaxus
    edited October 2003
    So that exact model probably won't overclock as high i guess.
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    well the ram wouldn't anyway. i'm definitely not an expert though. ask simguy.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    The reason the card is cheaper is probably because it's on a 9700 PCB, not the 9800 PCB- hence, the floppy power connector. It's a non-issue. The performance should be identical (within the margin of error inherent in any benchmark) to any other 9800 pro/128.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited October 2003
    Geeky's right on the money with this one :D

    Go ahead and order it. Turns out that it's possible for OEM's to utilize R350 chips on a R300 PCB. You'll get the same stock performance out of this card as you would out of another 9800 Pro card. The reason Sapphire changed the specs? Simply, this card does not adhere to the official ATI 9800 Pro reference specification board. In order to cut costs in a very competitive marketplace, Sapphire tinkered with the idea of putting a R350 chip on the cheaper-to-produce R300 PCB. Born is the OEM Sapphire 9800 Pro. :)

    As long as this card utilizes 2.8ns RAM like the rest of the 9800 Pro's, you'll get the same overclocks as everyone else does. :)

    //Edit: Looking at the card, I can see that it utilizes 2.Xns Samsung BGA DDR SDRAM, but I can't read what the exact ns rating is on the RAM. I'd be more than willing to hedge a bet that it uses 2.8ns. :)
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited October 2003
    If its 2.x then it cant be much worse than 2.8.:)
  • CaxusCaxus
    edited October 2003
    The fan looks like it might be slightly smaller than the one thats identical to the ati version but i could swear i read a review somewhere that was acting like the sapphire hsf was an improvement on the original.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    Whether it's an improvement or not is kind of immaterial. Like all other stock VGA coolers (excepting some of the more exotic ones on some of the 5900 ultras, and the zalman heatpipes on sapphire's ultimate edition cards) ALL oem VGA hsfs are spectacularly crappy, especially for overclocking. You want to overclock it? Put a socket a heatsink on it. I can recommend some, as well as some ways to attach it without voiding your warranty if you want me to.
  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    why do u wanna change it so bad anyways? whats wrong with using a regular connector?
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited October 2003
    WuGgaRoO had this to say
    why do u wanna change it so bad anyways? whats wrong with using a regular connector?

    Nothing wrong with using either connector. It's just that Sapphire, in an attempt to make production costs cheaper, changed the PCB on their Radeon 9800 Pro cards from the reference 9800 PCB to the 9700 PCB. ;)

    Hence, the different power connector. :)

    Same number of traces, same number of layers. :)
  • crleapcrleap kokomo, Indiana
    edited October 2003
    I have this exact card, got it yesterday. Writing on RAM is as follows:

    Samsung 316
    K4D263238E-6C2A
    WVB0780A Korea
  • MJOMJO Denmark New
    edited October 2003
    The sapphire fan is "quite" good considering it is a stock fan.
    But my fan died within 5 months.
    If I hadn't acted when I did, maybe my card would have melted down.
    I assume the heatsink approx. 75-80C, that is very very hot.
    As stated before I burned my finger and it left a very small burn.

    How does the "real" 9800 connector look?
    The one on that 9700 looks just like mine.
    It should too, it is the same PCB.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited October 2003
    The "real" 9800 Pro PCB power connector is a 4-pin molex connector that you would use to power an ATA hard disk or CD-ROM drive.

    Top is the 9800 on its' own PCB.
    Bottom is the 9700 on its' own PCB.

    Image courtesy of the [H] :)
  • CaxusCaxus
    edited October 2003
    crleap, how high have you been able to overclock this card?
  • MJOMJO Denmark New
    edited October 2003
    Thx Simguy, now I can see the difference.
    I didn't know that the connector is different on the 9800.
    It doubt it can make much difference.
    It is the same amount of power after all.
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