Rage3D ASUS Radeon 9800XT/TVD Review

[Ratchet]

Another new review for you guys today. This time Kombatant introduces ASUS to Rage3D and compares their flagship Radeon 9800XT/TVD to the now aged Radeon 9700 Pro. In his attempt to try and figure out if upgrading from a year and a half old card is worth it, he uses many new and demanding games which are just now starting to get some attention.

One of the most high-profile moves was from Asus, a traditional nVidia partner who wisely decided after listening to its customer base to start working with ATI as well in order to bring their solutions to the market. One of the fruits of their labour was the Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD, which we are going to take a closer look today in our review.

An impressive review from start to end, check it out.

[**G.I.BRO**]

Hot damn, thats a great review Komb. Very detailed, and a great choice of games i thought.

Awsome stuff mate!
Cheers'

[Zardon]

Good job guys, nice layout too, although I personally would prefer to see all the benchmark charts at the one time without having to click between them to compare.

One more point, you say the overclocking isnt that impressive but for that card your overclocks of 450 core and 400 memory are very impressive, the Asus twin cooler isnt that great and normally they only hit around 430-440core to 390-395 ram (a few guys I know cant even go past 425 core!), so you had a good card. Also its worth noting that (as far as I know) Asus have deviated so far from ATIs reference design the standard ATI drivers wont install on this card so you will be relying on ASUS to update the drivers on their site.

[Ratchet]

Originally posted by Zardon
Good job guys, nice layout too, although I personally would prefer to see all the benchmark charts at the one time without having to click between them to compare.

One more point, you say the overclocking isnt that impressive but for that card your overclocks of 450 core and 400 memory are very impressive, the Asus twin cooler isnt that great and normally they only hit around 430-440core to 390-395 ram (a few guys I know cant even go past 425 core!), so you had a good card. Also its worth noting that (as far as I know) Asus have deviated so far from ATIs reference design the standard ATI drivers wont install on this card so you will be relying on ASUS to update the drivers on their site.

I find the charts easier to compare when they are like that, sort of the same way images are easier to compare when you make image rollovers... dunno if that makes sense.

Your other points are very valid though. I'll ask Kombatant if he wants to check to make sure that the drivers work ok with the card, that's pretty big if not.

edit: just quickly talked to him, he says he doesn't recall having any problems with the 3.10s on the card. He said he'll double check to make sure.

[Kombatant]

I will check out the with the 03.10s from ATI and if they don't install, the review will be amended to reflect that. Bear in mind tho that in my main workstation partition both the 03.10 and the 04.1 betas installed without a hitch

[Zardon]

Im really pleased to hear that Pete, I had a few guys on DH in the past bitching to me in email that ATIs drivers didnt recognise the Asus card due apparently to the modifications to the reference design, looks like ATI have worked with ASUS to support it in the newer sets. I thought it was worth pointing out because if ATIs reference drivers didnt install on the card then thats a major putoff.

[CATALYST maker]

Originally posted by Zardon
Im really pleased to hear that Pete, I had a few guys on DH in the past bitching to me in email that ATIs drivers didnt recognise the Asus card due apparently to the modifications to the reference design, looks like ATI have worked with ASUS to support it in the newer sets. I thought it was worth pointing out because if ATIs reference drivers didnt install on the card then thats a major putoff.

There should not be a problem. ASUS boards work with CATALYST. If they had a problem it may have been a bug, which we will definately address.

[XSBagage]

Nice
I really like those charts, nice touch but Zardon has a point in comparing them, maybe if you made it so you can check 2 and/or 3 of them and you make the biggest scores brighter. So that they come laying on top of eachother and the brightness shows you which score it is. Or transparancy instead of brightness.
lol and a "depends on your taste" option, never seen that before

[Veridian3]

That was overall a nice read

I have to say though the colour scheme was a complete nightmare. Apart from the fact that your just taking the piss out of any colourblind readers it is just plain distracting. (I appreciate that you were matching the scheme of the card but...)

I havent decided about the graph buttons either, i'm leaning towards not liking them and dont see that they add anything over standard methods other than overcomplication. A bold move certainly.

Personally i'd like to have seen another 9800 chucked in for comparisons sake (to see how the changes to the reference design have impacted performance) and a little more on the TV features that are so unique about this card.

Keep up the good work Kombatant...

(On a seperate note, i'm disgusted by the blatant bias in the first post of this thread.)

[Ratchet]

Yeah I'm not so sure about the colors myself. I wanted to stay with the unique orange of the card but it was hard trying to make it. I went back and forth on it a dozen times, finally it just got to me and I gave up

AS for the charts, I have a couple ideas to improve them but it will take me awhile to fix (I use a app I made to create them). The changes will probably appear in my next review. Hope you like them better then.

[**G.I.BRO**]

Originally posted by Veridian3
(On a seperate note, i'm disgusted by the blatant bias in the first post of this thread.)

ROTFLMAO!!!!
Caught me red handed. Totally agree with the colour, tho i thought it was just me when i read it late last night. I thought to give it time, but yeah... its a "little hard" to stay focused.

IMHO, i like the tabs idea with the charts. It makes the page not look so cluttered. THe traditional way, for me, makes the page all mumbled jumbled, and u lose track/focus as you are overwhelmed with numbers. BUt, i guess thats a personal note. I opt for more charts like it!


Cheers.

[Ratchet]

ok ok, point taken. I changed it a little to make it easier on the eyes. Remember to force refresh it.

[ben6]

I've used 3.10s with a Asus 9800XT without a problem. In fact, I was using 3.9 with it and a Asus 9600XT before Asus updated their drivers to that set.