MSI 9800Pro

Just wondering if anybody here has any experience with this card.

MSI 9800 Pro

Really wondering how this would compare to the Built by ATI 9800 Pro.

Which one would you guys pick??? ATI or MSI.

the only thing I've "heard" about the card is that it's undervolted, therefore a poor overclocker.... I cannot confirm or deny if this is in fact true.

it is NOT a poor overclocker, mine gets 420mhz core and 350mhz memory stable, and ive seen quite a few others get about that much too. the only real drawbacks are the 2.8ns ram, and the location of the power cable. but it has a nice big hsf, huge software bundle, and an r360 core. between those two, id definetly buy the msi again, but throw in a sapphire with another r360, and i might change my mind.

From reading the "reviews" at newegg...Seems it shows up as an 9800XT...

So what is your opinion...Sounds like you would go for the ATI 9800 Pro.

Guess I will do some more googling.

Here is my baby.... and it's a beast!!!!!!

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=311829

Personally I would go with the ATI. They are the orginal cards. Most of the others are just clones. I don't know much about the MSI ATI-chipset cards.

Well I have a Built by ATI 9800 Pro...Waiting on some OCZ copper BGA ram sinks to put in my newest creation.

Guy offered me 200 for the card if I put a VGA Silencer on it.

Just thought the MSI might be a better card and could sell my ATI and get the MSI.

Not much information on the net about the MSI.

I'd try the MSI, it comes with free crap

I'd get the MSI also.

Chuckman said:

it is NOT a poor overclocker, mine gets 420mhz core and 350mhz memory stable, and ive seen quite a few others get about that much too. the only real drawbacks are the 2.8ns ram, and the location of the power cable. but it has a nice big hsf, huge software bundle, and an r360 core. between those two, id definetly buy the msi again, but throw in a sapphire with another r360, and i might change my mind.

Click to expand...

420/350 aint that great IMO. My 9800np got better overclocks than that.

I would choose a BBA

=ACID RAIN= said:

420/350 aint that great IMO. My 9800np got better overclocks than that.

I would choose a BBA

Click to expand...

agreed...... those are not impressive numbers.

If this does have the r360 core, it should be an easy bios flash to an XT though correct?

It does have the R360 core...And shows up as a 9800XT according to a bunch of people...Been googling went to rage3d.

The reviews at newegg rant and rave about the card and the bundled software which I really do not care about.

Still have all the original disk from untold pieces of hardware.

Really just want to have the best card I can get in the 200 dollar price range.

Heres a good review of the card. this guy got it to 479mhz core, 391 memory, i still gotta push mine a bit more for that, but i dont think 450mhz core could be that far off, maybe 360mhz mem. ill do some testing overnight for mine, but thats still about as fast as an xt (cept memory, but then again, i let atitool run for about 12 hours). what ns ram does an xt have anyway? 2.6? 2.0?

either way, its not a bad card for $200. if you really want a reference design card, then go with the sapphire, more chance of xt-moddage.

Yeah I read that article...They seem to like it...Not a bad overclocker it would appear from the numbers they got.

I have one of the MSI's. I have a VGA Silencer and OCZ Copper ram sinks on it. The stock cooler looks impressive but doesn't cool wortha crap. It has the 360 core and Hynix 2.8 ram. Core doesn't like much above 320 but the ram does well. I run mine at 415/380. I have had no problems at all with it. If I can say it here, it is listed in the classifieds. Repacing it with an XT-PE

ive done a few tests and am now running it at 430/350 with no artifacts or errors in ut04, although the artifact tester in atitool doesnt seem to like it nearly as much. eventually ill pull the stock hsf off and throw some as5 on it, see if it does any better, as the back of the core is pretty warm, espically if this thing is undervolted. my old 8500 with the stock cooling didnt get that hot with a 35mhz overclock. but its still not a bad card, with my 4x agp and a slow fsb, its far from being a bottleneck in my system.

Don't Get MSI.

I've got my Sapphire(sig) replaced by MSI(sig), and as you can see it's a worse overclocker (a fact).

From my experience with it:

1.It has R360 core, results with sig's OC of MSI were 1% better then with sig's OC of Sapphire R350 (but on stock cooling).

2.The cooling solution of the MSI card is POOR: although the fan is faster(and louder), the ribs design (thicker and less) and the fact that they are made of low density aluminium alloy, not machined - leads to lower heat dissipation.
The fact that the same FS covers the mem chips only deliver more heat from the core to the chips lowering their OC potential.
Also mentioned above - the thermal pads and the grainy surface make the heat transfer even lower.
The thing is too hot even at stock speeds and lower - I'm forced to run it with my case open.

3.The software bundle is a JOKE - it contains demos of cheap games or old versions of programs, along with other c*** that no knowing ocer would trash his system with.I didn't even use the original drivers.

4.The power circuit according the reviews is non-reference.
Taking the price of MSI is generally cheaper I conclude that no expensive high quality components were used.
When testing with ATITool I'm getting "snow" - which I weren't getting even on 430Mhz on my older core(got vector ccordinates errors) points to the fact that the core is not getting enough power.
Another thing to prove that is the floppy 'molex' connector (wt*...?)

5.My core can't even get CLOSE to XT speeds , the mem chips on the bottom and the top are different revision.

Conclusion: (mine) those are hand picked from-the-trash-can chips that can run only lower speeds (kinda XT-SE).

Bottom Line:: If you're not planning to overclock, this card is just fine plus (a little bit too much heat production).If you are planning to overclock - get the Sapphire/BBATI R360 cores.

Note: you can try your luck with ELCO Falcox Radeon 9800SE - many of them can be unlocked to 8 pipes, plus they come with 2.5 ns memory modules.

I totally agree with you Runner30, the stock hsf, although it looks impressive, just plain sux operationally. I, like you could not attain XT speeds on the core. I did switch mine out to a VGA Silencer and some ramsinks and that helped a bunch. Still could not get near what my old 350 core on a BBA could do (high 430's) but at least could bust XT speeds on the core, but not by much. The memory on mine are all the same, Hynix 2.8, just like the BBA. But the MSI does much higher on mem, into the 380's. The card after moddong runs at 415/380 without a hitch.
I agree with your assumptions that out of the box, they are fine at STOCK. If you want more you need to mod it to get there.

so that vga silencer does fit these? hmmmm, even though i dont like the design of them, i may have to try one.

one thing that does bother me is that a via chip is driving the s-video and composite out. isnt this done by a rage theater chip on the xt's? thats what my 8500 had on it, and i loved the way it did tv out, although this via chip does make it a bit easier to see text on my tv through the composite adapter.