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Purchasing, need advice
- Thread starter Freakless
- Start date
First off:
DDR2? Are you going Intel? As of right now, the A64 is the superior gaming chip. The P4 is better for video encoding.
Second off, avoid Sapphire AT ALL COSTS. Get the Gigabyte X800 Pro. It's much faster than the 6800 non-GT and is an assload more reliable than Sapphire crap.
My Sapphire 9700 Pro HAS BAD RAM. On top of that, the contruction is shoddy, i.e. non-reference ATi design that is more prone to problems. The circuit designs are worse, and coupled with the shit-ass EtronTech "2.8ns" memory, it's 5% slower than a real ATi board with 3.3ns Samsung RAM.
ATi also has better Windows drivers, but for Linux nVidia is the only option.
For reliable DDR2 RAM, get Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, or Samsung. Corsair is the best out of all those.
Infineon is good too. My main rig has 512MB Infineon PC3200 RAM in dual-channel and it's very reliable. I bought it from a friend for $50.
DDR2? Are you going Intel? As of right now, the A64 is the superior gaming chip. The P4 is better for video encoding.
Second off, avoid Sapphire AT ALL COSTS. Get the Gigabyte X800 Pro. It's much faster than the 6800 non-GT and is an assload more reliable than Sapphire crap.
My Sapphire 9700 Pro HAS BAD RAM. On top of that, the contruction is shoddy, i.e. non-reference ATi design that is more prone to problems. The circuit designs are worse, and coupled with the shit-ass EtronTech "2.8ns" memory, it's 5% slower than a real ATi board with 3.3ns Samsung RAM.
ATi also has better Windows drivers, but for Linux nVidia is the only option.
For reliable DDR2 RAM, get Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, or Samsung. Corsair is the best out of all those.
Infineon is good too. My main rig has 512MB Infineon PC3200 RAM in dual-channel and it's very reliable. I bought it from a friend for $50.
You do have a motherboard with PCI-Express video slot, right? If not then you need to look into AGP video cards. Also, don't fall for the more expensive card must be better.
You can pickup the ATI X800 XL for PCI-Express. The X800 XL [16 pipelines] is a faster card than the X800 Pro [12 pipelines]. This is THE card to get for PCI-Express Video in the $300 range. They should be listed for $290ish on NewEgg -- http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-509&depa=0
Here is the rundown on rankings of the ATI X800 series, from slowest to fastest:
X800 SE, X800, X800 PRO($280-360), X800 XL ($290), X800 XT ($430), X800 XT PE ($480-500), X850 XT ($475-$520), X850 XT PE ($590).
Performance wise, the X800 XL is about 80-90% the performance of the X850 XT PE (in some cases close to 95%). This is great performance for a part that is $300 cheaper than the top end. The high-end performance is fairly close to one another. The X850 XT PE is ~3% faster than the X850 XT. The X850 XT is ~= the X800 XT PE. The X800 XT PE is ~3% faster than the X800 XT.
Here's the rundown on the X800 series in HalfLife2 (with some Nvidia cards tossed in) from TechReport.com [ http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4/radeon-x800xl/index.x?pg=6 ]
You can pickup the ATI X800 XL for PCI-Express. The X800 XL [16 pipelines] is a faster card than the X800 Pro [12 pipelines]. This is THE card to get for PCI-Express Video in the $300 range. They should be listed for $290ish on NewEgg -- http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-509&depa=0
Here is the rundown on rankings of the ATI X800 series, from slowest to fastest:
X800 SE, X800, X800 PRO($280-360), X800 XL ($290), X800 XT ($430), X800 XT PE ($480-500), X850 XT ($475-$520), X850 XT PE ($590).
Performance wise, the X800 XL is about 80-90% the performance of the X850 XT PE (in some cases close to 95%). This is great performance for a part that is $300 cheaper than the top end. The high-end performance is fairly close to one another. The X850 XT PE is ~3% faster than the X850 XT. The X850 XT is ~= the X800 XT PE. The X800 XT PE is ~3% faster than the X800 XT.
Here's the rundown on the X800 series in HalfLife2 (with some Nvidia cards tossed in) from TechReport.com [ http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4/radeon-x800xl/index.x?pg=6 ]
Performance levels only...
X800 XL > X800 Pro.
X800 XL > 6800
X800 XL ~= 6800 GT
It all comes down to price ranges for performance.
In Doom 3 the Nvidia GeForce series is generally faster than the ATI X800 series.
In HalfLife2/FarCry the ATI X800 series is generally faster than the Nvidia GeForce series. (Sometimes the X800 XL even edges out the 6800 Ultra SLI)
Other things to consider...
The GeForce 6800 series offers ShaderModel 3.0 feature support. This may or may not be an issue down the road as game development progresses.
The ATI X800 series offers better image quality with its sparse-sample gamma-corrected AntiAliasing.
X800 XL > X800 Pro.
X800 XL > 6800
X800 XL ~= 6800 GT
It all comes down to price ranges for performance.
In Doom 3 the Nvidia GeForce series is generally faster than the ATI X800 series.
In HalfLife2/FarCry the ATI X800 series is generally faster than the Nvidia GeForce series. (Sometimes the X800 XL even edges out the 6800 Ultra SLI)
Other things to consider...
The GeForce 6800 series offers ShaderModel 3.0 feature support. This may or may not be an issue down the road as game development progresses.
The ATI X800 series offers better image quality with its sparse-sample gamma-corrected AntiAliasing.
Yes. The ATI-made cards are great.
It would be different if the Asus version offered anything over and above the ATI version, but in this case it doesn't. That also seems to be the case of the Asus GeForce 6800 (nonGT). It's the same price as others' GeForce 6800 GT models. Maybe it's just me, but spending an extra $60-100 for no benefits seems silly to me. But do what you want.
It would be different if the Asus version offered anything over and above the ATI version, but in this case it doesn't. That also seems to be the case of the Asus GeForce 6800 (nonGT). It's the same price as others' GeForce 6800 GT models. Maybe it's just me, but spending an extra $60-100 for no benefits seems silly to me. But do what you want.
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