Do these have HDR ???

[mthomas99]

Hi, I have a question about these cards , do any of them have HDR rendering?

6600GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150098

6800GS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150118

6800GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121192
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814135171

X850XT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102505

Everyone of these cards is $110-$225 -- which one of (*These) cards would you recommend for the best bang-for-the-buck?
Also, which ones have HDR, if any?
thanks for all your input

-mike

 

[JIM2003]

Correct me if I am wrong but I am pretty sure that all of those are capable of HDR except the X850XT. Reason being that the X850XT doesnt support Shader Model 3.0. In order to make true HDR you will need Shader Model 3.

 

[Heyyou27]

Pretty much; although there are other ways to do HDR the X850 support, but good luck finding that in games.

 

[Djsx64]

the only games to date the use HDR are Half-Life 2 and AOE

 

[the_guru]

the only games to date the use HDR are Half-Life 2 and AOE

And Serious Sam 2.

 

[chillyman]

Well mike,

I guess the best bang for the buck in mid-range class would be 6600GT. But, as games are getting increasily heavy on special effects (such as HDR and what not) I would recommend a lower high-end card such as the 6800GT or better yet a 6800GS if you can find them at affordable prices (~200$).

About HDR, as far as I know it's only implemented in SM3.0 but I'm not entirely sure about that. In that case you are bound to nVidia's lineup only (ATI only incorporates this technology on their new X1K lineup) but to be honest, I don't think HDR is bound so much to hardware as one might think. Sure, the new cards may be optimized especially for this but I have been able to run HL2 at maximum detail settings (1024x768) + 2xAA and 8xAF without any significant slowdowns (avg. 40FPS) mind you, I have quite an old CPU but the card has made miracles on the gaming front.

I would suggest you to get hold of some benchmarks and then decide this one for yourself, as clearly everybody is going to have an opinion about which is the better choice. Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[HalfHuman]

6800gs or x850xt. similar prices. similar performance. 6800gs can be softmodded from what i know, x850xt is a force of nature (or it was).

 

[Lead_Head]

You dont need SM3 for HDR, SM3 has more advanced HDR functions though

 

[Lead_Head]

for a little bit less you can get an x800 pro vivo, unlock it to 16 pipes and OC it to x850 XT PE speeds

 

[Lead_Head]

i was

 

[parlee]

yea, get the x850 and oc it... it will outperform all of those cards by a pretty decent margin...

 

[Lilflip21]

"the only games to date the use HDR are Half-Life 2 and AOE"

correct me if im wrong but as far as i know half-life 2 doesnt support hdr only the lost coast addon does...

 

[Heyyou27]

There's also Far Cry, Time Shift...

 

[FlyGuy]

Not to mention the best game to support HDR, LEGO Star Wars!

 

[bront]

There's also Far Cry, Time Shift...

Do you need a patch for Far Cry to support HDR?

 

[306maxi]

"the only games to date the use HDR are Half-Life 2 and AOE"

correct me if im wrong but as far as i know half-life 2 doesnt support hdr only the lost coast addon does...

Day of Defeat also supports HDR too. Bought it yesterday and couldn't stop playing it all last night! Awesome game.

 

[Lead_Head]

the level de_nuke in Counter Strike Source is HDR

 

[chillyman]

The entire game was patched to support HDR.

Too bad some of you missed it

 

[nannerla]

yea, get the x850 and oc it... it will outperform all of those cards by a pretty decent margin...

While that is true the nvidia cards support ps 3.0 where as the ATI card is only PS 2.1 The 6800 may appear to run slower in benchmarks but this is because it is running a more taxing pixel shader that also produces better effects. If both cards were running the same PS they would almost have the same fps but there not. You may also want to consider the 6800 gs because of SLI mode. While this may not be important to you now in a few months the card will probably be only $100 because of the new 7900's so youll be able to get another one cheap. I think that two 6800gs's also have the same powere as one 7800 gtx but I need someone to verify this.

 

[nannerla]

"the only games to date the use HDR are Half-Life 2 and AOE"

correct me if im wrong but as far as i know half-life 2 doesnt support hdr only the lost coast addon does...

Day of Defeat also supports HDR too. Bought it yesterday and couldn't stop playing it all last night! Awesome game.

DOD :source is running on the same engine as Half-life 2 so it makes sense that it supports HDR. Same with CS:S.

 

[parlee]

right now the sapphire x850 is 160 after MIR, get it NOW before there out of stock, that is the single best deal for a video card ever, its almost as cheap as a 6600gt and is WAY WAY WAY better than a 6600gt would ever be. skip the 6800gs, its 220, the x850xt is 160 and offers the same performance... if not better, i would argue that it is better but others think differently i guess... buy the x850xt before the deal is gone!!!

 

[306maxi]

"the only games to date the use HDR are Half-Life 2 and AOE"

correct me if im wrong but as far as i know half-life 2 doesnt support hdr only the lost coast addon does...

Day of Defeat also supports HDR too. Bought it yesterday and couldn't stop playing it all last night! Awesome game.

DOD :source is running on the same engine as Half-life 2 so it makes sense that it supports HDR. Same with CS:S.

From memory the whole of HL2 doesn't have HDR. Neither does CS DoD fully supports HDR and it's truuuuuly glorious!

 

[Anoobis]

Well mike,

I guess the best bang for the buck in mid-range class would be 6600GT.

Actually, I would have to go with the X1600PRO if your limited to AGP (not saying that is the case here). The PRO comes in cheaper than the 6600GT AGP plus adds 4 more pipes, but slower memory (by about 100 Mhz). Both support Shader Model 3.0

Don't get me wrong, the 6600GT is a great card. I know because I use one, but it is starting to show its age.

 

[chillyman]

Don't get me wrong, the 6600GT is a great card. I know because I use one, but it is starting to show its age.

Bah, it's still a kickass piece of budget hardware and I wouldn't trade it for anything less than a next gen card with at least 16 pipes and >256MB of DDR3.

As far as I know the X1600 is only equipped with DDR2 so there is no room for the extra performance. But in the end, it's just a matter of taste as the additional pipes on the X1600 evens it all out.

As for image quality, I've always heard that ATI would be the one to go for. Maybe that should be considered in the process too?

 

[chillyman]

From memory the whole of HL2 doesn't have HDR. Neither does CS DoD fully supports HDR and it's truuuuuly glorious!

HL2 was PATCHED to support HDR so if you missed it out then too bad for you...