Hey guys, question here. Do you think its worth it to spend the xtra $ for the platinum edition ATI cards, or not? I was planning on getting the x850 xt pci (non plat). Or do you think it would bet better to just get a geforce 6800 GT or Ultra, performance and $ wise, which you guys think is better?
ATI platinum vs standard
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pauldh
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Is this Kinney? 
Where are you from and what are your prices? Hard to know what to recommend without knowing prices.
Looking at pricewatch.com for US residents, it's not an easy decision as there is no one card jumping out as the best buy. You have the following high end PCI-e options:
X850XTpe $557
GF6800U $555
X850XT $499
GF6800GT $420
X800XL $370
They are spaced pretty evenly with both the XT and XTpe selling right at about list price. The XL is a good card even for $370, yet since it's $70 over list...it loses my vote right now. The 6800U is too overpriced IMO as the X850XTpe is faster and the X850XT at least = to it, not to mention how it's not hard to pick up an AGP one for $100 less, which is just as fast. The 6800GT has come down in price lately, which is nice to see. It's still $75 more expensive than it's AGP counterpart without being any faster. Of course if you have a SLI mobo, you have to decide if that is a route you might want to take in the future.
I like the X850XT, X850XTpe, or GF6800GT if you think you want SLI. The X800XL would be my first choice if it were $300 like it should be, But you will have to wait a bit for that to happen. It offers pretty close to 6800GT performance for $100 list price less. But in reality, right now it's only $50 here, which may be close enough in price to consider the 6800GT and possible SLI upgrade.
I think all of those cards are very good cards. You have to decide which you can best afford. There are plenty of reviews to read if you want to compare how they perform. Basically just make sure that you don't spend too much on video if you make a crucial sacrifice somewhere else. For instance, with any of these cards, make sure you have 1.0GB of system ram. Don't go XTpe or Ultra and 512MB of ram rather than 6800GT XT or XL and 1.0GB of ram. I personally would make a sacrifice in CPU though to buy a better card. For instance, I'd definately step down from a A64 3800+ to a 3500+, and put a little more money into a video card instead. But that's just my opinion.
You have to decide based on budget, games you play, and the resolution your monitor supports and you hope to game at, as to what is the best choice for you. Honestly at our prices here in the USA, the only card I'd avoid is the 6800U PCI-e as it's not worth $130+ more than a 6800GT. And I happen to own a 6800U myself, but it was AGP and much cheaper. Great card if priced right. If you are waiting to buy, keep an eye out for price drops, especially with the X800XL.
<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3400555" target="_new"> My</A> <A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8268935" target="_new">Gamer</A>
Where are you from and what are your prices? Hard to know what to recommend without knowing prices.
Looking at pricewatch.com for US residents, it's not an easy decision as there is no one card jumping out as the best buy. You have the following high end PCI-e options:
X850XTpe $557
GF6800U $555
X850XT $499
GF6800GT $420
X800XL $370
They are spaced pretty evenly with both the XT and XTpe selling right at about list price. The XL is a good card even for $370, yet since it's $70 over list...it loses my vote right now. The 6800U is too overpriced IMO as the X850XTpe is faster and the X850XT at least = to it, not to mention how it's not hard to pick up an AGP one for $100 less, which is just as fast. The 6800GT has come down in price lately, which is nice to see. It's still $75 more expensive than it's AGP counterpart without being any faster. Of course if you have a SLI mobo, you have to decide if that is a route you might want to take in the future.
I like the X850XT, X850XTpe, or GF6800GT if you think you want SLI. The X800XL would be my first choice if it were $300 like it should be, But you will have to wait a bit for that to happen. It offers pretty close to 6800GT performance for $100 list price less. But in reality, right now it's only $50 here, which may be close enough in price to consider the 6800GT and possible SLI upgrade.
I think all of those cards are very good cards. You have to decide which you can best afford. There are plenty of reviews to read if you want to compare how they perform. Basically just make sure that you don't spend too much on video if you make a crucial sacrifice somewhere else. For instance, with any of these cards, make sure you have 1.0GB of system ram. Don't go XTpe or Ultra and 512MB of ram rather than 6800GT XT or XL and 1.0GB of ram. I personally would make a sacrifice in CPU though to buy a better card. For instance, I'd definately step down from a A64 3800+ to a 3500+, and put a little more money into a video card instead. But that's just my opinion.
You have to decide based on budget, games you play, and the resolution your monitor supports and you hope to game at, as to what is the best choice for you. Honestly at our prices here in the USA, the only card I'd avoid is the 6800U PCI-e as it's not worth $130+ more than a 6800GT. And I happen to own a 6800U myself, but it was AGP and much cheaper. Great card if priced right. If you are waiting to buy, keep an eye out for price drops, especially with the X800XL.
<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3400555" target="_new"> My</A> <A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8268935" target="_new">Gamer</A>
No this is not Kinney, and yes i live in US. I had read THG review on the pci e cards, and thought the x850 xt non plat looked good. I figured I'd go pci since i'm essentially building a new system anyways, and was curious if there was a big difference performance wise in ati's platinum vs. non platinum cards
pauldh
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Yeah, I'd say go with the plain X850XT if you have the $499 to spend. Honetly is seems to be 3-5% slower than the platinum, which amounts to very little fps. They also seem to play at the same settings; ie the platinum rarely would allow for higher AA than the plain XT.
ANother thought, the platinum really will need a very high end CPU to be able to pull away from the plain XT in many games. Saving the $50 and going plain XT isn't a bad idea at all really.
Since you read THG review, here is another one.
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2290&p=9" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2290&p=9</A>
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ANother thought, the platinum really will need a very high end CPU to be able to pull away from the plain XT in many games. Saving the $50 and going plain XT isn't a bad idea at all really.
Since you read THG review, here is another one.
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2290&p=9" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2290&p=9</A>
<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3400555" target="_new"> My</A> <A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8268935" target="_new">Gamer</A>
Yeah, that anandtech article seems to confirm what i gathered from the THG article. I was planning on getting the AMD 64 s939 90 nm 3200+ cpu, and i don't think that is really fast enough to take advantage of the x850xt pe, and that is also the reason why i decided against going sli (which is why i decided to go with ATI GPU). I plan on getting a DFI lanparty UT nf4 ultra D mb, with 2 512 stix RAM (not sure on RAM, am having difficulty getting support info from DFI/ RAM manufacturers). I was thinking about getting some of that pdp sysytems patriot ram; either the pdc 3200 llk or xblk Was also considering getting Corsairs twinx1024 3200 c2pt, or if i can budget it in, some crucial ballistix BL6464Z402. According to DFI, the only corsair RAM supported in 512MB is the CMX 512 3200, which may not include the 3200c2 model. Lol, what a pain in my arse
didn't i mention that in my last post? anywho, i'm waiting to here from pdp about compatability, just wanna make sure about it before i buy. Maybe i'll just go with the crucial ballistix pc 3200.
Well how does that xblk patriot compare to the ballistix 3200, performance and price, about the same price right?
Wow. If that's true I'm really impressed with pdp. BTW at newegg.com 1gb of patriot pc 3200 xblk is 2 bucks less than 1 gb of crucial ballistix pc 3200
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RX8
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- Dec 5, 2004
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Told you its cheaper dident i, aaaahhhhhhhhhh.
well make sure you go with 2 x 512 kit of the low latency patriot kit, and remember with slack timings of 3,3,3,8 it OC all the way to 520mhz to 540mhz.
Why is it cheaper, its new made cheaper because of new technologys, where as corsair, ballistix e,t,c have a lot of old stock at old prices which they first need to get rid of to lower there prices.
well make sure you go with 2 x 512 kit of the low latency patriot kit, and remember with slack timings of 3,3,3,8 it OC all the way to 520mhz to 540mhz.
Why is it cheaper, its new made cheaper because of new technologys, where as corsair, ballistix e,t,c have a lot of old stock at old prices which they first need to get rid of to lower there prices.
I'm not sure, but suddenly it seems that everybody's out of stock of the pdp xblk :frown:
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