ATi x1950 Pro vs nVidia 7950 GT

Hi There,

I'm looking at buying a new system and currently deciding between the ATi x1950 pro and the nVidia 1950GT.

I know both are fairly mid range cards, but I was planning to utilise either crossfire or SLi to hook up a pair of these cards rather than plumping for a DX10 card right now, since the software doesn't really seem to have quite caught up right now.

Firstly, I would like anyones opinion on SLi vs Crossfire in general, and then, SLi/Crossfire with two mid end cards, compared to a single higher end card.

I'm looking to spend £200-250 on the GFX and can find the two ATi's for about £200-210 and the nVidia's for about £230-240. I could maybe got for something like the 8800 but i would only be able to afford one of them.

Anyone got any experience with either of these three options? any general opinions on the benefits of dual cards vs one higher spec card?

It should be noted, that whilst I would currently get two mid end cards, when the DX10 stuff becomes the norm, I would look at upgrading the pair to a pair of something newer in a year or two.

Any info appreciated,

Cheers,

Doug

I'd use the money to get a 8800 tbh rather then waste it on cards that you know you'll have to sell on sooner rather then later.

SLI/CF is only good in games that support it, even then it would probably only match an 8800. Also it is riddled with problems, my recommendation would be an 8800GTS 320mb or 640mb depending on your resolution.

SLI/CF not worth it at all, if you want to spend that much then get a 8800GTS.

The x1950pro/7950 come into their own if you're looking to spend around £110. IMO they're brilliant cards for the price, you can't go wrong with either of them. I'd go with the AMD if you play Oblivion or Far Cry, and the Nvidia if you play Quake4/doom 3 engine games.

I would go with one cheaper card for now, and upgrade to dx10 later when the next gen of cards come out with games that'll use them.

General advice on here is always to go for a single high end card rather than a pair of cards half the price. SLI is for people with no budget concerns, as it doesn't always give that good a speed boost whereas the single card is pretty much guaranteed to always be faster.

Which games you intend running and at what resolution would help as well.

Thanks for the comments guys, it's certainly interesting to hear the lack of support for a dual card system! :P

Interesting comment about the support for crossfire etc, because I had read that whilst with SLi there is a need to have application support (app needs to support the load balancing functions of the SLi methodology) I had read that due to the way Crossfire can render in a checkerboard manner, there is no need for the applications to do anything out of the ordinary as the checkboard rendering is handled by the ATi drivers. Maybe I'm wrong here.

I think potentially the idea of saving money upfront by going for a single mid range card like a 7950 would be better than sitting on a single 8800 as it would take me longer to justify a further upgrade.

My current gaming requirements aren't all that huge, my trusty 6600GT handles the majority (albeit not in pretty mode) so going for something like a 7950 over a 8800 may allow me to go from a e6600 to an e6700 in terms of financing the rest of the machine!

On a slightly separate topic, does anyone have any opinions on Mobos for running C2D chips? (Or should i post into different section?)

I was contemplating the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) using the 975X chipset, but I've been told that is quite old. Would i do better going for an Nvidia 680i style chipset? All the prices seem much of a muchness, so really just looking for anyone with good/bad experiences of either.

Any ideas?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix

General advice on here is always to go for a single high end card rather than a pair of cards half the price. SLI is for people with no budget concerns, as it doesn't always give that good a speed boost whereas the single card is pretty much guaranteed to always be faster.

Which games you intend running and at what resolution would help as well.

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My main uses are the following:

UT2004, Quake4, NWN2, BF2, HL2 (CS:S), Oblivion (although runs like pants on the 6600GT and I haven't got time lose that much of my life...again!)

There are a couple of games i have put off playing much due to pc requirements etc:

Medieval Total War 2, BF2142, FEAR, etc

The reason for the initial PC upgrade is really just age of my current system (Athlon XB2400, 768MB DDR400, 160GB HDD's and the GeForce6600GT) and the desire to have some chance of playing some of the new srubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishy stuff like Crysis, BioShock etc

I wouldn't be horrified if from day one I couldn't max out some of the newer titles, but I would like to be able to play anything currently out there without much trouble.

Resolution wise, I run the desktop in a meagre 1280x1024 and most games I run in 1024x176, except for the online stuff like BF2 & UT2004 online where I'd rather have performance over prettyness :]
I would like to be able to handle most games at at least 1024 and ideally pushing 1280 for all but the most intensive.

I think the Athlon XP is your main bottleneck there, and with any fairly recent gaphics card + cpu I think you will be happy.

If you are considering losing you life again ;) then an 8800gts will be the danglies.

It probably is, but I should make it clear that XB was not a typo, its a Barton processor (512L2 Cache instead of XP with 256)

:P

It works surprisingly well, but It's showing it's age these days, will offload it on the misses or something :]

The 8800 is indeed tempting, I think i'd be looking at approx £200 for something like this:

Asus GeForce 8800 GTS HTDP 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

The other option is to go lower in the short term and get a high end 7950 like this one:

BFG GeForce 7950 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Cost would be about £130 - I'm wondering if for the sake of £60-70 it might just make more sense to get the 8800 - if im forking out £500+ anyway, not a lot of point in scrimping on the GFX

I think only you can decide how you feel about the extra performance vs 60 quid in your pocket.

TBH I tend to toss a coin in these circumstances. I know this sounds silly, but try it, it really can help!

Heads you get an 8800, tails a 7950 :D

Here comes the twist: Now you have made the decision, do you feel disappointed? If the answer is yes, then that was the wrong decision so change it :)

lol, i like your thinking!

I think tbh, the extra money shouldn't be an issue, ill only spend it on beer and fags. Maybe I can justify giving up smoking for a couple of weeks by rewarding myself with ah 8800 :D

The performance of the 8800 seems quite srubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishy and maybe I can get a second one in the future or somit if SLi looks like the way to go

I was going to get a x1950 pro, but have now decided to get a 8800gts.
Me too will have to give up smoking for this reward:)

x1950xt is much much better than pro and only costs a little more (~£20)

That said, you have to consider DX10, so an 8800 is a great choice if you can justify the extra cost.

It seems you play a wide variety of games. If I were you I'd definitely invest in the 8800 series card. You could pick up another one later on when needed (and when hopefully they become cheaper).


Oh Check THIS out. Looks like the 8800 smacks X1950pro crossfire.

You could as well get an HD2900XT for £250, wich is about as good or slightly better than the lowest 8800 at about the same price.

My advice on crossfire or SLI: don't do it!