9800SE How bad is it?

  • Thread starter Thread starter cowboyz
  • Start date Start date
C

cowboyz

The story goes something like this.

I brought a 9800PRO. and got Splinter cell 2 and Beyond good and evil.

My mate has a GF4MX440SE and wanted to play splinter cell but couldn't due
to lack of pixel shader support. So I leant my 9800PRO to him for a couple
of weeks and he played SC2 and BGAE and was happy. I took my 9800pro back
the other day and now he says BGAE runs like a dog at 640x480 with
everything turned off. So time for a new gfx card, but he can't afford a
9800pro so was thinking of a 9800SE. I have been to Toms hardware and when
I buy new stuff I tend to go for the higher range gear and take a long time
to upgrade. Alot of people will jump up and down about how everything below
the top 3 cards on the market are crap and not worth having but I know this
not to be true. So thoughts on the 9800SE?
 
So time for a new gfx card, but he can't afford a
9800pro so was thinking of a 9800SE. I have been to Toms hardware and when
I buy new stuff I tend to go for the higher range gear and take a long time
to upgrade. Alot of people will jump up and down about how everything below
the top 3 cards on the market are crap and not worth having but I know this
not to be true. So thoughts on the 9800SE?
Click to expand...

Of all the SE cards, it's the only one worth having. It has several
pipelines disabled, but has true 128bit memory and fast GPU/memory speeds.
I'd take a 9800SE over a straight 9600 or 9600 Pro.
 
The story goes something like this.

I brought a 9800PRO. and got Splinter cell 2 and Beyond good and evil.

My mate has a GF4MX440SE and wanted to play splinter cell but couldn't due
to lack of pixel shader support. So I leant my 9800PRO to him for a couple
of weeks and he played SC2 and BGAE and was happy. I took my 9800pro back
the other day and now he says BGAE runs like a dog at 640x480 with
everything turned off. So time for a new gfx card, but he can't afford a
9800pro so was thinking of a 9800SE. I have been to Toms hardware and when
I buy new stuff I tend to go for the higher range gear and take a long time
to upgrade. Alot of people will jump up and down about how everything below
the top 3 cards on the market are crap and not worth having but I know this
not to be true. So thoughts on the 9800SE?
Click to expand...
Not bad. About 15% slower in 3DMark 2001.

Overclocked mine so the core and mem speeds are the same as a 9800XT
without any issue but the four disabled pipelines do give a performance
hit however take a look at http://softmod.ocfaq.com as some can be re-
enabled without any problems.
 
It's not worth the price difference over the 9600pro, only slightly faster.
Click to expand...
Until you softmod it and unlock the other 4 pipelines and then it gets
an instant 60% speed increase in 3DMark03.
 
You'll have to do a little research as not all 9800se's are created equal.
There are 256bit and 128bit memory interfaces and maybe some have slightly
lower clocked chips.

Using the appropriate drivers e.g. Omega you have a fairly good chance of
switching on the other 4 pipelines without artifacts (about 50/50). So
finding a 256bit (L shaped memory layout) would yield a 9800/9800pro
(depending on clock speed). The link below explains it a bit better.

http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/faq.php

Bit of a crap shoot really, but at the end of the day even if the other
pipelines don't switch on it's not a bad card, as long as you find one for
a good price (and if it's a 256bit i/f, even better)

Hope this helps a little.
Karl
 
Karl said:
You'll have to do a little research as not all 9800se's are created
equal. There are 256bit and 128bit memory interfaces and maybe some
have slightly lower clocked chips.

Using the appropriate drivers e.g. Omega you have a fairly good
chance of switching on the other 4 pipelines without artifacts (about
50/50). So finding a 256bit (L shaped memory layout) would yield a
9800/9800pro (depending on clock speed). The link below explains it a
bit better.

http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/faq.php

Bit of a crap shoot really, but at the end of the day even if the
other pipelines don't switch on it's not a bad card, as long as you
find one for a good price (and if it's a 256bit i/f, even better)

Hope this helps a little.
Karl
Click to expand...

cheers. I'll pass it on and see what happens.
 
And get checker boarding and lockups and other anomolies. Then you buy the
same card over again and find:
It's not worth the price difference over the 9600pro, only slightly faster.

Mike
 
And get checker boarding and lockups and other anomolies. Then you buy the
same card over again and find:
It's not worth the price difference over the 9600pro, only slightly faster.
Click to expand...
Ah, yet another person without a clue speaks up.

Err, the idea of a softmod is that it is done at driver level so the
card is unmodified. IT IS A MODIFIED DRIVER, you are not hardmodding
the card or altering the BIOS. Uninstall the modified Windows driver
and you re-enable the lock on the pipelines. Does no damage.

And using ATI Tool many people have SAFELY found out what their cards
will overclock to.
 
Yes, I missed that you were referring to softmoding but that's no worse than
you posting like all cards will fine run as pros. You can shit sarcasm out
of your mouth but it doesn't prove anything about your intellect. Your
previous post does though...

Mike
 
Back
Top