The story goes something like this.

I brought a 9800PRO. and got Splinter cell 2 and Beyond good and evil.

My mate has a GF4MX440SE and wanted to play splinter cell but couldn't due
to lack of pixel shader support. So I leant my 9800PRO to him for a couple
of weeks and he played SC2 and BGAE and was happy. I took my 9800pro back
the other day and now he says BGAE runs like a dog at 640x480 with
everything turned off. So time for a new gfx card, but he can't afford a
9800pro so was thinking of a 9800SE. I have been to Toms hardware and when
I buy new stuff I tend to go for the higher range gear and take a long time
to upgrade. Alot of people will jump up and down about how everything below
the top 3 cards on the market are crap and not worth having but I know this
not to be true. So thoughts on the 9800SE?

So time for a new gfx card, but he can't afford a
> 9800pro so was thinking of a 9800SE. I have been to Toms hardware and
when
> I buy new stuff I tend to go for the higher range gear and take a long
time
> to upgrade. Alot of people will jump up and down about how everything
below
> the top 3 cards on the market are crap and not worth having but I know
this
> not to be true. So thoughts on the 9800SE?

Of all the SE cards, it's the only one worth having. It has several
pipelines disabled, but has true 128bit memory and fast GPU/memory speeds.
I'd take a 9800SE over a straight 9600 or 9600 Pro.

Augustus <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Of all the SE cards, it's the only one worth having.

Well...

> It has several pipelines disabled,

4 pipes...

> but has true 128bit memory

256 bit in the most cards available now

> and fast GPU/memory

378/338 (VPU / MEM) MHz

> speeds. I'd take a 9800SE over a straight 9600 or 9600 Pro.

9600 Pro ~ 9800 SE

--
maniac(at)chello.pl

maniac wrote:
> Augustus <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
>>Of all the SE cards, it's the only one worth having.
>
>
> Well...
>
>
>>It has several pipelines disabled,
>
>
> 4 pipes...
>
>
>>but has true 128bit memory
>
>
> 256 bit in the most cards available now
>
>
>>and fast GPU/memory
>
>
> 378/338 (VPU / MEM) MHz
>
>
>>speeds. I'd take a 9800SE over a straight 9600 or 9600 Pro.
>
>
> 9600 Pro ~ 9800 SE
>
what about the 9600XT?

In article <c8370r$kha$(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed) says...
> The story goes something like this.
>
> I brought a 9800PRO. and got Splinter cell 2 and Beyond good and evil.
>
> My mate has a GF4MX440SE and wanted to play splinter cell but couldn't due
> to lack of pixel shader support. So I leant my 9800PRO to him for a couple
> of weeks and he played SC2 and BGAE and was happy. I took my 9800pro back
> the other day and now he says BGAE runs like a dog at 640x480 with
> everything turned off. So time for a new gfx card, but he can't afford a
> 9800pro so was thinking of a 9800SE. I have been to Toms hardware and when
> I buy new stuff I tend to go for the higher range gear and take a long time
> to upgrade. Alot of people will jump up and down about how everything below
> the top 3 cards on the market are crap and not worth having but I know this
> not to be true. So thoughts on the 9800SE?
>
Not bad. About 15% slower in 3DMark 2001.

Overclocked mine so the core and mem speeds are the same as a 9800XT
without any issue but the four disabled pipelines do give a performance
hit however take a look at http://softmod.ocfaq.com as some can be re-
enabled without any problems.


--
Conor

If you're not on somebody's **** list, you're not doing anything
worthwhile.

Ryan <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> what about the 9600XT?

It's the fastest 4 pipeline GFX card. ;-)
A little bit slower than FX5900XT and R9700.

--
maniac(at)chello.pl

It's not worth the price difference over the 9600pro, only slightly faster.

Mike

"Ryan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:f0apc.30950$(E-Mail Removed)...
> maniac wrote:
> > Augustus <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Of all the SE cards, it's the only one worth having.
> >
> >
> > Well...
> >
> >
> >>It has several pipelines disabled,
> >
> >
> > 4 pipes...
> >
> >
> >>but has true 128bit memory
> >
> >
> > 256 bit in the most cards available now
> >
> >
> >>and fast GPU/memory
> >
> >
> > 378/338 (VPU / MEM) MHz
> >
> >
> >>speeds. I'd take a 9800SE over a straight 9600 or 9600 Pro.
> >
> >
> > 9600 Pro ~ 9800 SE
> >
> what about the 9600XT?

In article <rJopc.40363$(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> It's not worth the price difference over the 9600pro, only slightly faster.
>
Until you softmod it and unlock the other 4 pipelines and then it gets
an instant 60% speed increase in 3DMark03.

--
Conor

If you're not on somebody's **** list, you're not doing anything
worthwhile.

You'll have to do a little research as not all 9800se's are created equal.
There are 256bit and 128bit memory interfaces and maybe some have slightly
lower clocked chips.

Using the appropriate drivers e.g. Omega you have a fairly good chance of
switching on the other 4 pipelines without artifacts (about 50/50). So
finding a 256bit (L shaped memory layout) would yield a 9800/9800pro
(depending on clock speed). The link below explains it a bit better.

http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/faq.php

Bit of a crap shoot really, but at the end of the day even if the other
pipelines don't switch on it's not a bad card, as long as you find one for
a good price (and if it's a 256bit i/f, even better)

Hope this helps a little.
Karl

Karl wrote:
> You'll have to do a little research as not all 9800se's are created
> equal. There are 256bit and 128bit memory interfaces and maybe some
> have slightly lower clocked chips.
>
> Using the appropriate drivers e.g. Omega you have a fairly good
> chance of switching on the other 4 pipelines without artifacts (about
> 50/50). So finding a 256bit (L shaped memory layout) would yield a
> 9800/9800pro (depending on clock speed). The link below explains it a
> bit better.
>
> http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/faq.php
>
> Bit of a crap shoot really, but at the end of the day even if the
> other pipelines don't switch on it's not a bad card, as long as you
> find one for a good price (and if it's a 256bit i/f, even better)
>
> Hope this helps a little.
> Karl

cheers. I'll pass it on and see what happens.