sapphire x1600 pro 512 ram vs. x850 xt plat ed

[rampage52]

Is the x850 xt a better card even though it has shader 2.0 and the x1600 has shader 3.0 and that the 850 is on direct x 9.b and cant go to c and the x1600 is on direct x 9.c

 

[Fursecul]

it's tough to say but i think the X850 XT PE will kill the x1600 PRO with all its 512 ram,yeah,the X850XT PE is the winner

 

[prozac26]

X850XT is MUCH better than a X1600Pro. Memory means little, and the X1600 isn't even powerful enough to run SM3 nicely.

 

[pauldh]

Why is that tough to say? The X850XTpe is easily better than a X1600pro for gaming. They are not even close to the same performance league. A X1600 pro loses most of the time to a 6600GT, and a X850XTpe beats a 6800U most of the time and a 7800GT occasionally. Current Gen ATI, You have to look at the X1800GTO to be near competing with the X850xtpe.

 

[Gary_Busey]

Look at the benchmarks in this 7600GT review. Notice how much faster the X850XT PE is than the X1600XT(which is faster than the X1600Pro). With such a performance difference, worrying about the shader model version is pointless.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1983

 

[Eviltwin17]

if you are looking to buying a new card then wait for dx10 cards to come out in january - february.

 

[fainis]

that`s the best joke ever heard ...
x850xt kills....rectify..murders a x1600xt...(x1600pro is out of question)

x850xt murders any nvidia 6XXX.....only same 7800xxx can stop it ... or same x1800xxx (not sure about gto.....in oblivion only x1800xt can go over x850xt...)
well there are many benches ..so i won`t bother you with details...
as for sm stuff ..the difference between 2 and 3 models is so small i won`t bother you with details ...there are too many details on net...

memory amount is not enough ..as a matter of fact ..for modern video cards it is the last detail you should look at ...

it`s important to see the mem bandwith, the mem interface (address) 128 or 256 etc....bla bla...

ohh..and x850xxx is dx9.0c not dx9.0b...look at ati for details

good luck everybady

 

[rampage52]

When the direct x 10 cards come out will there be a big dfference than the 9.c cards, most games out now and when it is launch are not written for dx10 and current card could they run it or update to it. the card would just work harder than a dx10 card.

 

[Gary_Busey]

When the direct x 10 cards come out will there be a big dfference than the 9.c cards, most games out now and when it is launch are not written for dx10 and current card could they run it or update to it. the card would just work harder than a dx10 card.

If you have an ok card right now, you might as well wait, but if you own a shitty card now, I'd go ahead and buy a midrange card. DX10 is still 6 months off at the earliest. Knowing how technology launches usually go, it'll probably be more than that. But, if you can wait, by all means, wait.

 

[rampage52]

I saw on a ati site that x850 was only direct x 9.b cause of shader 2.0

 

[Fursecul]

yeah that's fare

 

[Gary_Busey]

I saw on a ati site that x850 was only direct x 9.b cause of shader 2.0

You're correct.

"The R480 does have one major feature missing at this time, that being Shader Model 3.0 support. The lack of Shader Model 3.0 support keeps the X850 XT series of cards from being fully compliant with Microsoft's DirectX 9.0C, instead falling back on DirectX 9.0B."

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=x850xt&page=2&cookie%5Ftest=1

 

[rampage52]

but in your earlier post you put that it is a small difference and if u have shadows and shading off than u would not notice?????

Can this card run oblivion???

 

[pauldh]

The difference basically amounts to not being able to run OpenEXR HDR. The X850XTpe is amazing in Oblivion. It trounces the 7800GT as well as all GF6's. The downside is you can't enable HDR, ony bloom lighting.

Edit: check for yourself, and note this is a plain XT not even the faster Platinum Edition:
Oblivion Medium details:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746&p=7

Oblivion High details:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746&p=5

 

[rampage52]

So i guess if bloom or hdr is not a big deal, and you dont have it on much especially when you play online games for best performance you have some of the extras off. it does not make much difference.

 

[Gary_Busey]

but in your earlier post you put that it is a small difference and if u have shadows and shading off than u would not notice?????

I think you misread my post. What I said was that the X850XT PE is so much faster than the X1600Pro, that its not worth worrying about the X850XT PE not having SM3.0 because the X1600Pro is so much slower.

 

[pauldh]

Well, and some games like Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, they even added a method of HDR that then worked on Sm2.0 cards. In some games, soft shadows can be enebaled and only on Sm3.0 hardware. But the performance hit is so large and you can't use fsaa (like fear), that it takes a beat of a GPU to handle soft shadows. Personally I'd take fsaa over soft shadows.

 

[nottheking]

Is the x850 xt a better card even though it has shader 2.0 and the x1600 has shader 3.0 and that the 850 is on direct x 9.b and cant go to c and the x1600 is on direct x 9.c

As mentioned, it's a highly deceptive thing, the X1600pro. Yes, it has SM 3.0 support. However, it's about as powerful as the GeForce 6600GT. Yes, it has 512MB of RAM, but that's largely moot.

The fact is, the X850XT has roughly twice the graphics horsepower you'll get out of the X1600pro, for about the same price.

If you're worried about HDR, a number of games have HDR options for SM 2.0 cards; Splinter Cell III was mentioned, and Oblivion, thanks to it's easily-modded state, has a mod that allows HDR for SM 2.0 cards. (on the flip side, it also allows GeForce 6 and 7 cards to use HDR with MSAA)

 

[ikaz]

I have an 850pro AGP running only 12 pipes however it is OC to plat ed speeds and I run oblivion at 10x7 res with out AA but in meduim to high settings (autodetected the graphic setting) and I get good frame rates (well bets are indoors of course). So as every else said the x850xt PE will smoke a 1600pro

 

[angry_ducky]

X1600Pro: Pretty slideshow at 10FPS
X850XT: Pretty smooth at 40FPS

With the X1600Pro, you'll have to turn down the details so much to make the game playable that it will look WORSE than it would on the "old technology" X850XT. It's great to have all those advanced graphics options which you can't even use because your graphics card is just so fu*king slow. If you really want HDR and SM 3.0, then save a little more and get an X1800XT, which can actually use those features.

 

[rampage52]

So should i get that card or wait for direct x 10

 

[prozac26]

It really depends on what you want to do.

 

[rampage52]

So when directx 10 games come out the dx9 cards will they be able to play them? will it work em hard or

 

[Gary_Busey]

They'll be able to play them but the games won't look as good or run as well.

 

[fainis]

well technologies come and go my friend .... you better enjoy it now cause tommorow you`ll never know....

as for x850 and x1600 .... if you have to choose between the two of them .... execially if you can find them at a similar price .. it would be a foulish ideea to get the x1600

now what makes this twice easily to choose is that you have chosen the worse x1600 (pro) and the fastest x850 (xtpl) which can still compete with most of the high range solutions now....

x850 was the killer of the 6xxx series from nvidia (including 6800ultra or even a sli 6800) and has a similar performance (overall) with most 7800 solutions.. only a 7800gtx can clearly top it (although they are closed)

the only downfall of this card (x850) is that ati 8O forgot :? to include sm3 instruction sets ... but as many noticed and experienced the difference between sm2 and sm3 is very small (comparing with the difference between sm3 and sm1.1) ... so untill the new adaptive shader model (or sm4 or whatever) it will still remain a king of the hill....

i personally use a x850xt (default settings)...although i have used all kind of 7800 cards, x1800 series, etc not to mention 6xxx or older cards......
i chosed it because of it`s price ofcourse (at it`s introduction in summer 2005 it had a sky high price)...........ofcourse i would have rather used a x1900 :lol: but ..ohhh..the price...

to tell you the truth on normal, earthdown (whatever) sistems,...and i mean non triple athlon fx or whatever conroe and stuff........the difference between 7800gtx (which should top a x850) is not seen...but the difference between a x1600 (used and tested) or 6800gs (also used and tested) and x850 is big in x850`s count...not only that you can play at higher resolutions but you can also enable AA or TAA ... and even get higher fps

good luck ...and good gaming my friends