The 256MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro

Unlike the 'true' Radeon 9800XT with its huge GPU copper heat sink and a heat spreader on the back, the new 256MB Sapphire R9800 Pro comes with an inferior aluminium heat sink. The top of the heat sink is covered by a burnished aluminium fan shroud.

This heat sink is quite different from that found in the 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro, which has a parallelogram-shaped heat sink. The dimensions are similar though.

The layout of the Radeon 9800XT has been discussed many times so I will concentrate on what's new on this card.

Let's take a closer look at the heat sink. It is a low-profile heat sink that won't block the adjacent PCI slot. On opening up the fan shroud, I was shocked to see that the heat sink only has a few fins at only two ends!

This is an extremely poor heat sink for such a hot chip like R360! Upgrading this cooler is absolutely necessary if you intend to mod this card into a Radeon 9800XT. This cooler is most definitely not enough to handle the amount of heat generated, even at stock Radeon 9800XT speed.

If you can't afford to buy an alternative cooler for the Radeon 9800 Pro, this guide may just be the thing for you!