ATI9800 SE AIW

[Zok]

looking for a new graphics card and this one came up
don't no anything about the all in wonder cards
quick search on the web did not reveal much
help me please
http://www.lowestonweb.com/Images/Products...AIW9800CARD.gif

[Dr Sadako]

As far as I know the all in wonder cards also holds a TV-card feature in comparison to the regular 9800Pro card. This and a remote control (and the extra games and stuff) is the only difference. So if you like to watch TV through the computer or record stuff from TV to the computer this card has it all in one slim package.

If you are out for a gaming card I suggest you go for the regular 9800Pro (not XT or AiW) as the prices on them are dropping. I got a Radeon 9800Pro and it is great!

[Zok]

Thanks for the swift one
thats kind of what i thought but the price seems really low (posted the proper link this time)
http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/Displa...81-5B8A9BDE3E08

[Dr Sadako]

The price is low as it is not a "PRO" card but a regular one.


http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?action=...GrpID=1&cks=PRL

9800Pro AIW

[Zok]

but what i don't understand is that it is also cheaper than any 9800 non pros i have seen on the net

9800SE AIW - £131.74
9800 - £206.61
9800PRO - £338.26

http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/Produc...A9-EFD030750327

[TeaLeaf]

After a bit of research, here is why it is cheaper:

When all working chips were selected out from the cullage of the RADEON 9800 PRO for the RADEON 9800 (the chips had just lower clock speeds) the next stage was to select cores with a defect in rendering pipelines or in the HSR unit. Like the RADEON 9500, such R350 chips had half of the processor disabled and were named RADEON 9800SE.  If you plan on gambling that the other 4 pipelines are OK and then doing the 8 Pipeline hack then R9800SE is a possibility, but the 9600Pro offers better performance at the price point.   If you are willing to take the chances then the 9800SE might be OK......but no guarantees, if the one you have has defective pipelines then you are fubar.

4 rendering pipelines instead of 8 means that it will do OK when AA & AF are off, but when you an tto play a DX9 game with the eye candy on then your performance will fall away rapidly, so that you are some 40% or more behind the the *proper* 9800Pro.  It will *just* edge a 9600 Pro in most tests, but will normally be beaten by the 5800 Ultra.  Depends a bit which version you get, but none of them are like a real 9800........

ATI has nothing to do with it. It's the intrigue of the Chinese card makers who were allowed to use the cullage for the internal market only. If you remember, ATI also kept silence about the RADEON LE as if they weren't aware where PC Partner (their premier partner) could take such chips from.

Such cards are of dubious quality and on most you will not find much info about the bus speed etc (in fact in your link you will find none at all!!).  None of them have uniqie PN's, so they are kind of difficult to trace to proper specs.  You will see that there are 9800SEs on different PCBs going by the same name (most are based on the old 9700 red PCB), there are 256bit cards based versions of the 9800SE and there are 128bit models (this affects only the memory bandwidth not the rendering pipelines). They can also have different clock speeds. All in all it's a bit confusing really!

Steer clear is my 2 cents.  Buy the real deal, not some dodgy grey import.

TL.

[Sn00ks]

That told ya! :narnar:

[Zok]

It certainly did Snooks, it certainly did. :blink:

Thanks TL, I’m usually not that useless at finding info on the web but I must admit to being completely flummoxed yesterday. Think I’ll stick to a kosher card from a known player. Thanks again for your digging and reply.

Zok

[TeaLeaf]

Zok, it appears that Hercules have just jumped onto this band wagon and the quality of their cards is way better than the rest, it's still from the China market, but if hercules are doing it with a 256 bit AIW version then it may be more worth a shot than it would have been with an unknown version!  Have a read here and see what you think.  It is still a crap-shoot as to whether or not the softmod works, but it explains it quite well for you and also sets otu the comparative performance of the stock item, which is not that bad!  At the same price point as the 9600XT it gives you the AIW capabilities and the potnetial for the 8 pipeline hack to work.  Komplett have them on sale at the moment.....

TL.

[Zok]

thanks again

spotted the hercules when scouring the net last week

almost convinced myself to go for a reputable (overclockable) make, either sapphire or tyan

off to a puter fair in about half an hour, so the final decision will hopefully be made then

[Zok]

ok this is what i got

Tyan Tachyon G9600Pro
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
XP2800+ Barton
Coolermaster Aero7 Lite
2 macthing sticks of 512MB Kingston PC3200

put it all together

and its niiiiccce

Cheers
Zok