best video card for 400 or under

[Mr. Switch]

X850XT in Shader Model 1.1 (the X-series can't do the HDR and parallax mapping)

GeForce 6800GT in Shader Model 3.0 with HDR lighting and Parallax mapping.

X850XT:

6800GT:

X850XT:

6800GT:

X850XT:

6800GT:

 

[dale5605]

The screenshots are a touch different I mainly see the lighting a little brighted on the parralax screenies, but these differences still look pretty subtle to me. I think the game looks great without ps3. I think they should do some benches on regular shader vs 3.0 and see how much fps drop there is from parrallax and soft shadows and what-not. Because it may look a little bit better but there is a performance drop also. Which is why I think this whole ps3 thing is blown out of perportion anyway.
1.subtle differences
2.decreased fps
3.very few games

But that is just my opinion.

 

[beedubaya]

The screenshots are a touch different I mainly see the lighting a little brighted on the parralax screenies, but these differences still look pretty subtle to me. I think the game looks great without ps3. I think they should do some benches on regular shader vs 3.0 and see how much fps drop there is from parrallax and soft shadows and what-not. Because it may look a little bit better but there is a performance drop also. Which is why I think this whole ps3 thing is blown out of perportion anyway.
1.subtle differences
2.decreased fps
3.very few games

But that is just my opinion.

Actually, the GeForce 6 series gets better framerates WITH all the SM3 eye candy enabled than the ATI X800 series does without it. Get your facts straight before you post.

 

[Mr. Switch]

the last 4 images aren't subtle at all. and if you think that 63fps like whats in the last picture is bad, than your crazy because the human eye can't notice any changes beyond 60fps.

 

[dale5605]

Actually, the GeForce 6 series gets better framerates WITH all the SM3 eye candy enabled than the ATI X800 series does without it. Get your facts straight before you post.

Where did you get these straight facts from?
In the screenshots I see 78 fps compared to 63.

 

[beedubaya]

Look at the first two screenshots. The ones you are talking about...that ATI is showing signs of serious driver problems as well as lacking image quality.

 

[dale5605]

Look at the first two screenshots. The ones you are talking about...that ATI is showing signs of serious driver problems as well as lacking image quality.

I didn't hear anything about ATI having driver problems. I think their drivers are pretty good.

Also the first two screenshots are at different resolutions, hence less comparable than the bottom two which shows ATI ahead in fps versus ps3 goodies.

Not only that but they are using 16x af on the ATI versus 8x af on the nvidia and also they are using an overclocked pci-e nvidia card versus a stock speed agp ati card. Not fair I think.

 

[beedubaya]

I didn't hear anything about ATI having driver problems. I think their drivers are pretty good.

Also the first two screenshots are at different resolutions, hence less comparable than the bottom two which shows ATI ahead in fps versus ps3 goodies.

Not only that but they are using 16x af on the ATI versus 8x af on the nvidia and also they are using an overclocked pci-e nvidia card versus a stock speed agp ati card. Not fair I think.

Its not like you can tell the difference in game between 78 fps and 63...anything over 60 is neglible. What you can tell is the crap image quality the X800 series gives in this game. What do you do...play all your games on low settings to increase the framerate? C'mon, man!

 

[dale5605]

It's not about 78 versus 63 fps. It's the fact that there is a sizeable performance drop there and if you were playing it on higher settings and resolutions then maybe it would be 40 fps versus 32 or something like that. The fact is that the ps3 doesn't seem to be yielding the performance increases claimed.

 

[beedubaya]

Here are some benchmarks that compare performance on the 6800 series when used in DX8.1-SM1.1 or DX9-SM3.

I've seen some ATI vs. Nvidia ones, I will post them when I find them.