Anyone opinions of the infotek radeon 9800?

[ftran999]

I am in the process of slowly building my own pc. The card I have decided
on is the 9800np. The pro and xt is out of my price range and from what I
read the se version is the inferior version. However, it seems ATI has
discontinued the 9800np and they are hard to come by. A pricewatch.com and
shopping.com search turn up an Infotek GeXCube Radeon 9800 card at
Newegg.com for $265 (U.S. dollars). Does anyone have any experience with
this card, good or bad. I am just concerned because the brand does not
sound familiar to me as does say Asus, Gainward, etc. The only other card
of this type I could find in one by Powercolor at futurepowerpc.com for
$285.
Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[Strontium]

The only advice that I can offer is: stay away from the PowerColor version.
Horrible PCB's....horrible.

-
ftran999 stood up at show-n-tell, in BWRyb.382906$HS4.3146071@attbi_s01, and
said:

 

[Stephen Chu]

I am in the process of slowly building my own pc. The card I have decided
on is the 9800np. The pro and xt is out of my price range and from what I
read the se version is the inferior version. However, it seems ATI has
discontinued the 9800np and they are hard to come by. A pricewatch.com and
shopping.com search turn up an Infotek GeXCube Radeon 9800 card at
Newegg.com for $265 (U.S. dollars). Does anyone have any experience with
this card, good or bad. I am just concerned because the brand does not
sound familiar to me as does say Asus, Gainward, etc. The only other card
of this type I could find in one by Powercolor at futurepowerpc.com for
$285.
Thanks in advance for your responses.

CompUSA has the Pro version for $299.99 now.

 

[ftran999]

CompUSA has the Pro version for $299.99 now.

Sounds more reasonable, but when you factor in the sales tax it still comes
out to around $50 more. From what I understand you can oc a np to pro
speeds and I'm just wondering therefore if it's worth the extra 50 bucks.
Not that $50 is alot of money itself, but this is just one component of my
soon to be built pc and if I could save a few bucks on this part, a few
bucks on that part, pretty soon were talking real money.

 

[callsignviper]

CompUSA has the Pro version for $299.99 now.

ATI (built by) Radeon 9800 non-Pro/non-SE at Circuit City this week for
$199.99 plus tax. Actual sale price with no MIRs to hassle with trying to
get.


One of my local Circuit City stores didn't have any on the shelf today but
had 2 sitting at one of their terminals. Not sure why they were there and
none on the shelf....maybe just received and hadn't been placed on the shelf
yet.


Lowest price I could find for a 9800 was at NewEgg for $265 for a brand I
have never seen (Info-tek corp - GeXCube Radeon 9800 128MB AGP 8X Video
Card, Model GC-R9800-C3).


Note: This is apparently in-store ONLY and NOT available for ordering from
the Circuit City web site. :-((



--
callsignviper


The truth is out there. You just have to look in the right places and ask
the right questions.

 

[John]

Lowest price I could find for a 9800 was at NewEgg for $265 for a brand I
have never seen (Info-tek corp - GeXCube Radeon 9800 128MB AGP 8X Video
Card, Model GC-R9800-C3).


Note: This is apparently in-store ONLY and NOT available for ordering from
the Circuit City web site. :-((

I got one. At least I better have one. I rushed down there in a rain
and lightening storm - super sucky weather to get one as soon as I
read they lowered the price to 199. Sure 250 wasnt bad but I was
really hoping for 200 or less. The thing that made me pissed was -
the old pattern ATI has of never letting one of the older 8 pipeline
cards sink below $170-200 or so before replacing it with some slower
card with 4 pipelines. I already started seeing the 9800 ATIs drying
up - Compusa doesnt even sell them and Im starting to see more and
more 9800SEs being sold.

They didnt have any at CC near me and knowing CC I thought it was like
hitting the lottery to get one but I went anyway and the guy said they
dont have them but they had ONE in transit and wasnt sure they were
getting anymore in ever. I prepaid for that one.

 

[callsignviper]

I got one. At least I better have one. I rushed down there in a rain
and lightening storm - super sucky weather to get one as soon as I
read they lowered the price to 199. Sure 250 wasnt bad but I was
really hoping for 200 or less. The thing that made me pissed was -
the old pattern ATI has of never letting one of the older 8 pipeline
cards sink below $170-200 or so before replacing it with some slower
card with 4 pipelines. I already started seeing the 9800 ATIs drying
up - Compusa doesnt even sell them and Im starting to see more and
more 9800SEs being sold.

They didnt have any at CC near me and knowing CC I thought it was like
hitting the lottery to get one but I went anyway and the guy said they
dont have them but they had ONE in transit and wasnt sure they were
getting anymore in ever. I prepaid for that one.

The 9800 I bought Sunday had some problems so I returned it for an exchange
today at the Circuit City where I saw the two 9800's yesterday afternoon. I
went to the shelf and it was............bare!!! I had to ask a clerk if they
had any more. He went to some "back" room and came out about 5 minutes later
with one of the cards. I asked him why they were keeping them in the "back"
room but got no response.

If you go for this deal you may have to ask a clerk to check the "back" room
as they may be hiding these cards for employee purchasing opportunities.


When I unpacked the new card I noticed it was packed significantly different
than the card I returned. I suspect the first card I bought had been
returned for the same problems I encountered and re-shrink wrapped by
Circuit City.


The replacement card hasn't exhibited any of the problems I noticed with the
first one. In benchmarks and games this card has been amazing. I upgraded
from an 8500 so I knew I would see a large improvement but it has been far
greater than I expected! )



--
callsignviper


The truth is out there. You just have to look in the right places and ask
the right questions.

 

[stu]

The only advice that I can offer is: stay away from the PowerColor
version.

Horrible PCB's....horrible.

....and that makes it a bad card?