God bless my 9800 Pro

[John]

Now that the two big "guns" are out -- Doom 3 and Half Life 2 (not to
mention Rome Total War), I can safely say my Radeon 9800 Pro was the
best computer purchase I ever made. This card is now over two years
old, there weren't even any DX9 titles released when it first came
out, and yet it runs the latest games without a hitch. I think that's
pretty amazing and a testament to how far ahead of its time it was
when ATI first conceived it. I had been worried I might need to
upgrade to an X800 or something, but thank God I didn't waste the
money. My trusty old 9800 Pro has done a marvelous job. (Now I'll
start worrying about whether it can handle STALKER).

 

[Rick Carney]

These people who say you can't run Half Life 2 without an X800 are nuts. The
9800 Pro works perfect with the game. But it's still slow as hell with Halo.

 

[rms]

There are also performance tweaks for the 9800pro in HL2
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=40872

All the tweaks there are good, but scroll down a bit for a ati-specific
tweak.

rms

 

[JimBob]

These people who say you can't run Half Life 2 without an X800 are
nuts. The 9800 Pro works perfect with the game. But it's still slow
as hell with Halo.

My bro has a 9800 pro, and Halo runs perfectly!

 

[Greg Sumner]

Now that the two big "guns" are out -- Doom 3 and Half Life 2 (not to
mention Rome Total War), I can safely say my Radeon 9800 Pro was the
best computer purchase I ever made.

I should have bought it, instead I got the 9500 Pro. It lasted two years
but ran out of gas with Doom3 (800x600 without shadows, playable but ...)
It would have been a better investment at the time to get the 9800 Pro.
This time I got the x800 Pro, I really hope it lasts 3 years.

GS.

 

[Walter Mitty]

Now that the two big "guns" are out -- Doom 3 and Half Life 2 (not to
mention Rome Total War), I can safely say my Radeon 9800 Pro was the
best computer purchase I ever made. This card is now over two years
old, there weren't even any DX9 titles released when it first came
out, and yet it runs the latest games without a hitch. I think that's
pretty amazing and a testament to how far ahead of its time it was
when ATI first conceived it. I had been worried I might need to
upgrade to an X800 or something, but thank God I didn't waste the
money. My trusty old 9800 Pro has done a marvelous job. (Now I'll
start worrying about whether it can handle STALKER).

I just got mine : when I got through the rigmoral of getting it working
(my machine had awful conflicts with it for some reason), it really is
an awesome upgrade.

What I find interesting is that usualyy with a game, everyone starts
pulling their dicks out in order to compare frame rates : It says
something for the gameplay in HL2 that no one has done that yet!
Everyone is too busy enjoying the game for the gameplay and not the
technical achievements and how it runs on their machines.

 

[Inglo]

There are also performance tweaks for the 9800pro in HL2
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=40872

All the tweaks there are good, but scroll down a bit for a ati-specific
tweak.

rms

So create an autoexec.cfg with this:

snd_async_fullyasync "1"
r_fastzreject "1"

 

[Rick Carney]

My bro has a 9800 pro, and Halo runs perfectly!

6 FPS is perfect?

 

[Andrew]

6 FPS is perfect?

I don't know what you are doing wrong with your machine, but my 9700
Pro has run Halo perfectly smoothly since the day of release.

 

[Blaedmon]

erm, sorry to slam your comment, but Halo does perform excellent on a
9800pro - I'm talking 256-bit here, not the se128-bit anyway.

 

[OldDog]

I don't know what you are doing wrong with your machine, but my 9700
Pro has run Halo perfectly smoothly since the day of release.
--
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

One of you running Halo at 1600 rez with max details and AA/AF on, and the
other is at 300rez with low details and AA/AF off?

 

[Andrew]

One of you running Halo at 1600 rez with max details and AA/AF on, and the
other is at 300rez with low details and AA/AF off?

1024x768, all details maxxed. Halo doesn't require or work well with
FSAA.

 

[fred]

Can you run it at 16 by 12 resolution, everything maxed out, with
AA-enabled, at 70FPS..... ? An X800 or 6800GT can -- least my 6800 GT can,
think that's all folks were trying to say. I just replaced my 9800 PRO,
which I agree is probably the best buy at the moment.

 

[Rick Carney]

That's alright, I've got $500 more in my pocket than you and I don't need
that kind of resolution to enjoy this game.

 

[Wblane]

I see your point. You would think Halo's low res, low poly count textures and
models should
run at 1600x1200 on a 9800 Pro 2/128MB of memory but that sure as hell isn't
the case. I was able to get Halo to run at 1280 x 1024 w/no problems. My 9800
Pro is overclocked to XT speeds though, I've got 1GB of PC3200 DDR and an
Athlon Barton running at 2340Mhz.

My bro has a 9800 pro, and Halo runs perfectly!

-Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)

 

[Pluvious]

I just got mine : when I got through the rigmoral of getting it working
(my machine had awful conflicts with it for some reason), it really is
an awesome upgrade.

What I find interesting is that usualyy with a game, everyone starts
pulling their dicks out in order to compare frame rates : It says
something for the gameplay in HL2 that no one has done that yet!
Everyone is too busy enjoying the game for the gameplay and not the
technical achievements and how it runs on their machines.

Here I'll start.. 100fps-80fps with my rig.

cl_showfps 1

Pluvious

 

[noman]

Now that the two big "guns" are out -- Doom 3 and Half Life 2 (not to
mention Rome Total War), I can safely say my Radeon 9800 Pro was the
best computer purchase I ever made. This card is now over two years
old, there weren't even any DX9 titles released when it first came
out, and yet it runs the latest games without a hitch. I think that's
pretty amazing and a testament to how far ahead of its time it was
when ATI first conceived it. I had been worried I might need to
upgrade to an X800 or something, but thank God I didn't waste the
money. My trusty old 9800 Pro has done a marvelous job. (Now I'll
start worrying about whether it can handle STALKER).

I agree completely. My 9800Pro runs fine (30-40 fps average or higher)
with the following games,

DOOM3 1024x768 2xAA 8xAF (ingame High Quality)
Half Life 2 1152x864 2xAA 4xAF (every graphic setting at max)
FarCry 1024x768 2xAA 4xAF (every graphic setting at max)

Battlefield and UT2K4 based games run at obscene frame rates.
Rome:Total War, Need for Speed: Underground, Richard Burns Rally and
all other recent releases run just great.

I think, I am good until 2006 when Oblivion and the next Unreal game
may come out and the games with cutting edge rendering will start to
look as good as 3DMark2K5 demo (which kills 9800Pro)

Excellent card.

 

[Walter Mitty]

Here I'll start.. 100fps-80fps with my rig.

cl_showfps 1

Pluvious

Using FRAPS, I get between 50 and 75 depending on screen with a 2.5 p4,
9800 pro 128 Meg 256bit and 1gig ram. All details on high, 4*AA and 8*AS
filtering.

Game continues to impress.

 

[Zulu]

Can you run it at 16 by 12 resolution, everything maxed out, with
AA-enabled, at 70FPS..... ? An X800 or 6800GT can -- least my 6800 GT can,
think that's all folks were trying to say. I just replaced my 9800 PRO,
which I agree is probably the best buy at the moment.

I'm running HL2 at
16x12, anis 4x, AA 0x,
all details on high and water on "reflect all" with:

Athlon XP 2300 MHz (200x11,5)
1 GB ram - 2-3-3-10
Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb @ 432/378

Framerates (Fraps): 40-50 fps - thats enough for me...

By the way, playing on af 20" TFT... :-D

Zulu

 

[BAMMO]

This card is now over two years

old, there weren't even any DX9 titles released when it first came
out, and yet it runs the latest games without a hitch. I think that's

It's not more than two years old, is it? I thought the 9800 Pro cam out in
August 2003.