ATi Graphics Card advise needed PLEASE! :-)

[lord_kit]

Hi

Here's the low down on my PC Spec - not like it matters prob

AMD 3700 CPU, 2 Gig Crossair Ram o think it's the 3800,
6800GS 256 MB Card, 80Gig HDD. MSI Kn8 Board.--

Thats the basic -- BUT my question is: -

I have a budget of £170 Bucks and need help between the 2 cards

The one o have in mind is:-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-070-HT

This is the 512MB version -- which does sound very nice

OR

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-063-CO&tool=3 - This one has better performace as it is the newer model & has 48 Pixel Shader

But then again with Direct X 10 Round the corner -- duno if i shld stay with Nvidia ?

Any Idea's ?? -- Very much appricated !! - Thanks

 

[lord_kit]

I must say tho i do use it for gaming.

Not the best PC spec for it but - does the job.

I really wanna play Rainbow Six -- but such a power hungry game.

Any ideas on the card?

 

[godman]

I have a budget of £170 Bucks and need help between the 2 cards

so is that dollars or pounds?Ok do you live in the UK/Europe? I'm guessing so becasue the links to overclockers.co.uk...


If you do live in Europe you might want to check out scan or komplet they're cheaper than overclockers for some components, scan especially.


You don't want to go for the x1950 PRO, though I must say that I found cooling is execlent, I've got it's cousin, the x1900gt ICEQ3 by HIS too, overclocked to 640 core and 1.6ghz mem, and its at 50c load.

DISABLED PIPELINES AREN'T GOOD!!!


The 1950XT is a much better choice with the FULL 48 pipelines, the stock cooler will be loud at times as it's not supposed to be the best, it will also get hot. The best thing to do would be to get this card and starp a 80mm fan blowing air through the heatsink at a low rpm, making it cooler and hopefully less noisy.


Moving onto directX10, you need a good CPU to take full advantage of the 8800 series. If you got a 8800gts you'd probably want to overclock your CPU or buy a core 2 duo E6300 as others have pointed out in other threads. Plus anyway the 8800gts is at least £100 more expensive, oh and you'd [probably need a good PSU... :O

NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX is the most powerful graphics card to date with performance up to 3x that of present high-end cards. To achieve such power in its next-generation design, NVIDIA has architected a graphics card that can require >150W at peak load, with power fed through twin 6-pin PCIe connectors. G80 cards, therefore, require a high-quality PSU that's capable of delivering clean current on the crucial 12V line. In keeping with a high-performance system built around G80, SCAN recommends 500W PSUs with, preferably, 4 individual 12V rails.

One thing though; are you a gamer wanting a new card to play oblivion (or other games) at ultra high resolutions or do you just waht a card so you can play now and again (eg casual gamer)

You might want to think about this nvidia offering too:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=479172

 

[lord_kit]

WOW - that card is AWSOME!!!

For £200 its not that bad.. --- i kno its only 30 quid more.

But its soo tempting to go that little bit higer all the time - as the price ranges are so competitive.

I think i'm gonna go for the 1950XT - as the 48 Pipes would make a big diffrence. -- even tho the Pro has more an extra 256 of MB!

So many choices -- too many decisions.

 

[darkstar782]

Of those two the x1950XT 256MB is a much better card.

The guy that said the RAM will be a bottleneck is wrong, the x1950XT is using GDDR3/4 @ 1.8GHz effective.

It doesn't have as much ram, but that will make hardly any difference compared to disabling 25% of the GPU.

OcUK are usually expensive. Dabs.com, Scan.co.uk, are both cheaper, but on this occasion OcUK have the x1950XT pretty cheap.

 

[crazypyro]

the less RAM will only result in a few frames lower than the 512mb versions. I have an X1900 AIW its 48pipelines, but with 256mb and much lower clock speeds all around, i usually lag behind an X1900XT by only 15frames on average., when I OC my card to 621/621 i don't notice any real difference between the XT and my AIW, i just need a better heat sink because it gets hot in a hurry with the single slot sink.

 

[lord_kit]

Wicked..


So it's FINAL --i will go for the 1950XT with 256 MB or Ram.

NOT the 1950 Pro with 512 MB of ram.

I jus hope it's really good - counting on the 48 Pipes - COME ON!!

And ur right about OC - they are normally expensive -- but on this occusaion -- i've been blessed. !!

Thanks for ur help

 

[lord_kit]

How big do PhysX Cards make a diffrence?

BFG Ageia PhysX Accelerator around £120

do games actually support it?

 

[The_OGS]

You don't want to go for the x1950 PRO...the 1950XT is a much better choice.

Yes it's true
And for goodness sakes folks, stay away from that passive cooling (unless you have a very specific requirement).
They may be silent - but you can smell 'em once they hit ~100C or so, heheh...
They are designed for Home Theatre (and not RainbowSix).
Regards

 

[crazypyro]

i usually lag behind an X1900XT by only 15frames on average.

Only 15fps??? :lol: :lol: :lol:


So if the 512mb version is getting a playable 35 fps say in Oblivion your getting an unplayable 20fps

lol yes with settings maxed at 1600x1200 outdoors in the woods i usually avg about 17fps, out of the woods i hover between 20-30 depending, indoors i'm up over 60. But Oblivion is the only game that is this bad other games its not so bad. at $200 when i got it, it was better than the x1900GT and over $100 cheaper than XT so i think i struck gold with it.