X1900XTX or 7900GTX

[akshayt]

Bottomline:

Get a 1900XT/XTX for most games especially near future shader intensive

Get 7900GTX for Pacific Fighters, GRAW and maybe some other titles like opengl but keep in mind that the IQ may not be as good and you will need to run without HDR + AA, that means, only of them will run.
Also, 7900GTX will be more expensive than 1900XT and mostly loose as an overall performer.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: Crusader
Glad to see we agree.. its pretty tough not to on this one. As its blatantly obvious which is superior.
But for the best out of the box experience, NV is the way to go. To not use CCC and gain all the features of ATI is a pain.. and thats just not right.
Best OOTB experience is the way to go.

while i, like you prefer nv's drivers, the fact is ATI offers a better "out of box" experience. the default modes of nv drivers offer horrendous image quality, and advanced settings are required to clamp lod, etc. to try and alleviate the annoying texture crawl displayed by nv's default settings.

Certainly no louder than that X1900 dustbuster. Still very quiet though.
I've owned a 7800GT, 7900GT and 7900GTX. The GTX cooler is the best in the industry hands down. But the GT is a great budget solution, and not loud.

while i don't claim the XT cooler is quiet, my point is that if you're going to slam the XT for it's noise level, then be fair and slam the GT for it's noise.

and yea, i stated the GTX has a very good cooler, but the GT is nowhere near the same league.

Well I dont like XFX that much either. I only personally buy Evga and BFG due to great past service from both.
But XFX does have double lifetime warranty, something no ATI card offers.

the best warranty is the one you don't have to use, lol... sorry, XFX has poor service and there have been plenty of complaints as to the quality of the workmanship of their products.

I dont know about you, but I really like the idea of a great warranty, from companies that are VERY fast when I spend $400+ on a video card.

lifetime warranties are nice, but again it's better when you don't have to use it. the other side of it that several of the BFG cards I've owned have had lifetime warranty, but the useful life of those are long over. yea, lifetime is nice, but the reality is it's a real stretch to keep a gaming card in service more than 2 years. making a lifetime warranty sound a lot better than it actually is (at least to those who like to play currant games). besides, for the cost of shipping required on those rma's, i could now replace those cards... again, "lifetime" is a bit misleading.

Yup but with ATI you have two choices.
Buy a HIS with quiet factory cooler and get horrible service and warranty (1 year). Or get another brand on the ATI side and get the dustbuster with a lifetime warranty, of which you void when you replace the cooler.
With Evga or BFG, you dont need to make those compromises.
Lifetime warranty is FAR more useful than slightly better AF. Not much good if your card dies and you dont see ANY AF
This stuff is simply getting too expensive to be paying $400+ for and NOT getting a lifetime warranty and a quiet cooler.

again, i would question the actual usefulness of lifetime warranties as i stated above, and the AF is not "slightly" better, it's substantially better.

Wrong. Evga and BFG ARE great. Thats not a narrow point of view, do a search and see what people think of those two companies product/service.
Its too bad EVGA or BFG dont support ATI, many people stand by me on that statement. Nothing narrowminded there, unles you dont like the truth.

not wrong at all. evga and bfg might be great, but as i stated sapphire and powercolor offer great service as well. your bias however prevents you from experiencing that for yourself. that's apparent in that you only use facts or conjecture that supports your own narrow point of view.

Yeah and I've had far more Nvidia cards than you have and I'm telling you the IQ difference isnt worth stabbing yourself samuri-style in the stomach for, at all.

you have? based on what? again you're making stuff up to support your own narrow point of view.

the fact is i've owned cards from both manufacturers going back to tnt, and for the majority of those generations an nv card has been in my main gaming pc. those who have been on this forum for awhile can back that up.

Wow, slightly better AF.. and lowe quality default modes? Who cares? Thats why we have adjustments in the drivers.. are you not capable of setting the IQ and performance to your liking? The way its setup by default runs great.. in fact all optimizations are turned off by default in the 84.21s that I run.

again, you greatly downplay the differences to support your own point of view. it's substantial, but your bias in nv products keep you from experiencing decent AF (not to mention concurrent aa/hdr in titles like oblivion).

Its also nice along with having the great service/warranty, to have a card you dont need to change the heatsink/fan units on because they are already quiet. Esp the GTX. :thumbsup:

Yeah and if you watercool a REALLY cheap video card you might be able to match the GT performance, who cares? I want my warranty intact when I spend $500 on a card.

well, again, not only is a GT about as loud, it's not a $500 card, and I also still use the stock cooling on my XT with no issues (and it cost a lot less than an equal or less performing GTX)

To each their own, but this thread wouldnt have any justice done to it if someone hadnt mentioned the difference between the two products warranty and vendor support. Its very important to me, and I'm sure to others also.

that's fine, but as I stated earlier, both powercolor and sapphire have shown very good customer service as well, and the usefulness of a lifetime warranty is quite debateable.

 

[akshayt]

serious sam 2 might run much better on nvidia cards but you will strongly miss the AA if you switch on HDR or vice versa.

 

[ronnn]

nm seems to be fixed