Need Advice Please!! (Videocard purchase)

[MajorPayne]

Need Advice Please!!

I need advice from the helpful people on this forum. I have a decision facing me today that I did not think I would have to face for quite a while.

I have managed to sell my old video card (a Radeon 9600XT) for a VERY nice sum (to someone who was well aware of what it was, and what else was available, but bought it anyway, even over my protest). I now have $400.00 for new video card!!!! It is shaping up to be a WAY better christmas than I thought it would be.

Now, on to the problem: Which video card should I buy? I am (well, WAS) the owner of an ATI 9600XT, which I was VERY happy with. That card lasted me longer than any other video card I have ever had. I was also badly burned by the Nvidia card that I had right before the 9600XT, which was one of the infamous FX series of crippled cards. Because of this, I have tended to "lean ATI" for the last year, and my first instinct is to get one of the X800 family of cards, but....

I have been hearing very good things about the new Nvidia cards (6800GT would be roughly what I would be looking at), and I have also heard that while the Nvidia cards fully support pixel shader 3.0, the ATI cards do not fully support it (and I have also head that the ATI cards have less pipelines). My fear is choosing the wrong card, and winding up with a VERY expensive thing I cannot GIVE away because game companies start using pixel shader 3.0, and my card does not fully support it.

So, back to my question... Does anyone have any advice/recommendations for which card I should go with? Also, does anyone have any insight to whether the information about pixel shader 3.0 beign only fully supported on Nvidia? And if so, does anyone know whether pixel shader 3.0 will be implemented in games soon? Any insight you can shed would be helpful, and thanks for anyone who read my rather lengthy post (and yes, don't feel sorry for me that I have a problem, cause this is DEFINITELY the kind of problem I would like to have more of!!)

 

[Reaktor4]

Ati cards do not support ps3. Ps 3 will give whatever games use it a small performance boost, thats about it. The idea that it improves image quality apparently came from nvidia posting screenshots showing "with and without ps3", but they had the non ps3 screenshots on low quality settings. Nvidia cards do not have more pipelines.
It doesnt really matter what card you get imo. Id probably go for the 6800gt or wait a while and get a x800xt when its price drops.

 

[Sucky Ducky]

Ati cards do not support ps3. Ps 3 will give whatever games use it a small performance boost, thats about it. The idea that it improves image quality apparently came from nvidia posting screenshots showing "with and without ps3", but they had the non ps3 screenshots on low quality settings. Nvidia cards do not have more pipelines.
It doesnt really matter what card you get imo. Id probably go for the 6800gt or wait a while and get a x800xt when its price drops.

x800 has up to 16 Pixel Pipelines (not sure if it's only on the Platinum Edition though)

6800 GT and Ultra both have 16 Pixel Pipelines, the standard has 12.

But if you want to save some money, you could go for the slightly cheaper 6600 GT, also with PS 3.0, 12 Pixel Pipelines and it outperforms the 9800 XT by a fair margin and it's still cheaper...

 

[Reaktor4]

x800 has up to 16 Pixel Pipelines (not sure if it's only on the Platinum Edition though)

no x800xt and xtpe both have 16, pro has 12

 

[MajorPayne]

no x800xt and xtpe both have 16, pro has 12

Ah, this is the source of my unease. I KNEW I had heard somewhere that at least one of the X800's had less than 16 pipes. If I DO get an X800 card, it will probably have to be a pro, since I am targeting around $400.00. So if it only comes with 12 pipes (not 16 as the XT), then I will probably go with the Nvidia 6800 GT (which DOES have 16 pipes, and supports PS 3.0).

 

[Graxx]

I say ATI all the way though I have no solid reasons. I've been very happy with my 9600XT and don't plan to upgrade until I get a PCI-E motherboard which is why I am posting.

Whatever you get, make sure you have the right slot (AGP or PCI-E) to support it.

>Gr@xx

 

[MajorPayne]

I say ATI all the way though I have no solid reasons. I've been very happy with my 9600XT and don't plan to upgrade until I get a PCI-E motherboard which is why I am posting.

Whatever you get, make sure you have the right slot (AGP or PCI-E) to support it.

>Gr@xx

Yeah, I have been "ATI All the way" since I bought my 9600XT -- it has been a great card all around. My concern is that the ATI card I can afford (the X800 PRO) would have 12 pipelines instead of 16, wheras the Nvidia card I can get (the 6800 GT) would have 16 pipelines. Also, the Nvidia card would support pixel shader 3.0, and having been caught on the wrong end of the PS2.0 deal with an Nvidia FX card originally, I do not want to bet wrong here -- I do not get to throw $400.00 at a GFX card every day. So it is looking more and more like the 6800 GT is the way to go. Does anyone know if the X800 XL's (the new version of the X800) are on the market yet? Anandtech said that they should be soon, but I cannot find them online or in stores yet.

 

[anton]

hello, somebody help me out?

i have a mobo: asrock k7s8x / amd athlon 2600+ /
mem: 512 mb / graka: 6600 GT club 3d

i bought a new 6600 GT but i can't get serious changes in compare to my old graka Gforce 5200 256 mb ?

when i play medal of honor spearhead i get a framerate of about 50 fps others players with the same card reach 100 fps

anybody have a clu ?

Thanks

Anton

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

are the other players specs the same as yours? You're CPU isn't the fastest so..

but really 50fps is nothing to be ashamed of!

 

[czrsink]

Try playing on lower graphical resolutions such as 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 with maximum details, rather than trying to play at really high resolutions.

 

[CyberPitz]

I've got my 9600XT and I'm the most happy with it then I was with ANY video card I've had before for it's price! $130 for this beast, and It's lasted me...over year so far ^^

 

[michaelsil1]

I used to buy nVidia now I'm ATI all the way. Here's an ATI X800 XL
16 Pipelines for $359.00

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA33040

 

[Ahnteis]

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=322716

 

[DrDevin]

hello, somebody help me out?

i have a mobo: asrock k7s8x / amd athlon 2600+ /
mem: 512 mb / graka: 6600 GT club 3d

i bought a new 6600 GT but i can't get serious changes in compare to my old graka Gforce 5200 256 mb ?

when i play medal of honor spearhead i get a framerate of about 50 fps others players with the same card reach 100 fps

anybody have a clu ?

Thanks

Anton

Did you remember to uninstall all of your videocard drivers when you installed the graphics card? The driver can influence your performance by an incredibly large margin. If you have not unistall all or your ati drivers, then whatever you have now and install these

As for the main question if you have a PCI-E mobo right now you would want to go with the the X850 for maximum performance in a single slot solution. For maximum image quality (PS3.0) or if you have an AGP slot go for the 6800Ultra. Also if you have a SLI mobo go for the geforce card. However you are right in choosing the 6800GT as it has the best price to performance ratio avaliable other then the 6600GT which is a little slow for the money you have to spend.

The lack of PS3.0 is a concern as some new games take advantage of it such as Splinter Cell:Chaos theory, Far Cry and The Cronnicles or Riddick. Any ati user who thinks this is no loss has not witnessed these games using PS3.0 as it is just amazing, however ati can not do these effects only because of the implimintation not the hardware.

Some shots of the difference ATI then NVIDIA:

Hope that helps!

 

[J_Tweedy]

why are the ps3.0 screenies so much brighter? They look awesome btw.

 

[Ahnteis]

The nvidia screenshots are using a different lighting model. It looks like they're doing some sort of HDR.

Note that it's not brighter everywhere.

 

[J_Tweedy]

yeah, on the whole it looks far better.

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

they look different cause one has HDR and one doesn't

ATi cards don't support HDR on Far cry

 

[Solver]

I'm a NVIDIA man, but of course, HL2 was built with ATI in mind. Then again, it had no performance problems on my GeForce card. One of the things I prefer about NVIDIA is drivers. Regular detonator updates + nForce or some new beta floating around. Some positive stuff indeed!

 

[special-ed]

I use the FX5200 nvidia card and hl2 runs fine for me..

 

[michaelsil1]

I'm a NVIDIA man, but of course, HL2 was built with ATI in mind. Then again, it had no performance problems on my GeForce card. One of the things I prefer about NVIDIA is drivers. Regular detonator updates + nForce or some new beta floating around. Some positive stuff indeed!

ATI updates their Drivers at least once a month.

 

[Jintor]

Haha, the ATi one with the lights looked like lasers comign through the roof...

 

[Dracarys]

I have bought an ATi 9800 SE 128MB, and I've found it to be rather unstable. I had to replace it's fan to fix a chronic overheating problem I was having in UT2004, and even so, the memory errors have been driving me nuts. Plus, although this probably isn't a factor for you, nVidia actually really (not just crappishly half-heartedly) supports Linux! Even native 64-bit Linux! Yay!

Anyway, I would recommend the nVidia 6800. And that you stick with nVidia. Too lazy to back myself up now

 

[J_Tweedy]

Haha, the ATi one with the lights looked like lasers comign through the roof...

I think you'll find that's the nvidia ps3.0 one you're talking about. It is actually more realistic- everyone's just used to bland old generation lighting

 

[michaelsil1]

I have bought an ATi 9800 SE 128MB, and I've found it to be rather unstable. I had to replace it's fan to fix a chronic overheating problem I was having in UT2004, and even so, the memory errors have been driving me nuts. Plus, although this probably isn't a factor for you, nVidia actually really (not just crappishly half-heartedly) supports Linux! Even native 64-bit Linux! Yay!

Anyway, I would recommend the nVidia 6800. And that you stick with nVidia. Too lazy to back myself up now

If I'm not mistaken the 9800SE is not a very good card don't judge ATI Cards by this Model.

 

[lemmingzappa]

Buy the x800xt......I find they run games alot smoother than nvidia cards...and theres no way Im going back to nvidia they suck.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Moved the thread to Hardware & Software, you'll probably get more and better advice in here.

I frankly don't know which is better, it seems like both x800xt and 6800 have their advantages and disadvantages.