Conclusions
Gigabyte made an extremely fast and versatile product for the gamer here. The layout of the PCB is like 99% ATI reference and the R350 core is likely the last of it's kind on the 0.15 Micron fabrication process. With this videocard you'll receive an excellent software package and a graphics card that is ready for the latest and hottest games.
Overclocking - the core of the 9800 Pro could not be pushed relatively far plus the biggest problem was the cards memory, it has no additional cooling. Overclocking might be an isolated issue to this card as normally we can clock Gigabyte's products quite high. on the other hard it also proofs that you need a bit of luck with the product you receive, overclocking is never guaranteed. Yet, we already bumped into a limitation of (2x350) 700 MHz as it was barely able to perform at that frequency while the core reached it's maximum at ~400 already. Make no mistake though, out of the box this already is an extremely fast product and the gain you get from a massive over clock remains limited anyway.
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Furthermore, the card is highly programmable, game programmers will love the Radeon 9800 Pro. Next to that, it simply is fast and very efficient with it's quality setting in Anisotropic Filtering and Anti Aliasing. Installation was as easy as a breeze, no problems at all. Stability then, with newer catalyst driver revisions this card just would not finish even one benchmark round of Splinter Cell, we had to go back all the way towards version 3.2 after which the card became stable. Furthermore, the Radeon 9800 Pro is a joy to own, it in fact is a somewhat beefed up Radeon 9700 Pro it'll play any game to date absolutely fabulous with and without setting like AA and AF. However, if you own a Radeon 9700 Pro then it's definitely not worth it to upgrade though. If you are seeking for the latest and greatest and have a previous generation graphics cards ... well you surely can't go wrong with this product because it is diverse & fast ... too fast too furious ? Naah, a product can never be too fast ;)
Product: Gigabyte GV-R98P128D
Description: Radeon 9800 Pro with 128 MB
Info: Gigabyte.com.tw
MSRP: 399 USD
Best price for this product on Guru3D.com PriceWatch 349 USD (July 15, 2003), click here.
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