Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb

[homeworld1031tx]

LoL, but congratualtions. I'll sell u my TI4400 when i get my FX 5900 in late June :D :D :D :D

[weta]

ATI's new Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb has been reviewed by GamePC.

The Final Word
I won't mince words with this one. For today's gaming titles, we do not see any reason why a graphics card with 256MB is needed. Even with visual quality settings set on ultra-high levels, the performance difference between our Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB and 256MB cards is negligible. None of the games we test with come close to maxing out 128MB of graphics card memory, thus, half the memory on this card will go un-used in a lot of situations.
Of course, this isn't to say that games WON'T use 256MB of graphics card memory in the future. In fact, we're positive they will, it's just a matter of time. We have a feeling that due to the increased visual complexity of the next generation titles ready to hit the market at the end of this year, the burden of graphics card performance will lie mostly on the GPU rather than the memory capacity or frequency. The higher memory clock speed and capacity of the 9800 Pro 256MB will likely show itself to be useful by the end of this year, but personally, I'm doubtful that the performance difference will be greater than 10%, even with maximized visual quality settings at peak resolutions.

There are those who may be interested in the 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro card still. Those who want the absolute top of the line card for their new box and want their systems to have the longest life spans can go for the 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro. Also, there are those out there such as game developers and 3D / 2D artists, who need the extra memory capacity often seen on high-end professional cards, but still need great OpenGL/Direct3D performance, the 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro may be a good fit here. In comparison with the high-end professional-level cards on the market with 256MB of memory, the Radeon 9800 Pro may be a good deal.

Let's not forget that this card is indeed the fastest graphics card on the market, so we should stop and give ATI some credit for improving their already-superb Radeon 9800 Pro product. Whether the product is actually needed for today's gaming titles is up to your individual needs. We have the feeling that the whopping majority of gamers out there will have more than enough power in the 128MB variant of the Radeon 9800 Pro, and that the extra 128MB of texture memory for an additional $100 on top of the already expensive R9800 Pro price is simply not worth it. In six months, the situation may be different, but we wouldn't bet on it.
GamePC

Full review