Video Card Suggestions/Comments

[ShoobieRat]

One thing (okay, one of the things) I'm not so up on (anymore) are vid cards. And, it's about time I bought a new one. In fact, I'm going to buy a new one this weekend. So there.

I already know I want to go with an ATI card. I've just had too much crap and dislikes from NVIDIA to want to give them more of my money. Plus, I've always loved the ATI cards I've had, so that's the end of that.

Now, I have a relatively new (6 months old) mb that can support 8x AGP, so I can get a top-o'-line card.

So I'm looking at the ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256mb as my first choice (despite its hefty price tag).

Any other suggestions? I'm willing to spend the money for the X800, so I can get up in price, and I don't want to buy a card that isn't scrapping the top (if it isn't already the top).

The games I mostly play are Half-Life, UT2003/2004, and MOH. I also do a lot of graphics work, CAD design, and level editing (for HL and UT2003). So I need a beefy card that is good both in-game, and on the desktop.

My monitor is a flatscreen (using standard connection, not DVI) running at a native res of 1280x1024 at (I believe) 75hz. My current g-card is a GeForce 3 128mb from PNY. I have a 1.4Ghz AMD Athalon processor (but I plan to upgrade that soon to an Athalon XP 3000). I have 512 mb of DDR in the machine as well (and may also be upgrading that to a gig soon as well). My OS is Win XP Pro.

So...Any thoughts?

 

[sithspawn]

Well firstly, upgrade your chip. Your graphics card will not be working even close to its potential with your current chip. Secondly, the Nvidia 6800 seems like it owuld suit your needs better. Nvidia have always been better at non-gaming graphics, and the 6800 seems to be better than the x800 at gaming as well. However, if your adamant, i would just go with the card you have suggested...

 

[ShoobieRat]

Yeah, I figured my processor would be detrimental to such a fast gpu. I'm going to buy an Athalon XP 3000 this weekend, probably at the same time I buy my new g-card. I may push back the purchasing of the new g-card and just buy a new proc and some RAM first, then buy the new g-card the following week or so after.

And yeah, NVIDIA pissed me off enough. I've had 2 of their cards, and both have given me more troubles each than all the ATI cards I've had, combined! I don't think the X800 will be any worse at desktop graphics than my current GeForce 3, so I'm safe there.

Then again, my old ATI Rage Fury Pro 32mb used to run circles around my GeForce 3 128mb.

 

[KornNut]

As I have posted in an earlier thread,

ATI used to be the leader in video cards, and they still are when it comes to mediecore video cards (200 and below range). But since you are looking to spend around $500, you should NOT go with ATI. The ATI Radeon X800 Pro is a huge dissapointment. With the highest quality video cards, ATI has refused to catch up to the rest of the industry. The ATI Radeon X800 Pro is missing four pipelines which is blantantly causing it to run at 78% of the frame rates that the new NVidias are at high resolutions.

I strongly suggest the NVidia 6800 Ultra which would run you about $500. A great alternative is the NVidia 6800 GT is a great, cheap alternative. It is about 150 less than the X800 and 6800 Ultra, but still runs better than the X800.

My proof? Just read this long article on their benchmarks in this link:

http://www2.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQyLDI=

Those testing those video cards are a third party and are NOT affiliated with either ATI or NVidia.

You should buy your video card at www.newegg.com or www.tigerdirect.com... shop around and you'll definitely find some really good buys out there.

Good luck.

 

[ShoobieRat]

I was thinking of paying $399 for an x800

 

[dumdum8684]

go with the AMD Athlon XP 3200+ for less than 120...http://www.buyaib.com/amdatxp322sb.html I bought this and it works great... i also payed 10 dollars more than that.

 

[ShoobieRat]

I've been reading some benchmarks and white-papers on both the ATI X800 Pro and the Geforce 6800 Ultra.

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/action/printarticle/1710/
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.html?i=2044

It would seem that both cards line up rather well. Of course, NVIDIA likes the openGL side of the vid world, while ATI likes the direct3D side (which they have always liked respectively). Also, while NVIDIA's gpu does better at max screen resolutions, it tends to fall behind on image quality. I run natively at 1280x1024, so I don't have the need (nor ability) to run at 1600 resolutions, so that is rather moot for me.

Also, in the end, $400 is the most I'm willing to pay for a card. In fact, I'm chomping on TUMS just for agreeing to the plan.

 

[mdshort]

I wish ATI would provide the damned source code for their drivers, us linux users with ATI Graphics Cards are screwed at 15fps.

NVIDIA: Compatible, quality, just good stuff. (They have good linux drivers.)

I guess ATI is still at the top of the market, but thats gonna change once NVIDIA gets it's DUAL PCI-Express Card out (I think its called the Quadra or something). (Thats right, DUAL.)

 

[WQ87]

You mean SLI? Dual Geforce or Quadros. Double the performance. Expensive though.

Image quality aren't bad, infact nVidia 6800 is more superior in graphics with their extra 4 pipelines.

ShoobieRat, if you don't feel comfortable with nVidia cards, go with the X800 Pro. Sure it might not be much vs the 6800 GT, especially in DOOM3 that was just released a few days ago. But some ATI users stick with them because they have faith in them and are more familiar with them. If you love ATI, stick with them, as "a psychologist once studied natural human tendencies, and discovered that humans feared change to some degree."

Enough said.

 

[KornNut]

I was thinking of paying $399 for an x800

WHY??? Not only have people repeatedly said to go with NVidia, ShoobieRat and I have both shown actual proof that the NVIdia benchmarks are a whole lot better.