I'm building a new system, need to know whats video card to get...

[SylEm]

Aight, I'm sure you guys get this a lot, and I was browsing the forums here tryin to find the answer, and reading benchmarks and so forth; still haven't found the answer. I'm building myself a new system, right now the specs are lookn like so:

Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS ATX Full Tower Case
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 6Y200P0 200GB
Corsair CMX1024-3200PRO 1GB DDR400 XMS3200 ProSeries
AMD Athlon 64 4000+
MSI K8N NEO4 PLATINUM nVIDIA nFORCE4 ULTRA CHIPSET
(I already have a sound card and DVD-ROM and CD-R, so I'm not listing them)

Now so far I got the eVGA e-GeForce 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB on my brain but I've heard that since its on the PCI-Express lvl its no longer the best, and the x800XL, 850XT, and 850XT PE cards are whooping its ass. I just need to know what the best PCI-Express x16 256mb card to get (budget isn't TOO much of an issue, but I would prefer to spend less than more). Is the 850XT PE really that much better than the 6800GT that its worth spending an extra $300? Hit me back plz, any help is much appriciated...

1

 

[Fenuxx]

Originally posted by: SylEm
Aight, I'm sure you guys get this a lot, and I was browsing the forums here tryin to find the answer, and reading benchmarks and so forth; still haven't found the answer. I'm building myself a new system, right now the specs are lookn like so:

Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS ATX Full Tower Case
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 6Y200P0 200GB
Corsair CMX1024-3200PRO 1GB DDR400 XMS3200 ProSeries
AMD Athlon 64 4000+
MSI K8N NEO4 PLATINUM nVIDIA nFORCE4 ULTRA CHIPSET
(I already have a sound card and DVD-ROM and CD-R, so I'm not listing them)

Now so far I got the eVGA e-GeForce 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB on my brain but I've heard that since its on the PCI-Express lvl its no longer the best, and the x800XL, 850XT, and 850XT PE cards are whooping its ass. I just need to know what the best PCI-Express x16 256mb card to get (budget isn't TOO much of an issue, but I would prefer to spend less than more). Is the 850XT PE really that much better than the 6800GT that its worth spending an extra $300? Hit me back plz, any help is much appriciated...

1

First off, NO, the X850XT-PE is not "better enough" to warrant an extra $300 over the 6800GT, unless, of course, you need an extra 15fps in something you won't notice . If I was in your shoes, I would pick up a 6800GT or an X800XL. Personally, since you have an NVIDIA-based mobo, I would pick up the 6800GT, but that's just me, as you COULD run into driver conflicts (unlikely, but it is possible).

 

[Cheesetogo]

By saying it's another $300, I'm guessing you are looking at one for 700-800 dollars, which is a huge rip-off. I would get a non platnum x850xt, which is around 470 at newegg.

 

[SylEm]

yeah I was refering to the PE edition, but still 470 for the 850xt compared to 370 ($100 less) for the 6800GT, is it worth spending an extra $100, is it really that much better?

 

[mdchesne]

the x800xt-pe has very little performance increase over the x800xt. for performance vs money, go with the x800xt. I doubt you'd ever miss 5-12 fps

 

[SylEm]

aight, but didn't the x800xt get beaten in pretty much all benchmarks when matched to the 6800GT?

1

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: SylEm
aight, but didn't the x800xt get beaten in pretty much all benchmarks when matched to the 6800GT?

1

That was probably the X800 PRO

 

[kini62]

I would say, save the $100 and get the 6800GT from a good company. I had one and it easliy over clocked to ultra levels on the stock HSF. Which would put it at about an 800XT on most games and better in Doom III (can't figure for the life of me why anyone would want to play this game for more than 10 mins- Boring!!!!), but that's another story.

Get the 6800GT, better bang for the buck

 

[n yusef]

What about the X800XL, 6800GT performance, and it's cheaper. Where are you getting the 6800GT for $370 though? I have dual LCD's so I payed $70 more for the PowerColor X800XL with dual DVI when it first hit Newegg ($344 now). I would have liked a 6800GT for those prices because of the overclockability and the better Linux drivers. They have dual DVI standard which helps me out, but I don't know how much you care about that.

 

[flexy]

i'd vote for the X850XT now...i have mine overclocked beyond PE levels and there is really no point to shell out the extra money for the PE !
mwave sells it for $459 which is kind of a good deal for the performance you get.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: kini62
I would say, save the $100 and get the 6800GT from a good company. I had one and it easliy over clocked to ultra levels on the stock HSF. Which would put it at about an 800XT on most games and better in Doom III (can't figure for the life of me why anyone would want to play this game for more than 10 mins- Boring!!!!), but that's another story.

Get the 6800GT, better bang for the buck

but if D3 is not your priority..why recommend a 6800GT ? I really dont say the Gt is a bad card...but i still think ATI has an edge when it comes to things like antialiasing and aniso filtering on.
SM3.0 (for NV cards) is an non issue RIGHT NOW so it is not an buying criteria.
Different maybe in 6 months (depends how many releases w/ SM3.0 we have)...but then again its already time for NV50 and R520.

At the end i THINK you might be off well with either cards, X850XT or 6800GT...its really like debating whether to get a lamborghini or a ferrari

 

[kmmatney]

This one

 

[kini62]

Originally posted by: flexy

Originally posted by: kini62
I would say, save the $100 and get the 6800GT from a good company. I had one and it easliy over clocked to ultra levels on the stock HSF. Which would put it at about an 800XT on most games and better in Doom III (can't figure for the life of me why anyone would want to play this game for more than 10 mins- Boring!!!!), but that's another story.

Get the 6800GT, better bang for the buck

but if D3 is not your priority..why recommend a 6800GT ? I really dont say the Gt is a bad card...but i still think ATI has an edge when it comes to things like antialiasing and aniso filtering on.
SM3.0 (for NV cards) is an non issue RIGHT NOW so it is not an buying criteria.
Different maybe in 6 months (depends how many releases w/ SM3.0 we have)...but then again its already time for NV50 and R520.

At the end i THINK you might be off well with either cards, X850XT or 6800GT...its really like debating whether to get a lamborghini or a ferrari

I jsut figured that for $100 less the diff in overall performance wasn't worth it. Plus the nVidia nTune software is better than ATI's CCC.