Is it worth upgrading to 9800 Pro from Ti4200 on a P4 2.53Ghz system?

[rabblerouser]

I'm thinking about upgrading my graphics card from a Ti4200 to a 9800 Pro 128MB. I have a 2.53Ghz P4 (533FSB) and an Intel mobo (PEBT2 or something like that I think). Do you think it's worth it? Maybe my cpu isn't powerful enough to take advantage of the 9800 Pro? Would a 9600 Pro for instance be almost as good on my system? All the reviews seem to use the most powerful CPUs on the market. I haven't really used AA/AF much at all obviously because games don't run very well with those features on with a Ti4200.

I don't play that many games but I do play the ones I like a lot (eg., Warcraft III) and I like to be able to run new games as smoothly as possible. I'm looking forward to half-life 2 which is one of the reasons I'm thinking about upgrading. I'm not sure whether to go ahead and get a 9800 Pro 128MB now or wait a while and see what the R360 is like. Warcraft III runs pretty well at the moment on my system at 1024x768 with I think high detail and I'm not playing any games at the moment where the frame rates are too slow (usually I play at around 1024x768, 32bit color).

Thanks.

[Megatron]

Sure It will be worth it!
Sure Intel has the 3Ghz Pentiums out...but Cmon man...a 2.53 Ghz is surely powerful enough. No need to make it sound like your running a celeron 300 there lol.

Youll love the 9800Pro!!

[rabblerouser]

Thanks, I wasn't sure.

[john19055]

That will be like going from night to day,It will be very worth it.

[Kombatant]

Originally posted by john19055
That will be like going from night to day,It will be very worth it.

I will most definitely second that statement :)

[digitalwanderer]

HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!!

Man, I did a GF4 ti4400 to a 9700 Pro and I'm still ga-ga about it!

Night & frigging day difference! :cool:

[MUYA]

Originally posted by rabblerouser
I'm thinking about upgrading my graphics card from a Ti4200 to a 9800 Pro 128MB. I have a 2.53Ghz P4 (533FSB) and an Intel mobo (PEBT2 or something like that I think). Do you think it's worth it?
4 pixel pipeline(ti4400) to 8 pixel pipeline(r350) architecture, 128 bit memory interfaced memory running at 550mhz ddr to 256 bit memory interfaced memory running 680mhz ddr. :)
Sure its worth the upgrade, u get a huge performance leap especially with AA and AF set on and to max levels as well :)
You shouldn't worry about a such a purchase, you won't regret it...untill that is the release of next gen GPU/VPUs! :p


Cheers
MUYA

[GlowStick]

as i have a D845PEBT2 and a 2.53ghz p4 i can say that it works fine, and it will take advantage of the videa card..........


.....

[SlyBoots]

from the several reviews that used Warcraft III to benchmark it appears the 9800 did exceptionally well.....

FWIW> http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=3x5900u&page=11

[rabblerouser]

Thanks for your replies. I think I'll buy the 9800 Pro 128MB. Now that I know it's worth it, the only thing possibly holding me back is that the R360 will be out soon. But then again, there's always new and better hardware around the corner. I haven't spent $350-$400 on a video card before - in the past I've spent up to around $200-$250. In my college days I bought a voodoo 1, then went to TNT, then to GeForce 256DDR, then GeForce 2 Pro, then GeForce 4 Ti4200 which is what I have now. Each upgrade while significant in terms of a boost in performance, didn't cost as much as the one I'm considering now. It seems a bit wasteful to spend so much on a video card but I'm impressed with the reviews of the 9800 Pro and want to play new games at high resolutions and smooth frame rates and anyway I earn more money now than I did before.

[GlowStick]

Yeah its a good choice, there wont be any new card that is gonna make you say "omg, i have to upgrade or else" for a while.

[Geforce4ti4200]

get the 9800 non pro, youd not notice any difference with such a cpu bottleneck as yours. Heck a 9600 pro would be a small loss. I am still bottlnecking a ti4200, imagine that! Those cards can do over 15k marks on a good cpu, 18k on prometia cooled rigs

[MadPt]

Sure you will notice a dif. !
I had a GF3 and a R8500, those are similar, but there was a huge dif. going from any of these cards to my R9700Pro, in a P4 2.4 ( 400Mhz FSB ), so i'm sure you'll notice a even higher "jump" with a R9800.

The FSAA and AF power is awesome in R9700Pro/R9800Pro, so you'll be more than happy for now, and you'll be sure that you have enough power later, in "heavier" games and, if needed, you'll turn off these "filters" to increase perfomance ! ;)

The Ti4200 power is similar to GF3's, and you do notice slowdowns with FSAA or AF, but i'm able to use both with my CPU/R9700Pro, so i'm sure your CPU will be more than enough for a huge increase, especially with all FX turned on max, AND with some FSAA and full AF !! It's that great ! :)
( And R9800Pro is even faster ! )
This was a great purchase for me. Image quality is awesome too. ;)

The R9800Pro is a awesome card, you'll love it !!! :)
Go for it! :D

[IISquintsII]

If you're aprehensive about the cash just get a 9800 non pro. I doubt theres much difference between the non pro and pro.

[Geforce4ti4200]

on a 2.4GHz p4, there still will be a big difference from a radeon8500 to 9800 pro, but from say 9600 pro to 9800 pro will be very small due to cpu limit

[Templar]

To answer your question let me just say HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!

[bknblk]

Did you get the card? I love to hear first impressions from people running the latest gen hw.

[Templar]

I went from a TI4600 to a Radeon 9700Pro in September last year and I still haven't recovered. Today I have the 9800Pro and I will most definately buy ATi's next card.

I was playing Battlefield with my TI4600 and then with the Radeon 9700.. going from the 4600 to the Radeon was the biggest and best upgrade I have ever done. It's a HUGE step upwards in image quality and speed. First time ever you can actually play with the eye candy on and ATi's Catalyst were a nice surprise. They're super good!

Good luck,
Simon

[rabblerouser]

My brother left a few days ago to the US for a few weeks and I asked him to pick up the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB for me. I'll see him some time after he returns and get the card off him then. Will let you know how it goes.

Cheers.

[COMEDY BoB]

I've just upgraded from a MSI gf ti4200 128mb to a shiny new Hercules Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB and it eats my ti4200 for breakfast, And in the games i tested my 9800pro on it runs at warp speeds and the FSAA is far better than anything i've seen on a nvidia card.

Only gripe i got is the Hercules 9800pro came bundled with full RavenShield game and my bloody copy was missing a CD Key inside the box and so i cant play online and i gotta go back to the shop or else i lose out on a game i paid for......

[Geforce4ti4200]

now run both at 1024x768, medium details without fsaa and tell me how much the gap is

[B&R]

NO wait and get the newer versions of the card. ti4200 is a really good card that can play any game that is out there rite now at a decent rate.

[5150 Joker]

Originally posted by Geforce4ti4200
now run both at 1024x768, medium details without fsaa and tell me how much the gap is


Still a substantially large gap without AA/AF. Who would buy a new card and NOT use AA/AF? :rolleyes:

[ChrisRay]

Is he upgrading just to play warcraft 3? Hey I'm all for warcraft 3. One of my favorite games right now. But that game runs fine on my Voodoo3.

[john19055]

But if he want to upgrade might as well get the best,at the moment. But you can get a Radeon9800 NP for under $300 and ever thread I have seen that got one say it will overclock to a R9800PRO