Should I...

lee1001 · Oct 4, 2004

Get the Radeon X800 XT PE or the Geforce 6800 Ultra.

My Sys specs...
ABIT IC7-MAX3
P4 3.2Ghz
1024mb ram

I have read many articles in THG and other sites that show both cards are pretty equal. THG VGA CHarts IV some games The Radeon wins (Far Cry + Combat Vietnam), others the Geforce (Doom3 + UT2004 + Call Of Duty). I can probably get the Geforce for £30 cheaper than the Radeon.

Is their any indication of which chip the games manufacturors prefer and therefore will make the games run best on that particular chip in the future? E.g. Doom3 4 Geforce and HL2 4 Radeon.

Im spending £300 on my GFX card and I can't decide. So its up to you guys to decide for me. Which ever gets the most votes, i'll buy.

Thanks.

RichPLS · Oct 4, 2004

I have similar setup, using X800 XT PE.

Toms just posted VGA card update featureing these two cards.

========================
Try everything...
Do not be afraid of failure, for this is how we learn and grow...
Live life to the fullest...
Do not regret what you have not yet done!!!

rx7000 · Oct 4, 2004

If your worried about games of the future you cant go wrong with the 6800 Ultras support of pixel shader 3.0. I was turned off from the ultra for the extra slots and the extra power connector, Its kind of a pig, I myself opted for the 6800 GT. Id prefer the x800xt over the ultra personally. But I guess you just have to balance your options and figure out what you want. If you have the room and the power to spare and you want a card thats going to be more future proof, go with the ultra. If you wanna gamble that pixel shader 3.0 isnt going to take off and you dont want the ridiculous requirements of the ultra, go with the radeon.

Asus p4c800 Deluxe,1 Gig Mushkin PC3200 Dual Channel 400 Mhz(222),Pentium 4 3.0 512k 800fsb HT, Thermaltake Xaser III, Thermaltake Spark 7+, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro, GeForce 6800 GT.

cleeve · Oct 4, 2004

You can't go wrong with either. Both are amazing cards.

I have to give props to Nvidia for jumping over to SM 3.0. Even if this feature is useless for a few more months, I think it's important to support forward-looking hardware and get the installed user base higher so it becomes viable for Devs to program advanced features.

On the other hand, there is a part of me that wants to steer clear of Nvidia cards to "punish" them for their FX series driver fiascos, sending Nvidia a message with my dollars if you will. But they have seemed to smarten up now that they have decent hardware.

However, Kudos to ATI for delivering great performance while listening to the community and implementing an optional Catalyst A.I. optimization system that everyone can work with. Hopefully Nvidia will follow suit and this will become the norm.

Which do I recommend? Hell, I dunno. When it comes down to issues like this, I don't think it really matters all that much. Having said that, I'd probably opt for a 6800U if I had to buy this round (which I'm not), because SM 3.0 might be useless now, but in principle it's a Good Thing™, and the performance is so great with both cards I need a reason to choose one over the other.

________________
Radeon 9700 PRO (o/c 332/345)
AthlonXP 3200+ (Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)
3dMark03: 5,354

sweatlaserxp · Oct 4, 2004

I think the absolute best value for a high-end card is the 6800GT; if I had the money I would probably opt for that one. Both the 6800/X800 are so fast in HL2 that I wouldn't let it impact your decision. The X800XT is IMO the king, but unless retailers can get them down to $450 or less it's not exactly a steal.

Athlon 2500+, Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev2, 768Mb Corsair XMS 5-2-2-2.5, Sapphire 9800 Pro 128Mb, Seagate SATA 80Gb, Fortron-Source FSP400-60PFN

RichPLS · Oct 4, 2004

I got my X800XT PE for $469

========================
Try everything...
Do not be afraid of failure, for this is how we learn and grow...
Live life to the fullest...
Do not regret what you have not yet done!!!

TheGreatGrapeApe · Oct 5, 2004

Another vote for THE GF6800GT (or non PE X800XT). Don't waste money on the top end cards, seriously they go for huge premiums under their slightly slower counterparts, and those savings equals at least 1 game title, whiel the difference in games is rarely more than 2-5% in games.

Don't be cheap, but why throw your money away?

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

Nights_L · Oct 5, 2004

Your 9700 is the best convincing tool..as it's quite old, but still rocks!
so what is it? buy a more future proof video card! 6800~

(personnaly i would get X800..just cuz i'm an ATI fan

)

lee1001 · Oct 5, 2004

I understand what your saying but if i get the X800 XT or the 6800U then iu don't have to worry about upgrading my GFX card for a long time.

If i buy the GT then im just going to have to upgrade my card earlier.

rx7000 · Oct 5, 2004

I Have the 6800 GT and its a pretty amazing card, its posting decent 3dmark05 scores with mild overclocking to. Not only do you get the 1 slot solution, 1 power conector advantage that the radeon x800xt has over the ultra, but your getting pixel shader 3.0 support also. Not to mention its cheaper.

Asus p4c800 Deluxe,1 Gig Mushkin PC3200 Dual Channel 400 Mhz(222),Pentium 4 3.0 512k 800fsb HT, Thermaltake Xaser III, Thermaltake Spark 7+, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro, eVGA GeForce 6800 GT

lee1001 · Oct 5, 2004

RX7000.

Thanks for your input. I looked at the new VGA IV Charts and the GT is only slightly behind the 6800U in the benchmarks. Getting this card over the 6800U or XT will save me £70. Which is enough for me to upgrade my mem to Crucial Ballistix DDR PC4000.

Cheers.

pauldh · Oct 5, 2004

Exactly. I'm late to post here, but the 6800GT is not going to get old and need to be replaced before the Ultra would. How much more life did a GF4Ti4600 owner get compared to a GF4Ti4400? None.

Anway, another vote for 6800GT as the best high end card to BUY. Personally the X800XT if priced the same is a better deal, and IMO the X800XTpe is the top dog because when stressed the most at highest resolutions it seperates itself from the pack a little winning more benchies than any other card. Shoot though, you can't go wrong with any of these cards, just don't pay a premium(over list) to get one if another is available at a discount(under list).

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

lee1001 · Oct 5, 2004

Quick question off topic Paul.

I notice you have the ABIT IS7 (865PE) board. Does that support HT?
Im getting the P4 3.2GHZ with HT Processor. The board i was going to get was the IC7-Max3 which has the 875P chipset and is apparently a great board for Overclocking.

The IS7 has almost identical specs as the IC7 and is also £60 cheaper.

SO im wondering if id be better off going with the IS7 as ive heard in this forum that there is no real benefit of 875P over 865PE.

What is the overclocking potential of the IS7?

pauldh · Oct 5, 2004

I'm a huge IS7 fan and have been since it was released. I have two of them and have built many more. The i865pe boards IMO were a better deal than the i875p.

Without overclocking, with the right ram, you can activate gaming enhancement in the bios which makes the IS7 perform just like the IC7 with it's PAT. If you have good low latency ram, you can set it to it's top mode (F1 settings) and get even a bigger boost. My Corsair TwinX PC3200LL could run F1 settings fine.

When it comes to overclocking, the IS7 is a great board too. I do however suspect the IC7 MAx to score a little higher at the same speeds, because I am yet to find any higher speed (PC4000) ram that will allow you to run the fsb and memory in sync and still have gaming enhancement turned on. But this is still faster than running the memory async slower and enabling F1 or SPeedracer settings.

Also, it has been many months since I bought an IS7. But every IS7 I have used has had 3Comm Gigabit ethernet included even though standard 10/100 LAN is advertised. Maybe not a big dealto you, but a bonus feature anyway if that is still the case.

IMO, The most extreme overclocker wanting to be on the top of the P4 futuremark charts would want the IC7 Max for a tiny edge in overclocked performance(my guess), but to me overclcoking is getting more performance without paying for it. The IS7 overclocks very well reaching high fsb speeds, so I think that the savings is worth it. get a plain IS7 though, not an IS7-e.(value)

The IS7 will be a great match for your P4 3.2, wether you OC or not.

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

Flatcat1 · Oct 5, 2004

Go for the Ultra its king

Sleep with one eye open!!

TheGreatGrapeApe · Oct 5, 2004

Which is enough for me to upgrade my mem to Crucial Ballistix DDR PC4000.

And that's what I was eluding to. Whatever the GF6800U and X800XT will play the GF6800GT will play. It's just as 'future proof' as the others, only the smallest margin slower, and I think you've come to realize that that difference isn't worth much $ or £ wise.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

sweatlaserxp · Oct 6, 2004

Which is enough for me to upgrade my mem to Crucial Ballistix DDR PC4000.

In that case, your money would be better spent on the 6800U or X800XT, because that will yield raw performance far beyond having memory that is ever-so-slightly faster than the normal stuff. Your choice.

Athlon 2500+, Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev2, 768Mb Corsair XMS 5-2-2-2.5, Sapphire 9800 Pro 128Mb, Seagate SATA 80Gb, Fortron-Source FSP400-60PFN

RichPLS · Oct 6, 2004

I agree, your 1 gig of RAM is enough for all current games.
You won't gain much going from PC3200 to PC4000 RAM

Get the X800XT PE for your speed freak rush...

========================
Try everything...
Do not be afraid of failure, for this is how we learn and grow...
Live life to the fullest...
Do not regret what you have not yet done!!!

pauldh · Oct 6, 2004

If you want to start overclocking a P4 800 bus chip, keeping the memory in sync with the FSB yields the highest performance. So it will be costly to upgrade his ram considering he has 1GB already (ouch), but if he wants to overclock that P4, then PC3200 just isn't enough.

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

TheGreatGrapeApe · Oct 6, 2004

Actually P4s benifit greatly from increased ram speed (even at higher latencies), while AMDs are very latency sensitive.

I still think the money would be better spent on a game or something, but would not go wasted in the hand of somene who knows how to use it.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

rx7000 · Oct 6, 2004

And its not even that much slower than the Ultra or XT once you juice it up a tad and give it a boost. Sure you might have to run your card a little harder, but you can easily meet or exceed stock ultra speeds if your so inclinced.

Asus p4c800 Deluxe,1 Gig Mushkin PC3200 Dual Channel 400 Mhz(222),Pentium 4 3.0 512k 800fsb HT, Thermaltake Xaser III, Thermaltake Spark 7+, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro, eVGA GeForce 6800 GT

sweatlaserxp · Oct 6, 2004

Like I said earlier, I would rather spend the extra money on a more powerful card because the performance increase will be much more dramatic, but honestly if you're going with nVidia then I don't think the Ultra is worth the extra money. It's wayyy more expensive and the performance increase is totally disproportionate to the price increase. I would just get the 6800GT, OC it if you like and save the leftover money for something else like beer or prostitutes.

Athlon 2500+, Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev2, 768Mb Corsair XMS 5-2-2-2.5, Sapphire 9800 Pro 128Mb, Seagate SATA 80Gb, Fortron-Source FSP400-60PFN

TheGreatGrapeApe · Oct 6, 2004

Now you're thinking man!

Another vote for MORE beer!

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

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