Sapphire Atlantis 9800 - Holy Sh*t its good!

[Wayne Youngman]

Hi,

subject says it all really. Lol I need to spend some bucks of new games to
take advantage of this thing. I been farting about for weeks with
benchmarks and other boring stuff, just the past few days I switched off
from all that and actually played some games. . . .now I remember why I
wanted a new PC.

Can anyone recommend some good atmospheric FPS games like Call of Duty demo?
I got Matrix reloaded and splinter Cell so far. . .
--
Wayne ][

Barton (AQXEA) XP2500+ @ 2.2GHz (10x220) - 1.75vCore
CoolerMaster Aero 7 Lite - 3,200rpm
ABIT NF7-S (v2.0 - BIOS#14)
512MB Dual TwiSTER PC3500 @ DDR440 (8,3,3,2.0 - 2.8v)
Sapphire Atlantis 9800 - 3.3ns Samsung
240GB (2x120GB) WD-SE SATA RAID-0 (16k Stripe)
Antec SX630II Mini-Tower Case Inc 300w PSU
WinXP-PRO-SP1
Cat 3.7 - DX9.0b

 

[Mr. Flirty Pants]

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Not an FPS, but rather an RPG. But, you will not be displeased. Those
FPS's get old, after a while. All of my FPS games are gathering dust, while
I enjoy Morrowind.

-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:

 

[Wayne Youngman]

"Mr. Flirty Pants"wrote

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Not an FPS, but rather an RPG. But, you will not be displeased. Those
FPS's get old, after a while. All of my FPS games are gathering dust, while
I enjoy Morrowind.

Hi Strontium,

Is that one game or two. I played Baldurs Gate (original) and also
NeverWinterNights, is that anything like Morrowind?

Did you try that call of duty demo yet?, the gameplay reminds me of an old
game called *Thief* except you in the 2nd world war with guns. . . .

Nearly finished my rigg!
--
Wayne ][

Barton (AQXEA) XP2500+ @ 2.2GHz (10x220) - 1.75vCore
CoolerMaster Aero 7 Lite - 3,200rpm
ABIT NF7-S (v2.0 - BIOS#14)
512MB Dual TwiSTER PC3500 @ DDR440 (8,3,3,2.0 - 2.8v)
Sapphire Atlantis 9800 - 3.3ns Samsung
240GB (2x120GB) WD-SE SATA RAID-0 (16k Stripe)
Antec SX630II Mini-Tower Case Inc 300w PSU
WinXP-PRO-SP1
Cat 3.7 - DX9.0b

 

[Shawk]

Hi,

subject says it all really. Lol I need to spend some bucks of new games to
take advantage of this thing. I been farting about for weeks with
benchmarks and other boring stuff, just the past few days I switched off
from all that and actually played some games. . . .now I remember why I
wanted a new PC.

Can anyone recommend some good atmospheric FPS games like Call of Duty demo?
I got Matrix reloaded and splinter Cell so far. . .
--
Wayne ][

Barton (AQXEA) XP2500+ @ 2.2GHz (10x220) - 1.75vCore
CoolerMaster Aero 7 Lite - 3,200rpm
ABIT NF7-S (v2.0 - BIOS#14)
512MB Dual TwiSTER PC3500 @ DDR440 (8,3,3,2.0 - 2.8v)
Sapphire Atlantis 9800 - 3.3ns Samsung
240GB (2x120GB) WD-SE SATA RAID-0 (16k Stripe)
Antec SX630II Mini-Tower Case Inc 300w PSU
WinXP-PRO-SP1
Cat 3.7 - DX9.0b

Did you try the original Medal of Honour Allied Assault? - still replaying
it here - excellent.

 

[Eric Gill]

"Mr. Flirty Pants"wrote


Hi Strontium,

Is that one game or two. I played Baldurs Gate (original) and also
NeverWinterNights, is that anything like Morrowind?

Morrowind is first person "true" 3D and much more demanding on your video
system.

My 9700PRO loves it, and the visuals are spectacular. Do a web search for
screen shots, especially scenes with water.

 

[Manoj K Bhupatrai]

Newegg.com has two Sapphire 9800 pros, one for $306 and one for $352. I'm
on the verge of placing an order later tonight. I can't really tell what
the difference is apart from the fact that one has a black pcb and a
'sapphire' fan and the other has a standard looking pcb with an ati fan.

I emailed Sapphire's techs a few days ago and the told me there is no
difference except in appearance. Anyone have any experience with the black
pcb version (which is the one that costs $306)? I'm having a hard time with
this. I don't know if I should spend the additional 46 bucks. It would pay
for half of the Barton 2500+ I plan to get in a couple of weeks.

Thanks in advance!!

M

 

[Mike P]

I'm playing it with a 9800np but there's little difference between that and
my old 8500, it pl;ayed it well with all eye candy except AA (used AF). SO
I don't get the edge shimmering anymore but i don't find it to be a
spectacular iq upgrade just because of that.

Mike

Hi,

subject says it all really. Lol I need to spend some bucks of new games to
take advantage of this thing. I been farting about for weeks with
benchmarks and other boring stuff, just the past few days I switched off
from all that and actually played some games. . . .now I remember why I
wanted a new PC.

Can anyone recommend some good atmospheric FPS games like Call of Duty demo?
I got Matrix reloaded and splinter Cell so far. . .
--
Wayne ][

Barton (AQXEA) XP2500+ @ 2.2GHz (10x220) - 1.75vCore
CoolerMaster Aero 7 Lite - 3,200rpm
ABIT NF7-S (v2.0 - BIOS#14)
512MB Dual TwiSTER PC3500 @ DDR440 (8,3,3,2.0 - 2.8v)
Sapphire Atlantis 9800 - 3.3ns Samsung
240GB (2x120GB) WD-SE SATA RAID-0 (16k Stripe)
Antec SX630II Mini-Tower Case Inc 300w PSU
WinXP-PRO-SP1
Cat 3.7 - DX9.0b

Did you try the original Medal of Honour Allied Assault? - still replaying
it here - excellent.

 

[Strontium]

Hey Wayne,

Nope, nothing like Baulder's Gate or Neverwinter Nights. Better. You have
choice of 3rd person, or FP view. BG and NWN were made by same company,
btw.

I tried that COD demo, a while back. I loved it. However, I can see how it
can get boring if it all revolves around doing the same thing over and over
again (sneaking up and killing people). Regardless of the 'goal'. I really
did enjoy the demo, though. But, after some careful thought, it seems it
would get old fairly quickly.

ymmv

-
Wayne Youngman stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:

 

[Guest]

Is that one game or two. I played Baldurs Gate (original) and also
NeverWinterNights, is that anything like Morrowind?

One game, a first/third person RPG in a graphically impressive world.

Did you try that call of duty demo yet?, the gameplay reminds me of an old
game called *Thief* except you in the 2nd world war with guns. . . .

I have thought about it for a couple of minutes, and cannot see any
common ground between Thief and Call Of Duty, could you share your
thinking on that one please?

 

[nightic]

Newegg.com has two Sapphire 9800 pros, one for $306 and one for $352. I'm
on the verge of placing an order later tonight. I can't really tell what
the difference is apart from the fact that one has a black pcb and a
'sapphire' fan and the other has a standard looking pcb with an ati fan.

I emailed Sapphire's techs a few days ago and the told me there is no
difference except in appearance. Anyone have any experience with the black
pcb version (which is the one that costs $306)? I'm having a hard time with
this. I don't know if I should spend the additional 46 bucks. It would pay
for half of the Barton 2500+ I plan to get in a couple of weeks.

This may help:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon/sapphire-4.html

 

[Wayne Youngman]

I have thought about it for a couple of minutes, and cannot see any
common ground between Thief and Call Of Duty, could you share your
thinking on that one please?

Hi,
well in Thief you had to sneak about and every now and then assassinate
someone from long distance with your bow, I found the Call of Duty demo
similar, except of course the *mythos*. I was doing allot of sneaking about
and I found a cool *Assassins* gun in the demo complete with barrel optics.
Don't you see the similarities? maybe it was just the way I was playing. .

Wayne ][

P.S: any rate I will be buying call of duty, re-played the demo quite a few
times, still in shock how realistic it is, remember I didn't play any FPS
games really for about 3 years!. The fire that comes out of the solders
guns when they shoot, looks so real!

 

[Guest]

well in Thief you had to sneak about and every now and then assassinate
someone from long distance with your bow, I found the Call of Duty demo
similar, except of course the *mythos*. I was doing allot of sneaking about
and I found a cool *Assassins* gun in the demo complete with barrel optics.
Don't you see the similarities? maybe it was just the way I was playing. .

They are similar in that you can play CoD as a sniper in a slightly
sneaky way. The NPC's AI is practically non existent in CoD, there is
no concept of sneaking around in shadows or not making noise. There
aren't any weapons in common, and you can't interact with the
surroundings.

Don't get me wrong, I will be buying CoD, the demo was great for an
action game, but comparing it to Thief is extremely tenuous!

 

[Skid]

"Mr. Flirty Pants"wrote


Hi Strontium,

Is that one game or two. I played Baldurs Gate (original) and also
NeverWinterNights, is that anything like Morrowind?

Did you try that call of duty demo yet?, the gameplay reminds me of an old
game called *Thief* except you in the 2nd world war with guns. . . .

I never really cared for RPGs until Morrowind, but it's not a simple
attribute-building quest like BG. It gets off to a slow start, you're dumped
off a slave ship with no weapon or skills and left to find your way.

There's so much eye candy it's fun just to explore -- and you can do
absolutely anything. I spent one day diving for pearls, and later learned to
levitate so I could literally leap over tall buildings with a single bound.
There's an amazing variety of indoor and outdoor environments, NPCs and
enemies.

You can slay dragons, command a legion, summon demons, build a fortress,
play as a vampire, totally up to you.

It's one of the most addictive single-player games around, and there are two
expansion packs with new adventures and characters.

The game's only real drawback is that it can bring even a strong system to
its knees. Your new card will give you the best possible experience.

With my 9700, I find setting the resolution to just 1024x768 and cranking
the AA to 4X and AF to 8X with all the game video settings at max gives me
great visuals and smooth framerates. YMMV.

 

[Skid]

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon/sapphire-4.html

Terrific comparison. If only they'd have overclocked the cards to see
whether the bang/buck equation changed ;>(

 

[Manoj K Bhupatrai]

Thanks very much for the link! I guess I'm going to order the $352 one.
Newegg doesn't seem to mention that the $306 version is the Sapphire 9800
Pro Lite.

Once again thanks!

M

 

[We Live For The One We Die For The One]

Why have a Pro Lite, 1 step forwards two steps back >??

 

[Manoj K Bhupatrai]

Exactly. That's why I'm going to go ahead and buy the Pro which is $352.
The Pro Lite is $306, but Newegg didn't mention the "Lite" part.

I did just visit the Sapphire site and they make mention of the Lite ... see
below:

"
Available in both FULL Retail and Lite Retail Versions

Full retail indicates that the package contains the entire bundle including
the Game software bundle and utilities. The Lite retail versions do not come
bundled with the software bundle and are packaged with the neccessities
needed to enjoy the pinnacle in performance from Sapphire alone. "

 

[Lester Piglet]

According to that article the Pro Lite is the best card tho it doesn't
mention rendering pipelines for it. The SE version only has 4 rendering
pipelines. Did I miss something?

 

[Lester Piglet]

1.. From the aformentioned link/article.
RADEON 9800 PRO Lite is Sapphire's unique product. Actually, all components
of the RADEON 9800 PRO are moved to the altered PCB of 9700 PRO which has a
place for the RAGE Theater, and such cards can be equipped with VIVO. But if
the card of the old design works perfectly why did they make a new one for
the RADEON 9800 PRO? I think it's one of Sapphire's tricks ATI shuts its
eyes to. The most notable is the price. It's $70 lower compared to an
average card based on the 9800 PRO. I think that such card was ordered by
some assembler who then brought them to the gray market, and quick dealers
made use of it. But such cards weaken sales of Sapphire's 9800 PRO based
cards, that is why they can quickly disappear.

 

[Manoj K Bhupatrai]

According to Newegg, it has 8 pipelines. The portion that you copied and
pasted for me to refer to. I get lost in the technospeak in the excerpt
that you pasted.

Here's an excerpt from newegg on the pro (lite, apparently) version.

"SAPPHIRE OEM RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB DVI/TV 8X AGP BULK
Specifications:
Chipset: ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
Memory: 128MB DDR
Bus: AGP 8X
New SMARTSHADERT 2.1 technology allows users to experience complex,
movie-quality effects in next-generation 3D games and applications
First to fully support DirectX® 9.0 and the latest OpenGL® functionality
Industry's only 8-pipeline graphics solution in its 2nd generation,
providing twice the rendering power of any currently competing product.
Ports:VGA + DVI + S-Video Out "

M