What is the best vendor of 9800XT?

Nick Burns · Jan 25, 2004

I might have to buy a new card soon, so I want the best. Which vendor is the best? I am stuck between ATI, Sapphire, and Hercules. Do all vendors ship the coupon for a free copy of HL-2 in them or is it only some of them?

9mmCensor · Jan 25, 2004

Pretty sure its in all of them. Check out ASUS or ATI.

Nick Burns · Jan 25, 2004

How is the overclocking utility for that comes in the hercules? Has anyone used it? Do you reccomend it?

9mmCensor · Jan 25, 2004

Just get, the Omega drivers. They are the best and have an OC tool with them.

www.omegacorner.com

Evnas · Jan 25, 2004

9mmCensor said:
Just get, the Omega drivers. They are the best and have an OC tool with them.

www.omegacorner.com

Did they add a new one? Because last I saw, he took Radclocker out.

Lancelot · Jan 25, 2004

All XT cards are now coming from the same factory and have the same thermal design. The individual companies simply attach their own stickers. The exeption is Asus; they use an orange PCB and their own dual-fan cooling system. The Asus cards don't support overdrive, but do come with VIVO however. All in all there aren't any real-world differences though.

Nick Burns · Jan 25, 2004

What does VIVO do? I thought it was a TIVO like program, but if it comes with a card that isn't an AIW, then it can't video capture, right?
I am leaning toward Hercule because they have their own overclocking tool or an AIW 9800pro since there isn't too much performance difference between the 9800pro 128mb and the 9800xt.

9mmCensor · Jan 25, 2004

VIVO = video in - viedo out

harryinny3 · Jan 25, 2004

Dont worry about the HL2 coupon

They are NOT anygood anymore. The offer ran out on December 31st Of 2003. Believe me They wont honor it neither. My buddy tried and was rejected by Valve. Valve only agreed to honor the coupons On or brfore the 31st. On the ATI site or sapphires, Its in writing about ATI only having an agreement with them till the 31st of last month.

Sorry man, But hey Your getting a hell of a card anyway. And Id personally get a sapphire or BBA. But then again, Sapphire prolly built the BBA anyway.

Harry

Ps. I think someone should put a sticky up there to tell folks about the coupon. So they dont think they are getting burned.

Th0r · Jan 25, 2004

Re: Dont worry about the HL2 coupon

harryinny3 said:
They are NOT anygood anymore. The offer ran out on December 31st Of 2003. Believe me They wont honor it neither. My buddy tried and was rejected by Valve. Valve only agreed to honor the coupons On or brfore the 31st. On the ATI site or sapphires, Its in writing about ATI only having an agreement with them till the 31st of last month.

Sorry man, But hey Your getting a hell of a card anyway. And Id personally get a sapphire or BBA. But then again, Sapphire prolly built the BBA anyway.

Harry

Ps. I think someone should put a sticky up there to tell folks about the coupon. So they dont think they are getting burned.

Does the coupon still work tho?... or have they just took out the coupons from the packaging???

harryinny3 · Jan 25, 2004

The coupons are still in some boxes

Especially the Xtasy cards at compusa. The offer had to be recieved by mail or DL from Valve deal by the 31st. Like i said my buddy tried to redeem his a week ago and they would not honor it. Said offer has expired.

Harry

9mmCensor · Jan 25, 2004

I think you are refeering to this, Harry.

Radeon 9600XT & Half Life2:
We let you know a while back that some Radeon 9600XT cards would not be shipping with Half Life 2 even though it plainly stated on the box that it would. PowerColor has a statement posted with a statement from ATi, but most importantly they have a list of serial numbers posted outlining who is eligible for the free HL2 coupon and who isn’t.

ATI announcement: ATI already stop to provide free half-Life 2 coupon bundle program with RADEON 9600XT from Dec. 8th, 2003. On the other hand, to appreciate customers, Powercolor is glad to provide FREE half-life 2 coupon with RADEON 9600XT. PowerColor will continue to provide FREE half-Life 2 coupon with Radeon 9600XT purchase until Dec.31st, 2003.

Editor's Note: ATI sent this along to us to further clarify the statements made on PowerColor's page as it does not tell the whole story.

From Patricia Mikula of ATI PR: "I thought I would clarify. When the program began in October ATI included the Half-Life 2 bundle automatically and without charge with all RADEON 9800 and RADEON 9600 series products sold to our board partners. Beginning in December board partners had the option of purchasing the bundle from ATI for a small fee with all RADEON 9800 and RADEON 9600 series products except the RADEON 9800 XT which continued to include the bundle without charge. So, there hasn't been any change in the availability to our partners and they all have the option to continue with the bundle or not. We are working with our board partners to make sure they are being completely clear which products include the bundle and which do not."

So all in all, if you buy a PowerColor product that does not have the game included, that is PowerColor's product decision, not ATI's.

harryinny3 · Jan 25, 2004

Nope thats not what im thinking of

The offer expiration date on the coupon is Dec. 31st 2003. They will not honor one thats not post dated after that date. Thats what they told my friend.

Harry

resoluteK · Jan 25, 2004

You'd think if there was an expiration date, they'd say so on the coupon or at least on ATI's website (http://www.ati.com/gitg/promotions/halflife2/index.html). I'm still holding on to my HL2 voucher and I'm not exactly worried.

In regard to the original post, I'd definitely recommend looking into the Asus.

harryinny3 · Jan 25, 2004

When i signed up and redeemed my coupon

They said expires Dec. 31st 2003. But maybe thats just me. Hmmmmm

Ill find my coupon and tell you what it says on mine.

Harry

Nick Burns · Jan 25, 2004

Is the Asus board's cooling better than all of the other vendors who have the same cooling as each other with different stickers? Are the two fans on the Asus version louder than others? Do the regular overclocking programs still work with it even though it has VIVO?

resoluteK · Jan 25, 2004

I've recently purchased an Asus but have yet to get it running in my system. However, in every review I've read, the cooling is described as both more effective and quieter than the generic layout. Overdrive won't work, but it has a more advantageous program called smartdoctor (includes good stuff like fan spped adjustment, thermal monitoring, ect.). And sure, you can use a regular overclocking program if you'd like. VIVO is just a bonus feature, not a hurdle.

Nick Burns · Jan 25, 2004

Sounds like I am going Asus then. Now the question is, is it worth it to get the XT instead of a pro? It should be fairly easy to overclock the pro to XT speeds shouldn't it? Does the pro version of the Asus have the same cooling?

NovaShine · Jan 25, 2004

The Asus cooling aint really good. It's badass looking, but theres no fins over the actual core area and it overclocks pretty crappily unless you swap out the heatsink, then it clocks up like any other R9800XT.

Nick Burns · Jan 25, 2004

What vendor is the best for overclocking? Just any of them except the Asus.

What is the best vendor of 9800XT?

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