Upgrading video card...recommendations please

A

AnglerfisH

Gawd
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Aug 4, 2002
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I've had my Radeon 9700 Pro since 2003. I'm ready to upgrade and complete my A64 rig. Not biased between one manufacturer, so I'd like to hear opinions on the X800 XT and 6800 GT OC. I know both are good, I'd just like to get some feedback on the two cards from the [H]. The goal is as much speed and processing power as I can get. I'm mainly interested in the architecture of the two cards.
 
I would go with the 6800gt. It gives great performance and you can always upgrade to sli. I have never heard a bad thing about it. Now, if you want to help pay for the purchase, I can buy your old 9700 for $80 or so.
 
I second that. The 6800GT or if you have a bit more $$$ get the 6800 Ultra.
this one would suit nicely:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-203&depa=0
Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: nVIDIA GeForce 6800GT/350MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 256MB GDDR3/1GHz
BUS: AGP 4X/8X
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out (S-Video) + DVI
Support 3D API: DirectX 9, OpenGL 1.5
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536@60Hz
 
Not biased between one manufacturer, so I'd like to hear opinions on the X800 XT and 6800 GT OC.
Click to expand...

The x800 Pro is the ATI card that is priced about the same as the 6800 GT, and the 6800 Ultra is the nVidia card priced about the same as the x800 XT. 6800 GT vs. x800 XT is an unfair comparison, because the ATI card is maybe $100 more expensive.

My take on it is that the 6800 GT beats the x800 Pro, and the x800 XT beats the 6800 Ultra, but they are all pretty close. The 6800 series has support for more advanced features (e.g. SM 3.0), but the Ultra is just a ridiculous beast compared to the XT (dual molex hookups, 2-slot cooler), and is slower than the XT, except in OpenGL.

The 6800 GT is probably the "sweet spot"... price (about the same as x800 Pro), features (more than x800 series), performance (faster than x800 Pro) and overclockability (lots if well cooled).

In PCI-E (which you're not) the x800 XL is cheaper than the 6800 Gt and performs about the same (sometimes better), only downsides are lack of SM 3.0 and what seems to be inferior overclocking potential.
 
the 6800U is only slower than the X800XT PE
the normal X800XT they are competetive

i would suggest eVGA's 6800 Ultra for AGP
as it's about $20 more than a 6800GT
the thing you have to watch out for is the PSU requirements

i'd suggest having a Powerstream 520W or better (if you have a lot of drives)
 
WHat games do you play?

I would suggest an X800XL, if you play alot of d3d games, as well as like to have aa and af, I would suggest an X800XT

If you are gonna go Nvidia, get an ultra, dont get a 6800GT in the hops of SLI, cuz you can save that money and get a better proc/ram/mobo etc... which would be smarter then SLI
 
Please don't give advice.

If he's upgrading from a 9700PRO it means he has an AGP slot, the x800XL is PCI-Express, I know they announced an agp version, but it's not out yet and it might be impossible to get.

X800 pro vivo or 6800GT would be good.
 
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