ATI X1800XT Preview

[kalniel]

*wonders why the cheapest x1800xt is the crossfire master card one?*

[kasavien]

I want one sooooo badly /me wets himself in anticipation

[xolotl]

Not impressed realy. 3 months later, a paper launch, £100 more and its around the same speed.

Must do better ATI.

[shaithis]

Not impressed realy. 3 months later, a paper launch, £100 more and its around the same speed.

I don't think there will ever be huge differences again between nVidia and ATi cards.

Its now more of a "Buy which you prefer" market IMO. So, profit is directly proportional to the amount of fanbois

For me its nVidia all the way for their better OpenGL support.

Will be interesting to see if the new drivers (once they go gold/release) are actually (noticably) better or wether nVidia is trying to pull a fast one. I was particularly interested in their comment about FEAR running better on nVidia cards once the FEAR code goes gold.....either they know something about the FEAR code (unlikely?) or the PR guys are getting their spin on.

[NikolaX]

October 11 for XL and November 18 for XT in overclockers.

[dangel]

There you go benchs with new nvidia drivers (still ati is better in lostcoast avg.score and fear)
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/r520reviewxvxv/

we have a winner

"Taking the newer results into consideration there are a few key games where the Radeon takes a significant lead and those are Battlefield 2 and Lost Coast ... however generally in the games which have made it to retail the results are pretty close (excluding doom3)." (Driverheaven)

"Overall though, we'd consider the GeForce 7800 GTX the "faster" all-around card in terms of general gaming performance." (HotHardware http://www.hothardware.com/viewartic...?articleid=734)

So there's nothing in it - aside from with nVidia the cards are actually on the market, SLI is more mature and motherboard support is better. ATI should be ashamed for the sham of a 'release' they've produced here and even more so that they really haven't left nVidia for dust despite all the extra time coming to market.

[dangel]

Will be interesting to see if the new drivers (once they go gold/release) are actually (noticably) better or wether nVidia is trying to pull a fast one. I was particularly interested in their comment about FEAR running better on nVidia cards once the FEAR code goes gold.....either they know something about the FEAR code (unlikely?) or the PR guys are getting their spin on.

New card sales pitch on new games - and FEAR will be a big marketing tool (even if you get 60fps on one card and 80fps on the other people will still claim that it's 500% better with the latter). Half life 2 scores make me chuckle - i remember expecting it to be horrendous on my 6800 ultra because of all the fan-boy FUD on the web saying how much better it was with an ATI card.
I expect Quake 4 will run better on nVidia (for obvious reasons) and anything that valve actually release (lost coast appears to be 'lost') will run faster on an ATI card. But neither card will 'suck' at either - both will play everything smoothly. Thing is, if you get FEAR in your hands in a few days and you still can't buy that oh-so-amazing-ATI card your waiting for, will you do what I did? I bought the 6800Ultra because they were on the market whereas you couldn't find the X800XT anywhere. Turns out it wasn't a gamble at all as it was an amazing card that brought me 1600x1200 gaming.
So look at those scores carefully - will that 20fps make any difference post 60fps? Can you buy your card now? What motherboards support crossfire? How much will it cost you?

[Octavean]

Food for thought,...

OK, looks like I have some thinking to do because I was leaning toward a 7800GT(X). Now, an X1800XT or X1800XL is looking good,...

Sounds like the 7800 class cards are cooler thought and may have more OC potential,….

We will see,...

[zulander]

its poor planning surley not to release the cards on the day they have been "trumpeting". Being the fool i am i actually thought you could buy the cards today - it did not help when I had a quick look at MD this morning and they had the countdown on their website. O well i can't afford one anyway but maybe some of the other cards 6800gts up will fall a bit in price, fingers crossed

[zawer612]

here guys, some 'paper launched' tech demos for the X1000 series cards. lol Seems like we'll have to wait for these too...

http://www2.ati.com/multimedia/radeo...assin-v1.0.zip
http://www2.ati.com/multimedia/radeo...yShop-v1.1.zip

WARNING - they are huge files, 70mb and 90mb

* they do look really good though.
I would have bought a X1800XL over a 7800gt if it was a similar price and was available back then, as it stands it's not worth £100 more (or even £50-60 more as that could buy me a GTX).

Why do people put so much emphasis on the benchmarks from demos (FEAR for example)? even the game companies themselves make it clear they're based on unfinished code and are subject to change.

[Smokey21]

Not impressed realy. 3 months later, a paper launch, £100 more and its around the same speed.

Must do better ATI.

Definatly. Paper launch sucks, and pricing.

[neonplanet40]

According to HARDOCP the 7800GT beats the X1800XT in most tests. I hate the way every site shows hugely different results. You wonder how they manage it. Must have had a load of **** on in the background or something. Hexus FTW

Neo

[kempez]

Well I would hope it does beat the X800XT man

LOL!

Well considering that this hardware is so late out the blocks I'm not really very impressed at all. If ATI had come out and delivered this at a previously planned "launch date" then I would be raving. But since nvidia has had mass availability since the release date of the 7800GTX some time ago I'm frankly dissapointed.

I really wanted to see ATI whoop ass seriously. Nvidia will release a 512mb version of the GTX and it'll be over again for ATI imo.

Nice cards but the £100 difference between them and a 7800GTX just aint worth it

[fuji]

here guys, some 'paper launched' tech demos for the X1000 series cards. lol Seems like we'll have to wait for these too...

http://www2.ati.com/multimedia/radeo...assin-v1.0.zip
http://www2.ati.com/multimedia/radeo...yShop-v1.1.zip

The Ruby demo looks like the same one shown at siggraph but the Toyshop was way more impressive, especially the water effects. It's a shame we won't see anything in games at that level of details anytime soon.

[DR]

The toy shop demo looks fantastic

[dangel]

Food for thought,...

OK, looks like I have some thinking to do because I was leaning toward a 7800GT(X). Now, an X1800XT or X1800XL is looking good,...

Sounds like the 7800 class cards are cooler thought and may have more OC potential,….

We will see,...

Need a card now? Get an nVidia one - you'll (most likely) pay less and won't have to wait a month for the XT to ship. If the new drivers add FPS, then coupling this with a mild overclock will see off the ATI cards in all but the most slanted benchmarks, and even then everything will be too smooth for you too see any difference.
God knows how on earth i'm _struggling_ by on my 7800GTX - man, it's just so slow

Honestly, read around - most reviews are calling it neck and neck and saying it's all down to pricing and availability. Also nobody is testing pre-overclocked nVidia cards (also widely avail).