Never realized how well the x850xt PE competes with the 1800/1900 cards

[Tatty_Two]

I would not trade my Sapphire X850XT for any 7800 or lower nVidia card. A 7900 series maybe, if you kicked in some cash.

I absolutely loved my 850xt, got the 7900GT for a birthday pressie and it is much faster but having said that, would have been more than happy to keep the 850 as there is plenty of life in them yet and apart from SM3 would not really see the point in anyone upgrading to 1800xt at this point before DX10, but thats just my opinion. The good thing about the 7900Gt is that it runs so cool partly because it is throttled to 1.2V from 1.4V (7900GTX) but with just about the simplest voltmod out there you can bring it back up to 1.4V and with some improved cooling you can get far in excess of GTX speeds for £150 less!, got a friend doing my voltmod this week!

 

[BIOHazard87]

Oblivion, Far Cry, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, plus more.

oh wow.... ok you listed ONE thats worth talking about,mabey 2 (oblivion/far cry)

personally all I play is CS 1.6 .. so it doesnt even matter for me

 

[_33]

This bench has the X850 XT beating the x1800xt (and the x1800 is w/512 memory):

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html?modelx=33&model1=302&model2=310&chart=107

OK, now how about this...

Or, this!

 

[trt740]

look at the example benchmarks I posted both the x1800/1900 lose at low to mid range resolution the the x850 pe http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/228/9

here it is again remember this is one of many saw and in some games the PE can match the x1800/x1900 not beat it or it loses by a few frames but is this worth 190 dollar difference for a x1900xt na baby na. In the future yes!!!

 

[_33]

look at the example benchmarks I posted both the x1800/1900 lose at low to mid range resolution the the x850 pe http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/228/9

here it is again remember this is one of many saw and in some games the PE can match the x1800/x1900 not beat it or it loses by a few frames but is this worth 190 dollar difference for a x1900xt na baby na. In the future yes!!!

I don't play in low detail. I set AAA modes on, ANISO 16X if possible, and Advanced MIP MAP. In those cases, the X1800/X1900 will definately surpass as it has more memory bandwidth right from the start, and the ringbus makes memory works in a way that it boosts performance when you add in all the bells and whistles and bling bling.

Really, I'd slap the guy in the back of the head if he was playing a game at 150FPS low detail, specially with the features we can enable. It's not like we're running a Geforce MX 200 or an ATI Rage Pro...

 

[mikelopez]

OK, now how about this...

Or, this!

That looks fanstastic but remember what I mentioned. The x1800xt in this case is OC and is 512mb.

The X850 XT is set at stock clocks and is 256mb.

 

[_33]

That looks fanstastic but remember what I mentioned. The x1800xt in this case is OC and is 512mb.

The X850 XT is set at stock clocks and is 256mb.

Bottom line Serious Sam 2 is a stupid game after all, and Croteam are more Nvidia fans than ATI, so they don't really care about this.

The real feature games are not from Croteam.

 

[dduummyy]

its ashame the Tom's doesnt do a $price$ benchmark also For $134 buck my 850XT will last me a long time. How much are the 1900's?

 

[micron]

HDR/sm3.0 puts more load on the gpu and reduces fps...

HDR does, but sm3.0 doesnt. A sm3.0 card can render a scene in fewer passes then a ps2.0 card(it allows for longer shader instructions), it's more efficient, and efficiency = speed.

 

[_33]

A 16 pipeline 500mhz and above X8x0 card will be good for another 3 or 4 years, just like the older Nvidia Geforce 4200Ti that was an excellent deal at the time. But it will remain a card with less features than the newer cards. ATI succeded in adding AAA modes 2 months ago in the Catalyst drivers, and I was all "joy joy". But really there's not much else you can expect from a 160 million transistor GPU? compared to a much more advanced R580 with almost 400 million transistor GPU running at close to 700mhz. You will get a short list of "miracle bench marks" and a cut down in features for newer games.

 

[b1lk1]

X1800 Crossfire for the win. I have yet to see under 60FPS in the games I play @ 1600X1200 res with max details/settings. I know most everyone is stating the newer cards are better for high res. If you can spare the money, newer is better. But those X800/X850's are still kickass cards. I had a ViperJohn modded X850 that was just unreal. I wish I had the common sense to keep that card back when instead of spending all this money now.

 

[Tatty_Two]

HDR does, but sm3.0 doesnt. A sm3.0 card can render a scene in fewer passes then a ps2.0 card(it allows for longer shader instructions), it's more efficient, and efficiency = speed.

Ok but if you take CSS for example in an SM3 enabled map an 850xt will run in sm2.0 and its frame rates will be higher as rendering in SM2.0 is less GPU intensive.

 

[JC316]

If you're stating(in your sig) that you're playing Oblivion in "Ultra" settings @1600x1200 with an X1800GTO and an Athlon64 3000+, I'm going to go ahead and laugh in your face right now, because you're telling porkies.

Honestly man....we're all grown up here

First, I am not someone who makes crap up about my system to make me look good. I average 20-25 FPS in town, 60+ indoors and 45-50 outdoors, smooth enough for me to play. The X850 had those numbers on just high 1024x768. If I were "Telling Porkies" I would have said it runs over 60 fps at all times. I also have my CPU overclocked, 900Mbs of ram free, and an overclocked video card.

 

[_33]

First, I am not someone who makes crap up about my system to make me look good. I average 20-25 FPS in town, 60+ indoors and 45-50 outdoors, smooth enough for me to play. The X850 had those numbers on just high 1024x768. If I were "Telling Porkies" I would have said it runs over 60 fps at all times. I also have my CPU overclocked, 900Mbs of ram free, and an overclocked video card.

I wouldn't call 2ghz an overclock...... Can't it get a little higher (that cpu)? Or is your ram multiplier inaccesible in your system bios?

X1800GTO, not a bad card. Are the 4 other pipelines unlockable do you think?

 

[trog100]

i have an x850 card and a 1900xtx.. it comes down to being able to run higher settings on one than the other.. the x850 still copes well enough with all current games.. as for hdr and sm3 i cant say i have noticed any super "wow" factors there.. in fact with oblivion i prefer bloom and dont use it.. as for sm3 i cant say i have noticed the benifits of having or not having it.. in fact its pretty "unnoticeable" to be honest.. looking at the 3dmark 2006 canyon flight useing sm3 crawling by at 5 frames per second dont exactly impress me.. he he

trog

 

[v-zero]

A sm3.0 card can render a scene in fewer passes then a ps2.0 card(it allows for longer shader instructions), it's more efficient, and efficiency = speed.

1. The number of passes has nothing to do with whether it is SM2 or SM3... SM2 can run shader code of up to 96 in length, SM3 is about 3000 I think, however each shader is done in one pass, and it is unlikely a shader code is longer than 20 to 30, let alone 96...

2. Since SM3 requires FP32 precision, whilst colours will be "better" it will also be less efficient than the FP24 of SM2... So that is why SM3 cards have to do more work, and hence SM3 code slows cards down...

3. Efficiency does not equal speed, something can be very fast and very inefficient in many ways... That kind of blanket statement is wrong. Higher efficiency can aid speed, but it doesn't have to...

 

[dduummyy]

what it boils down to i guess is thank god were all fortunate here to have decent video cards for gaming wouldnt you say?

 

[JC316]

I wouldn't call 2ghz an overclock...... Can't it get a little higher (that cpu)? Or is your ram multiplier inaccesible in your system bios?

X1800GTO, not a bad card. Are the 4 other pipelines unlockable do you think?

No, my card can't unlock, sapphires have a very low success rate of unlocking. My sig needs to be updated, I am now running 2.2GHZ on the CPU. It will go higher, but I am making sure it's stable.

 

[i_am_mustang_man]

what it boils down to i guess is thank god were all fortunate here to have decent video cards for gaming wouldnt you say?

palabra
and
peace

 

[_33]

No, my card can't unlock, sapphires have a very low success rate of unlocking. My sig needs to be updated, I am now running 2.2GHZ on the CPU. It will go higher, but I am making sure it's stable.

Your Venice is easily safe up to 2.6ghz, trust me

 

[i_am_mustang_man]

_33, i am pretty new to OCing 64s, and i have a venice 3200+. above 2.4, it freaks out. should i bump the voltage, if so by how much, or did i maybe get a bad batch?

 

[Tatty_Two]

_33, i am pretty new to OCing 64s, and i have a venice 3200+. above 2.4, it freaks out. should i bump the voltage, if so by how much, or did i maybe get a bad batch?

If you don't mind me answering in his place, I assume you have made adjustments to your memory and HTT to compensate for the raise in FSB. I had until recently, well I have still got a 3200 that I got to 2.7Gig stable and yes I had to raise the volts from in my case about 2450Mhz. I dont know what Voltage options your mobo has but I got my 2700 on 1.55V and that is considered safe. Reports show that some can take upto 1.7V but that is VERY dangerous and should not be attempted, anything from 1.6V is going to reduce the life of the CPU, IMO NEVER go above 1.575 (well I wouldn't), see what you can get out of 1.55 first, but bear in mind that the heat issues multiply incredibly fast with the voltage increases so if you have not already (because I was too lazy to check your specs) get a good cooler, I got mine to 2700 @ 1.55V with an Artic freezer 64 Pro that idled at 32C and never went above 43C at load, if you are hitting well into the 40ies at idle she may start to twitch under load cause she will be hitting well into the high fifties....AMD Max operating temps for the Venice cores are 49 - 65C I think.

Edit: seen you have stock cooling, upgrade, the 64 pro is really cheap at the moment, you can get better but I have modded mine (see my specs) and she is probably running as good as any air now.

 

[i_am_mustang_man]

i'm not actualy running stock, so woohoo! (should update my specs tho!) i have a thermaltake silent 939 on there, not ridiculous, but it's silent
and yea, i have lowered the memory, it's running at exactly 2000MHz (240x4x2), so it's not being taxed. i just found out that there is a program to tell me temps, so i will try that out and maybe raise the volts. if i can get to 2.6, i will be happier than i don't know. thanks for the quick reply tatty!

 

[DRDNA]

well the x850 in crossfire mode highest score is 3DMark Score: 12025 Untitled and the x1800 crossfire mode highest score is 3DMark Score: 14474 DRDNA for approved and
3DMark Score: 15186 165 Opteron X1800 Crossfire b1lk1 for unapproved .....They dont look to me as being almost the same.

 

[Tatty_Two]

i'm not actualy running stock, so woohoo! (should update my specs tho!) i have a thermaltake silent 939 on there, not ridiculous, but it's silent
and yea, i have lowered the memory, it's running at exactly 2000MHz (240x4x2), so it's not being taxed. i just found out that there is a program to tell me temps, so i will try that out and maybe raise the volts. if i can get to 2.6, i will be happier than i don't know. thanks for the quick reply tatty!

No probs m8...as a matter of interest I use "pc alert 4" from the MSI site, it is under software downloads. Have tried many CPU temp monitors but after actually takeing the temps PC Alert was dead on accurate! Small download too, give it a try, dont matterif you dont have an MSI Mobo it works fine and gives you the volts off each rail too.

let me know how U get on!