X800 PRO or 6800 GT

[Applecrusher]

Well, from what I can see, they cost about the same, perform about the same, and can both be upgraded to their bigger brothers (the PRO is a little harder tho).

Which would you chose, and WHY?

I dont want little stupid "ATI OWNZ!!!11!11" type stuff.
I would like a decent answer to the question, as I am considering taking the plunge, and most likely many others are too!

Also I dont think ill be trying linux on this machine, so I wont need to worry aobut ATIs bad drivers or what ever...

And anyone got many links to reviews? I have seen the Hexus one, but are there many more out there?

[Nomadd]

Nvidia 6800GT. Without question.

Solid drivers.
Great OpenGL performance (think Doom3 and ALL the games in the future using id's engine).
Full 16 pipe card.
Single Slot/Molex
Quiet
Easy overclocks to Ultra, which puts you in the same ballpark as the X800XT-PE.
SM3 (which might mean something one day! :-))

Have one myself. Very happy with it after one solid weeks worth of testing on 10 games. It's the PNY, which PCW now list for only 226+VAT, which includes FarCry and Splinter Cell. Damn good deal, imho.

Reviews? Jeez, do a bit of searching. The web is full of them (Tom's, Anands, HardOCP, TechReport, and every other hardware site you can think of - try googling).

Nomadd

[Kezzer]

Either way both cards have their advantages and disadvantages. Talking to some (literally) professional people in the games market (yes i do know some world class professionals ) they say that ATi can render certain features a lot better than nVidia cards. Of course i don't know the details on the specific things ATi can do better as it's beyond many people's knowledge.

Of course ATi would do something better than nVidia and of course nVidia would do something better than ATi. With current talk i've noticed people who were ATi "fan boyz" have shifted over to nVidia for this generation of GPU's. I feel this is mainly because of the random number generator we saw from Hard OCP on Doom III. Do remember, nVidia support ID hence why the benchmarks will come out with bigger numbers from nVidia in the same way that ATi support Valve (or whoever makes Half Life 2) so the numbers on that side of things will come out bigger in the ATi region.

Personally I think it needs a lot more thought and perhaps we should ignore the fact that nVidia have been doing well in some benchmarks on a certain game *cough* Doom III *cough*.

[steve threlfall]

Right now the 6800gt. It outperforms the x800pro by quite a margin and it overclocks easily to its big brother- the ultra's clockspeed.

I wouldnt personally base my desicion on doom 3 seeying as though i havnt played it. I couldnt give a stuff about benchmarks personally as long as my games look and play great im happy. 6800gt is the best value of the next generation at the moment easily.

[Stewart]

As I've said before, my choices at the moment, would be the X800XT-PE for a bleeding edge card, and the 6800GT for a slightly-less bleeding edge card.

I think the GT is a great card, OCs well, various other things already mentioned in the thread, and with Doom III flavour of the month at the moment, ahead of Half Life II, then the GT is the better choice - at the moment.

Of course, a few driver updates later, a few benchmarks later, Half Life II being flavour of the month instead of Doom III, and things might change. I don't think you can go wrong at the moment really, but I'd give the edge to the GT if you are buying in the next few weeks.

So yes, the 6800GT, but not 'without question' as Nomadd says; for instance, there will be lots of games coming out that will use the Half Life II engine, the same as there will be many games using the Doom III engine.

Personally I'm (still) waiting for my X800XT-PE.

[Kezzer]

I'll probably stick to ATi personally but both cards seem a good way to go.

[r1zeek]

6800GT is very good as everyone else but it depends on how you want to play your games, either speed straight up, like you plug it in and your playing half life II maxed out type thing (only an example!) or if you prefer quality, having 6x AA and 8x AF at fairly high resolutions then i'd go with the ATi, as they are notoriously good at AA and AF (I presume the x800 follows the trend?)

[Stewart]

I have stuck to ATi (I know you weren't addressing me ), and I was always going to get one of the high end cards, so the X800XT was always my choice. I said the GT over the Pro, but then I'm not in the market for either, so I've not been reading the same amount of reviews I would have been.

If I was looking to buy either a 6800GT or X800pro I'd swat up. Anyway, voted GT now, but I add 'If you are planning to buy soon' i.e. before the release of Half Life II, and while everyone is acting as though Doom III is the only game thats going to be played on the cards a lot of us are buying at the moment.

Just spend your money and enjoy your card mate.

[Grey M@a]

the GT without question, it maybe a little lower spec than the ultra but once you clock these babies forget the ultra

[ed^chigliak]

the X800XT-PE for a bleeding edge card, and the 6800GT for a slightly-less bleeding edge card.

I would agree with that.

[Firebar]

I'm in the same dilema really. For me its a toss up between the GT and the XT-PE. I wont be playing Doom 3 at all, but of course games might run on its engine. I'll most certainly be playing halflife 2 though. I'll also be playing things like Battlefield 2, Battle for Middle Earth etc. I'm confused

[Bindibadgi]

GT - wolf in sheeps clothing.
Pro - wolf with 1 testicle in sheeps clothing.

IE: they can both still kil at will, but the Pro cant potentially be as brutal (ie overclock) as the GT with only half as much testosterone (12 vs 16 pipes - not mathmatically half i know). Trying to make this sound less fanboyish cause im not.

[Stewart]

GT - wolf in sheeps clothing.
Pro - wolf with 1 testicle in sheeps clothing.

IE: they can both still kil at will, but the Pro cant potentially be as brutal (ie overclock) as the GT with only half as much testosterone (12 vs 16 pipes - not mathmatically half i know). Trying to make this sound less fanboyish cause im not.

Classy.

I still think one is a lion and the other a tiger though. Both very powerful, and both will eat anything alive that you care to mention. I won't comment on the testicular area.

[Bindibadgi]

Classy.

I still think one is a lion and the other a tiger though. Both very powerful, and both will eat anything alive that you care to mention. I won't comment on the testicular area.

well i edited it 3 times, cause i was afraid the inital 2 lines wouldnt be taken as funny more fanboyish and i dont have my flameproof suit to hand at work.

[Stoo]

ATi's a bit like a lion with constipation at the moment, it'll mooch about a bit until you can get a fearless vet with a tranq dart out to fix it..

Either that or it's a Leopard that's stick up a tree at the moment..

[mr_anderson187]

ati gets my vote wow im the only one