Concluding thoughts
Crucial's Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB is a good card, and it's still Crucial's fastest graphics card. It's performance was never in question. What is, however, is the justification required for purchasing. The current state of play puts the 9800XT, of which there are many different examples, at the top of ATI's tree. The benchmarks have shown it to be around 10% faster than the Crucial card. That's one problem facing Crucial. Its card is not what the informed enthusiast will opt for, providing performance is the top priority. At the time of writing, the 9800 Pro 256MB version was available for £297.56 including delivery. That puts it at around £25 below the asking price of the cheapest 9800XTs. We pose ourselves a simple question. Why would we buy an inferior card that's bereft of any gaming software for just £25 less than the flagship card ?. We can't answer that question without resorting to nitpicking.Crucial may argue that its excellent reputation, warranty and service are enough bonuses to attract buyers' attention. It's akin to buying a GeForce FX 5900 256MB card when FX 5950 Ultras are widely available at a small price premium. If Crucial could use its leverage and bundle in a few top games titles, reduce the asking price by around £20, and, perhaps, feature some kind of VIVO connectivity, it might persuade the potential buyer to forego the better 9800XT, which invariably is shipped with a HL2 voucher and sometimes a retail game.
In summary, the Crucial Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB is still a decent card. The most important drawbacks don't emanate from the card itself. Rather, it's ATI's current product hierarchy that goes against it. Given a free hand to choose a 3D accelerator, we'd opt for either a standard Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB card, which is competitively priced at £210 including delivery at Crucial, or one of the barrage of 9800XTs that just cross the £300 barrier. The GeForce FX 5950 Ultra is also worthy of a mention, especially with retail examples often at under £300.
Crucial owes it to the public to introduce a Radeon 9800XT of its own. Combined with its excellent customer support and competitive pricing, it could be the one of the best. The incumbent 9800 Pro 256MB card, though, is a little long in the tooth. That alone makes it almost impossible to recommend.
Bottom line: There's no pressing reason why you would choose this card over either the 128MB model or the newer 9800XT. That's it biggest problem, one we feel is insurmountable.
