Advice on a new graphics card.ATI or Nvidia?

starmanwarz

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Hello all.

Its about time to make some serious upgrades to my system.The thing that bothers me the most is the graphics card-there are so many of them.And I dont have a clue what all those xt,gt,xtx and stuff means.I dont even know what are the best cards-ATI's or Nvidia's.Anyway after some search I found the Sapphire X1950XTX 512Mb.This is my price range.From what I saw on this card's specs,it's better that other ones from this price range.Do you have anything else to suggest?What do you think about the 1950XTX?And something last,I have a coolermaster psu @450W,will it be enough for my new gfx?Thanks in advance.
 

miahallen

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I'm looking at newegg, and they say that card is selling for $370. At that price, I'd definitly step up to the nVidia GeForce 8800GTS selling for around $400. It's snywhere from 20-50% faster than the ATI card, and it will support DX10. The X1950XTX will not. The nVidia cards also scale better when in SLI than the ATI cards in crossfire (those are two standards used to couple two graphics cards together for more gaming performance). This will give you a better upgrade path down the road. Just make sure you're looking at a motherboard that supports SLI. Good luck!
 

Blacken

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You'l be stylin' with the 1950XTX.
Though the 8800GTS is only a bit more and would serve you well if you plan on Vista and DX10.
 

cleeve

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Third vote for the 8800 GTS. It will slaughter an X1950 XTX, for about the same cash.

The X1950 XT is a goodf deal at about $250, but at the $400 range the 8800 GTS has no competition.
 

col-p-todd

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If I were you I would wait for the R600 to atleast see how it peforms compaired to the 8800 and then buy a card. but if you need one now then I would suggest the 8800GTS
 

ArbY

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8800GTS would be the better buy over the X1950XTX, but it certainly wouldn't "slaughter" the X1950.

Here are the power requirements for the 8800GTS:
400W PCI Express-compliant system power supply with a combined 12V current rating of 26A or more (Minimum system power requirement based on a standard PC configured with an Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor)
 

pottymonster

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i bought a 8800gtx, but if i was you i'd just hold out for a month and see wether the 8000 series is as good as the R600 and then make your decision.
 

pmr

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If I were you I would wait for the R600 to atleast see how it peforms compaired to the 8800 and then buy a card. but if you need one now then I would suggest the 8800GTS
off topic- what configs do you have in futuremark/catalyst?? Your 3dmark score is too low.
 

Heyyou27

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If I were you I would wait for the R600 to atleast see how it peforms compaired to the 8800 and then buy a card. but if you need one now then I would suggest the 8800GTS
off topic- what configs do you have in futuremark/catalyst?? Your 3dmark score is too low.He has an FX55 and an X1950XT. I don't see anything unusual about his score. :?
 

starmanwarz

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Thanks for all your replies guys!Unfortunately,the 8800GTS is like 100 Euros($150) more expensive than the 1950 and I also have to buy a new cpu,mainboard and ram so I cant afford it.Anyway,I just checked the 8800's specs,and I saw that the Engine clock is at 500MHz and the Memory Clock at 1600MHz,whilst on the 1950 is 650 and 2000.Doesn't that matter?
 

MikeGR7

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Of course not! Mhz isn't a performance indicator anymore. Things that really matter are memory bus width, number of pixel\vertex shader units, amount of memory and core architecture. Mhz will count between same company products which has all the above specifications identical. :wink:
 

starmanwarz

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This is a great place!Thanks again for all the quick replies.So I guess that nVidia is better than ATI(generally)and the 8800 is the best choise.I think I might have to rob a bank though :wink:
 

randomizer

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8800GTS would be the better buy over the X1950XTX, but it certainly wouldn't "slaughter" the X1950.

Here are the power requirements for the 8800GTS:
400W PCI Express-compliant system power supply with a combined 12V current rating of 26A or more (Minimum system power requirement based on a standard PC configured with an Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor)

Thats pretty funny since the x1950 pro that I got from powercolor says a system with it needs a 450W with at least 30A on the combined 12V rail. I doubt it.
 

akahuddy

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Thats pretty funny since the x1950 pro that I got from powercolor says a system with it needs a 450W with at least 30A on the combined 12V rail. I doubt it.

Gotta cover there arses for people who use really crappy 450W PSU's...
 

blade85

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So I guess that nVidia is better than ATI(generally)and the 8800 is the best choise.

uhhhh....it is in this case yes, because at the moment its the only one with dx10 support. That doesnt mean its "generally" better. Until the 8800 series was released ATI had the lead in gfx performance. Also my personal experience is that ATI's in game image quality is a little better than Nvidias (just my opinion, not trying to start a flame war here).

So technically its like a seesaw...one day nvidia leads, then ati come along and gets better, then nvidia goes ahead and gets even better and so on.
 
The 8800GTS is a much better card.
It is marginaly faster than the X1950XTX in DX9 games and has full support for DX10 gaming.

You can also overclock the GTS to nearly match in performance with the GTX.

If your coolmaster psu is the same as either one listed on newegg, you should be alright.
Bouth listed on newegg show 2 +12V rails with 18/16A.
Just inside minimum system power requirements.

If you are in no hurry, I would recommend waiting a month or so for the R600 to come out.
There is also a sub $300 version of the GTS that is supposed to be comming out soon.
 

starmanwarz

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What is this R600 everyone is talking about?Is it ati or nvidia?And that sub version of the GTS will be as good as the one that exists now?