AIW x800XT or Saphire x850XT

[AdamMT1618]

I am not sure which next video card I want to get. I am selling my 6800GT, it is a nice card, but I want to go TIVO and need the cash for it. I mainly want to be able to record off my t.v., but not sacrifice my gaming experience. So here are my only two choices:

Saphire x850XT (sm 3.0)

or

All in Wonder x800XT (sm 2.0b I think)

I will not be upgrading to PCIe until a year or two more, so this decision on which video card to get may need to last me for at least 2 years in case I do not upgrade. What makes me unsure about the two is if I go AIW I lose sm 3.0, but I gain a t.v. tuner, more features and it is less money. If I go Saphire x850XT I gain sm 3.0 back and some pretty sweet 3dMark05 scores, but it will cost me 50 dollars more and I lose AIW features.

My current system setup:
AMD 64 3500 Winchester
MSI Neo2 Platinum
1 Gig RAM (low latency)
BFG GeForce 6800GT OC
DVDRW

What would you do in my situation?

Thank you.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: AdamMT1618
I am not sure which next video card I want to get. I am selling my 6800GT, it is a nice card, but I want to go TIVO and need the cash for it. I mainly want to be able to record off my t.v., but not sacrifice my gaming experience. So here are my only two choices:

Saphire x850XT (sm 3.0)

or

All in Wonder x800XT (sm 2.0b I think)

I will not be upgrading to PCIe until a year or two more, so this decision on which video card to get may need to last me for at least 2 years in case I do not upgrade. What makes me unsure about the two is if I go AIW I lose sm 3.0, but I gain a t.v. tuner, more features and it is less money. If I go Saphire x850XT I gain sm 3.0 back and some pretty sweet 3dMark05 scores, but it will cost me 50 dollars more and I lose AIW features.

My current system setup:
AMD 64 3500 Winchester
MSI Neo2 Platinum
1 Gig RAM (low latency)
BFG GeForce 6800GT OC
DVDRW

What would you do in my situation?

Thank you.

The x850XT is SM 3.0??? Since when?

If you need TIVO functions get the AIW, you won't lose that much performance, should still gain some over your current 6800GT.

 

[AdamMT1618]

Originally posted by: bjc112

Originally posted by: AdamMT1618
I am not sure which next video card I want to get. I am selling my 6800GT, it is a nice card, but I want to go TIVO and need the cash for it. I mainly want to be able to record off my t.v., but not sacrifice my gaming experience. So here are my only two choices:

Saphire x850XT (sm 3.0)

or

All in Wonder x800XT (sm 2.0b I think)

I will not be upgrading to PCIe until a year or two more, so this decision on which video card to get may need to last me for at least 2 years in case I do not upgrade. What makes me unsure about the two is if I go AIW I lose sm 3.0, but I gain a t.v. tuner, more features and it is less money. If I go Saphire x850XT I gain sm 3.0 back and some pretty sweet 3dMark05 scores, but it will cost me 50 dollars more and I lose AIW features.

My current system setup:
AMD 64 3500 Winchester
MSI Neo2 Platinum
1 Gig RAM (low latency)
BFG GeForce 6800GT OC
DVDRW

What would you do in my situation?

Thank you.

The x850XT is SM 3.0??? Since when?

If you need TIVO functions get the AIW, you won't lose that much performance, should still gain some over your current 6800GT.

I thought the x850 had SM 3.0? I could be wrong.

Thank you.

 

[fierydemise]

x850 is not SM3

 

[ddogg]

no dude...the X850XT is not SM3.0 compliant...by switching to the AIWX800XT u would get a small performance improvement from the 6800GT and since u want TV options it should be a good move! :thumbsup:

 

[AdamMT1618]

Thank you for the replies everyone, since x850 does not have SM3.0 I will probably go with the AIW. At least it is cheap and I won't lose more money when I switch to PCIe in a year or two.