How long will my Radeon 9800 Pro last?

[Pitt-Bull]

I got a Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb, how long will it last me?

 

[ComradeBadger]

Until you set fire to it?

 

[Crushenator 500]

i think he means untill its out of date and wont run any new games well

 

[crabcakes66]

Physically...it should last longer than you do.

 

[Murray_H]

I would say until Unreal 3 engine-based games come along. Look at the Ti 4600, that can still perform well and that was nVidia's top card a couple of years ago.

It'll just be that new effects in DX updates won't be shown with the card, but the 9800 pro should still be able to pull its weight for 2 years yet

 

[63]

As mentioned already, the physical card should last longer than you, but I would say that your timing was bad in purchasing the 9800 ;( New cards are coming out

 

[Murray_H]

Or good timing (as it was for me) as i can't see the prices going too much lower and i'm on a budget

 

[pat_thetic]

There are always new cards coming out.

 

[lePobz]

I've got a 9800pro too, so I hope it lasts another year or so before framerates on the latest games drop to an unplayable level. I can't afford to upgrade for a while, anyway... and with the way the cards are going PCI-X, it means my next upgrade will be a new system... (xp2800+ outdated now anway)... ;(

Oh well.

 

[XenoSpirit]

There are always new cards coming out.

if you count intel... 3D chips... ecct yeah thare allways comin out but Nvidia and ATI are the top gamer / pc graphics makers... i have some faith in Nvidia... so i think the 6800 will own the next gen cards

 

[SidewinderX]

you'll have 2 or so years left of playing games an acceptable framerates... not with the highest settings, but plenty fine... my friends has been playing msot of his new games on a geforce2 GTS, and i sold him my gf3 ti 200 for 10$ or soemthing and he's been playing the newest stuff on that jsut fine.

 

[reap]

I was going to buy 9800 pro too but then i realized that 6800(non-ultra) was better when i was thinking about the future so i decided to wait till i have enough money to buy 6800(non-ultra).

 

[jonesey2k]

except the image quality sucks

 

[Javert]

The average time for a card's life span is always approx. to four years.

My old GeForce1 was able to play CS, Call of Duty, and UT2k3 moderately well.

And I think the 9800 Pro will be able to handle the Unreal3 engine.

 

[Wilco]

the New 6800Ultra is 2-3x faster than the 9800XT at the highest settings (1600, FSAA and Aniso). And its AGP.

It probably wasnt the best time to buy it, PCIE is gonna make all old mobos, G-cards and Addons obselete. I'm waiting until September when hopefully there will be lots of PCIE stuff out (Hoping to sell my dads house and buy an Alienware Comp so need 2 wait for them 2 convert ).

 

[Mr. Redundant]

you could always trade-in and pay the difference.

buy top of the line, and when a new card comes out, trade in and keep up with the times
that is if you can find a place that will accept trade-ins.... and you keep your card in mint condition... and the box/software/documentation etc.

 

[pat_thetic]

There is always something new coming out... When the 6800 comes out, it's gunna be ATI's response. When that comes out it will be nvidia's response. Just buy the best card you can get right now, and you will be fine. The 9800 Pro is a fine choice.

 

[el Chi]

As mentioned already, the physical card should last longer than you, but I would say that your timing was bad in purchasing the 9800 ;( New cards are coming out

That doesn't mean anything. I've been using a GeForce3 64Mb for almost 3 years now and only recently has it had any real troubles.
The card is very powerful. Just 'cause there's a new one just round the corner, doesn't mean the card is going to keel over and die of embarrassment and run like a dog with no legs. That's just what The Man (ie: the hardware moguls) want people to believe so they spend spend spend.

 

[RABIES]

I am still suprised at how long the 9800pro/XT has been top of the line for ATi. I know some other cards like the 8500 and such got owned the second you installed it. You get home and it becomes a legacy card!

 

[SidewinderX]

It probably wasnt the best time to buy it, PCIE is gonna make all old mobos, G-cards and Addons obselete.QUOTE]


(Wilco no offense here)

I wish eeryone would stop sprouting this kind of bullshit. When PCIE/PCI-X, BTX, whatever comes out it will NOT makes anththing obsolete! There will be only slight performance increase for the first year or so, then you'll get stuff that utilizes it. BUT IT WON'T MAKE ANYTHING OBSOLETE! When SATA came out, did that make IDE obsolete? Everyone siad it would, but no, it didn't. Most people don't geven get an SATA controller on thei mobo!
Did RDRAM make DDR obsolete? NO!

A 9800 pro WILL be at least an acceptable card for 2 more years, and that's being conservative.

 

[Wilco]

Woah, im not saying it will make it obselete in terms of performance. I'm saying all the new motherboards will be PCIE. I think in 2005 it will be very hard to buy a new motherboard with an AGP port.

I know PCIE is not going to be a huge increase for graphics cards. It just that if he wants to upgrade his CPU / mobo next year hes going to have a hard time with an AGP card.

Yeah in terms of performance 9800 will last 2/3 years. No-one will make a game that cant run on 2 year old cards.

 

[SidewinderX]

there will be mobo with AGP slots at least into mid 2005.

 

[Top Secret]

I plan on getting a new computer in late 2006.

 

[psyno]

The 9800 Pro is a great card, and will be for a while. It's raw power will simply be eclipsed, and is being even now with NV40 and R420. R5xx will probably offer at least 3 times the end performance (i.e. framerate) of that card in situations not limited by the CPU. It's IQ is very difficult to beat. Rotated-grid sub-pixel-sampled FSAA looks awesome. That said, R420 will be able to do this at high resolution with max texture filtering and high framerates, as will NV40 (a huge improvement for nVidia, btw).

There is absolutely no technical reason why a motherboard cannot offer both PCI-Express and AGP/PCI, although it will be expensive, obviously. I've heard that some manufacturers are planning on this, so, if you really wanted your 9800 Pro to last a while, you could make it, even with PCI-E and the newer boards (though frankly I wouldn't bother).

The biggest disadvantage right now is the lack of SM 3.0 support in R3xx and R4xx. You may feel this, or not. I don't write pixel shaders or anything, but it's hard to imagine a program (even a fragment program) incapable of looping and branching. I bet game developers will jump on this a lot faster than previous versions.

Oh, and Sidewinder, not to pick on your rant or anything, but I think SATA has proven itself very well. I won't elaborate as it would be OT here.

edit: typos

 

[reap]

there will come the new BTX cases and it will set a new standard to the cases... so maybe i'll wait till they come...

Do you have any idea when it is coming???

 

[Pitt-Bull]

Im probably gonna upgrade my PC in the summer, and 1 or 2 years after wards, I'll probably upgrade again.

 

[SidewinderX]

reap: BTX is *supposed* to come this summer.... but PCI-E was suppoosed to come this winter :/

ATX componetns will bve made for at least a year after BTX hits the scene.

 

[reap]

reap: BTX is *supposed* to come this summer.... but PCI-E was suppoosed to come this winter :/

ATX componetns will bve made for at least a year after BTX hits the scene.

yep but if they come at this summer i will buy it but do you have any idea how much will the components cost????