FX5900 or 9800AIW ?

Hotknife · Dec 1, 2003, 01:42 PM

which card do you guys think i should buy?

I have just last week got a Herc 9800se AIW card the reason for this was it was a good price£170 and all the forums i had read said it was a good performer and could be overclocked usuing nothing more than omega drivers to a standerd 9800 meaning a £300 card for £170.
Not bad i thought i got my card made sure it was a built buy ATI Herc9800se which uses samsung ram this is important as this card had the best sucess rate when trying to unlock the extra 4 piplines with the drivers.
However the card was faluty and so i have RMA it back to DABs i am now waiting for a refund from them but because of this experience have lost faith in getting another one so am thinking about getting a FX5900=£210 but wanted to know of the 2 which is the better card standalone no overclocking,
and if i could get the AIW card to overclock would it perform better then the FX5900?

Thanks in advance

Hot

**MIG-31** · Dec 1, 2003, 02:23 PM

this is a review of 5900 vs a 9800.

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/5900v9800/index.htm

this might help you out a little.

Hotknife · Dec 1, 2003, 03:38 PM

Cool that was very usefull just a quick question on the review page the part that intrestes me is the overclocking of boath the cards to reach the higher Mhz were cooling devices used ie fans and heatsinks or can i expect to get thease results out of the box?

**MIG-31** · Dec 1, 2003, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hotknife
Cool that was very usefull just a quick question on the review page the part that intrestes me is the overclocking of boath the cards to reach the higher Mhz were cooling devices used ie fans and heatsinks or can i expect to get thease results out of the box?

as the review is done by Veridian3 (dh site manager) there is no doubt the reviews are not modified in anyway.

so i would say straight out of the box.but there is a bit of a tendency to get different results from different rigs,as in case fans,etc.

the overclocking he got could differ from what you might get.

toddsmack2k · Dec 1, 2003, 05:57 PM

As I help to do reviews along with Veridian. No the cards are not modified at all. They are [ulled out of the box and tested. If something was to be changed it would be stated. Although it is best to keep things as stock hardware wise as possible. Veridian does a awesome job!

J is right you should expect performance similiar to what you read in the review. Just remember every card is different. You may get one that could OC better or worse and you also have to look at the whole system as well.