Graphics 6800GT or X800?

Was wondering if i could have some suggestions for which graphics card i should get. Was looking at the XFX 6800GT with 1 DVI a 1 D-sub. also was looking at an X800PRO. have around £300 so which should i get?

Heard there was an X800 XT at £320??

 

You can get X800XT's and even PE's for around the £320 mark if you look hard enough. But the killer is availability. You will be waiting awhile, unless your bloody lucky, or want a PCIe version.

If it were me, id get the Gainward Ultra2400 Golden Sample 6800GT card.
Last time i looked Microdirect had em for about £315 inc Doom3.

Comes overclocked at 400/1100 (Ultra Speed) out of the box and has dual dvi too. They should clock a fair bit higher than that if thats what your into, but the Ultra Speeds are guaranteed, which is why they cost a little bit more than other 6800GTs.

 

^^^
what he said

 

The X800 Pro sucks in OpenGL games such as Doom3, where most of the time doesn't even perform half as well as the 6800GT with AA and AF enabled. The X800 Pro also is slightly behind in its D3D9 performance in games like HL2 and Far Cry. Go with the 6800GT all the way, you WILL be dissapointed if you get the X800 Pro.

 

I mostly agree with this guy. 6800 is a power-sink though, so make sure your PSU can handle it and will be stable handling it. Don't buy an X800 because of the performance boost in HL2. Only gets that boos because of optimization, and who says nVidia fanboys can't do a little ?

 

go chrizzle that card!


lol ya GT has teh x800 completely pwned no questions asked

id look for one that comes with a small OC if not an ultra esque clock, you can also get them with a coppy of D3 so thats annother thing your looking for. the early ulrtas had power issues, but have sence been fixed, i don't believe the GTs got any updates like that but i could be wrong. ohh and one more thing, stay away from the MSI board

 

Just because something is ****ed up with you computer doesn't mean you should go and badmouth the card. ATI has aways been weak in the OGL department but you make it sound worse than it is. ATI does alot better with DX. X800 Pro pwns!

 

Excellent stuff! Have always seemed to favour Nvidia really, so looks like i'll be going along that route when stocks are replenished, any ideas when this will be??

Also, the 'boost' in HL2 from the X800, would this be noticeable over the 6800GT??

 

Maybe I hold grudges for too long, but I've never trusted those filthy nVidia weasels ever since the 3dMark cheating scam.

It's funny how before Doom 3, most people tended to side with the X800 - after, it's the other way around. Yes, it sucks at OGL - but what I've heard from Valve is that the X800 is going to pwn the GeForces in HL2. (I guess we'll wait and see.)

 

You really think that it will be that much of a difference? Are we talking FPS or Image quality, Rendering etc?

 

No-one can really say until HL2 is released, but the difference isn't likely to be significant.

It's like with Doom 3. Both cards play it really well, but the nVidia has the edge when it comes to FPS. With HL2, it's likely to be the other way around - but most people won't know the difference.

 

ATI Has much better image quality to. only the 6800 series can compete on that level. Geforce 5=crap.

 

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/counter-strike_source/

it's not likely to be as big as you are suggesting.

As I've said many times before, ATI are likely to have a much harder time catching up in Doom 3, than NVIDIA are in Half-Life 2.

The GeForce 6800GT is the best value for money in the high end at present, IMHO.

 

^^

bigz has got it covered right there.

firing squad BMXs generaly hold the NVidia cards at a higher frame rate (albeit by 2 more frames). now if your after a vanilla 6800 that thing gets punnished with AA and such turned on but its not a preformance card. IMHO go get a GT your be glad you did

 

I have no doubts that the X800 PRO is a great card, and I'm sure that the results are better on the X800 PRO with Catalyst 4.10

It's got more potential pixel-pushing power than the Radeon along with more actual (or stock) memory bandwidth, so it will perform better with Anti-Aliasing on at stock clocks.

 

First before you decide read this article :-

http://www.digital-daily.com/video/3dmark03patch340/

I was recently facing the same question and I have found that the X800XT-PE totally defeats any Nvidia card at the moment for a third of the price the only 6800 card that comes close with full AA & AF is the 6800GT-Extreme Edition priced at around £500 all the other 6800 cards are a lot slower even the Ultras and they are around the £400 mark.

I have been using Nvidia cards for the last 5 years but they are way over priced and under powered I dont want to have to rely on optimisations every time a new game arrives I want to be sure it will run smooth and the X800XT-PE assures me of that. In my eyes Nvidia are cheating in their "optimisations" and while ATi arent totally innocent of this I trust them a lot more.

Obviously its your money but take time to look at the benchmarks and make sure you understand what the XTs and GTs next to each card mean in terms of performance. Oh and in regards to Doom3 the difference in performance is minimal and I got bored of it after a few days playing it anyway.

A reliable review listing the difference in performance for the top line of current cards :-

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_x800/page26.asp

Hope this helps you decide.

 

Actually, recent drivers have them almost neck and neck in OGL (nvidia is still a bit ahead, but it's MUCH closer than it used to be) and ATI is better in DX9. And the x800's tend to take MUCH less of a performance hit with the eye candy enabled, not to mention they have better IQ (IMO).

I love it when people get caught up over one card doing 72 fps and the other 71. As long as it doesn't drop below 30 it's smooth and unless you're down to 5FPS or so that one frame per second doesn't make the slightest bit of noticible difference.

Not to mention using Doom3 as a comparison game isn't fair - the game sucks and it's no good for anything other than benchmarking. Try Far Cry or CS:S (and HL2 presumably if it ever comes out) to get games worth comparing cards on...

 

can ne1 say FANBOY!!! putting ATi top against nvidias GT is a no brainer, XT all the way but nvidia do have the upper hand in D3 and CS:S tho CS:S is only like 2fps more. as with the intel/AMD argument ppl r again looking at the older and worst products. if u put a XT againt a ultra then its a fair fight, GT vs Pro and the XT-PE is in a league of its own with no compititor. u my freind a flaming a product that is the prefered option over the x800pro.

also ur links givin r from a fx vs 9xxx review and a x800pro - x800xtpe compero. show us a review of the pro vs GT and ultra vs XT, leave the XT-PE out as we all kno theyre the top card as there is no compitition for it
also what is THIS???

plz tell use where we can get the XT-PE at a third of the price of a 6800? GT or ultra? once again u have brought old or uselss links and fail to prove another of ur earlier words.

ok so what if no company can optimise there drivers for certain games? if ati wasnt alowed to do this then there would b countless games that they couldnt play earlier. my point is that ppl dont c optimising the drivers as "cheating" but as a way to improve there product and gameplay. also 3dmark means crap in terms of real-time gaming.

my few words of the day

 

I wasnt comparing the GT & XT I was comparing the XT-PE and the GT Ultra in the only test that matters at these framerates, how each card performs in with full AA and AF and the X800XT-PE beats the GT-Ultra in most benchmarks at this level of performance.

As for me being a fanboy, like I said Ive never owned a ATi card before and my X800 hasnt even arrived yet. However I am more inclined to buy ATi products right now. I never had a problem with Nvidia until I learnt of their cheating, I mean Whats the point of having benchmarks like FutureMark when Nvidia take out parts of the tests with their "optimisations" in order to gain higher test scores?? I just like to know Im giving my money to a company that actually wants to make good cards, not pay programmers to optimise benchmarks to make their products seem more capable than they are.

 

I think it is fair to say that there will always be the ATI vs Nvidia battle, however when it comes to top end cards producing 1 FPS difference, at such a rate that it invisible to the human eye, that i suppose it will just come down to individual preference as to wether the option of the more mainstream Nvidia is chosen over the Renegade ATI. Either way it shall just pave a path to which bigger and better cards are produced in which we the target audience will reap the benefits!!!

Thank you to all of you for your opinions and has truly helped me into deciding which card to go for, and that decision will be, XFX 6800GT.
If they are ever in stock again!