What to Do?

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Yeah, never thought I'd say this so soon, but I'm getting a little tired of my 7900GT. Yeah it performs great and O/C like a champ but the IQ is getting on my nerves. In any case, I'm REALLY tempted to get an X1900XT but the main thing that's bothering me about it is the high heat, not so much the noise.

I guess the first question would be, would it be worth it to sell my GT and spend the extra $150 or so to get an X1900XT? (Just don't give me an answer like "just wait for G80 or R600" because I don't play that game )

Second question would be, are the X1900XT overclocking well in general?

 

[akugami]

Wait for the G80 or R600, it'll be here in July! Honest beloved patriot!

In truth, I've looked more at the 7900GT overclocking than the X1900XT overclocking so I'm a little clueless on how far it would go. 5150Joker would know more as he's had his a while and I'm sure he's done a lot more research on the subject than most have. I do have an X1900XT that will ship in a few days from Dell. They seem to be OOS so I gotta wait, jumped in on that huge 25% off + $60 off $500 deal. Brought price down to $377 shipped and after tax which is very very nice even if I get crap overclocking on my particular card.

I think the main thing is to look back over the different screenshots shown on various web sites and try to analyze how different the pictures look between the various cards. Quite frankly, while I have looked over pictures from both cards and I do notice an IQ improvement in the ATI cards, I have to ask if one would notice it in a game with heavy action. About the biggest knock on the nVidia cards is the shimmering issue which seems worse on the nVidia cards than the ATI cards. My younger bro has a 7900GT and quite honestly, Oblivion looked very very nice on it.

If I were in your shoes, I'd honestly say I don't think I would change cards. Considering the 7900GT is not a bad card by any measure and that at a future date (if you had it at stock speed), for under $60 you can get a very nice performance boost out of it after volt modding and getting a new HSF.

 

[Arkane13131]

he has already done the volt mod to his card.

what it boils down to is... would you wipe your butt with 150$? or does 150$ matter to you? cuz if you don't care about money go for it and switch...but if you do care.. it's not worth it in the end imo. Im a price/performance bargain hunter no job having broke guy. (i actually have a job...but being a musician doesn't count LoL...i make decent money but i have too much free time <.<)

 

[framerateuk]

There isnt really much point chancing your 7900 to an X1900. Your not going to see that much of a performance boost. I did however notice a big difference in image quality between my 7800GT and my X1900XTX though.

As far as overclocking goes, i havent been able to get much out of my XTX, but you could probably flash the bios of an XT model to get it up to XTX standards. Actually, using the ATI panel i was happily running the overclocking options to their max, and every game worked fine, except Oblivion, which just put too much stress on the card

As far as heat and noise. Yes its a hot card, but it doesent make much noise unless its on full load, in which case it might as well be a dyson cleaner . But usually you'd have your speakers on in a game anyway so i cant say it bothers me much. Im thinking of swapping my cooler for an Accelero X2, but i dont think itll fit underneath my extractor fan, according to other users it does make a large difference in noise.

Personally though, id say keep the 7900 for now, and think about upgrading when the new cards come out.

 

[aniruddha23]

Unless that dell deal is still running where u get the XT for 350 ish stay put.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1
Yeah, never thought I'd say this so soon, but I'm getting a little tired of my 7900GT. Yeah it performs great and O/C like a champ but the IQ is getting on my nerves. In any case, I'm REALLY tempted to get an X1900XT but the main thing that's bothering me about it is the high heat, not so much the noise.

I guess the first question would be, would it be worth it to sell my GT and spend the extra $150 or so to get an X1900XT? (Just don't give me an answer like "just wait for G80 or R600" because I don't play that game )

sounds like you're happy with the performance. what is it about the IQ that you're not happy with?

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1
Second question would be, are the X1900XT overclocking well in general?

they seem to hit XTX speeds easily; beyond that i don't know. still, i suppose even if that's all, that's not a bad thing as the XTX is the fastest card out there.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
what is it about the IQ that you're not happy with?

Shimmering even with High Quality driver settings. It was okay at first, but now it's really starting to bother me. It seems even worse than it was on my 7800GT. Also it would be nice to get HDR+AA.

 

[Munky]

My x1900xt is not much of an overclocker, but I still got it to run stable with an xtx bios after upgrading the cooler to an Accelero. If the IQ bothers you then switch to a x1900xt. It would be preferable, though, if you could try out one of the x1k cards before buying one, because all cards shimmer somewhat, but some cards shimmer more than others.

 

[nib95]

If your getting excessive shimmering try a change of drivers.

The extreme G 84.37 v2's are the dogs bollox at the moment and really improve IQ.
I dont notice much shimmering on mine, but it is definately evident in areas.
That's not to say my old x1900 XTX didnt suffer from it, just not as bad.
So dont expect total removal of shimmering whatever card.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1

Second question would be, are the X1900XT overclocking well in general?

:thumbsup:

A lot of the guys that I have seen have hit 700-725MHz on the core and 800-875MHz on the mem. Most of those results were on the stock cooler or aftermarket air cooling.

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1

Second question would be, are the X1900XT overclocking well in general?

:thumbsup:

A lot of the guys that I have seen have hit 700-725MHz on the core and 800-875MHz on the mem. Most of those results were on the stock cooler or aftermarket air cooling.

2 of the folks in this thread couldn't clock their that much...any particular thing they are doing wrong that the "lot of guys" hitting 700-725 on stock cooling are doing right? curious minds want to know (because i will be doing the same shortly)...

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Well I'l be getting a KuFormula VF1 Plus in a couple of days so an X1900XT is looking like more of a better option. As for shimmering on ATI cards, I never saw it with my X800XL or X800GTO cards I've owned so unless it's gotten worse on the X1K series of cards, I think I would much prefer the IQ over that of the 7900GT.

 

[Bull Dog]

Originally posted by: ST

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1

Second question would be, are the X1900XT overclocking well in general?

:thumbsup:

A lot of the guys that I have seen have hit 700-725MHz on the core and 800-875MHz on the mem. Most of those results were on the stock cooler or aftermarket air cooling.

2 of the folks in this thread couldn't clock their that much...any particular thing they are doing wrong that the "lot of guys" hitting 700-725 on stock cooling are doing right? curious minds want to know (because i will be doing the same shortly)...

Overclocking using the CCC's Overdrive sucks. The real way to OC your X1900 card is with ATI Tool. With ATI Tool you can set custom fan speeds so that your card doesn't get quite so hot (increases OC potential), Adjust voltages (my XT runs fine undervolted @ XTX speeds, and of course, OC the card.


With my X1900XT, I can get
Note: 1.4v is the nominal (stock, standard, default) 3d voltage for the X1900XT(X) cards.

770Mhz @1.55v (bench stabe but thats about it)
750MHz @1.525v (100% stable just a little bit hot)
725MHz @1.425v (Good comprimise between maximum performance and heat output)
700MHz @1.35v (Awsome OC becuase its at 0.05v less than standard stock voltage.)
650MHz @1.325v (XTX speed)
625MHz @1.3v (XT speed with 0.1v less than stock voltage)

Cooling is a modified Thermalright V1 Ultra (see sig for project logs). I'm using ATI Tool v0.25 b14. If you use ATI Tool you'll need to stop the Ati2mdxx.exe process from booting (it changes the cards clock speed between 500/600 1.125v to 650/775 1.4v for XTXs). OCing with ATI Tool is a little more work but once you figure out all the nuances, it pays big dividends.

 

[LW07]

I would sell the 7900GT and get an X1900XT.