what card should i get? hd 2900xt 512mb or 8800gts 640mb superclocked

[temp229]

hi im new to the forums and im in the market to buy a new video card. rite now i narrowed it down to two with a

few mixed reviews... which card should i get for performance and longevity? diamond radeon hd 2900xt 512mb or

evga geforce 8800 gts 640mb superclocked ? i have a dell xps 410 computer and a samsung 22" syncmaster 226bw

monitor. i know the xps 410 has a skimpy psu but i heard from others that its capable of handling these cards. any

suggestions or information will be appreciated, thnx!

 

[bash007]

Well I guess both are really good, but I think the 8800 has a slight edge over the 2900 in that it runs cooler, quieter and draws less power. However, some people believe that there is a lot of potential in the 2900 cards that will soon be seen when more dx10 games come out.
In benchmarks though, both cards perform almost similarly.
I'm talking here about 8800gts stock speed btw, I don't know how much better the superclocked version would be.
Oh and that PSU, I am not sure it will handle these cards, it depends on how many components you've got in your pc.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

any suggestions or information will be appreciated, thnx!

Well main thing is what games you play. Performance varies from game to game, and setting to setting.

And if there's any question about your power supply, I'd say play it safe with the GTS-640, which while not being miserly efficient, is much better than the HD2900 on power.

If you look at in depth tests you get a better idea of the areas of difference Xbit shows you the power difference and the performance differences through a very wide variety of games/settings;

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/r600-architecture_14.html#sect0

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd-2900-games.html

There are other reviews out there, but this one shows you the variability depending on the games you play.


edit: st00pid links! Argh space invaders!!

 

[xela]

I don't think you realise how much power X2900XT draws. Your config with 7900GTX need a 360W PSU (according to PSU Calc) to be in the safe zone. It actully doesn't draw more then 240W according to Anadtech review but if you were to work your PSU to the max 24/7, it wouldn't be very safe

So.. PSU Calc:
Calculations made for:
High End Desktop mobo
E6600 Full load, no OC
2X1GB DDR2 RAM
2 Harddrives
2 Optical Drives
1 PCI Card (Dual-TV Tuner)
Xi sound
2 80mm Fans

Your config with:


7900GTX (Assuming that is what you have now): Safe = 360W
8800 GTS OC : Safe = 392W
X2900XT: Safe = 436W


With a 375W powersupply you will be chancing it with X2900XT (asking for it really). Unless you are willing to invest in a new PSU, 8800 GTS is a clear choice, mind you you will be taxing your PSU even with 8800.

 

[Rabidpeanut]

Listen to this guy. ^

 

[Hatman]

Yeh 2900xt needs 2x 6pin PCI-E connectors JUST to work and even then you cant overclock it at all. Get the 8800GTS 640mb.

 

[San Pedro]

I would consider the xt2900 if you are interested in easy avivo functions, or want to hook up your pc to an HDTV as easily as possible. Otherwise I would think that the GTS 640 OC is a better card for the money.

 

[sojrner]

grapeape, your linky's not working. Looks like you have a space or two in there that shouldn't...

These are the ones he was posting methinks:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/r600-architecture.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd-2900-games.html

But power draw is a concern... and if you are at all sketchy then go w/ what the 'ape and others have said and get the 8800. Of course even THAT may be too much. ??

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Yeah, I posted them, then went back to edit them with <url></url> tags, but forgot to erase the spaces that the forum software added! D'oh!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Yeh 2900xt needs 2x 6pin PCI-E connectors JUST to work and even then you cant overclock it at all. Get the 8800GTS 640mb.

Just a reminder, you can overclock the card with just the 2 6pin connectors, you just can't use the easy 'Overdrive' tool to do it, but instead use tools like the AMD's GPU clock tool, ATiTool, ATiTrayTools, Rivatuner, etc.

So basically the 8-pin power plug is a safety-barriers for n00bs, but not an actual barrier to overclockers who would use the other tools instead of Overdrive anyways.

 

[temp229]

thanks for all the info, i went ahead and purchased the 8800 gts superclocked. i installed it and everything seemed to be working well untill i tried to start up bf2142... the screen went black like it usually does and rite when its about to load a windows error message comes up and says somethings not allowing the program to start properly and no solution. anyone have any ideas of how i can fix this?

 

[sojrner]

first off, did you have an ati card before? You should completely uninstall all previous gpu drivers and hardware before installing the new one. Only once all drivers are uninstalled and the comp reboots w/ just default vga drivers from windows do you then install the new ones.

If you have done that, then try a complete uninstall and reinstall again just for giggles.

I have seen that happen w/ new cards installed on various games. There could be specific issues w/ that game as well as BF games are notoriously buggy but I would do the reinstall first.

 

[temp229]

your rite i did have a ati card before this one... i uninstalled the ati catalyste, does that remove the drivers as well? if not can you please tell me how i can remove the drivers? thanks much

 

[murphy82nd]

No removing the catalyst software just removes the utility, not the driver. To remove the driver, go to the control panel, then go to add/remove programs, and remove the display driver. After that, remove all the ati stuff left in the list, but remove the ATI uninstall utility LAST. If you installed the NVIDIA drivers and had not uninstalled the ATI drivers first, which it sounds like you did, I'd remove the NVIDIA drivers for a fresh install. As a side note, there is a free utility out there called Driver Cleaner Pro. This helps makes sure all the files from the previous drivers and software are actually removed. I usually run this after I do all the add/remove program stuff, just to be sure. If you still have problems after all this it might be something else, but right not sounds like you just have two drivers conflicting with each other.

 

[sojrner]

bingo, and now that both are on there... run that driver cleaner pro and remove everything you can find for Nv or ati. wipe it all out and restart. After a restart check again and make sure it is all gone.

Once clean, install the new Nv drivers. Even if that does not solve teh 2142 issue, it would have caused others.