Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800SE

Company: Sapphire
Product: Atlantis Radeon 9800SE
Street Price: $180 USD
Date Reviewed: December 22, 2003
Reviewer: Joey Chao

Introduction:

Most of the video cards we have been reviewing are based on the fastest graphics chipsets such as the Radeon 9800 Pro or the GeForce FX5900 Ultra. Even though both ATi and NVIDIA have released newer, faster cards, the 9800 Pro and FX 5900 Ultra are both blindingly fast. Today we will be reviewing the much more affordable Radeon 9800SE from Sapphire. The 9800 SE is more than a hundred dollars cheaper than the 9800 Pro but should provide enough performance for gamers and enthusiasts.

Sapphire is one of the largest ATi card suppliers in the world, and a lot of this is due to their quality control and the bundles that they include with their cards. A good example is the Sapphire 9800 Pro Ultimate video card we reviewed back in July. The card came with three full version games, which is much more than any other manufacturer bundles with their video cards. At the time it was also one of the fastest cards on the market until the XT line showed up.

Is the 9800SE a worthy video card or just another marketing ploy? We hope to find out because if you look at ATi's website, you will see that there is no 9800SE listed. We are not sure what this means exactly but we are looking into it. Either way, let us move on with the review.