Time for PCI-E (at last), but which one?

1701 Views 36 Replies 14 Participants Last post by pauldovi, Mar 13, 2006

Smoke

Discussion Starter · Feb 26, 2006

I'm finally upgrading from my 9800 pro to a PCI-E graphics card. As thius upgrade involves getting a new mobo and a 64 bit processor (Asus of some sort and 3200+ prolly) I have around Â£150 thats Great British Pounds. I was thinking one of these:

Powercolor ATI Radeon X850XT - Â£146
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...CI_Series.html

Gainward BLISS GeForce 6800 GS "Goes Like Hell" 512MB GDDR3 - Â£170
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...CI_Series.html

or XFX GeForce 6800 GS Extreme XXX Edition 256MB GDDR3 - Â£152
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...CI_Series.html

The Gainward one looks rather tasty with 512mb (I know its probably too much to use) and it's clocked at 485MHz (good for a nvidia I think) and 1300MHz memory.
The X850xt also looks incredibly attractive at that price with 520Mhz clock speed, however I am a little concerned about the Lack of SM 3 on it.

This upgrade is largely prompted by the new Elder Scrolls Oblivion coming out soon. If there are any other cards you think I should consider please say, but I'm not willing to cross over the Â£175 mark. Sorry it's not in dollars, I don't think it's worth converting as prices are bigger here anyway.
Thanks in advance!

1 - 20 of 37 Posts

Omri

· #2 · Feb 26, 2006

well this is Overclock.net so you can always oc :]
for now i think you should take the bliss (btw the bliss 7800GT 512MB is a beast!) the 6800gs is a "new gen" card that support some pretty nice features! the x850xt is realy strong but its "old school"...
and if you can put some extra money and get a 7800GT for £160-180

Reactions: 1

Smoke

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 26, 2006

Unfortunately I can't afford a 7800 GT as the cheapes I can find it for is Â£194, which is too near to 200 for me. Is it worth bothering trying for SLI with the Bliss card or the XFX or would I just be better buying a 7800 when they come down in price?

Omri

· #4 · Feb 26, 2006

what are talking about?
Gigabyte GeForce 7800 GT 256MB - £174.95
Leadtek GeForce 7800GT 256MB - £169.95
MSI GeForce 7800 GT 256MB - £174.95
OcUK GeForce 7800GT - £164.95

Robilar

· #5 · Feb 26, 2006

save the money and get a 7800gt. Eventually, you can pick up a second one for sli.

Smoke

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 26, 2006

AAAH overclockers.co.uk have the VAT in small writing. those are actually:
Gigabyte GeForce 7800 GT 256MB - £205.57
Leadtek GeForce 7800GT 256MB - £199.96
MSI GeForce 7800 GT 256MB - £205.57
OcUK GeForce 7800GT - £193.82

ThaWaxShop

· #7 · Feb 26, 2006

well i went through this descision... the x850xt is probably the best choice.. it out muscles the 6800gs but at the cost of SM3. Be it old tech its still the more powerful card.

Smoke

Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 26, 2006

dammit it is a tough decision, I'd like to know just how powerful that gainward go's like hell 6800gs is. It must be pretty impressive with a 1300MHz memory clock, though I'm sure it still wouldn't quite rival the x850xt

ThaWaxShop

· #9 · Feb 26, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smoke

dammit it is a tough decision, I'd like to know just how powerful that gainward go's like hell 6800gs is. It must be pretty impressive with a 1300MHz memory clock, though I'm sure it still wouldn't quite rival the x850xt

well with lots of memory and high clocks itll be good when you crank the eye candy up..

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Smoke

Discussion Starter · #10 · Feb 26, 2006

How much difference would the 512mb of memory make compared to 256?

ThaWaxShop

· #11 · Feb 26, 2006

on a 6800gs i dont think much since it really doesnt have the muscle to run high resolutions with the eye candy turned up which is where the 512mbmemory comes into play.

Smoke

Discussion Starter · #12 · Feb 26, 2006

What sort of difference does SM3 make over 2 (or is it 2.1?), and what sort of difference is it? Does it improve performance or enhance visual effects and by how much?

ThaWaxShop

· #13 · Feb 26, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smoke

What sort of difference does SM3 make over 2 (or is it 2.1?), and what sort of difference is it? Does it improve performance or enhance visual effects and by how much?

Well it smooths out the picture some and its needed for HDR, but not many games use SM3 yet and itll probably take a while.

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Namrac

· #14 · Feb 26, 2006

Not much, but it can't hurt. The Geinward GLH series are supposed to be amazing.

SM3 and HDR makes translucent objects and bright sunlight/reflections much, much more realistic. Also, if you care about benchmark scores at all, the X850XT will suck in 3DMark 06 because of its lack of SM3. I say get the 6800GS, it's a great card.

pbasil1

· #15 · Feb 26, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smoke

What sort of difference does SM3 make over 2 (or is it 2.1?), and what sort of difference is it? Does it improve performance or enhance visual effects and by how much?

SM3 is like night and day compared to SM2... and when running HDR, its needed and wow does it look awesome, the only performance gain you see is when a program/game need the SM3 capabilities to run it, if you only have SM2 it wound work nearly as well and lok even half as good, so your best bet is the 6800gs

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msarp

· #16 · Feb 26, 2006

check out the EVGA 6800gs. evga.com
great support and industry leading warrenties

ThaWaxShop

· #17 · Feb 26, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbasil1

SM3 is like night and day compared to SM2... and when running HDR, its needed and wow does it look awesome, the only performance gain you see is when a program/game need the SM3 capabilities to run it, if you only have SM2 it wound work nearly as well and lok even half as good, so your best bet is the 6800gs

nah thats untrue when HL2:lost coast came out ppl on here posted screenies and the x850 owners were running HDR and it looked like it did on my 6800gt. Ill see if i can dig up the thread

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Smoke

Discussion Starter · #18 · Feb 26, 2006

It's that 'needed for HDR' that I was worried about. One of the main reasons for this upgrade is to prepare for The Elder Scrolls Oblivion, one of the first games to ship with HDR lighting, hmmmmm.
While I was looking around it seems odd that this article said:"Fast HDR rendering in DirectX can be done using GPUs which support Shader Model 2.0 or higher."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dy...X_Shader_Model

Is this just lying or old news or what?

bigvaL

· #19 · Feb 26, 2006

Get that 6800GS "Goes Like Hell" one. It has 512mb of GDDR3 at 1300mhz!!

ThaWaxShop

· #20 · Feb 26, 2006

there was a thread around where i saw non SM3 cards running HDR i doubt it was to its full potential. If your that worried about it get the GS.

1 - 20 of 37 Posts

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