I still use a 9800Pro... Also used a 9700Pro and there is very little between the two, also had a 9500np that was fine and when modded to 9700 and then overclocked, was beating the 9700Pro... Alas they are all dead now and I just have the one 9800Pro.
Not at all impressed with the build quality of the 9800Pros ( HIS IceQ ones ) as they dotn seem to have much of a life span... The dead one has just about managed 6 months and that was a replacement for the 9700Pro which also lasted just 6 months and neither of those were clocked in any way.
Funny really as the 9700Pro and the 9500non-pro are 100% identical cards, but the 9500 had a good cooler and the 9700 had a cooler that was best suited for a 486 SX33 to be honest, but there you go!
My most recent buys have been a 6800GT and just a couple of weeks ago a 6600GT after being told that they are great for the price...
To be honest, they are not as fast as the 9800Pro, maybe they are for some games, but from what I have seen, they are not... Ended up giving it to my youngest son cos hes only stuggling on a FX5900 so thats a little bit better for him, and again, not all that much really... Not for the games he plays.
So, if anyone is still using a 9800Pro, then unless they go 6800GT or equivalent, then they are wasting their time and money.
Actually, my reason for going from the 9500np to 9700Pro was purely because UT2004 was a little jerky in places... The 9700 didnt help a single jot, and I decided to try 1GB instead of 512MB and there was the problem... Ended up going to 1GB on all my PCs and thats not a cheap task cos I have a fair few, but the end result meant that even a humble MX440 was able to play UT2K4 with 1GB of RAM better than a 9700Pro could play it with only 512MB... Ok, rez is lower but at least the game was smoother.
I have to admit though, my best gamer has the 6800GT and I still only play at 1024x768 - unless the game sets itself to anything else, like Doom3 / Quake 4 etc
I cant really see any difference with my monitors, so why bother?
