Dilema

I am currently purchasing components for my new gaming system. Planning on a 2800+, a gig of DDR400 ram, and now for the graphics card. Originally I had thought about getting the X800 pro. But thinking about how I don't like paying premium for buggy new top of the line hardware, I am having doubts. Now the Radeon 9800 XT seems a waste with the price being close to the X800. However, what do you all think about the 9800 Pro. I have seen some with 256 mb of onboard RAM for around 200 bucks, almost half the cost of the X800. Part of this doubt with the X800 was the problems it has with shading and my favorite FPS games. If I am going to just have to lower settings to minimum anyway for a game to work, why have the latest and greatest?

 

So what's your question?

I'd go for a 256-bit 9800 Pro if you have the money (yes, I mean 256-bit not 256MB... some only have a memory bus width of 128-bit). I agree you should avoid the X800/6800 generation of cards, expecially since PCI Express is only a few months off.

I assume you're going with an AMD64 2800+? Personally, I'm not so happy with socket 754 processors lacking dual channel.

Frankly, I'm just annoyed at AMD's recent socket games, name games, and price schemes. Why is AMD all of a sudden the confusing and expensive one? You have to pay premium just to get features available on every P4 for six months. XP, MP, XP Mobile, 64, FX51, FX53, Opteron... Sempron. Socket A, 754, 940, 939. And there's what... 4 chipsets? 5? Compared to two for Intel (because, face it, VIA and SiS are not contenders). It's like the left hand is purposefully doing the exact opposite of the right.

</rant>

 

Actually, I am planning on running Socket A 2800+ XP. Don't want to do the 64-bit thing until PCI-Express is stable and doesn't require the hands I use to play games with to afford, then I will do a mobo/processor/graphics update. Thanks for the advice on the 256-bit not just 256 MB because I might have missed that little detail. I am definetly thinking the pro is the way to go, should run games until the new technology is stable and affordable and won't have issues with the current stuff like the X800 does.