Radeon 9800?

R
Posted By
Roberto
May 4, 2004
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340
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5
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Closed
Is there any point in getting a Radeon 9800? I’m looking to improve Photoshop’s performance and am wondering if there’s any significant difference between 9200, 9600 and 9800 models of the GPU.

Also, what MB do you recommend for Athlon XP 2500+ processor?


Branko Vukelic

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EG
Eric Gill
May 4, 2004
"Branko Vukelic" wrote in
news:c76osd$dpl$:

Hey, Branko. I see you in all the high-class newsgroups.

Is there any point in getting a Radeon 9800? I’m looking to improve Photoshop’s performance and am wondering if there’s any significant difference between 9200, 9600 and 9800 models of the GPU.

Two: jack and shit.

At least as far as a non-3D program such as PS is concerned.

I have a 9700PRO sitting in my main workstation, and it’s given good service. It works exactly the same as the 8500 it replaced…unless I want to run a game. Since I now game on a different box, I find myself wishing for a Matrox triple-head card instead.

Your money is better spent on RAM and CPU, in that order.

Also, what MB do you recommend for Athlon XP 2500+ processor?

Waiting for PCI-Express, if you can, and getting an Athlon 64. Then a good motherboard with the newest NFORCE chipset.

If not, the NForce 2-based stuff is good, been using it until the PCI-EX stuff comes out.
R
Roberto
May 4, 2004
"Eric Gill" wrote in message
"Branko Vukelic" wrote in
news:c76osd$dpl$:

Hey, Branko. I see you in all the high-class newsgroups.

Uh… I only post to this newsgroup. I’ve been to Corel ng for a couple of days, but this is the only one I post right now. <shrug> Maybe someone’s been posting in my name?

[sic]

I have a 9700PRO sitting in my main workstation, and it’s given good service. It works exactly the same as the 8500 it replaced…unless I want to run a game. Since I now game on a different box, I find myself wishing for a Matrox triple-head card instead.

Your money is better spent on RAM and CPU, in that order.

Of course, I never trust what I read… But I read that 9600 and 9800 have advanced shaders that speed up Photoshop effects. If that were true, it could mean a huge load off CPU’s back, right?

[sic]

Waiting for PCI-Express, if you can, and getting an Athlon 64. Then a good motherboard with the newest NFORCE chipset.

If not, the NForce 2-based stuff is good, been using it until the PCI-EX stuff comes out.

PCI-Exoress? Athlon 64? Hmmm… That could mean a six to twelve month wait since there are not many apps that support 64-bit CPUs. I would rather get some horse power ASAP. 🙂 So nForce 2 is good, huh? Any particular brand?

Is there any advantage of combining ASUS MB and ASUS Radeon (in having things all ASUS), or other brands are better?
EG
Eric Gill
May 4, 2004
"Branko Vukelic" wrote in
news:c77i9q$ng5$:

"Eric Gill" wrote in message
"Branko Vukelic" wrote in
news:c76osd$dpl$:

Hey, Branko. I see you in all the high-class newsgroups.

Uh… I only post to this newsgroup. I’ve been to Corel ng for a couple of days, but this is the only one I post right now. <shrug> Maybe someone’s been posting in my name?

No – my bad. Thought I’d clicked on the ATI group. Sorry. REalized it only after I sent the message.

[sic]

I have a 9700PRO sitting in my main workstation, and it’s given good service. It works exactly the same as the 8500 it replaced…unless I want to run a game. Since I now game on a different box, I find myself wishing for a Matrox triple-head card instead.

Your money is better spent on RAM and CPU, in that order.

Of course, I never trust what I read… But I read that 9600 and 9800 have advanced shaders that speed up Photoshop effects.

They certainly have advanced shaders, but they are not used by PS. Vertex shaders are used for 3D objects.

If that were
true, it could mean a huge load off CPU’s back, right?

Sure. And some 3D programs take advantage of it (most good ones, in fact). But not PS.

[sic]

Waiting for PCI-Express, if you can, and getting an Athlon 64. Then a good motherboard with the newest NFORCE chipset.

If not, the NForce 2-based stuff is good, been using it until the PCI-EX stuff comes out.

PCI-Exoress?

Next generation replacement for PCI and AGP. Even the first release is godwafully faster than present PCI and AGP.

Athlon 64? Hmmm… That could mean a six to twelve month wait since there are not many apps that support 64-bit CPUs.

All of them do, in 32-bit mode. The Athlon 64 and it’s more expensive brothers (Opteron and FX) just happen to be very good at running 32-bit code, and have gobs more memory bandwidth as well.

Plus, the Athlon64 has the SSE2 instruction set, which *IS* used by Photoshop. Previous Athlons just had the original SSE.

I would
rather get some horse power ASAP. 🙂 So nForce 2 is good, huh? Any particular brand?

I’m using Asus A7N, dual DDR, with 3 gig of PC2100. A little long in the tooth, but I’m waiting for it’s nForce3 big brother to start shipping with PCI-EX before upgrading.

The modern version is the A7N8X Deluxe:

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x-d/overview.htm

….which supports faster memory.

Be sure to buy SATA hard drives, 7200 RPM or faster.

Is there any advantage of combining ASUS MB and ASUS Radeon (in having things all ASUS),

No, though they generally make good cards.

or other brands are better?

The only real compromise you might make is buying a "Sapphire" card. AFAICT, you get less free software thrown in, and generally less overclockability at the tradeoff of lower price.
F
Faolan
May 4, 2004
In the writings of Branko Vukelic, the <c77i9q$ng5$> scrolls contained these prophetic words:

"Eric Gill" wrote in message
"Branko Vukelic" wrote in
news:c76osd$dpl$:

Hey, Branko. I see you in all the high-class newsgroups.

Uh… I only post to this newsgroup. I’ve been to Corel ng for a couple of days, but this is the only one I post right now. <shrug> Maybe someone’s been posting in my name?

[sic]

I have a 9700PRO sitting in my main workstation, and it’s given good service. It works exactly the same as the 8500 it replaced…unless I want to run a game. Since I now game on a different box, I find myself wishing for a Matrox triple-head card instead.

Your money is better spent on RAM and CPU, in that order.

Of course, I never trust what I read… But I read that 9600 and 9800 have advanced shaders that speed up Photoshop effects. If that were true, it could mean a huge load off CPU’s back, right?

[sic]

Waiting for PCI-Express, if you can, and getting an Athlon 64. Then a good motherboard with the newest NFORCE chipset.

If not, the NForce 2-based stuff is good, been using it until the PCI-EX stuff comes out.

PCI-Exoress? Athlon 64? Hmmm… That could mean a six to twelve month wait since there are not many apps that support 64-bit CPUs. I would rather get some horse power ASAP. 🙂 So nForce 2 is good, huh? Any particular brand?
Is there any advantage of combining ASUS MB and ASUS Radeon (in having things all ASUS), or other brands are better?
System spec:

Athlon 64 3200
2Gb of PC3200 RAM
Asus SK8V
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro (Sapphire manufacture the Radeon cards for ATI in America).
WD Raptor 36Gb Primary (SATA)
2 x Hitachi/IBM 120Gb Drives (Cache/backup drives) (EIDE 100)

That’s the core of my gfx workstation.

Asus/Gigabyte are the Mobo’s I recommend to people.

More power than I need tbh but it’s performance is bloody amazing. Don’t go for a 9800XT as you can soft mod a lot of the 9800 Pros to similar performance levels for half the price.

More on PCI Express here:

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1087

Not really worth waiting for as it probably won’t really take off till next year. The N-Force 250GB mobo chipset is not available yet but promises to be a major improvement on the abortive 150 chipset. At the moment the 64 is lacking support (mostly because M$ dragging it’s heels on developing the XP 64 edition). I am currently using Linux to leverage it’s full potential.

That said, the Athlon 64 kicks most of Intels chips into touch except in some media content and apps that take advantage of the Hyperthreading technology. Also multi-tasking is slightly better under a Intel HT enabled mobo and chip.

Twelve highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion.
R
Roberto
May 4, 2004
"Eric Gill" wrote in message
"Branko Vukelic" wrote in
news:c77i9q$ng5$:
[sic]

No – my bad. Thought I’d clicked on the ATI group. Sorry. REalized it only after I sent the message.

Right… I thought so. Well, I think I should visit the group nevertheless. Thanks for the reminder. 😉

[sic]

Sure. And some 3D programs take advantage of it (most good ones, in fact). But not PS.

Hmm, I have a Serbian May issue of PC Magazine (it’s only a translation of the original, I suppose). It says PS uses shader technology and they give an example (blur filter)… Damn the big mags. They’d do just about anything to make you buy the newest hardware, wouldn’t they! Thanks for the tip Eric.

I’ve decided to go for 9600XT. Since I’ve already made the order, there’s no going back now. It can’t be bad, right?

[sic]

Next generation replacement for PCI and AGP. Even the first release is godwafully faster than present PCI and AGP.

So say the graphs I’ve seen. But usually it takes a while until software makers take full advantage of newest and meanest hardware. Well, at least that’s the way I see it. I think I’ll upgrade only when it becomes a standard.

Athlon 64? Hmmm… That could mean a six to twelve month wait since there are not many apps that support 64-bit CPUs.

All of them do, in 32-bit mode. The Athlon 64 and it’s more expensive brothers (Opteron and FX) just happen to be very good at running 32-bit code, and have gobs more memory bandwidth as well.

Plus, the Athlon64 has the SSE2 instruction set, which *IS* used by Photoshop. Previous Athlons just had the original SSE.

You mean A64 has SSE3 and AXP have SSE2, right? I’ve read about it, and was pretty dissappointed to find A64 completely out of my reach… Besides I’d feel a bit bad about running a 32-bit app on a 64-bit CPU that’s twice or three times more expensive than a decent 32-bit CPU.

[sic]

I’ve done some price/performance math and came up with this:

The best I could get with my budget is an

Athlon XP 2500+,
ASUS MB (not sure which make, but it’s nForce 2),
ATI Radeon 9600XT,
512Mb RAM (it’s expensive, so I’ll wait a bit and then go for 1Gb later), 2x80Gb SATA HDDs at 7200rpm (I think it’s gonna be Seagate or something), DVD/CD RW,
+
the standard accessories all and an Epson 4870 scanner.

Well, I’ve been working with Celleron 1GHz with 256Mb RAM up until now and I think I’m not gonna miss it. 🙂

Thanks for the info, everyone!

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