World of Warcraft and ATI X1950XT vs Nvidia 7xxxx

Hey all!

I had a question about the ATI X1950XT and its Nvidia equivlent. I currently use a BFG Geforce 6600 GT running World of Warcraft at 1680x1050 wide screen resolution. If you're familiar with this game, it supposely says it runs "better" with Nvidia graphic cards... is this true? is there any valid facts on this.. or is this just a bunch of advertising mumbo jumbo?

thanks in advance!

All it means is that Nvidia sponsored the game.

In fact, many games sponsored by either manufacturer may run better on the other guy's hardware.

As far as World of Warcraft though, it's irrelevant... it's one of the easiest games for modern day videocards to run. Even a sub-$200 card could run WoW at super high resolution with full detail.

Keep in mind that nearly all nVidia based cards (including 7xxx's), recirculate hot air inside the case. ATI started using dual slot rear exaust cooling solutions with the X850, and continued the trend from the X1800's thru the X1950's. nVidia finally adopted the dual slot rear exaust cooling solution with it's new 8800's. The following link is a listing of all NewEgg's 7950 cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] ...+106960

As you can see, there are no 7950's with rear exaust. This is why I'm running a 1900. If you want your case to run cooler without being modified, you may wish to consider a 1950, or an 8800. Also, remember to include enough PSU ampacity to support your new card.

I hope this helps you, and good luck with your selections.

World of Warcraft doesn't use FP16 so the topic of "HDR" is irrelevant. Any modern videocard will run WoW at the maximum quality with ease.

That's generally more of a problem in the CPU section. He probably got that from that "the way it's meant to be played" slogan by Nvidia. Fact is, WoW is quite forgiving graphics wise.

The X1950XT generally outpaces the 7950GT, and it of course exhausts heat out the back. But if all you're into is WoW, consider something cheaper like the 7600GT. Much cheaper and plenty of oomph for WoW.

The only thing WoW truely needs is RAM. Anything less than 1GB and if you try to run background app's.....you'll notice.

didnt nvidia have the first cooler the ejected hot air out the back with the 5800 ultra?
and also, as fast as driver stability goes, people will complain that nvidia has unstable drivers or ATI has unstable drivers, some time they are installed wrong, ATI and nvidia drivers are both very stable, in windows at least, i cant say the same for linux though *shuders at the old 9800pro*