gibtde's Full Review: ATI RADEON® 9800 Pro, (128 MB) AGP Video Card
I purchased my Radeon 9800 from a somewhat questionable online dealer. I paid for the card as if it were new, but the card wasn't. Nonetheless I used the card and didn't RMA because the performance was astounding.
To give you a idea of how powerfull it is, I was able to play all of my games at the highest setting. That includes Unreal Tournament 2003 and Max Payne 2: the fall of Max Payne. This card has also been powerfull enough to run Maya well, which is industry standard for 3d design.
I had used this as the video card in my new system, in this system I wanted some raw power and the Radeon was my ticket to doing that. The Radeon 9800 probebly isn't a good product for the average consumer today,would give them the ability to play the latest games when they come out (with decent performance) for the next 6 months.
The Card has a output to allow you to hook it into your t.v. along with most of the common connector coverters to allow in to hook into most t.v.'s. This is usefull for watching movies, playing video games, graphic design/creation, but using a non-digital t.v. would not be a good idea for normal desktop use since it is hard to read small text on a t.v.
I would also like to note that the card comes with a "dual head" display setup which allows you to hook in 2 monitors and use them as one desktop. For instance you could have one monitor writing a text document while the other monitor is playing a dvd movie.
I must note that this video card performs best under windows. Ati has provided terrible driver support for the Radeon 9600 and 9800. This means that some Distro's will do slow 3d and the others just won't display 2d. This has been a problem for me since I like to run linux as a alternative to windows.
As far as installation goes, it was fairly smooth with the exception of the needed power hookup. I requires a 4-pin molex connector which usually gets used for a drive bay to power the fan. Now the box and oem come with a spliter, but it creates a little bit of wire clutter. I wish they could have used the floppy power connector like they did with the radeon 9700.
As I said earlier I perchased a used card from a questionable retailer and continued to use it from there. After so long the card failed which may or may not have been my fault. I sent the card into Ati to have it repaired (they made me pay the shipping for the way there, but they paid the shipping on the way back). So, ATI found that the card was innoperable and they sent me back another refurbed card and extended my warrenty for another few years.
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