x800xt overclockability

[tterris]

we hear all the glorious news about people oc'ing their 6800gt's to ultra specs and past, but how do the x800xt's overclock? i haven't heard nearly as much talk about this, and i'm curious since i dont mind spennding another 60-70 $ for an xt if i know it can overclock past what a 6800gt can.

 

[RussianSensation]

X800XT comes stock at 500mhz. 6800GT will never reach 500mhz on aircooling or even watercooling I bet.

% wise overclocks....6800GT starts at 350mhz and gets to about 430 on average I'd say. That is roughly a 22% overclock. X800XTs tend to reach 575 maybe..So 15-16% overclock. To match 6800GTs 22% overclock, X800XT would have to be near 610mhz and that's not happening on air cooling.

Now lets look at the real picture:

X800XT 16 pipelines x 500mhz = 8000 fill-rate
6800GT 16 pipelines x 430mhz = 6880 fill-rate

So pure speed wise, X800XT will almost always be faster than 6800GT overclocked. Since Nvidia is able to work more efficiently per clock cycle, that is what keeps them in the game right now.

Basically if you play a lot of OpenGL games and Doom3, go with Nvidia for best performance. For everything else, the 2 cards will run fairly equal as it'll be hard to notice minor frame differences. In intense games like Far Cry, HL2 and Perimeter, ATI X800XT is faster than Nvidia 6800 series.

Finally 6800GT comes with 2.0ns ram and x800XT comes with 1.6ns ram I believe.

ASUS AX800 XT/TVD Graphics Card Review

If you can afford to buy an X800xt and don't mind spending $450 on a videocard, don't care for PCIe or SLI, then X800xt is a better card than 6800GT. ON the upside, X800xt is quieter, has better DVI quality connectors (DAC converters), HDTV support and *usability* of 3Dc (maybe in latter games or patches)?

 

[chinkgai]

wow nice answer russian.

so nice to read some detailed support rather than the typical ati or nvidia fanboy response of "nvidia is better" or "ati is better"

i've got a question for you, i've owned both cards and decided to stick with the xt for obvious reasons

in the new set of drivers for ati, there is a checkbox that enables or disables "wmv acceleration" but i dont see any difference in that step into liquid test that the nvidia users are using to test to see if their video processor is working or not

would you happen to know what that checkbox does or whether or not ati even has an equivalent to the onboard video processor? from what i understand, the ati rage chip is not an equivalent. am i correct? thanks for any info.

 

[Pete]

"nvidia is better" or "ati is better."



You can see that both IHVs are hitting design + process + manufacturing limits with their top end models, so I wouldn't expect to squeeze much out of either a 6800U or a X800XT. By default, that means a 6800GT should OC better than a X800XT, considering the difference b/w either's clock speeds and the clock speeds of the top of each's line. Considering a 6800GT also retails for $100 less, it's still the better "bargain" (if one can call a >=$400 card that).

Also, ATi hasn't sold a Rage card for quite some time, AFAIK. I'm not sure how/if ATi accelerates WMV, but I suspect it would be via the pixel shaders? Not sure if this is even a viable option with HD video over the AGP bus.

 

[chinkgai]

Originally posted by: Pete
Also, ATi hasn't sold a Rage card for quite some time, AFAIK.

the rage chip i spoke of is what gives the xt the vivo. its actually called the rage theater chip or something along those lines. i just called it rage chip cuz i was lazy, i didnt mean rage card...lol

Originally posted by: Pete
I'm not sure how/if ATi accelerates WMV, but I suspect it would be via the pixel shaders? Not sure if this is even a viable option with HD video over the AGP bus.

yeah im not sure either =\