Buy X1800XL or GeForce 7800GT?

[T101]

Just quick check, how fast will the x1800XL and 7800GT be phased out, be as useless (sorry to those who own them) as the 6800GT are compared to the 7800GT now?

And should I buy a x1800XL or a 7800GT for christmas, or should I wait until GeForce 8xxxx is released? I want to be able to play Oblivion (amongst other things) at its maximum (or near maximum) setting.

 

[Dkcode]

Get 2 7GTS in SLi

 

[Gamingphreek]

Omg.

Should you wait for the G80?!?!?! They just released the 7 Series what 3 months ago. Try again.

I would definitely get the 7800GT over the X1800XL. The GT is much cheaper and it, for the most part, trumps the X1800. At the high end however, it is more difficult (I think the X1800XT is slightly better than the 7800GTX).

-Kevin

 

[Trevelyan]

I would say if you want something right now, get a 7800GT.

If you can wait for a couple months for the price to go down, get the X1800XL or XT. At least, that's my upgrade plan as of now.

 

[lifeguard1999]

5800 - Jan 2003
6800 - Apr 2004
7800 - June 2005
8800 - Aug 2006 ???
9800 - Oct 2007 ???

New cards seem to be coming out every 15 months or so. Of course, who really knows when the NVidia cards will come out, or even what they will be called.

No, do not wait for the NVidia 8x00 series. Get the 7800GT now.

 

[T101]

Ok. Thanks for your replies. The 7800GT was my plan, but I needed some verification that my plan was a sound one.

 

[flynnsk]

Uh oh ,, I guess Im going to get labeled as something for suggesting the X1800XL ..

SM3.0 support
HDR + FSAA
Hell of a OCer (nearly all XLs are hitting XT speeds with Vmod, done in Software .. ie no sodering iron)
Prices dropping daily.. sure its not as cheap as the 7800GT (yet), however you do get 7800GT(X) features, a few added ones and crazy OCing..

Oh did I mention OCing ? ;p


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho...036924f0758835153&t=76485&page=4&pp=25


x1800 XT

I'm getting around 740/1680 clocks (artifact free for 3DMark05) with the default cooler (GPU +0.15V above default, fan running at full speed).

X1800 XL

my XL will do 628 core at 1.225v and 1550 mem at stock.

X1800XL (256MB single slot cooler)
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=78054

Here are the final overclocks with stock cooler. Core needed 1.225v to reach 628....

700 core gave immediate lock/black screen at voltage up to 1.3v, just too much heat for the little stock cooler

So, unless I get better cooling 1550 is max mem will do. On the core however, I could prolly get higher, but it already reaches 72'C.

Call me crazy (or what be it) but IMO XT performance at XL costs .. single slot cooler for near XT performance, however who doesnt use an ATI/NV silencer is just asking for noise/heat issues.

 

[Fadey]

U have a x800xl , dont waste your money with an upgrade now..

 

[Fadey]

Oh and the 7800 series has TSAA which is better -_-

 

[flynnsk]

Originally posted by: Fadey
Oh and the 7800 series has TSAA which is better -_-

Which is TOTALLY subjective to the user..

/devil's advocate mode:

Hows that HDR + FSAA going ?

/ };p

You say tomato I say tomoto ..

 

[T101]

I was more or less planning to sell the x800xl and get the 7800gt. It is a tough choice though. If Ati had made their crossfire solution available sooner, and have made sure it would run on nforce4 sli, I might have gone that route. However, as it look now, going over to nvidia with the 7800GT and in the future add another 7800GT is the way to go.

Especially since the 7800GT (Point of View) cost 3295 Swedish Kronor, and the x1800xl costs 5695 (XFX) Swedish Kronor. Sure, the price will drop, but considering that it takes quite a bit of time. So why should I stay loyal to ATI? I want to get the best future-proof upgrade path, and I feel like I made a misstake in getting the x800xl. However it was the only alternative at that time considering price/performance.

So, it would make sense to get the offering of 2x Point of View 7800GT for 6395 Swedish Kronor, stick each card in the two machines I shall upgrade, and in the future put them both in one machine when I get a new graphics card.

Or do you disagree?

 

[flynnsk]

Originally posted by: T101
I was more or less planning to sell the x800xl and get the 7800gt. It is a tough choice though. If Ati had made their crossfire solution available sooner, and have made sure it would run on nforce4 sli, I might have gone that route. However, as it look now, going over to nvidia with the 7800GT and in the future add another 7800GT is the way to go.

Especially since the 7800GT (Point of View) cost 3295 Swedish Kronor, and the x1800xl costs 5695 (XFX) Swedish Kronor. Sure, the price will drop, but considering that it takes quite a bit of time. So why should I stay loyal to ATI? I want to get the best future-proof upgrade path, and I feel like I made a misstake in getting the x800xl. However it was the only alternative at that time considering price/performance.

So, it would make sense to get the offering of 2x Point of View 7800GT for 6395 Swedish Kronor, stick each card in the two machines I shall upgrade, and in the future put them both in one machine when I get a new graphics card.

Or do you disagree?

Well as far as price obviously the 7800GT is the best bang for the buck,, waiting for 1800XL prices to drop (or 7800s as well) places one in the favorite past time of "waiting for something on the horizon" .. when there will ALWAYS be something on the horizon. Future-proof and "PCs" should never be used in same sentence ;p heheh anyhow some will argue one way others another .. the X1800 series are a bit more "future-proof" I guess you can say in that they are fully SM3.0 compliant and feature HDR + FSAA and as drivers mature new features will be introduced and performance gained. Then again,.. by the time games that use SM3.0 are abundant, 7800GTXs 512MB/1800XTs will probally be sub $250 upgrades.

You cant really go wrong with either, they both do well at default and both have some potential for gains thru drivers and OCing (arguably the x1800XLs having slightly more head room for OCing). At the very least wait until around Nov 10th .. prices for current 7800 series will most likely see a drop and 1800XLs may follow the XTs arrival.

 

[g3pro]

If you're going to do anything, wait until the mid-season refreshes early next year (or maybe before christmas for nVidia). No point in buying old tech such as the 7800 when better things are right around the corner.

 

[Nirach]

I'd stick it out with your present card, and see hpw the CrossFire stuff pans out. The downside to SLI, as I'm sure you all know, is that you need identical cards, and not a huge number of games support it. I'm sure something similar could be said in regards to Crossfire, I like the mix and match scheme they intend to run, but is there any point?

How long will it take games to catch up to CrossFire/SLI sufficiently for it to be of use?

I digress. I've not had much experiance with nVidia cards, I always found they overheated like bastards and stayed away. My preference would be a high end X1800, but, with most of the cards out now, you can hit the same stock X1800 speeds with a little tweaking.. so.. It depends on how much you want to be disappointed by the X1800 series. Personally, I'd stick with what you have, invest in some good coolers, and wait for Crossfire/SLI to really take off before I did anything.

The arguments about SM 3.0 are a little.. Eh. I can't see it taking off like SM 1.0/2.0 did, so.. It depends how much you have at yor disposal money wise.

g3pro makes a good point, though. Might be better waiting for the mid-season stuff. Graphics cards are a lot like iPods in some respects. Unless you buy them within a week of release, they'll be seriously out of date and updated before you've even got a decent leg out of the present piece of kit.

 

[Fadey]

Well u do know that with crossfire if u buy a x1800 and have a x850 the x1800 will run slower to match the x850 so u might as well save ya cash and just get of the same cards any way which is sli -_-

 

[KoolDrew]

At the price you can find the 7800GT it is definitely a much better choice. You can find one for $300 at tigerdirect.

 

[BenSkywalker]

When you mention Oblivion I'm assuming you are talking about Elder Scrolls?

If so, I would reccomend either waiting for the next gen of parts or moving to a high end SLI setup. Oblivion is targetting XB360 hardware which should place it solidly above anything that we have available today in single card solution terms.

 

[T101]

Yes, I am talking about Oblivion Elder Scrolls. The admins on the official forum give very conflicting answers, when they mention anything at all. Seems one minute that my x800xl should run the game at the highest settings, then it sounds like nothing that we will see on the PC in many years will ever play the game (which sounds unrealistic considering they will release it soon on the PC).
I will probably not order any card until the requirements of Oblivion are known. It not be until xmas I get the new card/s.

 

[tuteja1986]

MM, I would either get R580 or G72 just wait another few months or just buy a cheap 7800GT if you want it now.

 

[T101]

tuteja1986: I probably will do.

 

[Cookie Monster]

To Nirach:
Where have you been in the past month? SLi supports over 100 games including quake4 and F.E.A.R. The cards you buy are identical but can be different in brands. Can have different clocks too. I think this is much better than getting e.g X850 XT master card with a X800 pro for example cuz it downgrades the other card.

SLi is pretty mature and polished.

To flynnsk:
X1800XL is nice, but according to the OP the prices are quite huge.
HDR+FSAA isnt reviewed yet, and according to beyond3d it takes a huge hit when used.
(Actually NV takes less of a hit when HDR is enabled according to many reviews),
If it was 10~20 dollar difference the X1800XL is a good choice. But right now a GT

Yes, X1800XLs get really hot depending on the core ( think this could ba based on some Xls being part of the faulty R520 core, and some being based on the fixed R520 core).
And noisey too.


By the way, those clocks were achieved probably by a custom cooler, water cooling, OR maybe LN2 etc.

Or just for food for thought. The G80 is NV50 which is pretty much next gen for Nvidia. I think theyve been working on the G80 for quite sometime now. You could wait for it, but think its going to be released Q3 06? its NVs first unifed shader card, plus GDDR4 plus according to V-R zone it is clocked at 1ghz. Pretty BS but what the heck :laugh: