Best card for ~ £100 X800XL or X1600 PRO?

[marshahu]

Now that my system is maxed out to the full and I have a nice 500W Jeantek Power Supply to use I want to max out my PC to the full. I have an AGP 8x slot and I am still using a 9600PRO so I want to max out my AGP 8x slot before AGP cards become extinct.

I was considering an X1600 PRO considering the review that THG gave saying it was the best card for AGP 8x. However I saw the X800XL for the same price and it has complicated my decision.

So which card should I get? X800XL or X1600PRO, and 256MB or 512MB Memory (My current 9600 PRO has 256MB RAM)

 

[prozac26]

X800XL is better. Get that card.

As for the memory, 512mb isn't going to benefit you right now.

 

[Gary_Busey]

ATI.com's store has a clearance sale on refuribished X800XL's and new X850Pro's, both with ATI warranty's. You might want to check that out. I'm getting an X850Pro and flashing it to an X850XT PE.

 

[marshahu]

As well as play new games I intend to watch HDTV movies at full 1080p - I heard that I need at least a X1600 PRO to ensure smooth framerate of HDTV movies. Will the X800XL beat the X1600 PRO in that department or does its only strength lie with better quality gameplay? Also, will the X800XL have VIVO like the X1600PRO so I can feed in HD Component Video signals from my PVR rather than use traditional S-Video signals on my TV Capture card.

 

[Gary_Busey]

I don't know about VIVO but if you look at the specs on ATI.com it says this:

YPbPr connection to HDTV

I've never used my video card for HDTV so I don't know much about it. I'd suggest reading some review of it to get an idea of it's capabilities and then you can judge if it's right for you.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeonx800/radeonx800series/

 

[marshahu]

On closer inspection it seems that the connection you mentioned was a video out connection which enables me to connect the PC to an HDTV set - what I want is the connection which is reversible so I can connect my PVR to the computer for capturing HDTV programmes to a file. The TV card only provides standard S-Video but the X1600 PRO provides VIVO which is incredibly useful considering this card is going to be used in a Media Center PC.

Just out of interest why do you guys say the X800 over the X1600? Surely the X1600 is newer and therefore superior especially with its improved support for features like Pixel Shader 3.0 and HDTV processing to take the load off the processor. I am a little bit of a newb in graphics cards ins and outs so please explain to me.

 

[quantumsheep]

To put it simply the x800XL is much more powerful than the x1600pro. The x1600pro may have the new features (SM 3.0 etc), but it is not powerful enough to run them at anything more than a slide show!

 

[Gary_Busey]

Doesn't the X800XL have VIVO too?

 

[quantumsheep]

I don't believe so, you'll have to check out the ATI website for the specs!

 

[marshahu]

Nope - it only gives an Component Video OUTPUT not VIVO. :roll:

How much extra performance will a 256MB X800XL have over my current 9600 PRO and how much extra performance will a 512MB X1600 PRO have over my current 9600 PRO?

 

[quantumsheep]

Nope - it only gives an Component Video OUTPUT not VIVO. :roll:

How much extra performance will a 256MB X800XL have over my current 9600 PRO and how much extra performance will a 512MB X1600 PRO have over my current 9600 PRO?

Toms did an article on the x1600pro vs 9600pro, the x1600pro completely wiped the floor with the 9600. The x1600pro scored around 3500 in 3dmark05, the x800XL scores around 5000.

The numbers speak for themselves.

 

[marshahu]

Well now its a choice between the X1600PRO and the X800XL - the only really compelling reason for X1600PRO is to use VIVO for component video input.

Does Media Centre Edition enable the use of the X1600PRO's VIVO with Audio or better still Audio from the SPDIF Optical IN on my Audgy 2 ZS Platinum Bay to input Dolby 5.1 Audio from my PVR. If the answer to that is "no" or "yes but limited function" then my choice will lie with the X800XL and I'll settle for S-VHS quality videos from the PVR