BBA X850Xt PE/ 6800 Ultra

[estew33]

Hello,
I already have a 6800 ultra. I have a bba x850xt pe coming for someone, who know longer really wants it.
I may deicde to keep it. My question is this which is a better card
Thanks
Ed

 

[schneiderguy]

x850xtpe

 

[Powermoloch]

6800 ultra on open GL games. Overall x850xtpe is a champ.

 

[Elfear]

I've had both and the X850XT PE was noticeably faster in a majority of the games I played. OGl games were the exception as Powermoloch mentioned.

 

[dguy6789]

The Radeon X850XTPE is definately faster than the Geforce 6800 Ultra in the vast majority of games by a noticable margin.

 

[postmortemIA]

but X850 doesn't support SM 3.0

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
but X850 doesn't support SM 3.0

Lol. Show me where SM3.0 provides an advantage that would outweigh the 6800 Ultra's speed deficit.

 

[orangat]

The x8xx series is somehow faster in newer shader heavy games so its a better overall buy despite not having sm3. I remembered seeing some benchmarks in AOE3/Oblivion/SS where it scored very well.

 

[Noema]

X850XTPE; even though the 6800U supports SM 3.0, it's just too slow for that to make an advantage in newer games like Oblivion, in which it would be outperformed by a considerable margin by X850XT.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: orangat
The x8xx series is somehow faster in newer shader heavy games so its a better overall buy despite not having sm3. I remembered seeing some benchmarks in AOE3/Oblivion/SS where it scored very well.

Yea, except it looks different to other S.M 3.0 cards in terms of IQ. In AOE3 for example, with the X850XT missing P.S 3.0 support, it has less effects and IQ candy compared to other S.M 3.0 cards.

They are probably running on S.M 2.0 code, if not S.M 1.1 which defitnately has degraded IQ in return for fast performance. I guess the reason 6 series are slow is because they are running on latest S.M 3.0 games with lots of extra IQ compared to earlier S.M 3.0 titles.

Unless im wrong

 

[sisq0kidd]

As others have said x850xt PE is faster, but I'd be too lazy to switch cards

 

[Cookie Monster]

Back to the OP.. i dont think ill be bothered to swap cards.

Obivously the X850XT PE (refresh of the X800XTPE) is faster. But i dont see such big increase in performance or effort to swap the last gen high end cards.

Just stay with your 6800ultra til you can afford to switch to PCI-e and then go with a fast mid range card. Even a X1800GTO/7600GT is as fast as the 6800ultra.

 

[Munky]

The x850xt pe is overall faster in the majority of DX9 games. Since you're getting it for free, then try it and see if it's worth keeping. And forget about SM3/HDR unless you're buying a high end video card (7900gt or greater)

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: munky
The x850xt pe is overall faster in the majority of DX9 games. Since you're getting it for free, then try it and see if it's worth keeping. And forget about SM3/HDR unless you're buying a high end video card (7900gt or greater)

forget about HDR? okay. i run HDR on Far cry, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and Oblivion on my 6800 nu.... a 6800ultra is more than fast enough to run SM3 games with all the SM3 effects turned on

 

[Powermoloch]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
but X850 doesn't support SM 3.0

lol SM 3.0 and HDR is overrated.

 

[akshayt]

I would rather keep the 6800ultra, there are so many games in which ou use either sm3 or hdr:
AOE3
Loast Coast
Episode One
Far Cry
Serious Sam 2
not sure how it performs with Time Shift

I would keep a 6800ultra or upgrade to 1800xt or higher

 

[orangat]

Originally posted by: akshayt
I would rather keep the 6800ultra, there are so many games in which ou use either sm3 or hdr:
AOE3
Loast Coast
Episode One
Far Cry
Serious Sam 2
not sure how it performs with Time Shift

I would keep a 6800ultra or upgrade to 1800xt or higher

SM3/hdr is overrated and should not be a selling point for 68xx/x8xx cards.

ATI cards can also run Lost Coast on hdr using sm2 and it looks practically the same as Nvidia cards. SeriousSam2 DOES NOT use sm3, only sm2.

I remembered seeing benchmarks showing comparable x8xx cards performing on-par with Nvidia in Lost Coast, FASTER in Oblivion using bloom and FASTER in SS2.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: schneiderguy

Originally posted by: munky
The x850xt pe is overall faster in the majority of DX9 games. Since you're getting it for free, then try it and see if it's worth keeping. And forget about SM3/HDR unless you're buying a high end video card (7900gt or greater)

forget about HDR? okay. i run HDR on Far cry, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and Oblivion on my 6800 nu.... a 6800ultra is more than fast enough to run SM3 games with all the SM3 effects turned on

At what resolution and at what settings? A 6800gs (~6800gt) gets fps in the 20's at 1600x1200 resolution in AOE3, Chaos Theory, Serious Sam 2, and Farcry with HDR enabled. That means your 6800nu will get those fps at 1280 resolution, and for smooth gameplay you'd be looking at 1024x768 with 0xAA to hopefully get fps in the 30's. In Oblivion, a 6800gs gets a whopping 11 fps with HDR at 1280x1024 resolution, so unless you like running Oblivion at 800x600 resolution with HDR, forget about it.