8800 or r600, that is the question

[Starmonger]

I was waiting for the r600 because its supposed to be faster, and i like the fact that ati can force triple buffering on d3d games whilst nvidia cant. But now that iv'e heard its gunna be released in may, im considering getting an 8800 gtx instead. anyone know any other news about the exact release date of the r600?

i certainly dont want to buy a new psu either, as my current one is a 700 w game x stream, which i only bought with this new pc 4 months ago. (btw i only have 1 dvd drive, 1 hard drive, 1 graphics card 7600gt, so dont require loads of power anyway)

the games i want that are out now are: Supreme commander, company of heroes, and maybe rainbox six vegas. But im really excited some games which are going to be out in months: Crysis, UT 3, Quake wars.

So, i dont think i really want to wait for another 3 months, need a new psu, and have to pay loads of cash for a brand new card.

what are your thoughts?

 

[Assman]

what are your thoughts?

don't want to wait? - get 8800gtx, and don't even ask which one performs better, g80 or r600 or you're gonna get flamed

 

[pauldh]

If you have a 7600GT now, I'd do a 320MB GTS and then see later on if you want a new card for games like Crysis. In the mean time, the GTS will provide incredible gameplay compared to that 7600GT.

 

[Assman]

In the mean time, the GTS will provide incredible gameplay compared to that 7600GT.

agree, but gts will provide incredible gameplay pretty much compared to any card, besides gtx of course

 

[slashzapper]

In my opinion go for the 8800 for 2 major reasons


1. Its a great card for the money.

2. There is no other alternative if you are looking at the price/performance ratio at the 300 $ mark. I have ordered the Evga Super clocked version 320 mb Gts .


I am upgrading from a x1800 gto . I have never owned a Nvidia card .

 

[Assman]

I have never owned a Nvidia card.

yep, gts is great $/perf. wise i mean, i've upgraded from x1600pro and boy did i notice a difference

 

[randomizer]

lol I bet you did.

 

[Xazax310]

The way i see it The R600 will top the 8800GTX no doubt.... it just that is 10% more performance in games worth waiting 2 months for? i myself bought a 8800GTS from eVGA then step-uped to 8800GTX. R600 is going to kick butt in some games and the 8800GTX is going to win some but its like how the X1900XTX and the 7900GTX spare off in the DX9.0C ring, its going to be the samething in the DX10 ring.



I suggest waiting for the R600 because then the GTX will have dropped dramatically in price and maybe the 8900GTX might be popping up.

Its up to you in the end.

 

[Assman]

it just that is 10% more performance in games worth waiting 2 months for?

lol, i'd be very interested to know where you got these numbers from when r600 is not even released yet?

 

[X20A_zero]

Be patient, your games aren't going to disintegrate if you don't play them for couple of months, plus there are tons of other games that you can enjoy in the meanwhile with your current configuration.

How will you feel if you spend your 600 bucks now and in 2 couple of months comes out a new 3d card way better...
I've never owned an ATI card but I'm really looking up to how AMD+ATI will strike back...

If that doesn't convince you then here is a little word of advice: competition will bring down the prices, thats a nice extra don't you think?

And don't be fooled by the power requirements, just make sure your power supply have a nice Amperage and everything will go smooth. Thats if you are not planning on going through the super ultra "my money grow on trees" SLI way.

 

[Starmonger]

hmmmmmm. thanks for the thoughts. well i dont know if i can hold out any longer, i think im gunna go with the gtx or the 320 gts version. im quite excited about playing Supreme commander, however im worried ill be dissapointed as its supposed to be extremely demanding graphicly.

my system is good though:

core 2 e6600 (not overclocked)
2 gig ddr2 corsair
gigabyte ds3 mobo
x fi soundcard
western digital sata 2 drive
700w ocz game x stream psu
lastly...... 7600gt (oh yess!!)

 

[freshazzburu]

How will you feel if you spend your 600 bucks now and in 2 couple of months comes out a new 3d card way better

If this were the case, he would never get a card, becuase every 4 months a new card will come out

 

[james_8970]

As long as you can play current games, y not wait?
James

 

[X20A_zero]

How will you feel if you spend your 600 bucks now and in 2 couple of months comes out a new 3d card way better

If this were the case, he would never get a card, becuase every 4 months a new card will come out

Got a point, but remember that the geforce 7 series couldn't use HDR and AA at the same time... and the current geforce 8 doesn't come with VIVO

 

[randomizer]

Thats not a prob if you dont use it.

 

[Assman]

Thats not a prob if you dont use it.

lol, brilliant comeback :trophy:

 

[randomizer]

thanks

 

[Assman]

the best part is that it's universal

 

[randomizer]

lol you're right. Should use it more often.

 

[r0x0r]

What about HDMI?

From what I know it's only on AMD cards at the moment. Is HDMI of interest to you?

Also save a few more $$$ and get the 8800GTS 640Mb if you decide to get the 8800.

 

[Heyyou27]

i like the fact that ati can force triple buffering on d3d games whilst nvidia cant.

What are you talking about? You can force triple buffering in the Nvidia driver for both OpenGL and Direct X.

 

[FrankCastle]

i am having the exact same dilemma..

at the moment i have decided to wait for the r600, it just makes it hard when the card keeps getting pushed back and there are no real benchmarks to know if its worth the wait!

 

[Starmonger]

As long as you can play current games, y not wait?

I can't really play the games I want to atm. I usualy just stick with 1 or 2 amazing games and play those for months, but the only games that are out which I really want, would only run smoothely on low graphics settings with my current graphics card. This is kind of unaceptable to me because the rest of my system is designed for playing games at maximum settings. The only game i do play atm is Eve online, which im bored with as it's not allways the most exciting thing to play.

as for Vivo, i don't even know what that is. iv'e seen it mentioned before and allways wondered, isnt it to do with watching movies or using HD tv's or something?

What about HDMI?

From what I know it's only on AMD cards at the moment. Is HDMI of interest to you?

again, i don't know what this is either. is it good?

What are you talking about? You can force triple buffering in the Nvidia driver for both OpenGL and Direct X.

actualy im pretty sure that in order to do triple buffering on d3d games with nvidia, you need a 3rd party program which will force it on. this is ok for some games, but for others it simply does not work. Like with Eve online, the game won't start with this 3rd party software as the client thinks its a hack or something. this means i have to settle for not using vsync, and seeing a bit of tearing with my lcd monitor.

 

[Lempira72]

you wrote :the games i want that are out now are: Supreme commander, company of heroes, and maybe rainbox six vegas. But im really excited some games which are going to be out in months: Crysis, UT 3, Quake wars.

So, i dont think i really want to wait for another 3 months, need a new psu, and have to pay loads of cash for a brand new card. Ok in my opinionget a 8800GTS 640MB from EVGA .why EVGA ? 'cause they are the only card makers that have a 3 MONTH STEP UP program that way by May or June you can upgrade to a 8900GTX or maybe a 8950GTS

 

[r0x0r]

What about HDMI?

From what I know it's only on AMD cards at the moment. Is HDMI of interest to you?

again, i don't know what this is either. is it good?



8O

Off the top of my head:

High Definition Multimedia Interface. Designed for HD (i.e. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD) content. Mainly in the home theatre but there are a few mid range graphics cards (X1300/X1650) which support HDMI-out; mainly for HTPC purposes. I believe it was Viewsonic that announced they will be bringing monitors with HDMI-in to market in 2007.

Why HDMI when we have DVI? HDMI carries video and audio (meh), but I believe the main reason is the copy protection it carries. HDMI is thinner as well but again, meh.

Don't know about the bandwidth though; will be interesting to see if it can support 2560x1600 like double DVI* can.

*double DVI = DVI with twice the bandwith of regular DVI. If you want to game on Dell's 30" monitor at 2560x1600 you'll need cards that support it, otherwise say hello to 1280x1024 (the 8800's support it). Not sure about Apple's 30" but I presume it's the same deal.