ATi Radeo 9800 Pro - how's that heatsink?

[Deja Q]

The original Radeon 9700 had a heatsink problem; the shim was of greater thickness and ATi cheated by applying a big gob of thermal compound to compensate. This caused lots of overheating problems and damaged cards.

I can't find much on the 9800 Pro, but did ATi fix the problem?

Thx!

[ProdigalJunkMail]

1. I have the All in wonder Radeon 9800 Pro

and have been very pleased. Been installed about six months and I put it through its paces on a regular basis...

TheProdigal

[Deja Q]

2. Update

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon/r9800pro.html

Looks like the corrected the gap, but they're saying the uneven finish of the jutter is unacceptable. Should I worry?

[Kellanved]

3. Take a non Ati brand card...

but I haven't heard about any problems with the 9800 anyway. I can't comment on the sink on my 9600Pro, as I've replaced it with a passive model.


Edit: oops, they just stopped selling in Europe.

[Deja Q]

4. Who makes 'em and maybe they should continue?

I had their original Radeon 64VIVO and loved it.

I got perturbed when I found out the old Radeon drivers were mucked up Rage128 drivers. (note, I've heard the Catalyst drivers are fresh from the ground up! :thumbsup: )

But the 9700 with the heatsink issue burned ME. Very sloppily done, I was surprised that ATi would be responsible for such a problem. ATi outsourcing proves this turn to lower quality products. :cry:

[Kellanved]

5. sorry

As I've edited: they just stopped selling Ati made cards in Europe.
Here the cards come from Asus, His or Hercules (plus a few more); each with it's own heatsink solution.

As for the drivers: compared to the nvidia drivers they suck (IMHO). Many games crash when accelerated cursors are active ; I liked Nvidia better. (and no: they crashed with an active heatsink as well).


Edit: replacing a normal Heatsink on a video card is no big deal; unless it's glued on it is not much different from a CPU heatsink.

[Deja Q]

6. Now that's a sweet heatsink/fan!

Drivers still bad?

Hmmm...

I am using Linux, not Windows... maybe the Linux drivers will fare better. Time will tell. Everybody says the 9800 Pro is far better than the Nvidia 5900FX...

[Kellanved]

7. yes

A HIS of-the-shelf model (the sink is AFAIK available w/o a 9800 attatched to it as well). I personally favour the Zalman passive cooler, but that's another story .


I wouldn't say that the driver is bad, I'm just used to smoother reactions. (for example my secondary screen flickers each time I open the driver properties).
As Nvidia goes: the FX cards have a bad name; nothing like the old GeForce 1-4. My main argument for ATI was the ability to install a passive cooler and still get acceptable performance.