Digital Trends

Crucial Radeon 9800 Pro

November 24th, 2003 | by Doug Hall

The greatest attribute that the Crucial RADEON 9800 pro brings to the mix is the price-to-performance ratio. Performance has already been established in the design and success of the Radeon 9800 in general, but lets face the facts; graphics cards are getting very expensive these days. Improvements to the GPU and support for the latest in-graphics technology isn't cheap. There is no software bundle or so-called “free” games included, something that those accustomed to might balk at. The price difference will leave enough money for you to purchase the games and software of your choice. The savings might be enough to buy several full versions instead of getting a free copy of a trial version.  

With the standards being raised to new heights these days, the latest rage seems to be to offer all the eye candy you can muster without sacrificing those valuable frame rates. Typically 30 FPS is enough to run most games or applications and still find the game playable or the application useable. Today that is a much tougher order than it was ever before simply for the fact that technology has surpassed itself time and time again while reaching for the ever elusive perfect visual experience. Though 30 to 40 FPS consistently is plenty to keep you “happy ‘n' fraggin”, keeping it there can get challenging with the latest titles in the gaming world today. As far as desktop applications go, there are few reasons to upgrade from the older video cards except for compatibility issues and frame rate in general. We still have a living, breathing VooDoo 3 PCI that is proof of that. It will run most applications fine as well as most OpenGL games like NHL 2003, and it will play many newer games except for the DX9 titles, and costs about $10 today if you can even find one.

The balance between performance and cost effective solutions seem to wane as the newest releases hit the shelves at the local store. It is nice to see a performance package that is more within reach of most people in a time when the best means big bucks and the compromise between the latest titles and the backwards compatibility seems to widen daily. Even benchmarking is taking the step into the future with support for DX9 for some titles at the beginning of this year such as 3DMark03 and others. Compatibility and support for older titles and hardware does not add up to profits, and really, what is the point of graphics technology moving so far into the future and little or no need to upgrade from the old. The price point becomes the defining issue. The top-of-the line retail graphics cards are $400 to $500 dollars and continue to rise. How many of the average working people in the world can shell out that kind of money? Though expensive, Crucial brings a comparable graphics solution to the table in the RADEON 9800 Pro at a price that is easier to swallow than most.

Crucial has traditionally been a great provider of customer support and after years in the business still command a 9.37 rating for the last six months and a lifetime rating of 9.75 at ResellersRating.com which is not an easy feat.