x800 pro and 6800GT

[iamskew]

I'm buying a video card for my new rig and cannot make up my mind. I was set on ATI, but the 16 pipes in the Nvidia keeps swaying me back.

My question is, which card is going to last me longer?

If it helps, I like to play first person shooters, "realistic" in nature...like CS, BF1942, metal of honor, etc....

 

[Insomniak]

The 6800GT most likely.

It has more performance.

It supports SM3.0. The X800 Pro does not.

It's a newer architecture, meaning future driver releases may potentially improve performance.

If you wait and go PCI-Express, you will have the option of SLI.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: Insomniak
The 6800GT most likely.

It has more performance.

It supports SM3.0. The X800 Pro does not.

It's a newer architecture, meaning future driver releases may potentially improve performance.

If you wait and go PCI-Express, you will have the option of SLI.

6800 GT, it's a no-brainer, the feature set is also a generation ahead.

 

[lordtyranus]

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33777311

Edit: I just read your post below, so:

http://www.gameve.com/gve/store/productdetails.aspx?sku=VC-EVGA-047

The EVGA comes with a free Farcry game which you can sell for $20 easily. I have a PNY. It is a good card but doesn't come with anything extra.

 

[iamskew]

hmmm...is the 6800gt really that far ahead? what manufacturer would you recommend?

lordtyranus - that's a good suggestion and i've seen it before...but doing anything that might void the warranty on a $400+ card scares me. I'd like to have this thing for at least 2 years to come.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: iamskew
I'm buying a video card for my new rig and cannot make up my mind. I was set on ATI, but the 16 pipes in the Nvidia keeps swaying me back.

My question is, which card is going to last me longer?

If it helps, I like to play first person shooters, "realistic" in nature...like CS, BF1942, metal of honor, etc....

neither. there is no such thing as 'futureproof' when it comes to gfx cards.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: iamskew
hmmm...is the 6800gt really that far ahead? what manufacturer would you recommend?

lordtyranus - that's a good suggestion and i've seen it before...but doing anything that might void the warranty on a $400+ card scares me. I'd like to have this thing for at least 2 years to come.

No the 6800GT is not "that far ahead" - it is ahead by a few inches, at best. Technically it has two realistic advantages over the X800Pro as far as being future proof.

1) It's a slightly faster performer in most cases.

2) It supports SM3.0, meaning you'll get some graphical goodies at slightly faster framerates in games coming out over the next couple of years.


All this means the card might last you a few more months than an X800Pro...I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 months, tops. When it comes to video cards, getting one to last you anything over 18 months is a good run...suffice it to say I've been extremely happy with my GF4 Ti which is now at 26 months and it looks like will manage to blaze a trail to the end of the year....

 

[iamskew]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: iamskew
I'm buying a video card for my new rig and cannot make up my mind. I was set on ATI, but the 16 pipes in the Nvidia keeps swaying me back.

My question is, which card is going to last me longer?

If it helps, I like to play first person shooters, "realistic" in nature...like CS, BF1942, metal of honor, etc....

neither. there is no such thing as 'futureproof' when it comes to gfx cards.

I'm completely aware that they are not "futureproof"...I understand that practically as soon as I buy the card that there will be something better out. What I'm asking is, which card will perform the best for the longest time on games in the future?

 

[iamskew]

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: iamskew
hmmm...is the 6800gt really that far ahead? what manufacturer would you recommend?

lordtyranus - that's a good suggestion and i've seen it before...but doing anything that might void the warranty on a $400+ card scares me. I'd like to have this thing for at least 2 years to come.

No the 6800GT is not "that far ahead" - it is ahead by a few inches, at best. Technically it has two realistic advantages over the X800Pro as far as being future proof.

1) It's a slightly faster performer in most cases.

2) It supports SM3.0, meaning you'll get some graphical goodies at slightly faster framerates in games coming out over the next couple of years.


All this means the card might last you a few more months than an X800Pro...I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 months, tops. When it comes to video cards, getting one to last you anything over 18 months is a good run...suffice it to say I've been extremely happy with my GF4 Ti which is now at 26 months and it looks like will manage to blaze a trail to the end of the year....

I had an evga ti4400, and it was god-awful...and it is the reason that I was turned off by Nvidia. I would hardly say that 3-4 months better is saying very much...
this is the hardest decision i've made in a long time. I like the HIS radeon x800 pro, but it's not available atm, but the asus x800 pro is. I like the BFG 6800 GT and the Leadtek 6800 GT and would perfer the BFG, but it isn't in stock anywhere that I can find....

 

[billyjak]

Leadtek or BFG

 

[ntdz]

another thing to note is that the GT is faster with AA/AF low or off, and when future games come out that stress these cards more, when u turn the AA/AF off, youll get higher frames... Just food for thought.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: iamskew

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: iamskew
I'm buying a video card for my new rig and cannot make up my mind. I was set on ATI, but the 16 pipes in the Nvidia keeps swaying me back.

My question is, which card is going to last me longer?

If it helps, I like to play first person shooters, "realistic" in nature...like CS, BF1942, metal of honor, etc....

neither. there is no such thing as 'futureproof' when it comes to gfx cards.

I'm completely aware that they are not "futureproof"...I understand that practically as soon as I buy the card that there will be something better out. What I'm asking is, which card will perform the best for the longest time on games in the future?

hmmm.. to me they're one and the same. it's just a matter of perspective. there's plenty of people out there still running nv3x and lower, as well as r3xx and lower.. everyone has a different opinion of what's good enough.

when something comes out that runs poorly on one, i doubt the other will be much faster. for the most part, they're comparable in performance. the exception is doom3, which runs fine on the pro, but runs much better on the gt (as an example, i run 1280 2xaa/4xaf on pro, and 1600 2xaa/8xaf on gt). i have both and like both for different reasons; there's also things i don't like about both...

hl2 will prolly run better on ati, tho i sincerely doubt by the same margin that nv is victorious in d3 (cs:source benches vary depending on whose review you read. personally i put the most faith in the firingsquad review, but it's contradicted by other reviews). at any rate, if you're in the market for either of these cards, chances are by the time something comes out that will run poorly on either card, you'll be asking this exact same question regrading the cards of that generation - which is exactly what i meant when i said what i did. there is no futureproof regardless of which card you buy...

buy what you like for the reasons you like; whle none of us have crystal balls, it's a fair bet that one card won't significantly outlast the other, regardless which you choose. perhaps upcoming titles will paint a clearer picture as to the significance of sm3 (supported by nv and not by ati) but so far it hasn't shown anything worth noting.

 

[ronnn]

I agree, I bought my 9700pro approx. 18 months ago or less and it was close to top of the line as the 9800xt had not been released yet. Now it is slow and whatever differences between it and a 5800ultra are small. But it does have a zalman heatpipe and is totally quiet. So buy for the features and price you want today, as there is no guarantee that it will have any value in the future. At any time new tech could be released which would make your new expensive card, a value card. :beer:

 

[Cawchy87]

both would do, they are virtually equal in benchmarks. ATI has better promises in their upcoming driver releases but we will see.

 

[BFG10K]

neither. there is no such thing as 'futureproof' when it comes to gfx cards.

Some cards are more future proof than others because of performance and/or features. Out of the Voodoo5 and GeForce DDR (for example) the GeForce outlasted the latter because of T&L.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Out of the Voodoo5 and GeForce DDR (for example) the GeForce outlasted the latter because of T&L.

And boy did I catch a lot of he!l for saying that was gonna happen back then

 

[MegaWorks]

or you can mod the X800 pro to get 16 pipes

 

[FluxCap]

Best bang for the buck and theoretically futureproof? GT hands down.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

Out of the Voodoo5 and GeForce DDR (for example) the GeForce outlasted the latter because of T&L.

And boy did I catch a lot of he!l for saying that was gonna happen back then

T-buffer provides more featuers than nvidia hardware T&L. no games uses HWTL right now. while the FSAA on the T-buffer cannot be denied. Also, you get GLIDE support for games. you can get that with your geforce2, nvidia fanboy.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: iamskew
I'm buying a video card for my new rig and cannot make up my mind. I was set on ATI, but the 16 pipes in the Nvidia keeps swaying me back.

My question is, which card is going to last me longer?

If it helps, I like to play first person shooters, "realistic" in nature...like CS, BF1942, metal of honor, etc....

neither. there is no such thing as 'futureproof' when it comes to gfx cards.

Cainam, how about the term "Future-Resistant"?

 

[BenSkywalker]

T-buffer provides more featuers than nvidia hardware T&L. no games uses HWTL right now. while the FSAA on the T-buffer cannot be denied. Also, you get GLIDE support for games. you can get that with your geforce2, nvidia fanboy.

I'm assuming that was a joke even though you weren't around back then unless you were using a different handle(sounds almost word for word for the kind of talk I was hearing over and over again).

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

T-buffer provides more featuers than nvidia hardware T&L. no games uses HWTL right now. while the FSAA on the T-buffer cannot be denied. Also, you get GLIDE support for games. you can get that with your geforce2, nvidia fanboy.

I'm assuming that was a joke even though you weren't around back then unless you were using a different handle(sounds almost word for word for the kind of talk I was hearing over and over again).

I was around back then, in the days of 3dfx Gamers and AGN. I was saying the same thing: V5 was comparatively feature-less. The V5 did run Undying sweet though, and have great IQ. The TBluffer was pretty meaningless because you had to run too low of resolution to see the fabled jittered RGAA, it was too slow for modern resolutions.

P.S. There was some idiot on AGN who used to always say,"It's coming and it's gonna be tough! Will own you all!" about the V5 6K. Never was a man more sad than when after his years of saying that, they cancelled it. I think I posted,"It's not coming, it won't be tough!" LOL

 

[iamskew]

I caved...I'm going to pick my a BFG 6800 GT at best buy this morning. The Lifetime Warranty put me over the edge.

Thanks all,
skew

 

[orangat]

I'm less optimistic about ATI improving their drivers for OpenGL and general bugs. I had problems running KOTOR with recent drivers and its and old game.

Since heat/power consumption isn't that significant, I'd lean towards the 6800GT since it also has all pipes open as compared to the x800pro which might have defective and disabled pipes.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: iamskew
I'm buying a video card for my new rig and cannot make up my mind. I was set on ATI, but the 16 pipes in the Nvidia keeps swaying me back.

My question is, which card is going to last me longer?

If it helps, I like to play first person shooters, "realistic" in nature...like CS, BF1942, metal of honor, etc....

neither. there is no such thing as 'futureproof' when it comes to gfx cards.

I dare you to prove it to me...

:laugh: