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Video Card: Crucial RADEON 9800 Pro 256MB Review :: The Board
Crucial's board is very similar in configuration to ATI's reference board, in terms of size and configuration. In terms of length, the 9800 Pro 256MB is about 2 inches longer than a standard AGP slot. One thing I've always liked about ATI based video cards is even the high end boards aren't much longer than the AGP slot. Nvidia could learn lessons about putting all of the needed components on a PCB. Cooling duties are handled by a silver heat sink/fan found on all Radeon 9800 Pros. The heat sink covers ~20% of the surface area of the PCB. This contrasts with the Nvidia 5900 and 5950 Ultra whose heat sink/fan combination takes up virtually 60% of the PCB. There are 13 fins on the fan portion of the card.  The 9800 Pro 256MB has 16 16MB bit DDR2 memory chips in two sets of 8 chips 8 on the front and 8 on the back of the PCB. This translates into 256MB (16x16=256MB). Like all 256MB 9800 Pros, the Crucial card has memory heat sinks over each of the memory chips, effectively cooling the 9800 Pro when in heavy or normal use. The memory is rated at 2.8ns and at 350 MHz clock speed. Note that this is different than the 9800 Pro 128MB which has a memory clock rate of 340 MHz. The difference lies in the use of DDR2 memory which has a higher latency than regular DDR memory. The card has a 4 pin power connector used on power supplies. I wish manufacturers wouldn't use power supply connectors for their video cards. Modern video cards, however, require more power than an AGP slot can provide. Both NVIDIA and ATI high end cards require extra power.  The packaging of the Crucial 9800 Pro 256MB is rather disappointing. The first thing most people buying at a retail store sees is the box of the card. Asus has it right with a beautiful woman in regalia staring out of the front of the box. Eye-catching art can and does make a difference to people's first impressions of a product, even though logically the box art shouldn't affect buying decisions it does in fact affect purchasing decisions. On the front is a interesting piece of art, but not in my opinion that eye-catching. On the back Crucial lists the specifications of the 9800 Pro 256MB and adds a couple of pictures of ATI demos.  The packaging of the Crucial 9800 Pro 256MB is rather Spartan by today's standards. The card unfortunately doesn't come with a game bundle. While other Powered By ATI cards like the Gigabyte 9800XT and Asus 9800XT or Pro come with extensive software bundles, the 9800 Pro from Crucial comes with a bare driver CD, a Manual, TV Cable Set, DVI-I to VGA Adapter and a Power Cable. I kind of miss the days where every video card manufacturer included a game or two to try out on the card you buy right away. The software bundle of the card consists of some very old Catalyst drivers that are at least a year old now based upon 7.84 Catalyst drivers (current ATI drivers are based upon the 7.97 set which means that it's at least 13 versions forward today. Also included is a copy of WinDVD 4, while InterVideo's WinDVD is currently on version 5. All in all, I prefer WinDVD 4 a bit more than ATI's DVD player. I wish that Crucial included a game or two to play with the card, but often bundles get boring fast.  The input/output block is the standard one for ATI video cards. Present are a VGA port, a DVI-I port, and a TV-Out port. Dual monitors are supported by Hydravision and the included DVI-I adapter. One thing I would like to see in a future card is a dual-DVI card with included adapters for CRT users. 
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