7900GT or X1900XT

[Bullhonkie]

If you're willing to overclock, I'd go with the 7900GT and pocket the difference. An additional $100 on your next video card upgrade could buy you a lot of extra power. Oblivion is very playable and enjoyable for me on a 7900GT at 640/870, with a tweaked .ini at 1920x1080.

If the additional $100 isn't that big a deal to you though, I'd go with the X1900XT. You'll have better performance in Oblivion for sure.

Either way you go you'll probably want to replace the stock cooler. X1900XT can get pretty toasty, while the 7900GT is noisy and probably not adequate for high overclocks.

I was faced with the same decision and went with the 7900GT. But $100 means different things to different people.

 

[RobertR1]

Originally posted by: ST

Originally posted by: RobertR1
If you want maximum performance + IQ in oblivion, 7900GT is not even a consideration. HQAF and HDR+AA make a world of difference in Oblivion.

at 1920x1080?

i will test this "theory" soon once fry's has some x1900 in stock...

I played through it at 1920x1200, with HDR+2xAAA and 8HQAF. Good enough for me.

 

[moonboy403]

Originally posted by: RobertR1

Originally posted by: ST

Originally posted by: RobertR1
If you want maximum performance + IQ in oblivion, 7900GT is not even a consideration. HQAF and HDR+AA make a world of difference in Oblivion.

at 1920x1080?

i will test this "theory" soon once fry's has some x1900 in stock...

I played through it at 1920x1200, with HDR+2xAAA and 8HQAF. Good enough for me.

how do you guys endure high resolution with aa and hdr???

sometimes, i can't even endure the outside environment with my sli setup
only using hdr with everything max at 1680 x 1050

it feels chopppy sometimes

 

[McArra]

If it is the XFX 7900 XT it runs at a very fast 550/1630, that makes it as fast as 7800GTX 512, very near to X1900XT. Also you could sell that X1900XT for $430+.

 

[McArra]

XFX 7900GT (550/1630) = XFX 7900GT XXX (560/1650) = 7800GTX 512

7800GTX 512 vs X1900XT/XTX

 

[JBT]

I would sell one of them rather than return one of them....

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker
A 700 mhz massively OC'd GT won't beat an XT clocked at XTX speeds: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1945659,00.asp Likewise, if he keeps the X1900XT he doesn't have to worry about possibly killing his card by doing a hardware mod on it and praying it doesn't fry his card. All he has to do is utilize ATi's built in software voltage control and OC as high as he wants. If he needs better cooling then he can opt to do so for even better overclocks. Then of course there's ATi's superior HQ AF and HDR+AA capabilities. The 7900 GT is outclassed by the X1900XT in every way.

lol...the Joker is back! Am I lucky or what...First off, none of the nVidia variant of cards you cited in the supposed article was clocked to 700MHz. The closest was the 7900GTX XXX clocked at GPU Geforce 7900GTX 665MHz Core and 1630MHz Mem respectively, yet it still beat the X1900XT variants in 3/5 tests (3DMark06, Doom3, HL2:LC). Might do some more research before citing on an erroneous hunch.

In terms of overclocking, I wrote to the OP that that is the main caveat. If he's comfortable with (for now) volt modding the 7900GT to extract the true potential of the 7900GT. Note that the volt mods typically are just pushing it to the GTX DEFAULT GPU voltages, but hey its true, YMMV.

As I was trying to say before, either choice is a great choice and both represent a great value; he can't go wrong either way. It's just unbelievable how much BS you fanbois start to cite trying to discredit one over the other like the other has no merits whatsoever...lol.

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: akugami
I think you're the one that needs to sit down. I was merely presenting my opinions on what the two options the OP had entailed. You can present your opinions and it's fine to disagree with mine but that's no reason to act like I'm frothing at the mouth which I wasn't. You sound way more gung ho than I did. Heck, I didn't even bad mouth the 7900GT when you get right down to it. The 7900GT was actually my first choice for a new video card except for the fact that everywhere sells it above MSRP.

you're giving inaccurate generalizations, specifically about what a volt moded OC 7900GT does / does not. i don't really care if he chooses one or the other, that's hise perogative, and i won't lose sleep otherwise , but i do take issue to fanboism hehe. put it this way, i'd love to hear what you x1900xt folks can do in games, not what you extrapolate what the 7900gt folks can't or can do....

 

[Zenoth]

With my X1800 XL (550/550), I can play Oblivion at 1024 x 768, 4x Adaptive AA+HDR, along with 8x HQ-AF, at smooth frame-rates.

All settings at maximum, except for Shadows which I turned Off completely. It plays at 35 to 60+ fps.

So with a X1900XT/X I'm sure he'll be able to play Oblivion at a higher resolution, same in-game settings WITH Shadows, along with AAA and HQ-AF at decent frame rates. Especially if he over-clocks it. And if he wants image quality, he'll automatically need the ATi solutions, since their new High-Quality A-F (X1K series) beats anything nVidia has to offer in terms of Anisotropic Filtering.

 

[LW07]

I would send back the 7900GT and keep the X1900XT.

 

[framerateuk]

For Oblivion, deffinately go for the 1900XT

Ive got the XTX model and can play with everyting maxed out (with HDR + 16xAF) at 1920x1200 with no problems at all. Ive yet to try the AA patch but im quite happy with the image quality as it is

 

[A5]

Keep both and sell the one you don't use. You can probably turn a profit on either card if you sold it.

 

[ElFenix]

i thought about selling one. then i checked newegg and decided selling the GT isn't worth the trouble because they were in stock and $299 yesterday.

its the 520/1500 version.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: ST


you're giving inaccurate generalizations, specifically about what a volt moded OC 7900GT does / does not. i don't really care if he chooses one or the other, that's hise perogative, and i won't lose sleep otherwise , but i do take issue to fanboism hehe. put it this way, i'd love to hear what you x1900xt folks can do in games, not what you extrapolate what the 7900gt folks can't or can do....

What would you like to hear specifically?

 

[akugami]

Originally posted by: ST

Originally posted by: akugami
I think you're the one that needs to sit down. I was merely presenting my opinions on what the two options the OP had entailed. You can present your opinions and it's fine to disagree with mine but that's no reason to act like I'm frothing at the mouth which I wasn't. You sound way more gung ho than I did. Heck, I didn't even bad mouth the 7900GT when you get right down to it. The 7900GT was actually my first choice for a new video card except for the fact that everywhere sells it above MSRP.

you're giving inaccurate generalizations, specifically about what a volt moded OC 7900GT does / does not. i don't really care if he chooses one or the other, that's hise perogative, and i won't lose sleep otherwise , but i do take issue to fanboism hehe. put it this way, i'd love to hear what you x1900xt folks can do in games, not what you extrapolate what the 7900gt folks can't or can do....

Again, generalizations are just that. If you think I'm wrong, go dig up a database with overclocked results. I've looked at the thread on here, and I've looked at the thread elsewhere. 600'ish is what most are getting because not everyone has their 7900GT's volt modded to 1.5v. So you think I'm giving an unfair generalization of the 7900GT, that's fine. Heck, a generalization when you get right down to it isn't even meant to be scientifically accurate. Which is why I take umbrage at the way you replied. I didn't care if you corrected me, just that a disagreement is no grounds for you to be a jerk. As I said, the 7900GT was my first choice in a video card upgrade. It's not my fault nVidia can't deliver the goods in sufficient quantity.

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: ST

lol...the Joker is back! Am I lucky or what...First off, none of the nVidia variant of cards you cited in the supposed article was clocked to 700MHz. The closest was the 7900GTX XXX clocked at GPU Geforce 7900GTX 665MHz Core and 1630MHz Mem respectively, yet it still beat the X1900XT variants in 3/5 tests (3DMark06, Doom3, HL2:LC). Might do some more research before citing on an erroneous hunch.

Before spouting off more of your drivel, you should take a few mins. to at least check up on what you're saying before making a complete fool of yourself:

The XFX 7900 GTX has 512MB of RAM clocked at 1.8 GHz (reference was 1.6GHz). With the die shrink XFX has been able to overclock the core clock to 700MHz, up 150 MHz from the 7800GTX 512, and 270 MHz from the 7800GTX 256.

Source: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/310/4/

And of course from XFX's website: http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product/lis...ils.jspa?productConfigurationId=185612

Memory Clock
1.8 GHz
Clock rate
700 MHz

Oh and LOL@you for pointing out 3dmark06 as a "win". Not that it really matters anyway because only a few GT's with a shoddy conductive paint hardware volt mod will run at 700 mhz reliably anyway.

In terms of overclocking, I wrote to the OP that that is the main caveat. If he's comfortable with (for now) volt modding the 7900GT to extract the true potential of the 7900GT. Note that the volt mods typically are just pushing it to the GTX DEFAULT GPU voltages, but hey its true, YMMV.

As I was trying to say before, either choice is a great choice and both represent a great value; he can't go wrong either way. It's just unbelievable how much BS you fanbois start to cite trying to discredit one over the other like the other has no merits whatsoever...lol.

Yeah let's go buy a GT so we can potentially kill the card by doing a half assed conductive paint volt mod job in hopes of it hitting GTX speeds. :roll:

 

[aldamon]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker

Originally posted by: ST

lol...the Joker is back! Am I lucky or what...First off, none of the nVidia variant of cards you cited in the supposed article was clocked to 700MHz. The closest was the 7900GTX XXX clocked at GPU Geforce 7900GTX 665MHz Core and 1630MHz Mem respectively, yet it still beat the X1900XT variants in 3/5 tests (3DMark06, Doom3, HL2:LC). Might do some more research before citing on an erroneous hunch.

Before spouting off more of your drivel, you should take a few mins. to at least check up on what you're saying before making a complete fool of yourself:

The XFX 7900 GTX has 512MB of RAM clocked at 1.8 GHz (reference was 1.6GHz). With the die shrink XFX has been able to overclock the core clock to 700MHz, up 150 MHz from the 7800GTX 512, and 270 MHz from the 7800GTX 256.

Source: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/310/4/

Oh and LOL@you for pointing out 3dmark06 as a "win". Not that it really matters anyway because only a few GT's with a shoddy conductive paint hardware volt mod will run at 700 mhz reliably anyway.

In terms of overclocking, I wrote to the OP that that is the main caveat. If he's comfortable with (for now) volt modding the 7900GT to extract the true potential of the 7900GT. Note that the volt mods typically are just pushing it to the GTX DEFAULT GPU voltages, but hey its true, YMMV.

As I was trying to say before, either choice is a great choice and both represent a great value; he can't go wrong either way. It's just unbelievable how much BS you fanbois start to cite trying to discredit one over the other like the other has no merits whatsoever...lol.

Yeah let's go buy a GT so we can potentially kill the card by doing a half assed conductive paint volt mod job in hopes of it hitting GTX speeds. :roll:

The 7900GT voltmodding process is inexpensive, easy, reliable, and effective. Nothing about it is half assed.

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: aldamon

Originally posted by: 5150Joker

Originally posted by: ST

lol...the Joker is back! Am I lucky or what...First off, none of the nVidia variant of cards you cited in the supposed article was clocked to 700MHz. The closest was the 7900GTX XXX clocked at GPU Geforce 7900GTX 665MHz Core and 1630MHz Mem respectively, yet it still beat the X1900XT variants in 3/5 tests (3DMark06, Doom3, HL2:LC). Might do some more research before citing on an erroneous hunch.

Before spouting off more of your drivel, you should take a few mins. to at least check up on what you're saying before making a complete fool of yourself:

The XFX 7900 GTX has 512MB of RAM clocked at 1.8 GHz (reference was 1.6GHz). With the die shrink XFX has been able to overclock the core clock to 700MHz, up 150 MHz from the 7800GTX 512, and 270 MHz from the 7800GTX 256.

Source: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/310/4/

Oh and LOL@you for pointing out 3dmark06 as a "win". Not that it really matters anyway because only a few GT's with a shoddy conductive paint hardware volt mod will run at 700 mhz reliably anyway.

In terms of overclocking, I wrote to the OP that that is the main caveat. If he's comfortable with (for now) volt modding the 7900GT to extract the true potential of the 7900GT. Note that the volt mods typically are just pushing it to the GTX DEFAULT GPU voltages, but hey its true, YMMV.

As I was trying to say before, either choice is a great choice and both represent a great value; he can't go wrong either way. It's just unbelievable how much BS you fanbois start to cite trying to discredit one over the other like the other has no merits whatsoever...lol.

Yeah let's go buy a GT so we can potentially kill the card by doing a half assed conductive paint volt mod job in hopes of it hitting GTX speeds. :roll:

The 7900GT voltmodding process is inexpensive, easy, reliable, and effective. Nothing about it is half assed.

Nothing about spreading conductive paint across a PCB is "reliable". It's a half-assed job at volt modding - not to mention you're voiding your warranty.

 

[aldamon]

Originally posted by: 5150JokerNothing about spreading conductive paint across a PCB is "reliable". It's a half-assed job at volt modding.

The traces conductive pens make are good enough for R&D departments, but not good enough for modding a video card? Sure. Whatever you say.

I will concede that my pencil VRAM mod is half-assed, but it still works. LOL.

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: aldamon

Originally posted by: 5150JokerNothing about spreading conductive paint across a PCB is "reliable". It's a half-assed job at volt modding.

The traces conductive pens make are good enough for R&D departments, but not good enough for modding a video card? Sure. Whatever you say.

I will concede that my pencil VRAM mod is half-assed, but it still works. LOL.

Joe blow buying conductive paint at the local napa and spreading it across his video card's PCB (while voiding it's warranty) doesn't equate to the job an R&D lab might do on a product they create but I'm sure you already knew that.

 

[aldamon]

Originally posted by: 5150JokerJoe blow buying conductive paint at the local napa and spreading it across his video card's PCB doesn't equate to the job an R&D lab might do on a product they create but I'm sure you already knew that.

I think the Caig CircuitWriter pen is more eloquent than the rear-window defogger repair kit at Napa:

http://www.radioshack.com/sm-see-all-needs-and-wants--pi-2104395.html

I'm sure you'll have some snappy retort about this as well.

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

I just got an X1900XTX to replace two 6800gt boards that were in SLI. The performance improvement was jaw dropping to say the least. I recently also bought a Dell 2405 screen so I needed a lot of juice to pump its native resolution. Aside from the benchmarks on many review sites on the net what really clinched my decision to buy the ATI product over the GTX board was results using HDR or FSAA... Oblivion on the X1900XTX vs my old nvidia config was breathtaking and I'm focusing more on the image not framerates which were totally playable.... the plane of Oblivion was incredibly immersive...... the colors... oh the colors. I am extremely pleased with the purchase.

P.S. also got the X2 Acellero cooler from Arctic Cooling it sits around 65C after hours of gaming.

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker ...Yeah let's go buy a GT so we can potentially kill the card by doing a half assed conductive paint volt mod job in hopes of it hitting GTX speeds. :roll:

more typical fanboi avoidance...okay so the LINK the ORIGINAL article gave on the XFX XXX was incorrect...my bad lol. Tells you a lot about the credibility of the article YOU cited. Since you don't consider 3Dmark as one of their tests, funny you didnt comment on the fact it still then scored first on 50% of the tests, even though they were limited to 1280x1024 resolutions (which coincidentally had the "meager" 7900GT scoring witinh a few fps of the top spots on several tests).

hahaha half ass conductive paint mod....too funny. you think if you OC softmod your precious ATI, you can't destroy it too? the mod is a simple 5 minute max procedure that parallels what most engineering folks do in the lab (at least our company does as well). it is a clean effective and yes it could void your warranty, just as softmod OCing and destroying your ATI cards would.

man, did an nVidia kill a relative of yours or something? maybe lost too much money in ATI stocks? lol....just let it go with the half assed sujbective opinions already...

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: ST

Originally posted by: 5150Joker ...Yeah let's go buy a GT so we can potentially kill the card by doing a half assed conductive paint volt mod job in hopes of it hitting GTX speeds. :roll:

more typical fanboi avoidance...okay so the LINK the ORIGINAL article gave on the XFX XXX was incorrect...my bad lol. Tells you a lot about the credibility of the article YOU cited. Since you don't consider 3Dmark as one of their tests, funny you didnt comment on the fact it still then scored first on 50% of the tests, even though they were limited to 1280x1024 resolutions (which coincidentally had the "meager" 7900GT scoring witinh a few fps of the top spots on several tests).

hahaha half ass conductive paint mod....too funny. you think if you OC softmod your precious ATI, you can't destroy it too? the mod is a simple 5 minute max procedure that parallels what most engineering folks do in the lab (at least our company does as well). it is a clean effective and yes it could void your warranty, just as softmod OCing and destroying your ATI cards would.

man, did an nVidia kill a relative of yours or something? maybe lost too much money in ATI stocks? lol....just let it go with the half assed sujbective opinions already...

Problem is Joe Blow (contrary to what you may think, not everyone is an engineer or knows how to measure voltages) with a 7900 GT MUST do a half assed conductive paint volt mod just to get high end performance out of it thus voiding the warranty and possibly killing the card. With a X1900 XT it gives that same high end performance out of the box, thus there is no need to OC or soft mod even though that option is always there. It's funny you accuse me of having "subjective" opinions yet I've already proven you a fool above.

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: akugami

Originally posted by: ST

Originally posted by: akugami
I think you're the one that needs to sit down. I was merely presenting my opinions on what the two options the OP had entailed. You can present your opinions and it's fine to disagree with mine but that's no reason to act like I'm frothing at the mouth which I wasn't. You sound way more gung ho than I did. Heck, I didn't even bad mouth the 7900GT when you get right down to it. The 7900GT was actually my first choice for a new video card except for the fact that everywhere sells it above MSRP.

you're giving inaccurate generalizations, specifically about what a volt moded OC 7900GT does / does not. i don't really care if he chooses one or the other, that's hise perogative, and i won't lose sleep otherwise , but i do take issue to fanboism hehe. put it this way, i'd love to hear what you x1900xt folks can do in games, not what you extrapolate what the 7900gt folks can't or can do....

Again, generalizations are just that. If you think I'm wrong, go dig up a database with overclocked results. I've looked at the thread on here, and I've looked at the thread elsewhere. 600'ish is what most are getting because not everyone has their 7900GT's volt modded to 1.5v. So you think I'm giving an unfair generalization of the 7900GT, that's fine. Heck, a generalization when you get right down to it isn't even meant to be scientifically accurate. Which is why I take umbrage at the way you replied. I didn't care if you corrected me, just that a disagreement is no grounds for you to be a jerk. As I said, the 7900GT was my first choice in a video card upgrade. It's not my fault nVidia can't deliver the goods in sufficient quantity.

I don't need to look it up, I've volt modded 5 of these cards already. and i feel bad for ya about supply shortage. however there are some of us that had no issues with it (i've had 2 cards now ; 1 etail, 1 local brick and mortar shop). and about the generalizations, do you see me speculating about the performance of ati cards? don't need or want to...i can only give an accurate assessment of what i know my card can do and leave it to stand on its own merits.