[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]7800GT beats it and it's 50-70 bucks less.[/QUOTE]


What!?! I said X1800XT. You've got to be kidding me.

The 7800GT is about 280 bucks.

Off newegg, the refurbed X1800XT's go for about 340 AT BEST. Most are 370 and above.

And if you check benches, you notice the X1800XT wasn't that great. The X1900XT is where the technology really shines, however.

EDIT: Actually, the 7800GT's just a little worse...but not enough to verify a 60 dollar (at the least) difference, especially if you're getting a refurb'ed product.

Ok, first off, I worked at Fry's for one and half years selling computer components, and was building computers for far longer than that, so this is not just some uneducated bias I'm spewing out here. I know what ECS is like as a company and as far as quality goes. They suck *** on both accounts, I heard it from customers EVERY DAY and watched them pile up in the return bins EVERY DAY. They may have recently pulled a cloud over that with some cooler looking boxes and colored PCB, but that doesn't hide the fact that they're horrible motherboards.

Secondly, what is this crap about SATA and nForce4? I have a Raptor and Cavair, both SATA on this nForce4 SLI x16 and my previous nForce4 SLI, and have had no problems at all. I also have seen nothing about people have problems with SATA and nForce4. I like Seagate, but the hard drive you recommended sucks compared to what's out these days and for the same price. I also just configured a similar build for a coworker with the same hard drive I recommended here, with an Asus A8N-SLI Premium and he had zero problems installing and very good performance.

I don't agree with going for a single stick of RAM at all. A 2x512MB pack is $80 and a 2x1GB pack from Corsair is freakin $155. If you are going to do it, do it now, cause without the dual channel memory, your bandwidth is gonna blow nuts, and I do know that bandwidth is pretty important for video editing.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]The 7800GT is about 280 bucks.

Off newegg, the refurbed X1800XT's go for about 340 AT BEST. Most are 370 and above.

And if you check benches, you notice the X1800XT wasn't that great. The X1900XT is where the technology really shines, however.

EDIT: Actually, the 7800GT's just a little worse...but not enough to verify a 60 dollar (at the least) difference, especially if you're getting a refurb'ed product.[/QUOTE]


It's better than a 7800GTX in most test. It'll best a GTX 512 in more tests than the GT will beat it.

Uh...no...it's about on par with the 7800GTX, and is more expensive PLUS doesn't have full SM3.0 support despite being a shader-based card rather than focusing on texturing and mapping. There's nothing to warrant the 60-100 bucks worth of difference. If you're going to spring that much more, just get a 7800GTX, you'll be happier.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Uh...no...it's about on par with the 7800GTX, and is more expensive PLUS doesn't have full SM3.0 support despite being a shader-based card rather than focusing on texturing and mapping. There's nothing to warrant the 60-100 bucks worth of difference. If you're going to spring that much more, just get a 7800GTX, you'll be happier.[/QUOTE]

You can get a new X1800XT for 350. I'm not sure where you can get a 7800GTX for that. Also, neither company supports all of the SM 3.0 features. Vertex Shader fetch doesn't seem to be that important as it easily halves your FPS, and so will most likely not be used in future games. ATI's superior image quality should also be considered.

1) It cannot be fetched for 350. New ones retail start at about 400 on Newegg. And that's Gigabyte video cards, which probably won't overclock well. You're thinking X1800XL, which is a world apart from the XT. Also, here. 7800GTX's are priced competitively, and are at least future proofed with full SM3.0.

2) nVidia, having CREATED SM3.0, supports all aspects of it. Yes, even though you think you're right here, you're wrong. ATi doesn't support a very integral part of it, and even if it halves your FPS, at 100fps that's still 50. And I'm wary about that "halves your fps" bit.

3) nVidia cards have always had superior image quality. The only thing the X1800XT has over the 7800GTX is performance at high levels of AA/AF, which will be useless in the long run anyways.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php?page_id=5&form_keyword=X1800XT&rd=1

That being NON-Newegg prices.

Keep posting. This is really fun to read.

I doubt it'll continue on, since Obi's too much of an arrogant know-it-all to admit any form of wrongness, and I've pretty much defeated every point he has with evidence. Except the benchmarks, but I think he finally took the time to look them up and see that I was right.

Yeah um, as "pot kettle black" as it is for you to say that, I've got to agree.

It may sound "pot kettle black", but if I know I'm wrong, I'll admit it. If I don't know, but am not sure about my position, I may fight but with weak arguments. Or I may just give up. But when people prove me wrong I say something to the effect of "I was wrong".