x1950xt vs. 8800gts

dps_kane

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May 5, 2007
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can you give me an advise which card to buy?

i am from germany, and the prices here can not even closely compete with US prices, so please take this into account.

i am not sure whether i should rather take a x1950xt or a 8800gts.
in the sticky guide it says the 8800gts is a much better card which costs only slightly more (+20% in this guide - from february).

i have an offer for the x1950xt for 150€, i.e. about 205$. the added cooler is of ultimatively bad quality and people complain because it is loud and the chip gets insanely hot, hence, crashes a lot. the good thing is, i have a water cooling system - so this is not an issue for me.

on the other hand, the cheapest 8800gts is 250€ which is roughly 340$, i.e. an increase of 66% in price!

is the 8800gts worth the extra money?
 

DJ_Jumbles

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It depends... I think that the 8800gts is an awesome choice, but what resolution are you going to be using? (I am a little biased, as I own one) This only makes a difference in the memory that you should go for. 320mb or 640mb. Also... you might want to buy off of Ebay and have it shipped to you in Germany. Even with the shipping costs, it might be cheaper than buying one off the street over there.
You might want to check the articles on Toms and find out what performance increases you can look for the money, also. I'm a little out of the loop lately because I havent had to do any comparisons except on the high end.
 

dps_kane

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resolution will be kept rather low/normal (usual 1280x960, MAYBE 1600x1200).

well shipping is not the biggest problem, customs are. if i remember correctly it's a whopping 19% right now ...
 

melarcky

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yes i know in the EU customs is a B!tch i would get the gf 8800gts just because it will be in use for a much longer time because of tis DX 10 capability's other wise its up to you
 

col-p-todd

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I have a X1950XT and was thinking about selling it and getting a 8800GTS 640mb. the gts performance is better but not worth the extra cash. It only is interesting if you planning on using dx10 with vista, but you pay a premium for it vs the X1950XT considering it is 100 euro more and not that much performance gain. especially at lower resolutions.
 

pauldh

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I have a X1950XT and a 320MB GTS. The GTS is better, but it's not at all the blowout that [H]ardOCP portrays. So based on your prices of 150€ vs 250€ IMO the X1950XT is easily the better buy, especially for 1280x960 gaming. If a 640MB GTS was 250€, then that would be a good buy too. But if it's a 320MB, my advice is save the cash and buy the X1950XT.
 

minty

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Ughh... though choices.
Im no expert since actually Ive annoyed people for the past month asking for n00b help, BUT, it seems from your current resolution and the prices, the x1950xt might be the best choice.
The thing is, Im not sure how much is 50 euro in regards of "lifestyle". If they were 50 dollars and you're not like a 13 year old kid or something, then I'd say "Go for the 8800", but then I know barely nothing about economy in Europe.

The biggest problem IMHO, is the fact you said

MAYBE 1600x1200

Mmm... well for this task I believe the 8800, BUT 640MB is the best choice, but a quick search in amazon reveals an amount of 360 EU the cheapest, so obviously that card is way out of your budget...

SO... if 50 EU is quite something in your economy... buy the X1950xt, though Im not sure how that card will perform in the new set of games to come in the future (e.g UT 3, Crysis, Bioshock etc).

But the problem again for me, is the fact you might like to play at a high resolution, which is where the 640MB vs 320MB versions of the 8800GTS come to play.

But im just a n00b anyway.

And this:

I have a X1950XT and a 320MB GTS. The GTS is better, but it's not at all the blowout that [H]ardOCP portrays. So based on your prices of 150€ vs 250€ IMO the X1950XT is easily the better buy, especially for 1280x960 gaming. If a 640MB GTS was 250€, then that would be a good buy too. But if it's a 320MB, my advice is save the cash and buy the X1950XT.

Judging from the avatar this guy is the Oblivion Benchmarking Guru or something so I heard, so you should listen to him (well, at least I think Oblivion benchmarks are a good way to decide what card to get).
 

ethel

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Just did a search on froogle and I can pick up a X1950XT 256MB for £121, and a 8800GTS 320MB for £166.

I'd say that the X1950XT price you mention (about £100) is fantastic value for money - go for it.
 

blade85

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get the gf 8800gts just because it will be in use for a much longer time because of tis DX 10 capability's other wise its up to you

Do you have any proof what so ever that the 8800 gts will perform well on dx10???

spending an extra 100 euros on a card just because it may be able to play dx10 games is not wise. If anything, you should say the 8800 GTS is better as we speak in dx9.

But even in dx9 its that far ahead (at least not the 320 mb version). And since the resolutions he is going to be playing at is really not that high, my personal oppinion would be to get the x1950XT.

Save some money for a better upgrade when the dx10 games really come out and you can see for yourself how the cards perform in them.

Also if you dont already have vista and dont plan to get it within a year or so getting a dx10 card now is pretty useless any way since you cant use dx10 in XP.


So performance wise, the 8800 GTS is definitely a little bit better. But at your gaming resolution a x1950XT will do just fine.
 

dps_kane

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great ... prices just changed in that shop. now the x1950xt is 175€ (~240$).

well, i think i will buy it anyway. i think it is still a good choice ;-)