Hiya folks, I plan to get a Radeon 9800 pro w/128mb ddr (8x agp) on wednesday. My question is I want to get a third party radeon 9800 pro made by saphire. Have any of you heard of them? Are they reliable? Are third party video cards reliable in general? The link to their site is here: http://www.sapphiretech.com/

And also, will this 8x agp card run on a 4x agp board. I plan on upgrading the board but not before I buy the card. It does say 8x/4x/2x but will there be a HUGE decrease in performance between 8 and 4x agp? Thanks.

The Saphire card is good, and it will be fine in a 4x AGP slot...let us know how you like it.

My score....<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6258104" target="_new">http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6258104</A>

Oh, okay thanks. Cause the guy at the computer store said that I should stick with my Geforce 4 mx 440 cause the radeon 9800 pro is a 8x agp card and since my board is only 4x, I would see NO performance increase. Which didn't make any sense to me.

Ummm...the guy at the computer store is a moron. Like most guys who work in computer stores are morons. In my experience, even the so-called techs in computer stores are pretty ignorant when it comes to gamer tools. That's bad enough. Even worse are the barely literate computer troglodytes who work at places like Best Buy and CompUSA.

I had a salesguy at CompUSA trying to sell me a Ti4200 8X. They were out of stock on the 9700 PRO that I was asking about, and he swore to me that the Ti4200 128 was the slickest thing ever designed by mortal man--and WAY better than the 9700 PRO.



<font color=green>The Netherlands is where you go when you're too good for heaven.</font color=green>


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Twitch on 04/27/03 01:57 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Twitch, have one of the girl employee's explain to you whats inside of the Alienware computers they sell. It's cool. My girlfriend wont go in the store with me because I embarass her.

My score....<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6258104" target="_new">http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6258104</A>

yeah the guy who told you that is stupid.

the 9800 is easily 4 times faster than a MX440! *laff* man o man..



i dont think anyone has found a difference in performance between 4x and 8agp. not sure, but its almost undetectable i think i read at a few places...

so yeah, run that 9800 at 4x man, itll be lightyears ahead of that Mx440!

-------

<A HREF="http://www.xgr.com" target="_new">XGR-Game Reviews</A>

<b>Sevendust is my new pet troll ahah</b>
"You change the channel, and you change our minds..." - System of a Down

Cool. I was getting worried for a while.

Phial the diff. is only really detectable in Proffesional cards (Pro50/110). It's still not extreme, but it does make a slight difference. We'll also likely see the Significant differences first in pro cards too. I'd like to see the difference for a Quadro FX. I know it's still only slight with a FireGL x1.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <font color=red>RED</font color=red> <font color=green>GREEN</font color=green> GA to SK

Yeah I always get a kick out of that. Although it also amazes me some times. I always think 'Geez, and your getting a commission on THIS sale, when you did nothing but GUESS incorrectly about what it DOES do?'
I have a guy who I always buy from at FutureShop (similar to and owned by BestBuy) who knows me well enough to simply say 'I don't know, but let's check online, maybe we'll find it now'. Even if I know what I want and could buy it today, if he's not there, I ask the manager (who kinda knows me now too) when he'll be in and then wait and buy it and give him the commission; unless I need it this very second. For the amount of gear I buy there, it adds up.

I went in to CompuSmart (to Canadians: Don't ever buy there!) to ask about USB to USB file sharing from Belkin (for a friend who just needs to swap files and doesn't have an Ethernet card on one of the computers [laptop], and it's easier for people nt familiar with networking IMO) and then he spent 5 minutes trying to convince me that it was impossible, despite my explaining that it was an appliance that let them 'talk'/share. I also asked them at Christmas time about Unreal II an they kept saying hat there is only UT2K3 and I must be confused, until the ONLY (I guess) gamer happened to overhear us from the little tech window and said 'No, no, he means the single player, yeah that'll be out in Feb.).
Seriously some of these guys are selling $5,000 TVs or computers and couldn't tell you half of the info that comes in their flyer descriptions. The worst is when they try and bluff. It's almost painful watching them do it and then saying, no that's not right dude. When I got my digital Elph I had to explain to a customer why Optical zoom is more important than digital zoom (with the caveat that the final picture quality is what matters), and convinced the customer (a real estate agent) to buy 2 seperate cameras: an Omlypus 720 and a Sony Digital 8 T??-350 since they wanted stills and motion (mainly for home movies, but a bit for work), this go him more money (commision) than the Sony with memory stick and still-pic. (520), and also would work better for the customer. I did all this, simply because I got the questions answered quick and then I could buy my other product (Toslink cable, which were locked behind the counter) and leave, without waitin for him to fumble his way through his poducts and have the guy hummm and hawww! Man that really made my friend watching laugh, 'Dude you should sell this stuff', my answer: 'And take a pay cut?'
Sorry for the long post, but seriously it made me think of all the freakin' times this has happened to me. Not every salesperson is bad, it just seems the majority of them are, or that the good one's always have the day off.

Anyone else have a story like that? They always make me grin. Maybe start a new thread. Ignorant salespeople horror stories.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <font color=red>RED</font color=red> <font color=green>GREEN</font color=green> GA to SK

Yes, alot of the times I have asked slightly technical questions at best buy, I've had the salesperson run to a computer terminal to read up on the subject quickly...it's like some kind of 'how to not look stupid in front of the customer' software.

My score....<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6258104" target="_new">http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6258104</A>