Nvidia cards with a conroe system, or go ATi?

holcar

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Well the new intel chipset dosen't support SLi, so if I wanted to go SLi with nvidia cards what would be the best choice of motherboard? Or will there be promising motherboards to be released that can support SLi and conroe.

Or would it be a wiser option to go with intels new mobo chipset and buy an ATI card, such as the X1800GTO over the 7600GT and run crossfire.

Basically I'm wanting to buy my video card first, but i'm worried I'll be a bit stuck if I bought a Nvidia card and couldn't get the new benefits of intels new chipset?

I won't be going SLi/Crossfire straight away with the new system, and I might not in the future because I don't know how dx10 cards will come in to perspective, but I would like the choice to use dual cards if need be.

So... X1800GTO or 7600GT for my new system? Also which motherboard would be a good choice?
 

gman01

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This is something I too am interested in.... I have been an AMD/nvidia guy since 2000.... I was thinking of swiching back to intel with conroe.... Now I have been reading that intel is supporting ati, and doesn't want nvidia or SLI run on their motherboards or with their CPU's.... If intel is gonna act this this, them I am gonna stick it out with AMD.... I was willing to switch to intel but I am not gonna let them bully me into also switch to ATI, becuase of some propriatary deal they have with ATI(or whatever you want to call it)....
 

elpresidente2075

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No need to go sli/crossfire if you don't do so right away, it just doesn't work out that way most of the time.

That said, even though motherboards may not immediately support it, eventually they will. In any case, I recommend until the chipsets/procs become more mature before making buying decisions anyway. Makes for a better outcome eventually. That means that the best chipset is probably a couple months away, and as such, not tested yet, and so not known.

I believe the X1800 is better than the 7600, simply because it is a step higher in the product line. I could be mistaken, however I do believe it has more pipelines and faster clocks.

About being "stuck" with something and not getting the full benefit: If you are just going to get one card, get the best card, as both will work. If you are deadset on a multi-GPU solution, wait until there is one for conroe for both setups, read some reviews, and then make your decision.
 

djkrypplephite

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This is something I too am interested in.... I have been an AMD/nvidia guy since 2000.... I was thinking of swiching back to intel with conroe.... Now I have been reading that intel is supporting ati, and doesn't want nvidia or SLI run on their motherboards or with their CPU's.... If intel is gonna act this this, them I am gonna stick it out with AMD.... I was willing to switch to intel but I am not gonna let them bully me into also switch to ATI, becuase of some propriatary deal they have with ATI(or whatever you want to call it)....

It has nothing to do with Intel being pissy, it's Nvidia. They refuse to license SLI to Intel. That being said, you can still do it with a patched driver, not to mention Quad SLI with a patched driver on a ES Conroe board, so I would imagine you can with the retails.
 

gman01

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This is something I too am interested in.... I have been an AMD/nvidia guy since 2000.... I was thinking of swiching back to intel with conroe.... Now I have been reading that intel is supporting ati, and doesn't want nvidia or SLI run on their motherboards or with their CPU's.... If intel is gonna act this this, them I am gonna stick it out with AMD.... I was willing to switch to intel but I am not gonna let them bully me into also switch to ATI, becuase of some propriatary deal they have with ATI(or whatever you want to call it)....

It has nothing to do with Intel being pissy, it's Nvidia. They refuse to license SLI to Intel. That being said, you can still do it with a patched driver, not to mention Quad SLI with a patched driver on a ES Conroe board, so I would imagine you can with the retails.

hmm - Is this because NVidia is going to make their own intel/conroe motherboards? That way if someone wants SLI, not only do they have to purchase the card from NVidia, but they also have to get the motherboard from them?
 

reaper

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Another Sony-typed of business strategy, winner takes all. Not sure how it's gonna turn out, but obviously Sony lost many times with this kind of thing. Betamax and their camera line (memory stick that works only with Sony camera) Maybe Nvidia kinda firmly believe there's a lot of crazy ass folks who gonna pay $5000 for a system, beside that, who else gonna pay for 4 graphics card?
 

holcar

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so if I dont go SLi or CF, say I get a mobo with intels new chipset, would it pose any down in performance on a single 7600GT, because it is designed for crossfire and thus ATI cards...

Would a single nvidia card run any differently on a mobo with intels chipset than a mobo that is designed to support SLi?
 

IdiotNewb

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The nforce 590 motherboards probably won't be out till mid-August after reading the article in anandtech about them. The first reference boards from nvidia didn't get sent to the motherboard companies until after Computex. You can read more about it here. They haven't had an update so I expect one at anandtech this week.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2786

I expect to see the announcements within the next two weeks by the motherboard companies on some specific new sli socket T boards then it will probably be a month before they actually ship. Could be longer but but I doubt it will be sooner then that. Personally I am going to wait till they have what I really want. I have just read too much negative stuff about crossfire and ATI cards.
 

raven_87

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Performance wise....without a doubt. In terms of light hassle and money, not really. Mastercards are still expensive the dongle is a wee bit of a bitch I hear.

Anywho: Dude!! Where have you been????
 

IdiotNewb

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I have just read too much negative stuff about crossfire and ATI cards.

The stuff you read was probably written by fanboys. Both Ati and Nvidia solutioons are pretty much on par if you're gaming with Windows.

Not really, I'm not talking about fanboy forum stuff. I'm talking about different reviews I've read on the internet. I did say crossfire and ATI cards. Also, I wasn't really commenting on the single card solution which I consider a crapshoot.

Here is what I have read:
ATI cards run slightly hotter, though both seem to be way out of control in this area currently. ATI crossfire solution is not as good as NVidia sli solution. The crossfire solution runs less efficently and you have to buy a master card to run crossfire. Both require a special motherboard.

ATI does have a little better graphics but it is no where close to being the difference the old Nvidia and 3dfx cards had where one ran 16 bit and the other 32.

As far as sticking with a single card and single gpu solution, like I said it is a crapshoot buy the highest end card you feel you are willing to pay for.
 
So... X1800GTO or 7600GT for my new system? Also which motherboard would be a good choice?

You can listen to everyone, but at this point in time they're just guessing like the rest of us.

It's a gut check issue for you, you gotta decide.

Both cards are very good, both cards offer cableless Xfire/SLi.

But the motherboard question is going to be an issue until it's all figured out.

The reality is that the current state of affairs is as you describe, it, whether that will change in the future is unknown.
 
Here is what I have read:
ATI cards run slightly hotter, though both seem to be way out of control in this area currently.

And at the high end nV runs that heat back into your case, whereas ATi exhausts it outside the case making your CPU/Memory/HD feel better, and that cooler running doesn't seem to help the failinf GF7900GTs and GTXs, so what's the benifit other than looking good on a graph? Only someone with a closed system using water cooling might care, if then.

ATI crossfire solution is not as good as NVidia sli solution.

Pretty generalized statement. There have been issues for both, and remain issues for both.

The crossfire solution runs less efficently

Sometimes the SLi runs less efficiently as well, and efficient isn't really what people buy them for. 40% bost from SLi versus 35% boost from Xfire doesn't matter if the starting point has the nV card running @ 90% the speed of the ATi card. You buy it for whichever one performs faster, not more efficiently, that's the silliest PR argument, and never makes sense for buying or gaming.

and you have to buy a master card to run crossfire.

Not for the X1300 and X1600, and specifically NOT for the card he's he's asking about the X1800GTO. Perhaps you'd want to address that before the theoretical setups.

ATI does have a little better graphics but it is no where close to being the difference the old Nvidia and 3dfx cards had where one ran 16 bit and the other 32.

Or the R300 vs NV30?
The major Iq advantages, FP16HDR+AA, Temporal AA, HQAF (see HL2 demo below);
http://www.pureoverclock.com/article39-3.html

Depends on what you value, IQ or 'efficiency'.

As far as sticking with a single card and single gpu solution, like I said it is a crapshoot buy the highest end card you feel you are willing to pay for.

Yeah if that's the way you buy it is a crap shoot, read reviews and pick the games you play, then you can decide which is better, as both have their stronger/weaker games.
 

pauldh

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[H] totally gives the IQ victory to Crossfire in this review:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA4MywxMSwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=

Quote from the Summary:
"We took an in-depth look at image quality in this evaluation. We had two 30” LCD’s side-by-side and were able to look at IQ in-game. Culminating everything we learned we can confidently say that the ATI Radeon X1900 XTX CrossFire platform offered the best image quality in games.

We have all the proof to back this up. With the Radeon X1900 XTX and CrossFire platform antialiasing plus HDR is possible in Oblivion. ATI has the ability to do multisampling plus floating point blending HDR. ATI has a “High Quality” anisotropic filtering option which has real tangible image quality benefits in games with little to no performance hit. In large outdoor games this is a huge benefit. It also helps in games that have very high quality and detailed textures like Half Life 2: Episode 1 and Ghost Recon. Having these two displays side-by-side proved that texture crawling and moiré are worse on NVIDIA hardware at default driver settings compared to ATI hardware. We especially noticed this in World of Warcraft, Half Life 2: Episode 1, and Battlefield 2. When you look at all this added up it becomes clear that ATI still holds the image quality crown."
 

raven_87

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And at the high end nV runs that heat back into your case

This indeed is very true, however the X1800GTO & X1900GT is a single slot solution cooler thats just like the 7900GT(X)....no exhaustion of heat :cry:

So I honestly dont think its very fair to compare the GTO and GT in this respect.

EDIT: I'm sure you knew about the fan design, I was just hammering the point....you know I i love you bud lol :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
LOL!

And if you look at FiringSquad they gave it to nV.

So a 'notorious nV-site' praising ATi and a 'notorious ATi-site' praising nV. :mrgreen:

BTW, by 'notorious' I'm of course being sarcastic, called that by the people who haven't read more than one review from the site.
 
This indeed is very true, however the X1800GTO & X1900GT is a single slot solution cooler thats just like the 7900GT(X)....no exhaustion of heat :cry:

Unless you get the HIS :twisted:
But yeah I was simply responding to his generalities and pointing out that in the top end that corcern si less for some.

So I honestly dont think its very fair to compare the GTO and GT in this respect.

I agree, but of course I was talking to his points. GTO versus GT, remember that the GTO runs cooler than an XT (heck the power consumption is less than half the XT so the heat generated has to be half that as well, so how efficiently does it remove it?) and that's there's other things to consider like overclocking, etc.

EDIT: I'm sure you knew about the fan design, I was just hammering the point....you know I i love you bud lol :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

No worries mang, hey I expect people to call me on stuff, I try to ensure it's within the context of the statement, but I can easily be as mistaken as the next guy, especially with all my typos. 8O
 

raven_87

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Anywho: Dude!! Where have you been????
Lol...I work too much. Thanks for asking :wink:


I was beginning to worry. Plus I've fillin in your stead question legitimacy of certain posters.....so I'm seeing now you've rubbed off on me, and I've schedualed the quickest possible appointment for a shrink. Needless to say, I'm not going to be around for a couple hours tommorrow :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Good to see your doing alright bro. :mrgreen: