geForce6800 or RadeonX800

  • Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.

6800 or X800?

  • geForce 6800

    Votes: 16 36.4%
  • Radeon X800 XT

    Votes: 28 63.6%

  • Total voters
    44

{MåçE}

ma$e is back!!??
Mar 6, 2004
470
0
0
if you do get water cooling, be super careful and dont buy a cheap one.. rofl my friend bought a cheap one and it ****ing ruined his motherboard :p i got a backup processor out of it though cuz he decided to buy a pentium processor and motherboard for his replacement.. so i kinda liked it



i think im gonna just wait for pci express.. my current card can run 2k4 fine, and i will easily be able to play games for a year or so.. after that, i may start having to run on super low settings, but i'd rather just tough it out and getting a pci express/64 bit motherboard once they become available and more mainstream
 

Lise

Being a girl makes you kick more arse.
Mar 16, 2004
297
0
0
40
There have also been reports (including from a website that I trust very much) that the 6800 GT, the $400, single-slot, single-power-connector version of the 6800 Ultra, overclocks like mad. They managed to get a 20% increase in the core speed (which puts it PAST the Ultra default specification), and a 16% increase in memory speed (again, putting it well past the Ultra's default) with it being perfectly stable, on default cooling. And the GT beats out the $400 version of the X800 in most tests anyway, even WITH beta drivers (and for the GT, they're seriously beta drivers). In other words, more-than-Ultra performance with a bit of pushing, a more robust feature set than ATI, better performance than it's price-point counterpart, and all for $100 less than the top cards. Oh yeah, it needs less power and it'll run on my 4x AGP slot as well.

I think the choice is clear. It's a GeForce 6800 GT for me this June.

The article, for reference:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_6800_ultra_extreme/

It also talks about the "Ultra Extreme", which is junk IMHO. It's really going to be all about the 6800 GT once more people realize exactly what it is (read: this hardware generation's GeForce 4 Ti4200. A lot of you should get what I'm talking about by now.)
 
Last edited:

OO7MIKE

Mr. Sexy
May 2, 2000
5,022
107
63
Nalicity, NC
TomWithTheWeather said:
I was refering to overclocking the video card. OCing the cpu can give you good results. OCing the video card doesn't make that much of a difference.


For a DX 8 game like UT2k4...you are absolutely correct. OC the video card wont give you stellar results...but just enough to get a few extra fps if you really need it.

For a DX 9 game like Farcry where much of the eye candy is dependant on the Video card.....the tides turn.
 
Oct 22, 2002
2,260
0
0
Visit site
pikach00 said:
amd64 3400+
1gig of corsair pc466 ram
2x WD raptor 10,000rpm
beQuiet! 520W PSU

so i guess it's quite a nice system

Wow.

You and TomWithTheWeather have the same CPU, I guess you guys make the Big Bucks huh?

I'd go with the Radeon, it's smaller and probably quieter....
 

JaFO

bugs are features too ...
Nov 5, 2000
8,408
0
0
m0nk said:
...
So wrong...not everyone is rich. Some people want to buy a graphics card and stretch it for 2 years. That won't happen nowadays unless you OC.
I've managed to 'stretch' my graphicscards for 2 years without overclocking simply by buying the 'right' upgrades every time they're needed.
So far that has resulted in least skipping at least a single generations worth of hardware without any problems at all.

I'm sure I can get 2 years worth out of my current one as well ... it's all about not worrying about how much fps you get and just playing the games instead.

As for not needing to be rich. You can't stay ahead of the pack and expect to be able to play any 'new' game if you don't spend your money wisely.

The ones that think they're 'saving' money by buying a cheap card and OC'ing are the ones that will be in trouble within 2 years.
 

m0nk

New Member
May 3, 2004
25
0
0
MegaManInferno said:
No, low-persision rendering "Feature", It will STAY like that.

http://www.nvnews.net/articles/geforce_6_interview/index.shtml

Specifically,

nV News:

Reviewers have noticed image quality issues with Far Cry and are perplexed as to why the game performs better on the newly announced Radeon X800 graphics chipsets than the GeForce 6800. Comments? Is a future patch in the works that will support the new features of Shader Model 3.0?

Ujesh Desai:

We are aware of all the issues with Far Cry and we are working with Crytek to solve them as soon as possible. Some of the issues are driver bugs that we are working on, and some of the issues are application related and Crytek is working on a patch for this. We are also working with Crytek to get a Shader Model 3.0 patch added to the game.

EDIT

And OMG nice try...

From the TomsHardware link, only next page.

Image Quality - Summary

Compared to the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, the 6800 Ultra offers greatly improved image quality, both in FSAA and in anisotropic filtering. NV40 need not fear the competition from ATi either. Although ATi offers a higher sampling rate (6x), the 6800 Ultra can balance this out with its 8x mixed-mode. Also, let's not forget the 6800's excellent performance. It is still noticeably faster in UT2004 at 1600x1200 with 4xFSAA enabled than the Radeon 9800XT with 4x at 1280x1024!

The same holds true for anisotropic filtering. NVIDIA has taken the criticism it received over the past months seriously and now allows the trilinear optimizations to be turned off. In this mode, the GeForce 6800 Ultra offers superior filtering quality. We would still like to see an option to turn off the angle-based optimizations, for example in High-Quality mode. So far, this mode does not offer noticeable quality improvements compared to Quality mode. Also, performance only takes a minor hit when HQ mode is enabled.

We were disappointed by the new card where shader quality is concerned, at least in the game FarCry. Since we don't have any other modern game like this for comparison, it's hard to draw any conclusions right now. It seems reasonable to suppose that Crytek and NVIDIA weren't able to remove all of the shader optimizations for NV3x in time. In all likelihood, a new patch or a newer driver revision will iron out the remaining issues. As it stands, the current image quality in FarCry is simply unacceptable for the GeForce 6800 Ultra - especially in light of such superior performance.
 
Last edited:

m0nk

New Member
May 3, 2004
25
0
0
JaFO said:
I've managed to 'stretch' my graphicscards for 2 years without overclocking simply by buying the 'right' upgrades every time they're needed.
So far that has resulted in least skipping at least a single generations worth of hardware without any problems at all.

I'm sure I can get 2 years worth out of my current one as well ... it's all about not worrying about how much fps you get and just playing the games instead.

As for not needing to be rich. You can't stay ahead of the pack and expect to be able to play any 'new' game if you don't spend your money wisely.

The ones that think they're 'saving' money by buying a cheap card and OC'ing are the ones that will be in trouble within 2 years.

Hmm, funny cause you don't speak for me, yet you think you do. My ti4200 lasted 2 years only because I did OC it.

As for not being rich, I can't afford to throw $500 or even $400 down in one pop. When I build a new system, it's spread over months. I spend very wisely out of necessity.

And besides, many cards nowadays, including my Asus 5900, ship with an overclocking utility making it easily accessible to even the most novice of computer users.

And again I will refer you to my Farcry example. OCing has breathed new life into my card. It could hold up for DOOM 3 but I am not going to force it. With this new generation of cards towering over the last, I am upgrading for sure. Saving $$ now and by July I will be holding a new card. Damn bills...

EDIT: and playing UT2004 competitively, I have to be hammered at 85fps constantly to avoid giving away a hardware advantage to my foes. It is important that I keep it there. The more fps, the smoother the gameplay. As for games like Farcry...I just want to be able to play the damn game...

This is the only extent to which I worry about fps...
 
Last edited:

Lise

Being a girl makes you kick more arse.
Mar 16, 2004
297
0
0
40
Besides, FP16 is less precise, but it wouldn't produce problems THAT LARGE compared to FP24. FP24 isn't really that much of an improvement over FP16, really...
 
Mar 6, 2000
4,687
1
38
45
London
www.mox-guild.com
m0nk said:
From the TomsHardware link, only next page.
Although ATi offers a higher sampling rate (6x), the 6800 Ultra can balance this out with its 8x mixed-mode. Also, let's not forget the 6800's excellent performance. It is still noticeably faster in UT2004 at 1600x1200 with 4xFSAA enabled than the Radeon 9800XT with 4x at 1280x1024!

Umm, aren't we talking about the X800 to the 6800Ultra (as they're approximately the same price)?

X800 > 6800Ultra > 9800XT at 1600x1200 with 4xAA enabled
 

ambershee

Nimbusfish Rawks
Apr 18, 2006
4,519
7
38
37
Nomad
sheelabs.gamemod.net
My 6800 Ultra carried me all the way through until 2008, when I finally replaced it for a card more capable of UE3 development. It currently sits in a machine put together for a friends grandparents out of spare parts and is still working some 8 years after I bought it. Far Cry ran really well out of the box at release on it, no idea what the previous shitreviewpost is about.

My previous 5950FX sucked ass. It lasted less than a year and a half.

Edit: Wow, so much untrue material from ATI fanboys in this thread, lol
 
Last edited:

Thanatosaurus

Member
Feb 21, 2009
90
1
8
I'm no expert on video cards. But my laptop that I had before my current one had an nVidia card in it and had nothing but problems running UT2004, such as freezing solid. This laptop with an ATI card in it has had not a one.