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Stay with my X800 XL?

A

archcommus

Diamond Member
If someone was deciding TODAY between an X800 XL or a 6800 GT, the 6800 GT is a no-brainer. On Newegg, for PCI-E, the cheapest X800 XL is $283, and the cheapest 6800 GT is $299 after MIR. For the SM3 support, the 6800 is the obvious choice.

However, I bought my X800 XL through ATI retail employee accomodations, and as such got it for a mere $179 - that's PCI-E, and the 256 MB version. That was the obvious choice due to the price, but I'm still worried about desiring SM3 support as early as Christmas of this year.

So should I sell my X800 XL and add money to it to switch to a 6800 GT? Or is that not worth the hassle. Remember, I paid $179 for my X800 XL, not sure what I would get for it if I sold it, maybe around $240?
 
The 6800 gT will not be able to use SM3.0 features at the performance level most are looking for anyways so I don't see at as a valid reason change cards.
 
look, sm3 is overblown. it's great that you like it, but almost everything that SM3 can do, SM2 can do. Developers wil still support it so dont worry. i mean in this day and age SM1.1 is still being supported. no way developers will choose not to support SM2 except for a couple rare exceptions. for what you paid, that X800xl is still smoking. Only buy the 6800gt if you want better ocs, not sm3 support.
 
actually, just yesterday I decided to go X800 XL instead of 6800 GT because it's 249$ OEM shipped at monarchcomputer.com, I upped my processor and motherboard with the price difference!
 
Stick with the x800xl, and don't worry about sm3 until games start to really use it. Then, all the next-gen stuff will be out and you can buy one of those cards.
 
Originally posted by: archcommus
If someone was deciding TODAY between an X800 XL or a 6800 GT, the 6800 GT is a no-brainer. On Newegg, for PCI-E, the cheapest X800 XL is $283, and the cheapest 6800 GT is $299 after MIR. For the SM3 support, the 6800 is the obvious choice.
Click to expand...

Thats not correct. You can get a brand new X800XL PCIe for $249 at Monarch. Thats $50 cheaper than the cheapest 6800GT. SM3.0 support barely means anything. Your best bet is to wait for R520 derivatives and pick up a mid-range or high-end card of those or 7800GT variety. No point in spending any money for 6800GT. SM3.0 features are very subtle. Slight lighting variations in splintercell: chaos theory. A lot of shader intensive games run fast or faster on x800xl already. soft shadows are useless on 6800 cards. HDR is useless too. Honestly, if you were going to sell x800xl, you should upgrade to something much faster than 6800GT (and except for $600 7800GTX, there is nothing worth upgrading to).
 
Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Originally posted by: archcommus
If someone was deciding TODAY between an X800 XL or a 6800 GT, the 6800 GT is a no-brainer. On Newegg, for PCI-E, the cheapest X800 XL is $283, and the cheapest 6800 GT is $299 after MIR. For the SM3 support, the 6800 is the obvious choice.
Click to expand...

Thats not correct. You can get a brand new X800XL PCIe for $249 at Monarch. Thats $50 cheaper than the cheapest 6800GT. SM3.0 support barely means anything. Your best bet is to wait for R520 derivatives and pick up a mid-range or high-end card of those or 7800GT variety. No point in spending any money for 6800GT. SM3.0 features are very subtle. Slight lighting variations in splintercell: chaos theory. A lot of shader intensive games run fast or faster on x800xl already. soft shadows are useless on 6800 cards. HDR is useless too. Honestly, if you were going to sell x800xl, you should upgrade to something much faster than 6800GT (and except for $600 7800GTX, there is nothing worth upgrading to).
Click to expand...

Also, all the game effects yopu mentioned, like soft shadows, can be done using sm2 if the developer choses to. Hell, I write my own 3d engines in OpenGL, and you can do soft shadows without any shaders at all, only the fixed pipe functions. In fact, now that I've read the radeon 9800 programming overview, it supports fetures like floating point color formats, displacement mapping, and hw-accelerated 3d shadows - how come I've never seen any game developers make a big deal out of that? And all this time I though only the gf6 cards had all those neat features. I'm gonna see what other features I have that I didnt think I did.
 
but you have to wait 6 months to get the discount on the r520 and when is it coming out, we could be looking at 9-12 months before you get half off
 
dude, don't worry about it. Keep the X800XL - it's a great card, especially since you paid what I paid for a 6600GT. As for the features, next gen cards have new stuff that is also good to have, like Transparency AA and H.264 HDDVD acceleration. So maybe you should wait for a 7600GT, or a 7800, or maybe even an R520, and sell your X800XL then.
 
Originally posted by: gobucks
dude, don't worry about it. Keep the X800XL - it's a great card, especially since you paid what I paid for a 6600GT. As for the features, next gen cards have new stuff that is also good to have, like Transparency AA and H.264 HDDVD acceleration. So maybe you should wait for a 7600GT, or a 7800, or maybe even an R520, and sell your X800XL then.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's what I plan to do. I hope this card will last me at least until next fall, though.
 
Originally posted by: archcommus
If someone was deciding TODAY between an X800 XL or a 6800 GT, the 6800 GT is a no-brainer. On Newegg, for PCI-E, the cheapest X800 XL is $283, and the cheapest 6800 GT is $299 after MIR. For the SM3 support, the 6800 is the obvious choice.

However, I bought my X800 XL through ATI retail employee accomodations, and as such got it for a mere $179 - that's PCI-E, and the 256 MB version. That was the obvious choice due to the price, but I'm still worried about desiring SM3 support as early as Christmas of this year.

So should I sell my X800 XL and add money to it to switch to a 6800 GT? Or is that not worth the hassle. Remember, I paid $179 for my X800 XL, not sure what I would get for it if I sold it, maybe around $240?
Click to expand...

I can't believe that this is the only thing that people are basing their ~300 dollar purchase on. In most tests I've seen the x800XL outperforms the 6800GT. I'd say stay with the XL
 
I'm not sure why you'd want to swap given the X800 XL usually edges the 6800GT in performance anyway except for a few games like Riddick and Doom 3.
 
Anyone who says Sm2 can do what SM3 can do is sadly mistaken. I suggest you go read as much as possible before you say that, but for now you are wrong and aren't even worth arguing with.

I'd stay with your X800xl because you got a good deal on it. Either go for a 7 series card or a next gen ATI card...the x800xl should last till the mid range next gen cards are out. i'd get that.
 
You're all right, I've just been brainwashed by all the nVidia fanboys out there pushing the supremacy of the 6800 GT in so many threads. Given the performance, the unimportance of SM3 during the time I'll own this card, and the price, the X800 XL was obviously my best choice. And yes, I would be able to sell it for more than I bought it for, but I'd still have to add some money, plus it'd be a hassle. No reason to do that to switch to a 6800.
 
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