X800XT finally installed in my system

[V8VENOM]

As most probably know, this video card is fast, VERY fast. My FS2004 frame rates improved by 5X or more -- can easily run 1600 X 1200 AA2X and AF8X with very high detail. CMR 4.0 smooth as glass at 1600 X 1200. UT 2004, ultra smooth with everything maxed out. Even games that don't use the new features of the card improved by 3X over my old ATI 9800 Pro 128MB.

Well worth the money.

 

[Nights_L]

Where is your ATI 9800 now? mind give it to me?
anyway, congratulation on ur new purchase, have fun :lol:

 

[HardWareBoss]

Which one did you buy? How much?

 

[V8VENOM]

Saphire X800XT Platinum Edition - $600.

If you want a 9800 Pro you better NOT try or even see a X800XT PE. I'd pay a $1000 for this card if I had too, no problem.

 

[julesjt]

I had the card backed ordered from CDW for $459 but canceled. I don't want to take a chance on games truly utilizing SM 3.0 and not having a card that supports that. Its a great card the X800 but just stupid for ATI to not support SM 3.0 especially the preview of the Unreal Engine 3.0 which uses SM 3.0

 

[V8VENOM]

I'm not aware of any games that will support Shader 3.0 spec and will be released within a year? This time next year I will have moved on passed the X800XT -- fortunately I limit myself to "annual" upgrades now rather than what I used to do (quarterly).

Please don't turn this into an nVidia vs. ATI debate -- both cards are excellent and my post is specifically about my experience with the ATI X800XT and is NOT intended to take anything away from nVidia.

Rob.

 

[PukePile]

Farcry has ps3.0 support


<A HREF="http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=682299587" target="_new">40k in aquamark 3
</A>
P4b2.4@2.8||1024mb DDR@392mhz||9800pro@420/740||Viewsonic UltraBrite 19"||Panisonic DVD-RW

 

[V8VENOM]

do you have an screen shots of the difference in FarCry with PS2.0 vs. PS3.0? Was this added with the recent 1.2 patch?

 

[julesjt]

No one is debating ati vs nvidia. I was just stating the fact of the matter is that games are starting to support SM 3.0 and Far Cry already does. Also Carmack has mentioned 3.0 technology so you can be sure Doom3 will eventually support it also.
Both cards are great, will you get visual difference, for right now they are very slight and not too obvious. But you never know when F.E.A.R. comes and and the newer games. And they will be out in 2005 which is not far away. I can't understand how ATI would ignore SM 3.0

 

[V8VENOM]

"...you get visual difference, for right now they are very slight and not too obvious."

I think you answered your own question as to why ATI didn't support 3.0 spec.

I'd still like to see two screen shots of v2.0 vs. v3.0 in Far Cry -- anyone?

 

[julesjt]

No I didnt answer my question. Minor changes in Far Cry but who knows what you will see in Doom3 and future games. Also a game developed around 3.0 will have major visual differences between 2.0 and 3.0. That you are correct won't be until engines like Unreal Engine 3.0. Which will still work with 2.0 cards and will still look awesome. I do agree both cards are going to make the up coming games look great and play great. I also believe even if you buy the x800 or the 6800 when games come out with 3.0 complete design these cards might not be fast enough. Below is a screen shot link.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040705/index.html

For all we know its going to be another MMX j/k

 

[Guest]

<A HREF="http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040705/index.html
" target="_new">http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040705/index.html
</A>

A few screenies + some comments...

Im with you on this one venom, if your the kind of ppl that upgrade once eveyr 2-3 years with a superhighend PC and throw it in the garbage when its worthless, I suggest getting a GF6 with SM3.0 otherwise if you upgrade your vid card every year or so its not an issue. Same applies for PCIe

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Also Carmack has mentioned 3.0 technology so you can be sure Doom3 will eventually support it also.

Sure it will. Want to point out exactly where he said D3 will use SM3.0? It might make sense if you mentioned 2.0 and knew what the difference was in OGL terms, but what you said makes no sense for D3.

And they will be out in 2005 which is not far away.

Sure like HL2 and D3 were supposed to be out LAST summer. So far the only things that even mention PS3.0 are 'patched/ported' games. And as CryTek said, SM3.0 was NOT an IQ improvement but a speed one for patch 1.2, and it did very little to make the speed 'blazing' or a must buy feature.

If anything the thing to look at would be the differences in the vertex shader support, not the fragment/pixel shader. That's likely to offer much more. VS2.0->3.0 appears to be a far bigger step than PS2.0->3.0.

The argument of SM3.0 support is like akin to someone telling you to sell your GF4ti and buy and FX5200 because it has DX9/PS2.0 support.

DX9.0c and newer drivers have been available for about amonth, yet still no demo that demonstrates this as being the KILLER App it's being touted as. If all people have to show for it is FarCry's 1.2 patch, I'd say that minor jump will likely be equalled by the 3Dc support in Patch 1.3. And really NEITHER is impressive.

You can mention SM3.0 all you want, but there's no compeling reason this year to buy it. If they can't make a DEMO that shows the advantage, then I don't expect an add-in for a game game to offer much.

Nothing so far worthy of the extra transistors or the extra hype.

Maybe this time next year we'll see something, but even then it's unlikely to be more than just an add-on with similar impact as Far Cry. Only once games are built from the ground up around more advanaced requirements, like the Unreal Engine 3 based games, will we see a significant difference. And no D3 is not seeing any impact due to '3.0' aka SM3.0, nor will it ever.


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