Recommendations!

Hi,

Have recently bought a new athlon64 based shuttle: an sn85g4v2 with 1gb corsair cas2 ram, audigy2, 3400+ etc. I also managed to get my hands on an x800 xt pe, which scored an admirable ~12,450 in 3dmark03 and ~25,500 in 3dmark01. However, atitool revealed that it was artifacting at stock speeds, so I've just today sent it back for a replacment. However...

The 6800GTs are becoming pretty widely available now, and I'm thinking of maybe jacking in the xt and going for one of these instead. The latest performance increases along with SM3 support seems to be turning heads. Has anybody done a comparison of the GT with the new or latest nvidia drivers to the XT (and not the PRO). Would I be in effect 'downgrading' my card by replacing it with a GT?? Sadly the Ultra is out of the question in my SFF box...

Cheers!

:crazy:

I have the 6800GT @ 400/1.1, but it will go a lot higher. I've struggled to find 'like for like' reviews, especially as ATI and Nvidia keep updating the damn drivers so often, and continue to do so. Same for game patches!

I think the best you can say is that it will be swings and roundabouts. Sometimes the (overclocked GT) will own (D3) and sometimes the XT-PE (HL2?). All in all, though, I wouldn't be unhappy with either card. Went for the 6800GT as it was a lot cheaper and I've always been a big fan of the Nvidia drivers - very stable for me over the years.

Nomadd

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Originally Posted by Nomadd

I have the 6800GT @ 400/1.1, but it will go a lot higher. I've struggled to find 'like for like' reviews, especially as ATI and Nvidia keep updating the damn drivers so often, and continue to do so. Same for game patches!

I think the best you can say is that it will be swings and roundabouts. Sometimes the (overclocked GT) will own (D3) and sometimes the XT-PE (HL2?). All in all, though, I wouldn't be unhappy with either card. Went for the 6800GT as it was a lot cheaper and I've always been a big fan of the Nvidia drivers - very stable for me over the years.

Nomadd

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There you go :) You cant go wrong really with either choice and thats a nice position to be in- some great cards available now.

Personally, I would say you're better off sticking with the X800XT PE really. The 6800GT is great, but nine times out of ten the X800 XT PE is unequivocably better.

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Originally Posted by Hanners

Personally, I would say you're better off sticking with the X800XT PE really. The 6800GT is great, but nine times out of ten the X800 XT PE is unequivocably better.

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Straight from the mouth of a reviewer....! I'm just concerned, having seen the D3 benchies and with ATI's latest Nvidia-ish attitude of promoting a partial precision SM3 upgrade (SM2.0B - not exactly a good standard is it?), that a trend is developing where we will see the 6800 series eat the x800 series up for breakfast.

Well, yes, you would be downgrading, from a bleeding edge card, to a slightly les bleeding edge card.

However, OC the GT to Ultra speeds, and grab a copy of Doom III, and it wont feel like a downgrade. :D

You've got to assume the X800XT-PE is going to be the faster card overall, months down the line, with a lot of new games out, though. Not if you OC the GT, but then, the XT can be overclocked as well, of course.

In short - yes, it would be a downgrade, but the GT is the best value of all 4 cards on the market at the moment, and with a nice OC, you'd match a stock XT anyway.

As for a 'trend', we've seen benchmarks for one game. Go and read a few reviews of the cards, look at the general benchmarks, from the various tests people did when they first got the cards for reviews... see any trend? I don't. Most of the benchmarks are very close, with the 6800Ultra and X800XT-PE outperforming the X800pro and 6800GT, as you'd expect.

The two high end cards were very close, as were the two slightly-less high end cards.

So, I see no trend in the various general benchmarks, and Doom III on its own obviously isn't a trend. If you really want to, wait for Half Life II. If Nvidia slaughters ATi in that game, and the GT at stock is beating the X800XT-PE at stock, then go for a GT.

At the moment, no trends, just some very positive Doom III benchmarks for the Nvidia cards.

At the end of the day, depending on which reviews you read, you can make a case for both cards. Go to HardOCP, read the article, and look at the benchies, and its obvious; Nvidia cards are better. :D

Then, surf the web, read some reviews, and find a few conclusions such as the one quoted below:

"We haven't even really gotten over NVIDIA's highly impressive introduction of its GeForce 6800 Ultra, and here ATi is already hitting back hard. Thanks to its performance advantage when using anisotropic filtering, the Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition shows its rivals who's boss in this discipline without noticeably sacrificing image quality. Even the much less expensive X800 Pro with its 12 pipes can beat the GeForce 6800 Ultra in some game tests."

Now its obvious; ATi cards are better. :D

Lets have another look at HardOCP again... yep, Nvidia cards are definately better. :D

You really can't go wrong at the moment. I'm going for an X800XT-PE, as I got a good price. Personally, if I couldn't get that card, I'd go for a 6800GT.

That's my choices, 1 ATi card, the other Nvidia. All the information you need to make your own choice is on the web mate.

Google away, make your choice, and enjoy your card. :)

Cheers guys - some really good answers!

As crazed as it may sound, I'm going to pick both up and test them out... Whichever I think performs the worst will find itself dwindling its way back to the shops.

I think whichever card you get you will be happy.NVIDIA seem to be ahead in doom 3, but the X800XT a lot of the time is better at far cry for example. Personally I think I will do for the 6800 Ultra in the not too distant future.

GT vs X800 Pro and I think the GT is the winner, and even beats the X800XT in some benchmarks.

Yeh the ultra would be the straight up choice for me were I not using a SFF pc. Still, be interesting to see how a GT performs at Ultra speeds.

I'm in exactly the same position as you - exactly the same system down to a tee. (SN85G4V2, 3400+, 1Gb Corsair etc) but I haven't got my hands on a X800XT-PE yet.

I'm going to a foreign lan party (in sweden) on the 11th of August and I REALLY need a better card than my temporary geforce 3. I'm debating whether to drop the chase for a x800xt and go for the more widely available 6800gt but I'm still not sure.

Please please be sure to post your findings here when you've finished!

Thanks

(Where did you get your x800xt btw? :))

re: "The 6800GT is great, but nine times out of ten the X800 XT PE is unequivocably better."

Sweeping statement. And like all sweeping statements, has no real foundation. Take for example my case: my monitor only really goes as high as 1280x1024, and I spend most of my time with it a 1024x768. With both these resolutions, I've found the (overclocked) GT to be as fast - if not faster - than the XT-PE, when run with various mixes of AA and AF. And yes, I believe I've read nearly every review out there! :-) Sure, at 1600x1200, with very high AA and AF, an XT-PE may pull (ever so slightly in the 'real world') ahead, but for me that is irrelevent. At the resolutions I play at, with 4xAA and 8xAF, the GT has been perfect.

When I checked prices, the GT was a good £50 cheaper (inc. VAT) than the XT-PE. So it was, and remains, MY ideal choice. And for "9 out of 10" people, that also MAY be the situation. I, of course, wouldn't make that claim, as that would be a "sweeping statement." :-)

In the end, everyone's situation is different. Quite simply, there is no "unequivocably better" solution.

Nomadd

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Originally Posted by Nomadd

re: "The 6800GT is great, but nine times out of ten the X800 XT PE is unequivocably better."

Sweeping statement. And like all sweeping statements, has no real foundation. Take for example my case: my monitor only really goes as high as 1280x1024, and I spend most of my time with it a 1024x768. With both these resolutions, I've found the (overclocked) GT to be as fast - if not faster - than the XT-PE, when run with various mixes of AA and AF. And yes, I believe I've read nearly every review out there! :-) Sure, at 1600x1200, with very high AA and AF, an XT-PE may pull (ever so slightly in the 'real world') ahead, but for me that is irrelevent. At the resolutions I play at, with 4xAA and 8xAF, the GT has been perfect.

When I checked prices, the GT was a good £50 cheaper (inc. VAT) than the XT-PE. So it was, and remains, MY ideal choice. And for "9 out of 10" people, that also MAY be the situation. I, of course, wouldn't make that claim, as that would be a "sweeping statement." :-)

In the end, everyone's situation is different. Quite simply, there is no "unequivocably better" solution.

Nomadd

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Interesting... I too run at resolutions no higher than 1280x1024 (tft max res), favourably with 4xAA and 8/16xAF.

Hanners, what basis do you personally have for preferring the XT over the GT? I had a wonder over to your site and to read your GT review, and you seem to place it in a very good light. However, I couldn't locate an XT review... Have you tested one of these cards in your system and found it to be the better one?

What games would you say you've seen the GT running faster on Nomadd? I'm going to be testing UT2k4, Far Cry, Thief3, BF: Vietnam and Ground Control 2 (off the top of my head). And I'd like to run these at 4x/16, 1280 etc!

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Originally Posted by megakid

I'm in exactly the same position as you - exactly the same system down to a tee. (SN85G4V2, 3400+, 1Gb Corsair etc) but I haven't got my hands on a X800XT-PE yet.

I'm going to a foreign lan party (in sweden) on the 11th of August and I REALLY need a better card than my temporary geforce 3. I'm debating whether to drop the chase for a x800xt and go for the more widely available 6800gt but I'm still not sure.

Please please be sure to post your findings here when you've finished!

Thanks

(Where did you get your x800xt btw? :))

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Picked up my XT PE from meshcomputers.com. I'll let you know just how GOOD their service is when I call them up on Monday and see how far they've got with fault-testing and replacing my card.

Thankfully, I can send back my GT if I don't like it. Anybody got a recommendation for driver version with which to test it with? ta! :)

re: "Thankfully, I can send back my GT if I don't like it. Anybody got a recommendation for driver version with which to test it with? ta!"

The latest (61.77?) off the Nvidia site. Not WHQL yet, but it doesn't matter. Also, bang DX9.0c on your machine if you haven't already. I've been running FarCry, UT2004, COD, GTA:VC, RtCW and a few others at 1280x1024 with 4XAA and 8XAF. All seem fine, possibly except FarCry, which I dropped to 1024x768 (same AA/AF) for slightly more framerate (even so, it was still v.quick even at the higher res.)

I'm not saying the GT runs these games faster, just that at under 1600x1200, there is so little in it between the GT and the XT-PE you aren't going to notice the difference, hence I decided to save myself an extra £50 on a 'highest end' card that brought me no benefit. I should also mention I felt the same way about the 6800 Ultra, just seemed extra expense for no gain, in may case. As ever, your needs may differ.

Cheers,

Nomadd

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Originally Posted by Nomadd

re:
All seem fine, possibly except FarCry, which I dropped to 1024x768 (same AA/AF) for slightly more framerate (even so, it was still v.quick even at the higher res.)

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Have you tried running Far Cry with the recalled 1.2 patch and SM3 enabled?