9800 XT or x800 or GeForce 6800

[gamerxx13]

I have currently a 9800 xt. I was wondering if I should upgrade this card to the x800 or Geforce 6800. Is it really worth the money? Will you see a big difference with the new games such as doom 3 and half life 2. Also another thing is I have always been a radeon guy. Is the x800 better or the geforce 6800 better with the new Nvidia 4 chipsets coming out? Man all this new stuff coming out and i dont know where to start. I read that the x800 pro is the best value because you can overclock it to the level of the x800xt. So just wondering what you guys think.

 

[AristoV300]

The newer cards are much better than the 9800XT. If you are talking top end cards then either the X800XT and the 6800 Ultra are great choices. If you are going down a level then the 6800GT is a better card then the X800 Pro due to the extra pipelines.

 

[df96817]

If you like to play games at the highest quality, high resolutions, and all eye candy (AA and AF) turned on, the 6800 or X800 makes a big difference.

Also the X800 Pro can overclock to X800XT speeds but it will still have the extra 4 pipelines disabled. There are some X800 Pros that can have the extra pipes unlocked but that is not guaranteed and is taking a risk just like overclocking.

As for which card is "better", it's mostly just personal preference.

 

[RussianSensation]

6800 > 9800xt but since it has 128mb of ram and it's not GDDR 3 1000mhz + ram, it runs slow at 1600x1200 with Antialiasing and Anisoptropic filtering enabled.

In my opinion x800pro is not the best value since you have to unlock the extra pipelines to truly turn it into x800xt. Since this requires a hard mod (physical changes to the board) and only x800pro vivo cards can do it, and nothing is guaranteed, I woudnt recommend this option for you.

6800GT > x800pro anyways for about $370 on pricewatch.com

Since 6800Gt has 16 full pipelines, overclocking it aids a larger improvement than overclocking X800pro due to its 12 pipelines.

If I was you, i'd sell 9800Xt and get a 6800Gt and then overclock that to 6800Ultra speeds. If you are really an ATI guy, just sell 9800xt and get X800xt.

I wouldnt upgrade to 6800. But definately try to sell 9800xt, even if you sell it for $150, it's still not bad and goes towards the upgrade.

Also if you only play at low resolutions like 1024x768 and without quality features enabled like AA/AF, i wouldnt get anything faster than 9800xt you have. Upgrade only if you prefer to have eye candy. 9800xt will perfectly handle doom 3 and half-life 2 at 1024x768 HIGH settings.

here are some reviews that might be of interest to you:

Graphics Buying Guide - TomsHardware - Nov 10th, 2004

VGA charts 4
October 2004 Digest
Anandtech Roundup
The Fastest Graphics Cards of Summer 2004

As far as the 2 games you are concerned about here are specifics:
Doom 3
HL2 (Beta)

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: gamerxx13
I have currently a 9800 xt. I was wondering if I should upgrade this card to the x800 or Geforce 6800. Is it really worth the money? Will you see a big difference with the new games such as doom 3 and half life 2. Also another thing is I have always been a radeon guy. Is the x800 better or the geforce 6800 better with the new Nvidia 4 chipsets coming out? Man all this new stuff coming out and i dont know where to start. I read that the x800 pro is the best value because you can overclock it to the level of the x800xt. So just wondering what you guys think.

What resolution do you play at?

Are your games slowing down?

i have a 9800xt also and play at 10x7 and 11x8 on my 19" CRT . . . . ALL games (including Doom III - which is a crap game anyway - at 10x7 HiQ +2xAA) with completely satisfactory FPS.

Knowing that the NEXT GEN of videocards is due next Spring/Summer, i can wait (as prices will be FALLING on the top cards, then) . . . . PLUS nVidia's SLI will be available; PCIe will be 'standard" for videocards and the entire dynamics will CHANGE.

UNLESS you are "suffering" slowdowns, i suggest we wait.