X850XT AGP or 7600GT AGP?

[nokia3100]

Im ordering a graphics card for my PC and i was wondering wich would be better. The X850XT is priced higher in my country.

Most the games I play are OpenGl. I know the 7600 will run better on these types of games but how much better. My last card was a X800Pro so will i see an improvement over it?

 

[cleeve]

The 7600 GT and X850 XT perform very similarly. I'd get the 7600 GT at this point because it's slightly more advanced with Shader Model 3.0.
The X1650 XT is also about the same performance and in the same price range.

I wouldn't upgrade to wither of these from an X800 PRO though, it's not enough of a jump.

 

[tamalero]

Im ordering a graphics card for my PC and i was wondering wich would be better. The X850XT is priced higher in my country.

Most the games I play are OpenGl. I know the 7600 will run better on these types of games but how much better. My last card was a X800Pro so will i see an improvement over it?

follow cleeve's advice, the 850XT is not worth it now
new games require aq minimum of shader3 now..but the x850XT is indeed powerful.

 

[pauldh]

The 7600 GT and X850 XT perform very similarly. I'd get the 7600 GT at this point because it's slightly more advanced with Shader Model 3.0.
The X1650 XT is also about the same performance and in the same price range.

I wouldn't upgrade to wither of these from an X800 PRO though, it's not enough of a jump.

Freaky, I was going to make those exact same points.

 

[cleeve]

Great minds!

 

[plguzman]

The 7600 GT and X850 XT perform very similarly. I'd get the 7600 GT at this point because it's slightly more advanced with Shader Model 3.0.
The X1650 XT is also about the same performance and in the same price range.

I wouldn't upgrade to wither of these from an X800 PRO though, it's not enough of a jump.

Some points...

The X850XT is a lot more powerful than the 7600GT. If you check the VGA charts HERE, you will see that is a lot faster in Oblivion (even more at not so large resolutions), and also in the other games. I played Oblivion in my old PC with a AIW X800XT AGP overclocked, and the game ran pretty good, at med-high settings and 1680x1050. Sure, there was some places where the FPS went to 15, but the average was around 30-40.

About the Shader Model 3, you won't have things like HDR, but you will have bloom. Not so pretty, but also you have to take in place that for a card like the 7600GT (with SM3) running a game with HDR enabled will make the game almost unplayable in terms of FPS. The bottom line is, you will have more raw power with the X850XT, sacrificing beauty that is difficult to enjoy with a 7600GT in the first place.

Anyway, I don't know why are you planning to buy an AGP card. Your old card died?. You are not planning to upgrade to PCIe anytime soon?. You also have the alternative of buying a X1950PRO for $199 or so. That card will give you more than both, the X850XT or the 7600GT. More expensive tho.

 

[grifter33]

Wait for the x1950xt's to hit the maket. As of now thats the best possible card you'll be able to get for AGP. It's already posted on their (Gecube's)site. it shouldn't take too long for them to show up.

 

[cleeve]

The X850XT is a lot more powerful than the 7600GT.

Nope, not really. Not in my experience anyway.
In the 7600 GT/X850 XT/X1800 GTO review I wrote for Tom's I found them to perform really closely, on the whole.

Of course you can find a benchmark that favors either, but on the average they're pretty damn close. You have to take all benchmarks into consideration, not just one:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/25/sub_200_pci_express_graphics_card_showdown/page6.html

 

[plguzman]

Well, not my intention to hijack the trade, but that link you pointed me shows that the X850XT is, in the first graphic 17.6 and 19.2% more powerful respectively, and in the 2nd chart 19.5%. IMO, around 20% more is a gain you definitely will notice. The thing is that the game is so massive that the FPS numbers are all small lol.

 

[cleeve]

You have to look at the other pages of the review though, that's my point.

In other games the 7600 GT will beat the X850 XT, like Half Life 2, Star Wars Empires at War, Need for Speed underground 2, etc.

On the whole, they're close. If Oblivion is the only thing you're upgrading for, sure the X850 XT is the better choice. But on average, on the whole - they're very close.

And the ability to use HDR is nice, It's playable with the 7600 GT in Oblivion and Far Cry, in my experience. You don't have that option with the X850 XT.

 

[pauldh]

Great minds!

:lol: I guess so.

 

[dragonsprayer]

Get the 850xt and the after marker cooler - its much quieter and works great - we ran one for 6 months i use as a build card - when assemble and test systems now.

 

[ryokinshin]

only buy sm3 cards now, new games will require it, some already hav

 

[sirheck]

Get the 850xt and the after marker cooler - its much quieter and works great - we ran one for 6 months i use as a build card - when assemble and test systems now.

if the x850 is 20 bucks cheaper id still go with the 76gt.

the op said the x850 is more.
so the 76gt is the better buy.

 

[scorch]

I personally lean twords Nvidia. When I worked in retail hardware installations I had less problems with them. It was mostly software issues with the ATI cards though, usually solved by downloading the latest drivers or patches. From what I have read on Neweggs website about the 7600GT is that the fan is loud. However if your computer isn't on the desk right next to you, its probally not noticible.

 

[plguzman]

Get the 850xt and the after marker cooler - its much quieter and works great - we ran one for 6 months i use as a build card - when assemble and test systems now.

if the x850 is 20 bucks cheaper id still go with the 76gt.

the op said the x850 is more.
so the 76gt is the better buy.

Well, personal preferences are not worthy now. I have had all nvidia cards except the X800XT, but he is better with the X850XT NOW. New games doesn't "NEED" to use SM3. It would be nice to use it, the games look better, but you need acceptable FR before thinking in beauty. I would like to know what's the argument to go with an inferior card, 20 bucks more expensive.

Use the 7600 GT with HDR in Oblivion, and tell me how many FPS you get.

 

[cleeve]

New games doesn't "NEED" to use SM3.

A couple do, actually. The splinter Cell: chaos theory and the new rogue spear are two, no SM 3.0 and they won't run.

Six months ago I was making the same argument you were, but now on the verge of Dx10 developers have started to dare to drop SM 2.0 support in some release titles and I don't think the prognosis is going to get better.

Also I take issue with you calling the 7600 GT an inferior card, i think it's pretty much on par.

You talk like Oblivion is the only game on planet earth: it's not. But a 7600 GT will get 20 fps at 1024x768 with HDR enabled on a decent system - that's worst case scenario, in heavy foliage with high detail. That's playable in Oblivion, you could certainly lower other detail if HDR is important to you.

But that's more because Oblivion is an Ati-favoring engine, it's not proof that the 7600 GT is generally less powerful. The 7600 GT will perform HDR very well in Far Cry and AOE3.
If Oblivion is that important, the OP should get the X1650 XT which also has SM 3.0 support but is an Ati card and will play Oblivion much better, even better than the X850 XT...

 

[pauldh]

New games doesn't "NEED" to use SM3.

Some games do. Look at Splinter Cell Double Agent. X850 and X800 series owners can't even play that game.

I would like to know what's the argument to go with an inferior card, 20 bucks more expensive. Use the 7600 GT with HDR in Oblivion, and tell me how many FPS you get.

Like Cleeve said, the X850XT and 7600GT are fairly close overall that it would be silly to spend more on the X850XT and already have 2 (or more) games that it can't play.

I'll tell ya, I have a X800XTPE, a 6800U, and a X1650XT all in AGP and have played Oblivion on all three. The worst thing about the 6800U for me was not overall performance, but having to choose between FSAA or HDR while playing at 1024x768 resolution. I switched back and forth between the two (fsaa+bloom or HDR), not fully happy either way, and eventually upgraded to a X1800XT because of it.

The X800XTpe did offer more performance than the 6800U when running fsaa/bloom. I recently compared it against the X1650XT in a few games and it was about the same in farcry, fear, and HL2 lost Coast. But the X800XTpe won NFS:carbon by a few fps. It can't do motion blur in that game, but really the X1650XT and the whole GF7 series can't handle that anyway without low fps. Oblivion it won by a few fps on high details, and the X1650XT won by a few fps with my medium detail settings. I'd take the X1650XT anyday for Oblivion as it can run 4xAA + HDR at 10x7 with fairly decent medium or higher details. So while in my 5 game test, the X800XTpe was a tad ahead overall, I'd still rather have the X1650XT if choosing between the two as they remained playable with the exact same settings.

A 7600GT would be a toss up for me though because no fsaa+HDR. I'd probably rather play Oblivion on the X850XT as HDR + jaggies drives me nuts so I'd want the better fsaa/bloom performer. Other people may not notice the jaggies and instead just go "oooh HDR pretty", making the 7600GT the obvious choice. But given games like SCA, the 7600GT would still be my choice over a X850XT right now if I were buying. And I'd take the X1650XT over both of those, which in the USA at least is priced real good at the moment. Anyway, no right/wrong answer really as they all perform about the same. I don't care to play SCA, but it does have me bothered that PS2.0 support is already being dropped as I have 4 - X8xx series cards that I had hoped to keep using for a couple more years. (X800XTpe, AIW X800XT, X800XL, X800 128MB). To be honest, I now plan on getting rid of the slowest two as to not have too many PS2.0 only cards around.

 

[plguzman]

New games doesn't "NEED" to use SM3.

A couple do, actually. The splinter Cell: chaos theory and the new rogue spear are two, no SM 3.0 and they won't run.

Six months ago I was making the same argument you were, but now on the verge of Dx10 developers have started to dare to drop SM 2.0 support in some release titles and I don't think the prognosis is going to get better.

Also I take issue with you calling the 7600 GT an inferior card, i think it's pretty much on par.

You talk like Oblivion is the only game on planet earth: it's not. But a 7600 GT will get 20 fps at 1024x768 with HDR enabled on a decent system - that's worst case scenario, in heavy foliage with high detail. That's playable in Oblivion, you could certainly lower other detail if HDR is important to you.

But that's more because Oblivion is an Ati-favoring engine, it's not proof that the 7600 GT is generally less powerful. The 7600 GT will perform HDR very well in Far Cry and AOE3.
If Oblivion is that important, the OP should get the X1650 XT which also has SM 3.0 support but is an Ati card and will play Oblivion much better, even better than the X850 XT...

Of course Oblivion is not the only game on earth, but is a reference point in card performance. HDR is a beauty and I love it in my 8800, but when you have an old platform you want FPS before beauty (at least in my case), and that's what a X850XT will give you. If developers are dropping SM 2.0 that's something I didn't know. The X8xx series are awesome cards for AGP. Of course, at the end, will be his decision. And maybe I would take a X1950PRO or even a 1650XT as my card if I have an AGP system.

 

[sirheck]

You talk like Oblivion is the only game on planet earth: it's not. But a 7600 GT will get 20 fps at 1024x768 with HDR enabled on a decent system - that's worst case scenario, in heavy foliage with high detail. That's playable in Oblivion, you could certainly lower other detail if HDR is important to you.

yes i agree my 68gt is very playable or i should say was.

im now on a 16x10 monitor :lol: