Another GPU decision: 7800GT or X1900XT?

[Zbox]

I have a x1900xt (has been an annoyance and the drivers absolutely suck) and I'd recommend you get the 7800gt.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid

Originally posted by: lopri
7800GT will NOT be enough for 12x10 resolution in the near future. Well, indeed it is not currently

Call of Duty 2
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Quake 4
F.E.A.R.
Age of Empires 3

The list will only get bigger as time goes by.

You're quite wrong. My single 7800 GT does very well at 12x10 on those games.....that's WITH settings maxed out, and 4xAA/8xAS

Then your definition of well is not the same as his. My friend has a 7800gt oc'd past 500mhz, and it definitely does not run COD2 and FEAR smoothly at 12x10 4x/8x max settings. He had to drop down to 1024 or turn down settings to get rid of the lag at minimum fps.

 

[Sunrise089]

Originally posted by: dannyboy731
Thanks again guys, pretty sure I'll go with the GT for now.

On a sorta related note, what do you all think about going with the eVGA CO Edition or the standard 445/1070mhz one & overclocking? Probably going to get the Arctic Cooling NV Silencer for it either way, and right now the stock version is 20 bucks cheaper plus a $20 rebate. Only problem is I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to overclocking & don't know how comfortable I am with replacing the HSF and all that yet. Anyone know of a good walkthrough for that sort of thing? Or does like 25/30mhz extra make much of a difference?

If you are going to add a new cooler anyways, I would buy the cheaper eVGA. I own a 516 edition of the card from eVGA, the idea is that:

515 - stock cooler, 445/1070
516 - copper cooler, 460/1100
517 - copper cooler, 470/1100

but my 516 ran at 517 speeds stock, and I saved like $15. I would buy the 516/517 (whichever is cheaper) if you don't want to mess with a cooler change, but like I said, you might as well save is you are going to add one anyways.

 

[v8envy]

One more monkey wrench to throw into the mix. While the X1900XT may be overkill for 12x10 gameplay, consider it'll offload more HD processing than the 7800GT. Which means you could do 1080p playback no sweat even on a 3 ghz box.

Ok, two monkey wrenches. Future games are more likely to be pixel-shader heavy than stencil-shadow heavy, so the X1900XT is more likely to have enough oomph longer than the 7800GT. Pure conjecture, you can't upgrade for future games, but hey. It's a thought.

Fine, three monkey wrenches. At some point the X1900XT is likely to get pretty cheap, it's not a limited edition card. This one is a huge YMMV, no idea how pricing on the X1900XT will behave over the next two years. I don't have a crystal ball to predict whether it'll follow the X850XT pricing, or the 6800Ultra. I suspect the former. You could get a second one, and be fine gaming for yet another year.

That being said, $280 vs $490, that's a bigass difference. Almost double the price. If it were me, I'd go for the cheapest 7800GT out there that's made by a reputable manufacturer (EVGA, BFG, Leadtek. Maybe XFX), the few frames/sec gained with the premium OC versions just ain't worth it.

 

[Xenon14]

First, the X1900XT shines more and more as the level complexity of pixel shaders increases. So in games that are coming out that rely more and more on shaders, like FEAR, teh X1900XT start to pull further away from the 7800GT. Also, chances are the resale value of your used 7800GT will drop a bit faster than the price drop of the X1900XT. Even if that's not the case, if you end up selling your 7800GT and getting a x1900xt in the future, your $ savings will be negligble. (you can estimate this by taking the resale value of the 7800gt 6mos from now, subtract that number from what u will pay for the 7800 now '$280', and add that difference to the price of a X1900XT 6mos from now. then compare that value to x1900xt current $490). I estimate if u get the 7800GT and then upgrade later, u'll save yourself ~$40. So if you plan on getting the X1900XT in the future, then you might as well get it now, and save urself the hassle.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: v8envy
One more monkey wrench to throw into the mix. While the X1900XT may be overkill for 12x10 gameplay, consider it'll offload more HD processing than the 7800GT. Which means you could do 1080p playback no sweat even on a 3 ghz box.

Ok, two monkey wrenches. Future games are more likely to be pixel-shader heavy than stencil-shadow heavy, so the X1900XT is more likely to have enough oomph longer than the 7800GT. Pure conjecture, you can't upgrade for future games, but hey. It's a thought.

Fine, three monkey wrenches. At some point the X1900XT is likely to get pretty cheap, it's not a limited edition card. This one is a huge YMMV, no idea how pricing on the X1900XT will behave over the next two years. I don't have a crystal ball to predict whether it'll follow the X850XT pricing, or the 6800Ultra. I suspect the former. You could get a second one, and be fine gaming for yet another year.

That being said, $280 vs $490, that's a bigass difference. Almost double the price. If it were me, I'd go for the cheapest 7800GT out there that's made by a reputable manufacturer (EVGA, BFG, Leadtek. Maybe XFX), the few frames/sec gained with the premium OC versions just ain't worth it.

Another wrench for the monkey... AVIVO looks like it will provide very interesting results for video encode when ATI gets their encoder working on the GPU. The GPU can do some tasks faster than a CPU. ATI has already fleshed part of this out with Avid (the formerly Pinnacle part) in the Liquid video editor. That tech is now part of Pinnacle Studio 10. But in theory, nVidia could do this with PVP, I just don't remember seeing concrete plans.

 

[Topweasel]

The Problem here is if the G71 doesn't beat the XT.

Normally this close to release I would recommend waiting for the G71 buying the best at the time. The 7800GT would let you do this (EVGA) because you can buy it and turn it in for what you paid to get the G71, but if the X1900XT is faster then you have to sell it at a loss to purchase something you wanted to get in the first place. I would like to say that with the RUMORED specs chances are the G71 will wipe the floor with the XTX but you never know.

I would still say get the 7800GT, it should be more then enough right now and will give you the oportunity now to pay less, and then after the reviews are out you can make a choice of whether or not you want to upgrade and if you do and the G71 is faster you can get exactly what you paid for it to step up.