Ti4200 to 9800 Pro upgrade?

[Dewey]

I have a Ti4200 now and I'm planning on playing the latest games: MP2, HL2, Halo, and Doom 3. Is the 9800 Pro a noticeable improvement? It doesn't show up on most benchmarks I see these days.

Also, which 9800 Pro? The Sapphire from newegg ($300)?

Thanks!

 

[RaymondY]

I too am consider a similar upgrade. Was thinking about either the Radeon 9800 non-pro or a GeForce FX5900 (non-ultra).

 

[lordtyranus2]

VERY noticable upgrade. There are few benchmarks comparing the two because they are so far apart in price and quality.

But this benchmark compares the 9800 XT to the Ti4200. The 9800 Pro and XT are quite similar, simply added clock speed and overdrive. The values can be used comparitively.


http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1904&p=1

 

[muzz]

There is no comparison between these 2 cards....... while the Ti4200 is a good card.... forget it, the 9800p creams it.

 

[modedepe]

It's a huge improvement. I don't know what benchmarks you're looking at, but in the ones I see the 9800 is miles ahead of the ti4200.

 

[muzz]

I am just asking...

Why would ANYONE on THIS PLANET consider the 5900 over the 9800?

I must have read a typo, as the 5900 IS a POS, and always will be no matter how much cheating the parent company does.....

It is a hunk of crap in comparison, don't even waste your time.

 

[Dunadan]

I just upgraded from a Ti4600 to a 9800 Pro. In older games like Q3 it's nice to be able to play at 1600*1200, 8X AA/16X ANF and maintain 125 FPS without a sweat. In Halo, the differences were extreme. The game went from being laggy (but playable) to smooth as silk. What's more, I'm now able to run Halo with 2.0 pixel shaders and I'm seeing effects (i.e. eye candy) that I never saw before. I have no doubt once I beef up the rest of my system, I will be ready to run HL2 and Doom3. Though, by then I may be itching for the next best GPU.

 

[ponyo]

As long as AA/AF is not used, Ti4200 compares very favorably to 9800 Pro in most current games. Once you turn on AA/AF, it's no contest. It really depends how much you value AA/AF.

 

[lordtyranus2]

Judging by benchmarks:

without AA/AF- 9800 Pro is around 2x faster
with AA/AF- a bit more

 

[Tseng]

I have a 9800Pro 256MB now. My previous video card is Ti4200 128MB.

Ti4200 is a great card, but can't perform at high resolution (1600x1200). It doesn't support DX9 either.

On the other hand, 9800Pro does everything just simply great. Catalyst still has room for improvement, but stable and performance are not issues any more. You won't regret the upgrade.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Naustica
As long as AA/AF is not used, Ti4200 compares very favorably to 9800 Pro in most current games. Once you turn on AA/AF, it's no contest. It really depends how much you value AA/AF.

By "compares favourably" I assume you mean "performs well or acceptably". "Compares favorably" usually means it is better than something, which the Ti4200 is not, compared to either the Radeon 9800 or GeForce FX 5900 cards. It performs admirably close, but not favourably to either DX9 card.

Anyways, I did this exact same upgrade and it is very noticable.

Yes, the Ti4200 is a very fast card (I get a hair under 14,000 3dmarks with my Ti4200 and a P4 2.4C @ 3 GHz!). However, the 9800 Pro is faster still, and blows away the Ti4200 with AA and/or AF on.

It is a very noticable upgrade, and well worth it IMHO. Once you get used to AA and AF, you can never go back (and you really appreciate the difference).

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: muzz
I am just asking...

Why would ANYONE on THIS PLANET consider the 5900 over the 9800?

I must have read a typo, as the 5900 IS a POS, and always will be no matter how much cheating the parent company does.....

It is a hunk of crap in comparison, don't even waste your time.

Unless you're a complete fanboy, the 5900 is definitely an option. First of all, a 5900nu is cheaper than a 9800np. Plus 9800np's are becoming incredibly hard to find at all. Secondly, in dx8 games the cards perform nearly equal, with the 5900 being faster in some cases. And then you have dx9 games. True the 9800 does have an edge, but what worthwhile dx9 games are even out yet? Besides, it looks like the 5900 is going to be much more competitive at dx9 with the new drivers.

 

[Dewey]

OK, I'll get one.

Now which one? Just the cheapest 9800 pro? I see the Saphire 9800 Pro at newegg for about $300. Is that a good one?

 

[Pete]

I think a 9800 for $250 is a better price/performance buy, but that Sapphire should be fine. Just know that you won't be able to OC it much. You might have better luck OCing with certain 9800s than that 9800P.

 

[Nebor]

I went from a ti4400 to a 9800 Pro. Huge difference in power for AA and AF. I paid $350 for mine, plus another $40 for a Zalman HP80-C and OP1 fan.

If I had it to do again, I would have bought a 5900 non-ultra. Same or better performance than a 9800 Pro, and way less money. But when I bought my card, I thought HL2 might be coming out this month.....

 

[rbV5]

I am just asking...

Why would ANYONE on THIS PLANET consider the 5900 over the 9800?

I must have read a typo, as the 5900 IS a POS, and always will be no matter how much cheating the parent company does.....

It is a hunk of crap in comparison, don't even waste your time.

I disagree with you assesment. I'd say its very competitive at its price point, and at least worthy of consideration. Don't you think this blind NV bashing is getting a little old?

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Nebor
I went from a ti4400 to a 9800 Pro. Huge difference in power for AA and AF. I paid $350 for mine, plus another $40 for a Zalman HP80-C and OP1 fan.

If I had it to do again, I would have bought a 5900 non-ultra. Same or better performance than a 9800 Pro, and way less money. But when I bought my card, I thought HL2 might be coming out this month.....

5900 non-ultra same as a 9800Pro?
I think the 5900NU is slightly slower, it may be better than the 9800 non-pro, but not the 9800Pro.

I had a decision between a 9800 non-pro or a 5900, almost exactly the same price (5900 a few pennies under) and went for the 9800 to upgrade from a Ti4400. It hasn't arrived yet, but I'm fairly pleased. From the overclocking thread, the cores of 9800's (pro and non pro) seem to reach about 420MHz on average, which is pretty nice.

The 9800 Pro will be a fairly noticeable improvement, but if you can find a 9800 non-pro it's better price/performance, and you can overclock it to most probably Pro speeds.

 

[railer]

Why not wait 4-6 months until the games you want to play come out? What's the point of getting a 9800 pro now?
If you have $300 to completely waste, why not donate it to a worth cause instead? I guess if you were just dying to play Halo, you could justify a 9700 np MAYBE, but I don't understand why anyone would buy a 9800 p. That's just me. I'll keep my 4200 until it can't do what I want anymore....then I'll get the 2nd best ATI or Nvidia card on the market...probably towards the middle of next year, when all these dx9 games finally come out.

 

[MichaelZ]

i agree. i will also keep my ti's until they are obsolete. i'm not a AA AF user. at long as i can run 1280x1024x32 for games on max detail i'm happy enough as it is. for dx8.1... obviously doom 3 and hl 2 can't but hey! gun metal with no AA and AF runs @ 1280x1024x32 and that game ownz.

 

[muzz]

Originally posted by: rbV5

I am just asking...

Why would ANYONE on THIS PLANET consider the 5900 over the 9800?

I must have read a typo, as the 5900 IS a POS, and always will be no matter how much cheating the parent company does.....

It is a hunk of crap in comparison, don't even waste your time.

I disagree with you assesment. I'd say its very competitive at its price point, and at least worthy of consideration. Don't you think this blind NV bashing is getting a little old?

Blind bashing? Open up your eyes and pay attention to whats going on.
The 9600p even competes with that thing in DX9, even annihilates it in some.

 

[McArra]

C'mon, not another flame war PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: railer
Why not wait 4-6 months until the games you want to play come out? What's the point of getting a 9800 pro now?
If you have $300 to completely waste, why not donate it to a worth cause instead? I guess if you were just dying to play Halo, you could justify a 9700 np MAYBE, but I don't understand why anyone would buy a 9800 p. That's just me. I'll keep my 4200 until it can't do what I want anymore....then I'll get the 2nd best ATI or Nvidia card on the market...probably towards the middle of next year, when all these dx9 games finally come out.

Because one of the games he wants to play is Max Payne 2. And I'm sure there will be others between now and HL2/Doom 3.

Max Payne 2 at 1280X960 with 4xAA/8xAF is worth the upgrade .

 

[Robor]

I upgraded from a 4200 to a Sapphire 9800 non-pro and flashed it to a pro. Is it worth the upgrade? In old games not using AA/AF I'd say no. In newer games and games with AA/AF then absolutely yes. However, I would *not* buy a card today for Half Life 2 or Doom 3. Both of those games are 4-6 months (if they're on time) away so there's no point in buying hardware today for either them.

 

[RaymondY]

Thanks for the insight. I leaning toward keeping my GF4 Ti4600 until next year and wait till the next generation of video card comes out.

 

[Rogodin2]

Lonyo

I'm getting a 445/401 oc on my sapphire 3.3ns 9800nonpro with very slight artifacts in mothernature, and debev, no artis in any of the ati screensaver or the fur demo.


This is with stock cooling in a huge 13fan cheiftec server chassis though

rogo