bt_tony's Full Review: ATI RADEON® 9800 Pro, (128 MB) AGP Video Card
Let me start by giving you my own PC spects. I have 1G of RAM, P4 3.0 basically, the works. Now, the ATI RADEON 9800 PRO, this card is good, but not that good, first of all, it requires a power supply of at least 300 and it over heats a lot, if you wanna test its over heatting, have your PC tower open, play a game or two for at least 15 minutes, turn your PC off and touch the card..make sure you rub your hands on the metal chasis of the tower so you don't damage the card with your own electrostatic energy. Anyway, you'll feel the card is getting very hot, this is not a very good sign, cause what makes video cards slow down their performance is heat, the way RAM doesn't work as good when it's too hot (reason why stores have heat protectors and the new brand of RAM Geil has gel protecting technology against heat). Now, I've tested this video card on simple games such as Call Of Duty, and amazingly, my fps (Frames per Second) was only between 60 and 81, a very poor performance for what they promise you'll get from this card. The graphics are better than the old models such as the 9000 and Nvidia's MX 400 and 200. But the graphics are not that much better, they are good, but not excellent. I tested this card, the XT version and Nvidia's 5950 Ultra...I have kept the Nvidia chip,because the Nvidia card has 2 fans and it requires that you have an empty PCI slot next to it for better air flow...these two fans make a huge difference, the card is warm through its use but not hot...the price is very high, at 500 bucks, same as ATI RADEON 9800 XT....but your clock speeds are much faster with the top of the line Nvidia than the top of the line ATI. In conclusion, the ATI 9800 PRO is a good card for the player whose budget is a priority. The graphics are good, you have 128 of memory and your graphics will improve if you are using an old video card, the edges of objects and background will be smoother.
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