Thinking of a new DX10 Vid card

[Oyeve]

Want to go DX10, have an ATI X1950XTX and its a great card but no DX10. I am looking at these 2 cards:

GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3

and

2900XT512PE Radeon HD 2900XT 512MB 512-bit GDDR3

Both are similar in price, specwise the 8800 has a faster core but the 2900 has faster and more memory. Both probably have driver issues but im sure they will be worked out, prhaps they have. I have always been an ATI fanboy, the only Nvidia card I had were the original Geforce DDR, the GF3 and recently 2 7800 GT card in SLI. I always had issues ith Nvidias drivers and have had basically every ATI card, but now that ATI is AMD I am not sure which card above it the better choice for me. Both have many pros and many cons. I game, I game A LOT. I dont care about encoding and crap like that but have always been impressed with ATI's Avivo. Or should I wait for the next round of cards? Speaking of which, what are the next rounds?

 

[BernardP]

I guess you currently have an ATI X1950XTX, not a X1940XTX...

From your sig, you are driving a 19-inch standard monitor with it, so this card is more than enough for the 1280x1024 resolution.

DX10 is not an issue now. Too few games. Anyway, all DX10 cards are already obsolete, since Microsoft is releasing DX 10.1.

The next-gen cards from NVidia are coming in November, and they will be DX10.1 compatible. ATI is following in early 2009 with a major update of its 2900 series.

In your situation, considering the monitor you have, I would say there is no hurry to upgrade your videocard. I would even say that you should start looking at bigger monitors if you really want to justify a more powerful videocard.

 

[MarcVenice]

He means 2008 And his last sentence is really wise. It's nuts to spend 400$ or so on a videocard to game @ 1280*1024 I'd hold out for now, and perhaps purchase a better monitor and a new videocard when the new nvidia's come out. A 1950xt is still a pretty decent card by nowadays standards.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: BernardP
I guess you currently have an ATI X1950XTX, not a X1940XTX...

From your sig, you are driving a 19-inch standard monitor with it, so this card is more than enough for the 1280x1024 resolution.

DX10 is not an issue now. Too few games. Anyway, all DX10 cards are already obsolete, since Microsoft is releasing DX 10.1.

The next-gen cards from NVidia are coming in November, and they will be DX10.1 compatible. ATI is following in early 2009 with a major update of its 2900 series.

In your situation, considering the monitor you have, I would say there is no hurry to upgrade your videocard. I would even say that you should start looking at bigger monitors if you really want to justify a more powerful videocard.

Oops, yeah, the current card is an X1950XTX, I am using 2 monitors, Dell 2007FPW 20.1 widescreen and a Samsung 940Be, both in my sig. As for DX10, shouldn't DX10.1 be basically a patch for DX10? Like DX9, 9A, 9B, 9C etc?Or is it a whole new DX version? I guess my X1950XTX should be good for a while yet right?

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
[Oops, yeah, the current card is an X1959XTX

:evil:

Having trouble with this one...?

And yes, the X1953XTX should be enough for a time.

To use DX10.1, a DX10.1 compatible card will be required. By the time such cards are widely available, Microsoft will have announced DX10.2a and so on.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: BernardP

Originally posted by: Oyeve
[Oops, yeah, the current card is an X1959XTX

:evil:

Having trouble with this one...?

And yes, the X1953XTX should be enough for a time.

To use DX10.1, a DX10.1 compatible card will be required. By the time such cards are widely available, Microsoft will have announced DX10.2a and so on.

Hehe, I guess I shouldn't post after 4 glasses of wine. Just for the record, the card is an GeForce X1957XYZ HIC.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Both are similar in price, specwise the 8800 has a faster core but the 2900 has faster and more memory.

I may be wrong, but I think the 2900 has the same-speed and a LOT less memory. Both use GDDR3, and 640-512=128.

I dont care about encoding and crap like that

Good, since the topic is video cards and not CPUs.

I game, I game A LOT

The 2900 has an advantage of a much wider memory interface, but that doesn't translate into beating the 8800 across the board...depending on game settings, some games give an edge to the 2900, others to the 8800, neither that will have a perceptible advantage over the other.

The lone feature the 2900 has that trumps the 8800 is support for HDCP @ 1080.

Both probably have driver issues but im sure they will be worked out, prhaps they have.

That story was heard from ATI before, most-famously with Rage. Drivers for nVidia have had significantly more time to be matured.

Or should I wait for the next round of cards? Speaking of which, what are the next rounds?

I'd wait, the next-gen nVidia cards should be both faster and have support for HDCP@1080, and should be here before the end of the year. You'll wait considerably longer for ATI's next round.

 

[Oyeve]

I wish AMD would sell ATI back to a competent company.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
I wish AMD would sell ATI back to a competent company.

I was wishing that before AMD bought ATI...

 

[Arkaign]

Wait for the refresh/next-gen. Your X1950XT will be just as good at either 1680x1050 or 1280x1024 for all effective purposes, even compared to 8800GTX/2900XT.

Btw, it's almost insane to buy a 2900, their price/performance doesn't add up compared to the 8800s, they are bigger, louder, and consume more power. ATI should be releasing a worthy follow-up soon, that will hopefully be worth considering, like the excellent X1950XT was.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Wait for the refresh/next-gen. Your X1950XT will be just as good at either 1680x1050 or 1280x1024 for all effective purposes, even compared to 8800GTX/2900XT.

Btw, it's almost insane to buy a 2900, their price/performance doesn't add up compared to the 8800s, they are bigger, louder, and consume more power. ATI should be releasing a worthy follow-up soon, that will hopefully be worth considering, like the excellent X1950XT was.

I hope so. The GDDR4 on my X1950XTX is awesome. The technology on GDDR4 is great, I am surprised not many cards utilize this memory.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

which card performs better in cs:s at max settings?