Better Video Card???
 

I am buying a new video card... Can get the new ATI X800 Pro 256mb for $399 or the nVidia 6800Ultra for $499


Which is better... and why... and is the nVidia (if better) worth the extra $100???

Both of'em are perfect ones. That mean kind of work are you going to do with it?

I'd say get a 6800Ultra :D

For HL2, get the ATI

For Doom3, get the nVidia

I would say the X800, it's the winner in the new 3Dmark05 benchmark which measures GPU performance based on the technology used in the next generation games.

I have the X800 Pro. Very nice card loving every minute of playtime with it. I've actually moved from NVidia to ATI. NVidia stuff is great for OpenGL stuff (like Doom3) but ATI just rocks with the DirectX Stuff (like Half-Life). I do have Doom3 and I do play it with the ATI card and the difference between the two card is negligable. I did get the new 3D Mark last night and I ran it on my X800 card and I have a few beefs with that benchmark. First off everything runs under 20fps for me. Don't know why but every single benchmark does. 2nd why on earth is the CPU speed of the machine calculated into the benchmark result ? I thought this was supposed to be a benchmark that benches your graphics card. What scores are you all getting with the new 3D Mark ?

get the X800 card, IMO the differance is not worth $100 :thumbsup

Don't worry about the 20fps. Consider yourself lucky, a lot of people run it with less then 5fps,

Actually, if you're comparing those 2 cards, DEFINATELY get the 6800 Ultra, it's definately better than the X800 PRO.

HOWEVER, if you're looking at the ATI X800 XT, which also retails for $499, you could get either that or the 6800 Ultra because they're both pretty even, one might do one game better, but the other card does another game better, I think that you couldn't go wrong with either. I'd say get the card that you can find in stock.

If both cards perform about the same, maybe it's nice to know that ATI releases new drivers every month, and sometimes even release new drivers just because one single game didn't work very well.

Ok since we pretty much established that both cards are almost the same it would be worth it to look at other things besides the performance. I used to have NVidia cards before and overclocking them was always a pain. You give the core too much voltage your machine locks up, reboot and try again. With ATI there is no such thing. ATI cards can automagically reset the GPU to their "safe" settings if something goes wrong. Plus, ATI drivers have a feature called "OverDrive" mode. You just check a checkbox and the card will overclock itself constantly adjusting its performance to make sure nothing bad happens. That's a really nice feature of the card. Plus ATI just released their Command Center for the cards. From there you can set the AA-Levels, the A-Filter Levels, etc... and store then in multiple profiles. This way you can have different settings for different games. Also the ATI card only takes up 1 slot on my MOBO. The NVidia card is massive and it takes up two slots on the MOBO.

This is no way intended to spark a "holywar" between the two card manufacturers and users. These are just my opinions about the two cards. Like I've said I do own the ATI X800 but I have no real hands on experience with the NVidia card (although I do have older NVidia cards in my other machines).