2 x 7800GT's or X1800 XL??

Ren.182

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Ok, here i am again... The fan on my X850 XT PE PCI-e has died... again. And this was a new card, only a month old. I got an RMA number from OCUK and i'm sending it back tomorrow. At the moment they don't have any of my card in stock, so maybe, i might be able to exchange for a different card.

Now i was wondering which would be better to get. and which would be more future-proof.
I either want:

2 x BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-010-BG) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/7800__Series.html

Ok, if they let me change my card i could get 2 BFG 7800GT's (in SLi of course) and pay the difference. or...

HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-042-HT) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X1800_Series.html

Or i could get that. I'm thinking that SLi would be the way to go with 2 7800GT's. I know there is crossfire, but i don't really want to fork out another £300 to get a master card when they finally arrive. At least with the 2 7800GT's i only have to pay about £130 to get the second card.

What do you think?
Thanks.
 
You might be waiting for the x1800 for a while because I think that ocuk have had alot of pre-orders.
 
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-042-HT)
I wouldn't go for that one. Go for the XT when it comes out when it has 512MB of memory. Why? Will really help for games like FEAR. This is why in alot of games that wont use the extra 256meg, they don't get a massive performance boost.

I have one 7800GTX and it's great, a GT isn't the same as a GTX but still a very nice card. I think you will find 2 of them will allow your e-penis to go slap some bitch 10 feet away.
 
duffers20 said:
You might be waiting for the x1800 for a while because I think that ocuk have had alot of pre-orders.

It says they have some in stock, not sure really.

Minerel said:
I have one 7800GTX and it's great, a GT isn't the same as a GTX but still a very nice card. I think you will find 2 of them will allow your e-penis to go slap some bitch 10 feet away.

Haha, that made me laugh :D
I know they aren't the same card, but i think 2 of them in SLi will be awesome. Really the GT only gets a few fps less than a GTX.
I think i'm going to go SLi...
 
a 7800gt alone is pretty much as good or even better then 1 x1800xl
 
Hmmm, yeah i guess.
And SLi will just make it better.
 
A 7800GT will give you more performance than 2 6800GT's SLi'd.
 
The X1800 XL just plain blows. (for the price at least, in comparison to the GT & GTX)

Everyone needs to admit it.

I did, even though I like ATI.
 
I'm kinda in teh same boat as you ren.182, can't decide on whether to wait for the x1800 xl/xt or get a 7800gtx. The thing that most concerns me is the fact that the 7800gtx only comes with 256mb of ram and it seems that games are demanding more video ram all the time. Will keep an eye on this thread to see what people are saying about the options available.
 
The thing that most concerns me is the fact that the 7800gtx only comes with 256mb of ram and it seems that games are demanding more video ram all the time.
Only FEAR really demands more currently.
I believe Nvidia is going to release a 512meg around the time the 512meg 1800XT is fully out there in november.
 
JellyWorld said:
SLI gives you a bigger e-penis.

Ah poor 3dfx. Create your own damn system Nvidia instead of buying one. I used to run two vodoo 2s in Sli in ye olden days of yore.

Anywhoo if you have the money buy two 7800s. If you want to game at 1600x1200+ with full aa/af that seems to make a lot of sense.

I'm still waiting for Crossfire to be improved.
 
Phoned them up today and they let me switch my X850 XTPE to a BFG 7800GT, ordered a second BFG 7800GT along with it. Should be here tomorrow... just in time for a week and a half long holiday away from college :)

Thanks guys... i'll let you know how it goes ;)
 
Ren.182 said:
Phoned them up today and they let me switch my X850 XTPE to a BFG 7800GT, ordered a second BFG 7800GT along with it. Should be here tomorrow... just in time for a week and a half long holiday away from college :)

Thanks guys... i'll let you know how it goes ;)

Your pc is going to fly through any game you throw at it! Just a thought, do you have a beefy enough psu to support your new cards and also is your case cooling upto the extra heat that will come from the cards?
 
I have a Hiper 580 watt PSU. It'll be strong enough :) (won't it?)
When i built the PC i made sure i got a nice and strong PSU in case i ever upgrade, and so it lasts.

Just got an email saying my 7800GT has been shipped (my other will be here when the RMA process is complete)
 
Ren.182 said:
I have a Hiper 580 watt PSU. It'll be strong enough :) (won't it?)
When i built the PC i made sure i got a nice and strong PSU in case i ever upgrade, and so it lasts.

Just got an email saying my 7800GT has been shipped (my other will be here when the RMA process is complete)

Think the psu will do it ;) I'm so jealous! Totally wanna get myself a 7800gtx single card, new psu and new asus mobo like the one you have, can't really afford an sli setup but the single card would be good for a year or 2 right?
 
Yeah the single card would be good for a year or 2, easily i would say.

I'm so excited to fire up my computer and load up some really awesome games and play them all in max settings easily :)
 
duffers20 said:
Think the psu will do it ;) I'm so jealous! Totally wanna get myself a 7800gtx single card, new psu and new asus mobo like the one you have, can't really afford an sli setup but the single card would be good for a year or 2 right?

Don't worry duffers, a single 7800GTX will eat games and spit them out for a couple of years. Oh, and as a fellow custompc reader/fan, get yourself the seasonic that won the psu test when you do

;)

I've sold the system in my sig and i'm looking at a single 7800TX for my new system, and maybe at a later date, when needed i might get a second GTX, but i don't envisage the GTX having any problems for quite a while.
 
My first 7800GT got here this morning, it's now installed and ready to go. Don't have time to test out any games, gotta be at college soon, but i've got 3Dmark 05 and 03 downloading now.

Can't wait to get home tonight...
And Essy... Shouldn't you be working? :p
 
Thats what I think I will do then in a couple of weeks, get the 7800gtx, the seasonic psu and a asus a8n-sli mobo! I mean if i need to, then I can always save up and add a 2nd gfx card in sli if i need the extra performance boost!
 
dekstar said:

Em, not all of us overclock our hardware that much. The FX-57 used in teh test was cooled with dry ice and clocked at about 3.6ghz and the gfx card was also cooled witih dry ice with the memory running at almost 2ghz and the core at 900mhz. Now thats extreme overclocking and you can't really use that info to make any decisions on whether to choose the ati card over a pair of 7800gtx's.
 
Lol, i love all those bs rumours that a single X1800XT can beat a two 7800GTX in sli. And besides, i've seen people's 3dmark05 scores as high as 9500 with a 7800GTX with an overclock acheivable on air.

In reality, chances are that the ati might be faster, but probably not by a whole lot, plus i have also read that despite getting a higher 3dmark05 score, in games the difference is a lot less than 3dmark05 would suggest, and at 1600 x 1200, the 7800GTX actually has the edge.

Plus have you seen the price of the X1800XT !!

And it's such a moot point given the already more than sufficient power of a single 7800GTX, let alone two in sli, which lets not forget, nobody knows how powerful they are, as they are fast enough that they are bottlenecked by the rest of the system.
 
3ssence said:
..let alone two in sli, which lets not forget, nobody knows how powerful they are, as they are fast enough that they are bottlenecked by the rest of the system.

Yeh I remember reading in cpc that no matter how high they set the graphics settings, it didn't make a difference on performance, even at 1600x1200 with 8xaa and 16xaf in hl2, it ran at like 80fps with all teh other settings on high. They are damn powerful cards and the only reason I think i will choose a single 7800gtx will be because of the price and availability.
 
yup, that is true duffers. The reason i'll be getting only one is because my system is already going to cost me in the region of 1400 with just one !!!!

:(

/cries

i've just read that custompc have also had hold of a X1800XT and will have benchmark results in the next issue

:E
 
3ssence said:
i've just read that custompc have also had hold of a X1800XT and will have benchmark results in the next issue

:E

Cool!!! Should be good to have a read.

Yeh systems are pretty expensive, just worked out that its gonna cost be about £550 for a new mobo, psu and gfx card! Pretty damn expensive, but worth it.
 
well yeah I'm still getting a 7800 because I have never owned an Nvidia and I need a change from ATi.
 
Yeah, this is my first nVidia card and its awesome. All my games run a lot smoother than before. And my second GT should be here soon too :)

Gonna do a format sometime this weekend to get rid of all the crap clogging up my computer. Then i'm on to overclocking my cpu :)
 
dekstar said:
well yeah I'm still getting a 7800 because I have never owned an Nvidia and I need a change from ATi.

Well that hardly makes any sense. Tis kinda like saying you've never had a certian type of car. Ah guess it time for ATi to be ignored due to being late. Well atleast they arn't a total flop like the fx series was.
 
Well that hardly makes any sense. Tis kinda like saying you've never had a certian type of car. Ah guess it time for ATi to be ignored due to being late.
Not really it's more like.
"I like this kind of car, but you know... I think i'll give that kind over there a shot to".
 
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