Welp, my dad came to me about half an hour ago. He said i could chose from the Nvidia 6800 gamers edition or the ATI x800 pro. Both of them are the 256 ddr but I have no clue about video cards so I wanted to ask people who might know what they're talking about.

My friends say I should go with the ATI (because its what THEY own) and a Tech dude I talked to said the 6800 would be better.

Im so stumped....

So can anyone help me out? I have to order it tomarrow.....

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My Xanga

They are both about the same. The ATI out performs in some games while the nVidia does better with others

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

It's all about attitude. I hardly think you will be disappointed with either of them.

The worst thing you can do is to buy one and then feel sorry you didn't buy the other.

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Frozen by ICARUS

I've yet to see any big advantages to going back to Nvidia, so I'm still all for ATI. It still seems to perform better at the games and settings I like most.

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"The future is not determined by a throw of the dice, but is determined by the conscious decisions of you and me."
I am addicted to ellipses!!! AHHH!!! ...
Make Sorrowind Worthwhile... join it! http://sorrowind.net

I'll save Dj Yoshi the trouble...

THE X800!!!



Actually, as Avenger said, they're each better with certain games, or so I've seen and heard... I don't remember which games each card was better at running, maybe someone else here knows, you could proabably just do a google serach for each card, and see, then base your decision off of that, choosing according to which games you play more...

I hardly doubt you'll be disappointed with either of them, and they're both pretty certain to last you quite some time, but of course the same is said with pretty much every new card released, or at least from what I've seen.


But from what I remember, the numbers aren't all that different anyway. Personally all I've ever used in my computer has been ATI, but my laptop's got an nVidia, and, though it's not really an easy thing to compare, I'm liking it a little more... so I'd probably go with nVidia on this one.
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AIM ID: BlueViper192
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The Limelite

[This message has been edited by FCTuner04 (edited August 02, 2004).]

Either will do you fine in the case of the cards you are thinking of getting. I will never buy another Nvidia after my GF4 MX incident. I will always stick by ATI from now on. So my personal recomendation is the X800, but is up to you. Either way you are damn lucky

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ZGPC

Don't listen to anyone who tells you to go strictly with one brand. It's totally asnine, especially since just a year ago those people were probably putting nVidia on their shoulders and flinging **** at ATI. That's video fanboys work, they bounce all over the place because they like throwing **** at what isn't always the VERY BEST at something. Now I'm not pointing any elbows, but there are a few of them in this thread (maybe not as bad as I described though).

Anyways, if they are about the same price, go with the 6800. Performance wise they both have pros and cons, ATI still reins in anti-aliasing and anistropic filtering last I heard. And while ATI's software has gotten better, nVidia's control panel is much better, and the tweaking software for nVidia blows away the stuff for ATI so bad it's not even funny. RivaTuner > Rage3D Tweak, by like, A LOT.

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

You have the best dad ever.

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"Just remember -- No matter how bad things get, Northern Minnesota will always be there"
-- Garrison Keeler

PowerStrip > All




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ZGPC

Meh, im so unsure... The two games I want to play most right now say they run best with nvidia... Wich are UT2k4 and Doom 3.

But i've always been on the ATI side... My bro bought a 5800 4 months ago...I wasnt very happy with the way it played.

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My Xanga

i'm a strict ati buyer for one big reason. they're canadian and so am i.
also they are top in their class. most of the time.

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Pissed off?

i'd go with the ati x800 just because of the fact that the 6800 will take up the PCI slot next to your AGP port, will most likely sound as if a hurriance is brewing inside your computer whenever the fan kicks in and requires (at a guess) twice the power from your motherboard than the x800 for absolutly no preformance gain. 6800 needs two further supplies from your motherboard whereas the X800 only needs 1, heck the X800 uses less power than the 9800xt....what nvidia is doing with their architecture to require so much power defies belief.....

I have a nvidia card myself at the mo, gf4, nvidia's last decent line of cards imo, looking at upgrading to an 9800xt, because even though my spec is 2.8ghz, 1gb RAM (PC2700) the new cards will still be limited by my system and won't reach their full potential.

unless you have a top of the range PC there's little point going for these cards because you won't be using them to anywhere near their full potential, K you will get really good framerates but you'll only slow these new cards down if you max out on everything at 1600*1200 with full AA....

at more *normal* resolutions you might as well save a few $100 and get the 9800xt which will still run things like Fry Cry with a virtually maxed settings, 1600*1200 4*AA still gives average framerate of 20...k not altogether playable but who plays at those settings really???

but i guess if your dads paying...what the hell

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I heard someone say once that the world is a fine place and that it was worth fighting for....I agree with the last part.

People of our generation should not be subjected to mornings.

Rbots website

1. They do not take up two slots. This was the same with the GeForce FX, I do not understand why people insist on saying they do.

2. I forgot about the power, it'ss a valid point, the 6800 is supposed to require a 480 watt power supply, but I'm sure you can get away with a lot less. No less than 400 or 420 though. Because of this you probably want the X800. (I'm not sure if all 6800s require that power, you should look into it at manufacturer websites or on the product boxes).

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

The first models did require two slots.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

Take into account what else you are running if you are going with a 6800, and your PSU wattage. They are powerhogs. Even if you think you could skimp by with less than 480 I would not put my money on anything less. Also, if you do get one, make sure you have a QUALITY power supply. As PSUs get hotter, they put out less watts, which could cause your computer to be hard pressed for power, and maybe crash. Unless you dont already, and are thinking of going Nvidia, invest in a nice PSU by a quality company like Antec, Enermax, or Thermaltake.

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ZGPC

Well i'm not sure what you're talking about but my Motherboard is an Asus A8V deluxe and My dad said somthing about my case having somthing to do with a power supply and thats an Aspire X-Infinity gaming case.

So i hope that helps?

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My Xanga

[edit]

found a nice *little* (much better ones out there) article about the 6800 ultra, X800's and the 9800XT, take a peak and print it out if you want to show your dad, points out what PSU you'll need to, so definatly check with your dad on what you've got in your box.

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/ATI_Radeon_X800_Pro/4514-3025_16-30871768.html

[/edit]

does your case look like this...?


got yourself a pretty decent motherboard also, its likely your PSU could *probably* at a push handle the 6800 but I still think the X800 is the better bet, you most likely have a 350W PSU in there, i'd want a 480 before I think about adding the 6800 in there.

is it the ASUS 6800 gamers edition card you looking at btw? if so it won't as emon pointed out take up the PCI slot next to it, sorry about that, haven't really taken all that much notice of the 6000's since the X***'s came out, ati still have the better all round cards at the moment i'd go with them.

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I heard someone say once that the world is a fine place and that it was worth fighting for....I agree with the last part.

People of our generation should not be subjected to mornings.

Rbots website

[This message has been edited by James Bond (edited August 02, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by James Bond (edited August 02, 2004).]

Yep my case looks JUST like that.

Hehe if you look closely at the top. It looks exactly like the front of a BMW. :-D

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My Xanga

Don't get either. Get the Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT 256 MB. It's cheaper at $399, it only takes up one slot, it only requires a 300 watt power supply, has all the features of the ultra but has a slightly slower clocksped*, has linux drivers that work and it outperforms the ATI x800 in DooM III.

* You could overclock the GT, effectivly making it an Ultra. Look for the BFG version of this card which overclocks it out of the box and gives you a lifetime warrenty for it.

http://www.bfgtech.com/6800GTOC.html

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Your humble opinion is wrong.

[This message has been edited by Mystic0 (edited August 02, 2004).]

What I meant was other things you are running in your computer, like any case fans, cathode lights, hard drives, power hungry CPUs, ect.


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ZGPC

If you're interested in running linux on the computer at any point in the future, definitely go with nVidia because their drivers for linux rock. I've heard nothing but horror stories from 99% of people that try to get the linux ATI drivers working, much less performing well.

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Brian's Web Log is CLOSED.

I still have trouble trusting ATI after the Quack (sic) III incident.

no offense to Master Jack but I somehow doubt that he will care if it the cards have working Linux drivers or not....

most nvidia cards are likely to outperform the ati's in Doom III because historically nvidia are always better in OpenGL and Ati end up being better in DirectX, (HL2 and the like)....but whats the difference in OpenGL performance 10-15fps??...when your looking at fps in the range of 50+ it doesn't make that much difference.

good, more in-depth review/comparison of the cards your looking at here...

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2044&p=1

and as for the Quack III incident, both manufactures have made *tweaks* to try and get better performance, lets not forget nvidia's "tweaks" in 3dmark03....and I think ati did something in aquamark also....they both do it, lets point out both ati's and nvidia's failings when it comes to cheating because one is as bad as the other.

Power supply requirements are foolish. They tell you nothing because wattage doesn't work that way. The power supply doesn't put out X watts to each device, where X is the rating. It just puts out X watts total, and each device takes a fraction of that. You can't just say, "This card will require a power supply with this certain wattage." It's all dependant on the amount of other things drawing power from it like fans and drives.

It's obvious that it requires a little more power because of the extra molex plug, but 480 W is really a very high estimate with your average system.

It's all variable though. You could use it on a system with a 300(or lower) watt power supply, or you may have one where even 450 watts can't handle it.

I own an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro and it's the best piece of hardware I've ever bought.
However, I would still got for the Geforce 6800, because it appears like nVidia is on top this generation.

The X800 performes poorly in Doom 3 (in comparison to the top Geforce 6 model). This isn't so much a conspiracy against ATI (as some have suggested) as it has to do with the fact that nVidia has a couple of specific hardware features that allow it to calculate the types of shadows used in Doom 3 much more effectively. nVidia's performance nowadays is also on-par with ATI's offering in Half-Life 2.

Not to mention that nVidia still offers a few features ATI doesn't. I'm not necessarily talking about Pixel Shader 3.0 here, but rather features for older games, such as Software Anti-Aliasing (for games where Hardware AA fails with ATI, like Grim Fandango) as well as 8-bit palettized textures (Final Fantasy VII, Die by the Sword, Rally Masters etc.)

Take this information as you will.



Not buying a video card because of an incident 3 years ago that was in some ways repeated by the competitor (nVidia and 3DMark 2003, for example) is a bit ridiculous.

they are taking averages here, ie the average 300 watt PSU would probably not have the required power to run the 6800, but the average 480 watt PSU would. Master Jack might have a really good 350 watt PSU but who are we to know...

when the manuacturer of the card recommends something its normally wise to take note of what they are saying, yes you might get away with it but why risk it?

[This message has been edited by James Bond (edited August 02, 2004).]

Wow, you totally didn't comprehend what I said.

It has nothing to do with the power supply's rating. That's just its maximum output; therefore, it depends on how many other things are drawing power from it.

A good(meaning one that can actually put out that much instead of claiming to) 300 W power supply in a PC with one hard drive, one optical drive, and a case fan or two could probably handle it.

That's precisely why you need to take in consideration how much stuff is drawing power off of yours before worrying about whether or not it's powerful or not.

Dont forget temperature, that has a big effect on total output if the PSU is crappy quality.

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ZGPC

Back to performance, The X800Pro can currently outpace the 6800Pro, but only because of a software glitch. When the next patch is released, nVidia states that the glitch will be corrected, and there will be a performance update to the 6800s (also, the 6800s have Pixelshader 3.0 support. the X800s don't).

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"Iraqniphobia - The fear of non-existant weapons of mass-destruction."

Ahh, found something that gives the actual power drawn for both cards. Well, close at least, it's actually the theoretical maximum for both.

http://www.spodesabode.com/content/article/6800upower

nVidia's demo cards took two slots, but I'm pretty sure the reference design (which almost all manufacturers use) was only one slot.

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

sorry darth, 2am in the morning is probably not the best time to be doing this...think it went in and straight out again....

yeah as darth said, a lot will depend on what you have running off your PSU already...darth explained it better...^^^

from the specs of his case/PSU given in a quick review I read Master Jack should have a pretty cool temp running system, as long as it hasn't got 3 CD/DVD/RW drives and 2+ hard drives I doubt the PSU is under much strain....

unlike my eyes at the moment...

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I heard someone say once that the world is a fine place and that it was worth fighting for....I agree with the last part.

People of our generation should not be subjected to mornings.

Rbots website

Nah, the ultras do take the space for two slots.

I never found that to be a big deal though, since I always keep at least the PCI slot closest to the AGP slot open for better airflow.

Yeah, and those two slot designs usually act as an intake for cool air from the outside, they should be really good at cooling. Albeit some are louder since they are blowers.

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

If I'm not mistaken the blower also throttles itself down when the card's not doing any 3D rendering.

Heh, well there you go. Probably thermally controlled. And once you start gaming you shouldn't notice it.

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

I'm not positive about the 6800 Ultras, but the FX 5900 Ultras that used it worked that way, so I'd imagine they'd still leave it that way.

I do.


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My Xanga

If you just get the 6800 GT, you don't have to worry about power supplies, fans or slots at all.

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Your humble opinion is wrong.

Unless you get the Leadtek one. =P



Oddly enough, from the review I read, it runs a little hot compared to the others, despite the massive copper heatsink.