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MSI RX9800PRO, really this good

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Dan0512

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Location
Switzerland
I read a review on this card(which I'm about to buy, to replace the rather obsolete GeForce 2mx), and in the review they stated it were able to oveclock it succesfully to 479Core/783Memory, which is above many oc's 9800xt's. The review is from a credible site, but it is still amazing, does anyone have this card, and has been able to reach these numbers? other than that, what other little "add ons" could it use to increase performance?

Dan
 
I bought the retail version of this card for my brother's rig and he has zero problems with it. It shows up as an 9800XT in the device manager. He does not overclock it, but from the way it looks (the large heatsink on it) it could be a great OCer. Plus the games that come with it seem to add to its value (if you're interested in Morrowind, that is). I'd say go for it... you cannot go wrong!
 
From what I've read, it seems it has the 9800xt core (R36O), so that's why it's maybe showing up like that. They actually got it to perform better than a standard overclocked 9800xt on some benchmarks, can't wait till I get it!

Dan
 
I've heard good things about it considering it's a non-standard ati pcb..... they do come with the r360 core but I'd suggest luck of the draw still applies as to whether someone can get a great overclock on it..... even though it shows up as a 9800xt I do believe it still has the 9800pro clocks. You'd have to flash to the medion bios to get true 9800xt.
 
supposedly theres two versions of this card floating around now, the green, non-refernce version (mine) and a red refernce-style version. supposedly neweggs just shipping the red ones now, should clock and function like every other 9800 out there. also a different sofware pack, supposedly better games.

my green version seems to work fine, hynix 2.8ns ram, r360. recently tore off the stock hsf and threw some as5 on the core and mem, clocks to 420/365 fine, though thats about as high as i want to push it. not a bad card for less than $200.
 
We have gotten 4 msi 9800 pros from newegg. All were green. Bought over a time period of 2 months. Last one was 2 weeks ago. They are nice if they work. One went in a friend's comp, one in my dad's. The other two were rma's. They just didn't work without artifacting heavily. The ones that work overclock really well. 435 core 365 mem. All r360 cores.
 
I'm planning on buying it here , the absolute best deal I could find, can't wait till I get it. BTW, would buying some good thermal grease and spreading it over the ram chips and a little bit more over the core do any good?

Dan
 
Dan0512 said:
I'm planning on buying it here , the absolute best deal I could find, can't wait till I get it. BTW, would buying some good thermal grease and spreading it over the ram chips and a little bit more over the core do any good?

Dan


I wouldn't suggest putting thermal grease on the ram unless you're gonna put something on top of it..... I doubt you'd get any benefit from it and too many things could go wrong if the thermal grease gets on the card. Some good thermal grease on the core certainly would help.
 
HousERaT said:
I wouldn't suggest putting thermal grease on the ram unless you're gonna put something on top of it..... I doubt you'd get any benefit from it and too many things could go wrong if the thermal grease gets on the card. Some good thermal grease on the core certainly would help.

the heatsinks cover the ramchips both at the front and at the back, so I guess they would help.


Dan
 
it covers the ram chips, but does it make contact with them? if so, then thermal grease will help, if there is a gap at all, nope.
 
hUMANbEATbOX said:
it covers the ram chips, but does it make contact with them? if so, then thermal grease will help, if there is a gap at all, nope.

I'm pretty sure it makes contact with them, otherwise they would be pretty much a waste. I'll shoot them an e-mail to make sure.

Dan
 
It DOES make contact with them. Stock it has thermal pads stuck on the heatsink but are not stuck on the mem chips.

I was going to say to buy the card from newegg as that vendor you listed looks a little shady, but wow, newegg raised their prices on the msi card by $10 since we last got one.
 
Last edited:
Quailane said:
It DOES make contact with them. Stock it has thermal pads stuck on the heatsink but are not stuck on the mem chips.

confirmed, the pads are thicker than the as5, but it still makes contact for me. didnt really want to lap it either cause the tolerence is pretty tight. havent tried ocing any more past what the stock stuff did though, havent had time (2 jobs taking up all my computer/car time, stupid overnighters). mostly did it just so i could see what kind of chips were on there and if msi was changing em every so often like the bba's tend to. the back heatspreader seems to get a touch warmer, but with an 80mm side fan blowing right across the card, im not too teribly worried about it.
 
Is the red boards just as XT flashable as the green boards? What about the Saphire 9800pro's? I am fixing to upgrade from my 9600pro and those looks like the best choices ( as per Newegg reviews).
 
YOU DO NOT FLASH THE MSI 9800 PROS TO XT'S!!!!

They come with an xt bios. Windows detects them as xt's as well. Only way you can tell it is a pro is the box it comes in and the stock speeds.
 
very interesting! I've had my MSI 9800 Pro now for a few months and tried several different drivers including the Omega's, Catylists and UnianCatylist's and they ALL read my 9800 Pro as an XT, and it easily clocks up to 460/390 without artifacts or clitchs of any sort! very happy with this card indeed.
 
just for proof that red, reference-version msi's exist: http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RX9800PRO-TD128SP&class=vga

notice that the model # is different than the green board, and it comes with a different (and better) software pack. whether its xt-flashable or not, i dont know, but reading newegg a couple days ago i saw some reviews saying they got that version. who knows. still a pretty good card.
 
So you are saying that if I go with the MSI brand I will have a really good ( better than Saphire) chance of getting a R360 core? Is the Hynix memory better than Samsung?
 
the green msi's are a gaurenteed (sp?) r360 core with hynix 2.8ns ram. whether the hynix is better than the samsung is for someone else to decide (my old 8500le had hynix 3.6ns on it, seemed decent), i just wish it was 2.2ns or so (350mhz spec just seems slow, but it seems to go more than that easily on mine)
 
Bringing back a dead thread a bit... I bought this MSI RX9800pro.. Green PCB, nonstandard design. Windows detects it as a 9800 PRO, not the XT.. I thought it would find it as a XT.. It has the 360 core...
 
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