x800XL vs x850Xt

[jefar]

Hey all! This is my first post here, and yeah it is a question heh.

I was out of the whole gaming/hardware loop for a while, but now I am back in it. I'm looking to build a gaming computer, and this is what I want

AMD 64 3700+ San Diego
2 GB Patriot Memory
SATA drives
Radeon X800XL

Now with the video card, I ordered it through my circuit city accomodations on saturday. I checked the site yesterday that tells me the prices and I saw that I can now get the x850xt PCI-E. I can send the card back with no re-stocking fee, just a shipping fee and pay like a 60.00 difference for the 850. Do you guys think it's worth it.. I've been reading alot about the x850xt and from what i've read..it's a monster of a card compared to the x800xl, which is a mediocre card.

Opinions?

 

[cleeve]

The X800XL and X850XT are essentially the exact same card... same number of pipelines, same 256 bit memory interface. The only difference is in the clockspeeds.

I would never consider the X800XL to be a mediocre card. It is an excellent card.

Is the $60 worth it? That's up to you. The X800XL is about 85% to 90% as fast as the X850XT. If you're a hardcore gamer, that might be worth $60.

If you're not a hardcore gamer, you probably won't notice much of a difference, keep your $60.

 

[jefar]

I don't game much now but i will be playing WoW, Hl2, doom3, and farcry....

so i dont even know if its worth the 60

 

[WOWchamp]

I dont think it is, you should easily be able to OC it to the X850 stats because they use the same ammount of pipelines.

 

[cleeve]

X800XL's don't overclock well. It's rare that you can get them to X850 specs.

But stock, an X800XL will have no problem playing WoW, HL2, Doom3, or Far Cry @1024x768 with some nice AA enabled, probably higher.

 

[jefar]

so i should just keep the card and spend the 60.00 on somthing else..

 

[pauldh]

It depends on your display. If you are going to game at 1600x1200 or 1920x1200, then yes do the upgrade. If 1024x768, nope, keep the XL. 1280x1024, the difference will likely be allowing FSAA with the XT more often; probably nope, keep the XL. Anyway, just my $.02.

 

[Dresden]

Yea, Pauldh is right. It really depends on the res that you are gonna run your games at. I have 800xl, and it runs games just fine. expect to be able to run your games at 1024x768 with all eye candy just fine. 1280x1024 is fine to, but you gotta go a little easy with AA and FS.

But, if you wanna run your games at higher resolutions, you're gonna have to go with a beast, such as 1800XT or 7800GTX. If you really want to know what you're gonna get out of your prospective cards, check out some benchies on games you know you will play.