Customer Reviews

VisionTek Xtasy 9800 Pro 128 MB DDR AGP Video Card (VGA, TV out, DVI)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Looks like BEWRARE dude does not know how to configure his computer,my advise is to flash the newest bios to your motherboard.
You certainly get the best hardware from VISIONTEK. The performance metrics on the adapter is amazing. I have not found any other adpater that can provide the 3D rendering performance found on the 9800 Pro.

I've been a consistent ATI graphics card user from "way back", since the old ISA based VGA Wonder and Graphics Ultra Pro days, circa 1988. ATI has never let me down in reliability, compatibility, and sheer performance. ATI's video chipsets always seem to be the best and most stable performers on the market. I purchased the Radeon 9800 Pro card as a replacement to a newly purchased Radeon 9700 Pro, which is now running top notch in my wife's Athlon 64 3200+ machine. The Radeon 9800 Pro's AGP 8x interface and Direct 9.0 compatibility makes this graphics card a top-notch graphics and gaming performer. The card has its own power plug instead of drawing power from the AGP slot, the first such setup I've seen. When I saw that, I knew I was on to something special in performance. The graphics board is an outstanding performer and the drivers seem compatible with all my software under Win 2000. MPEGS, streaming video, web browsing, scanning and modifying JPEGS, and games just seem to fly around the screen. I plan to buy a 3-D game soon and check out that aspect of the card's performance. I did have some problems loading ATI's Linux Redhat drivers for the card. Redhat natively sees the card as something entirely different (VESA graphics card, 128 Mb). But the card works just fine in Linux, in spite of not having dedicated drivers, so it's not a big deal to me right now.

I bought this card and I went from a TI4200 with a 3dmark2k3 score of 1600, to this card and now score 5300+. I can run EVERY game I own at 1280x1024 32bit all options at max at 60+ frames. Some can even run at 1600x1200 like vice city. I have not overclocked at all. Heck at the resolutions and speed I'm at now I don't see any point.
The image quality is outstanding and the games I run on it fly.
Forget the other comapanies and pick this ATI VisionTek Xtasy 9800 PRO card up and you will be very happy, I know that I am.

The three weeks that this card functioned it was good. I bought it to replace an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro that was destroyed in a house fire. My concern is with VisionTek's warranty. To have my newly deceased card serviced I have to send the card, with $10 dollars, to their service center and wait three weeks. They refuse to send out a replacement, so my computer is worthless to me during that time. Anyone who spends that much on a video card actually USES their computer. I will not buy from VisionTek again.

Its amazing how the nvidia fans jump on here and knock the Radeon Series. I bought this card when it first came out. Smokes nvidia in image quality, and yes I tried the 5900 Ultra, the FX cards are no more than a hopped up GF 4 Ti with DX 9 capabilities..the funny thing is, Half Life 2 wont be able to use AA and AF with the FX line....LOL. Get a grip. Radeon = Mature Adults that like great picture quality. Nvidia = Kids that like the little butterfly on nvidias web site. 8)

I looked at this product for several months. Let me tell you one thing...256mb video cards chipset means beans!! The 5600 and the 5900 Ultra were supossed to disrtoy the 9800 Pro. ATI smoked the 256MB 5600 Ultra without any trouble, and new stats are comming out about the 5900 Ultra. PC Upgrade, a very nice Magazine source, reviewed the 5900 and the 9800 Pro. The settings they used werent the best for both cards, but the 5900 only beat the 9800 in one spot...3DM2003. The 9800 Pro clam QUAKE 3, UT2003flyby, and UT2003 botmatch. Come on who cares only about benchmark, videocards are not rated on bench alone; more importantly its the games!! The ATI 9800 Pro is god. If you would like to know where I got most of my sources before I bought this card, the best magazine I have ever bought was MAXIMUMPC. They know what they are talking about. Shoot, even ATI clamed there is no need to even have a 256MB videocard unless there is a high market demand. NVIDIA always tries to be the first to make something and they always screw it up, and ATI comes in and dominates!! Bottom line....... GET THIS CARD

I previously purchased a VisionTek Ti500 for $400 when it first came out.

Within a few months, the fan failed and the card overheated. Rather then send me an RMA, they sent me a new fan without any instructions on how to replace it - it was no straightforward and the install chipped a ceramic on the board.

They replaced it with another card whose heatsink simply fell off of the card.

When I requested an RMA, they said that VisionTek had gone bankrupt and that they were the new VisionTek who was not required to honor the warranty. They offered me an upgrade option with several cards - all but one resulted in a higher price for the upgrade then to buy the card at Best Buy.

I offered them to exchange me their lowest-priced upgrade card, which would have cost me $40 (mind you, my original card was $400), or I would escalate and FedEx the company CEO at the following address:

Hartford Computer group, 1610 Colonial Parkway, Inverness, IL 60067

and post my experience on online store reviews.

They failed to respond in 2 days, so here is the result.

Please note that I am neither advising or dissuading anyone from buying their cards, but simply posting a truthful and unbiased account of my experience with VisionTek.

I purchased another VisionTek video card (model 5564) just 8 months ago, and I have to say that I'm not terribly pleased with the company's committment to customers. When I installed Microsoft Flight Simulator, it wouldn't detect my video card; so like any well-trained consumer, I went to VisionTek's site to download the latest drivers. But lo and behold! VisionTek's site offers no drivers or support for any model prior to the 9100, when they switched from Nvidia chips to ATI chips. The support that _is_ available is sketchy at best--two FAQs and a forum, where strangely, there's no place to post questions on any earlier product either. When I wrote their customer service organization for help, the advice I received was a one-line response suggesting I update the drivers. Before you purchase this, or any, VisionTek product, go to their website and see if it's likely to help you when you run into trouble.

I purchased another VisionTek video card (model 5564) just 8 months ago, and I have to say that I'm not terribly pleased with the company's committment to customers. When I installed Microsoft Flight Simulator, it wouldn't detect my video card; so like any well-trained consumer, I went to VisionTek's site to download the latest drivers. But lo and behold! VisionTek's site offers no drivers or support for any model prior to the 9100, when they switched from Nvidia chips to ATI chips. The support that _is_ available is sketchy at best--two FAQs and a forum, where strangely, there's no place to post questions on any earlier product either. When I wrote their customer service organization for help, the advice I received was a one-line response suggesting I update the drivers. Before you purchase this, or any, VisionTek product, go to their website and see if it's likely to help you when you run into trouble.

I purchased another VisionTek video card (model 5564) just 8 months ago, and I have to say that I'm not terribly pleased with the company's committment to customers. When I installed Microsoft Flight Simulator, it wouldn't detect my video card; so like any well-trained consumer, I went to VisionTek's site to download the latest drivers. But lo and behold! VisionTek's site offers no drivers or support for any model prior to the 9100, when they switched from Nvidia chips to ATI chips. The support that _is_ available is sketchy at best--two FAQs and a forum, where strangely, there's no place to post questions on any earlier product either. When I wrote their customer service organization for help, the advice I received was a one-line response suggesting I update the drivers. Before you purchase this, or any, VisionTek product, go to their website and see if it's likely to help you when you run into trouble.