Best Video Card [?]
 

I've been on a "upgrading" frenzy, so please help me out here.
What's the best card on the market? I'm not much of a gamer, but I have a small dick and need to know my box is better than most.

I'm currently looking at ATI?s RADEON X800 Pro, but it seems to have a variation out called "gigabyte". Can someone tell me if there is any real difference?
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...mages/06-s.jpg
Right now I'm reading THIS if you're intrested.

Thanks :thumbsup

gigabyte is only the brand of the card, they use ATI technology

Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, Ati, MSI, they all make the X800...


the X800 IS the best graph card out there ATM

if you can, try to find a comparisson between all the X800 makes, and buy the best one :thumbsup

Thanks for the info, you saved me some reading.
From what I hear, and from what I've read the XT is the best out of the X800 lineup. I think it's priced at $100 more, and features four quad pipelines.

bb hitting the buy button :winkwink:

I've got the X800 Pro right now.

Waiting on the XT PCI Express version to arrive and my new Asus motherboard.

http://www.maximumpc.com/features/fe...004-08-24.html

Almost there :)

http://www.emthree.net/xt-vs-pro.gif

:glugglug

That's one sexy machine :thumbsup

If you dont mind me asking, why upgrade again?

The best card depends on what application it is being benchmarked on.

On Doom3, nVidia performed best overall.. On some other game, it could be ATI.

It's always a close call between the two of those.

Personally, I'm looking forward to 512mb cards, that will come out soon. Those will let you play Doom3 at highest quality.

actually, the Geforce 6800 Ultra OC is the best out there ATM. ATI sucks.

If you upgrade to a motherboard with dual PCI-Express slots, you can already have 512MB :glugglug

ATi Radeon X800 Pro 256MB AGP 8x + VIVO

Worth it? This one claims to be a "rare" ati vivo version
I cant really find anything on google with the exact specs

I just got myself an X800 pro for my gaming box and I must say it's awesome ! Read some stuff on-line saying that Doom 3 doesn't look so great/slower with the this card but I haven't had any problems. Everything turned up to the highest settings running at 1280x1024 I still get 100+frame/second. I've stopped playing Doom 3 (game was too dark and it really killed the fun to switch between the flashlight and the gun all the time) and I've picked up Far Cry. That game is simply awesome ! All my settings are on very high/ultra high using 1280x1024 and I get nice and smooth gameplay (can't tell you the FPS because I don't know how to check it in that game). I would recommend the ATI card because it's simply awesome. There is another variant of this card the X800 XT PE (Platinum Edition) but I didn't get it because at the resolutions I'm playing at (1280x1024 - my monitor will not go higher) the difference between the two cards is negligable.

I see you are in New York also. I got mine at J&R downtown. This is the one I have: http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3986021 You can probably find it cheaper online but I didn't want to wait until I got it via mail.

You can't run Doom3 at highest settings without a 512MB video card. There is also a mod you can install that attaches a flashlight to the weapon so you do not have to switch..

X800 pro is probably the best atm

You will shoot yourself in the foot for paying that price within 30 days... guarenteed :glugglug

Nvidia has an fx something one that is about $4000

Yeah but that's the price you pay for instant gratification :)

True, I can't use the Ultra Graphics Setting with my card that "only" has 256MB of RAM since you need 512MB. I've seen some screen comparisons (I belive they were either on AnandTech or Tom's Hardware) and it was really negligable the difference between the two of them. One of the main things with using a 512MB card is that it can store more uncompressed textures in video memory then the 256MB card. The difference between the two is barely noticable with the human eye (at least with my eyes).
I did try the duct tape patch for the game but its not the same. Somehow the flashlight that gets duct taped to the gun illuminates only a small protion of what's in your way. I would prefer if somehow you could duct tape a flood light onto you gun; then I would actually enjoy the game more I think. Besides this darkness snafu I like the game. The graphics are gorgeous and the game is scarry as shit.

Don't get the pro version, you'll DEFINATELY want the XT version of the X800. I have the ATI X800 XT Platinum Edition and the card is great, I love it.

I think that if you went with either ATI or Nvidia's 6800 Ultra, you'd be doing good. Each card outdoes the other in different games, neither card blows the other away, so really it's a matter of choice. I myself am an ATI guy.

Only to really decide is if you are going to keep the card for a longer amount of time. The nvidia is fully dx9 compliant unlike the x800.

I believe both cards are fully DX9 compatable. However if you play OpenGL games (like Doom3) then get an NVidia card. If you play DirectX games (like HalfLife2) get an ATI card. The general consencus is that OpenGL runs faster on NVidia (faster being a relative term) while DirectX perform better on the ATI cards.

Great info, thanks :thumbsup

you mean $400 ?

i always go nvidia over ati, i had an ati about 2 years ago, one of their better cards at the time and hated it, plus nvidia frequently updates drivers, ati never does

I like Nvidia better as well. ATI's tech support sucks.

Actually, now is a fair time to buy, there's really nothing new that's gonna knock the top current cards out until probably late in the 1st quarter of next year. Nvidia does have their dual card setups coming down, but I don't see them coming out until late in the 1st quarter either, thus buying now and paying a little more will let you feel better about spending the money for the next 6-7 months or so.

I paid $500 for an ATI X800 XT PE 2 months ago and it's still on top :) It's all about when you buy. If he was looking to buy in January, I'd tell him to hold off, but if he's buying now, go for it !!!

Yeah personal preference does play a role. I'm actually the opposite of you; I'm moving from nVidia to ATI. nVidia gives you drivers (I don't know how frequently; I just got mine like twice a year) and that was it. I was not really in control of what the card could do so I had to resort to third party utilities or registry hacks to squeeze every little drop of performance from my card. Needles to say I've managed to overclock my card too much at times and I had to reboot to fix it. I was pleasantly suprised by the ATI solution to this. ATI just released a Control Center for their ATI cards. The software can actually overclock your card to safe levels automatically and can reset the GPU without needed a reboot when it becomes unresponsive. You can also set up different things on the card (Anti-Alias level, A-Filtering level, etc...) and create profiles. So for one game you can have one set of setting and for a different game you have a different set of settings. I really like this feature.

You wil be able to double up the nvidia cards in a matter of weeks with a PCI Express mother board.

Therefore schooling all the competition.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/sli.html

That's incorrect. You can run it on a 256mg if you'd like. There will just be some texture/map swapping.

With a fast enough computer, that's not a problem.

Wrong. Doom3 is impossible to run with uncompressed textures without a 512MB AGP.

Actually ATI has been doing a better job at updating their drivers. Check out this link with their previous drivers with their release dates (note that the lastest driver was released on September 9th which isn't in the list) -
http://ati.com/support/products/rade...usdrivers.html

According to that, they've been releasing a new driver almost monthly, so I'd say that things have greatly improved on their end. I know that it used to be a problem in the past with driver updates. I think that they must've taken all of the complaints to heart, he he.

Have you tried it?

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQ0LDM=

Ultra Quality is the cream of the crop for DOOM 3. In Ultra Quality nothing is compressed. Normal maps, and specular and diffuse lighting are all displayed at full resolution with no compression. Because of this, there is a tremendous amount of texture data needed on the video card, upwards of 500MB. While it will run on lesser cards, you may experience hitching or pausing due to the graphics card having to swap textures in and out of its memory buffer. That is why this setting is recommended for 512MB video cards. There is nothing stopping you from trying this quality setting if you want to, just keep in mind that the memory load is huge.



interesting article for sure

You are still wrong, the 512MB patch for Doom3 isn't even released yet. There are mods available that unlock this feature. Setting it to "Ultra Quality" is STILL compressed textures.

i've always liked Nvidia for the support n drivers.

anyhow, if you're not a gamer the only difference you'll see is in your wallet :1orglaugh