Sapphire “Deal”

You can see their policy here.

Basically, they’ll call these cards Radeon 9800s instead, and will put a 128-bit sticker on them. Anyone who bought one and is not a happy camper can either return it to their retailer, or deal directly with Sapphire and essentially pay $25 for an upgrade.

What really needs to be noted, though, is that these renamed cards are still misleading. Let no one forget that the original Radeon 9800 is a 256-bit card, and these cards still remain only 128-bit.

What this situation has morphed into is that these video cards are from the standpoint of memory bandwidth nothing more than a Radeon 9800SE (which always was a 128-bit card), but they cost more than 128-bit cards.

Nor do stickers do very much on-line.

We still believe buying 128-bit Radeons 9800-whatevers is a bad idea, and continue to recommend that you check carefully before buying a Radeon 9800 anything card to make sure it runs a 256-bit memory bus. Given that you can buy a 256-bit Radeon 9800 Pro for about $35 more these days; we think that’s more value for your money.

For those who can wait, we think the best value will eventually come when the newest generation of video cards come down in price.

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