Looking to upgrade graphics

[Master Chief]

Hey, I have a BFG 5900 and looking to upgrade. School just started and I don?t have a whole lot of money to spend. I was looking at the ATI X600 pro with 256 mb and the ATI X700 pro with 256 mb and I was just wondering, are either of those two cards better then the one I have? Is this an upgrade, downgrade from what I have, or just about the same? I?ve seen these cards go for $150, tell me what you guys think, I don?t know a whole lot about video cards. Thanks.

 

[suicidalpigeon]

get the 6800nu, you'll have a chance to unlock it to get an underclocked 6800gt.

 

[Master Chief]

Also looking at 6600 GT, any opinions on this card?

 

[Reapsy00]

Why replace an 8 pipe card with an 8 pipe card? Ok so the 6600gt is faster than a 5900 but still. I just replaced my 5900 with a 6800gt for just over half what i paid for the 5900 lol

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Reapsy00
Why replace an 8 pipe card with an 8 pipe card? Ok so the 6600gt is faster than a 5900 but still. I just replaced my 5900 with a 6800gt for just over half what i paid for the 5900 lol

He said he has a 5900--that's a 4-pipe card.

Look at this:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/digest3d/index.html
For about $150, the 6600GT looks like the best thing to buy new.

 

[Reapsy00]

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Reapsy00
Why replace an 8 pipe card with an 8 pipe card? Ok so the 6600gt is faster than a 5900 but still. I just replaced my 5900 with a 6800gt for just over half what i paid for the 5900 lol

He said he has a 5900--that's a 4-pipe card.


The Geforce FX 5900 has an 8 Pixels/Clock Rendering Pipeline.

 

[coomar]

it has 4x2 pixelpipelines, not as good as 8x1

try to pick up a 6800, it should be available under 150 barely and is better than the 6600gt

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Reapsy00

Originally posted by: Cerb

Originally posted by: Reapsy00
Why replace an 8 pipe card with an 8 pipe card? Ok so the 6600gt is faster than a 5900 but still. I just replaced my 5900 with a 6800gt for just over half what i paid for the 5900 lol

He said he has a 5900--that's a 4-pipe card.

The Geforce FX 5900 has an 8 Pixels/Clock Rendering Pipeline.

See the following post. WHile it has the same theoretical power as a 8-pipe, it requires a game to be programmed for it, or for the driver to be able to implement the extra operation per pass. It makes it superior to the 4x1 GPUs (up to 5700), but not as good as a 8x1. Kind of like HT vs. dual-core. Not bad, but not as good as a real extra set of pipelines.

Oh, outside of FS/FT, where are these $150 6800s?

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

I'd say go for a 6800LE or 6800 vanilla and unlock the pipes.

 

[xgsound]

Here is a recent roundup with benchmarks and MSRP prices of many video cards including the 5900, the 600, and the 6600GT. Prices are generally much less online. Note that these are the PCI-e slot cards, but the charts make differences very visible. Do you have AGP or PCI?

http://www.digital-daily.com/video/pcie-vga-roundup2005q2/


Jim

 

[Cerb]

Also note that the AGP version of a card will get within 1% of the performance of the PCI-E card. They are now alternating. I think it is to keep the potential variables to a minimum in the comparisons (AGP vs. PCI-E doesn't mean much, but you have to swap motherboard chipsets, which could impact overall performance).

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: Master Chief
Hey, I have a BFG 5900 and looking to upgrade. School just started and I don?t have a whole lot of money to spend. I was looking at the ATI X600 pro with 256 mb and the ATI X700 pro with 256 mb and I was just wondering, are either of those two cards better then the one I have?

I've just spent the morning making two-card comparisions of all the cards I've had and/or looked at over the past five years or so and had a blast with the place I'm about to list here:

No, I put something else in the clipboard since then. Sit tight. I'll be back before I post this.

OK, here is is: http://www.gpureview.com/

The X700 is about the same performance as a 9800 Pro, which was faster than a 6600 plain, and that one in its own turn is faster than a 5900 plain. I didn't look at where any X600 VGA card fit into the matrix.

Is this an upgrade, downgrade from what I have, or just about the same?

The comparison is only at the most basic level, with only a single benchmark included, so it's only a starting point, but each of the cards I looked at seemed to have links to several reviews you coould look at.

I?ve seen these cards go for $150, tell me what you guys think, I don?t know a whole lot about video cards. Thanks.

The 5900 was almost as good as anything nVidia could offer two years ago (the 5950 was tops, just before the 66xx's came along). Graphics evolution has been rapid over the past 5-6 years, though.


:beer: