Better card for Oblivion?

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spydermonkey

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Well, my dad has just told me that I could use my tax return on myself. News to me. I've got $240 to spend. I looked around, and plan on picking up an Opteron 144, 1gb DDR 400 Gskill, a Biostar Tforce6100, Fortron 400W PSU, and am trying to decide on a video card. I looked at the 6800GS and the x850xt. I see that the x850xt has the advantage of pure speed, but I was wondering if I should look at the 6800GS for the PS3.0 features. Does Oblivion use any? For anyone wondering, here are my current specs: Athlon XP 2100+, 512 DDR 333, Radeon 9800 SE 256bit, and Antec truepower 350W. For any amount over 240 that I spend, I plan on using Newegg's bill me later to pay it off within 3 momths to take advantage of the 3 month no interest thing.
 
I would go w/ a 7600GT for around 200.

If you don't mind buying used, you can probably find a 7800GT or X1800XL for 250.

You need a SM3 card to use HDR in the game.
Additionally there are a few other graphics options that are only available to SM3 cards.
I would definitely avoid a non SM3 card if Oblivion is your main consideration.
 
The reason I was looking at the x850xt and the 6800GS was the price point. They're both around 160 right now. Other than being able to use HDR, does having SM3.0 on the card give a nice speed boost as opposed to a non SM3.0 card?

EDIT: Looking at the 7600gt now, it isn't terribly more expensive than what I was looking at. Would it be worth the extra $20 over the x850xt?
 
What is HDR and what does the game lack if you don't use it. For that matter what is a 'sm3' card ?
 
you2 said:
What is HDR and what does the game lack if you don't use it. For that matter what is a 'sm3' card ?
Click to expand...

HDR = High Dynamic Range lighting.

Basically it gives fantastic realistic lighting effects in game. They usually be seen best off water shimmering, reflextions etc...

sm3 = Shader Model 3.0

Most if not all next gen games will be using sm3, and you'll want a card that supports it.
 
My question still stands: should I go for the slower card that brings with it SM3.0 features, or go without and have a faster card? Or should I skip both and look at the 7600 gt for ~$20 more?
 
The consensus amoung players seems to be that AA+Bloom is a better expirence than HDR, I would go for the fastest card you can afford now and worry about HDR next upgrade cycle.
 
An upgrade cycle is about 3-4 years for me :(. Can't quite remember from the benchmarks I've seen, but would the 7600gt be faster than the x850xt?
 
it would be similar if not a bit better performance than the x850xt, with the extra sm3 features I'd say 7600gt hands down. I'm contemplating upgrading my rig to pci-e and if I do 90% chance I'll go with a 7600gt.
 
im using a x800pro flashed to gt and oblivion tears it up pretty hard just throwing it in there
 
spydermonkey said:
The reason I was looking at the x850xt and the 6800GS was the price point. They're both around 160 right now. Other than being able to use HDR, does having SM3.0 on the card give a nice speed boost as opposed to a non SM3.0 card?

EDIT: Looking at the 7600gt now, it isn't terribly more expensive than what I was looking at. Would it be worth the extra $20 over the x850xt?
Click to expand...


no

yes, get the 7600GT
 
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