2X 2900xt or 8800gtx

[osiris999]

so i can get 2 2900xt's for 640$ shipped and a 8800gtx will run me around 530$.
so is it worth it to get the 2900s. i game at 1680x1050. this will be going with a q6600 g0 on phase and the cards will be on water when overclocking is able in crossfire. ill have to buy a psu either way. was thinking of getting a 1000 watt. one. i just wanted some input first. it looks like im gonna go with the 2900s and overclock them when i can.

[zanzabar]

2x 2900 they are getting way better every driver and if u use vista and play dx10 like biosock or crysis they will own

[osiris999]

yes im on vista and im looking for the best dx10 setup.

[zanzabar]

the 2900xt by its self is faster than the 8800ultra on vista so 2 of them will be awsome

[afireinside]

the 2900xt by its self is faster than the 8800ultra on vista so 2 of them will be awsome

Is this supposed to be some sort of joke like "haha that's funny"?

[ColonelCain]

the 2900xt by its self is faster than the 8800ultra on vista so 2 of them will be awsome

On half-a-handful of games. Sure, I may be an ATi fanboy, but I'm not blinded enough to think that.

Back to the topic though, 2 X2900XT's watercooled though, yes that would be worth it.

[zanzabar]

Is this supposed to be some sort of joke like "haha that's funny"?

if u use the proper aa like 2x aa or 4/8/16x maa the 2900 is faster, and smooth game play should count for soemthing so what if the 8800 beats the 2900 in half the benches by 5% the ati isnt jumpy and it dosnt go from 150-300 and back in cycles in css or bf2142 but maintains a solid advrage

and wait for a real dx10 game u wont be able to use your 8800 since it dosnt have full dx10 support only d3d10 so u dont have 8/16x maa or dynamic cashing or full shader model 4 with hdr

and if the 2900xt isnt the fastest then why is its scaled down ddr3 512mb vershion in vf the fastest bench in 3d mark 06

[LIKMARK]

if u use the proper aa like 2x aa or 4/8/16x maa the 2900 is faster

Do you have any sources? As far as I knew the 2900xt were quite good at no aa settings, low resolution, but bad if you applied aa settings at higher resolutions...

[oohms]

2x 2900xt would be faster than an 8800 ultra, but you need a killer psu. And a single 2900xt puts out a LOT of heat lol

[Dark Prodigy]

if u use the proper aa like 2x aa or 4/8/16x maa the 2900 is faster, and smooth game play should count for soemthing so what if the 8800 beats the 2900 in half the benches by 5% the ati isnt jumpy and it dosnt go from 150-300 and back in cycles in css or bf2142 but maintains a solid advrage

and wait for a real dx10 game u wont be able to use your 8800 since it dosnt have full dx10 support only d3d10 so u dont have 8/16x maa or dynamic cashing or full shader model 4 with hdr

and if the 2900xt isnt the fastest then why is its scaled down ddr3 512mb vershion in vf the fastest bench in 3d mark 06


That's some gooooooooood stuff your on. :rofl:

[Anemone]

Someone's been brewing their own I see...

While 2x2900 would be a very good combo, whether it's SLI or CF, I would never rely on a dual card system where a single card will do the same thing.

Both SLI and CF rely (down the road when you've owned them a year or more) on driver support for the latest games, and both sides tend to get a lot less reliable in that area as the years go on.

So if you like what the 2900 can do, get one of them (or wait for the faster one to finally get here). If you like the 8800 flavors, then get one of those.

Do be aware that it could be only a couple of months till we see what the new offerings on the high end are for both sides.

[leoftw]

2 2900xt's would be my choice, those cards are getting better and better as drivers mature .

[troisanh]

2 2900xt > single 8800gtx anyday of the week.

[Papu]

2x 2900xt would be faster than an 8800 ultra, but you need a killer psu. And a single 2900xt puts out a LOT of heat lol


the heats ejected out the back of your case none of it stays in it , so its heating for your feet 0/ yay

i love mine :D

mmm toasty warm...

[aintz]

zanzabar has no clue what hes talking about.

my friend recently upgraded from 8800gtx to two 2900xts so. 8800gtx has better image quality but two 2900xts are simply much faster. but they are loud and hot. hes using galaxy 1000w

[NKD]

zanzabar has no clue what hes talking about.

my friend recently upgraded from 8800gtx to two 2900xts so. 8800gtx has better image quality but two 2900xts are simply much faster. but they are loud and hot. hes using galaxy 1000w

i got one and i am getting my second one soon, i got both with three heatpipes, if u order one now, its very likely that u will get the ones with three heatpipes but the launch cards came with only two heatpipes, i dont know why people say its loud, i cant hear mine over rest of the system, but if u do control the fan speed ofcourse this fan is loud and it also pulls a lot of air, my card idles in the forties and stays in the lower sixties under load, so u can decide for urself what u want, please stop over stating the fact that they are loud, they are loud only if u bump them up to 100%.

i have nvidia and ati both but i really like the driver support coming from ati, crossfire overclocking is coming in the near future. mine performs pretty damn good if u look at the price i paid for it, which was 630 for both.

[ChaosMinionX]

zanzabar has no clue what hes talking about.

my friend recently upgraded from 8800gtx to two 2900xts so. 8800gtx has better image quality but two 2900xts are simply much faster. but they are loud and hot. hes using galaxy 1000w

The image quality statement is pretty much unfounded, as both companies have about the same IQ these days. Its kinda funny how the brain and siding with one company over another allows you to see an image as it is of less quality than the others. Its all in your head, the image quality on the current releases is identical, you could not tell me one is a HD2900 and one is a 8800.

And I would go with 2 HD2900XT 1GB cards for super high rez, give them time on the drivers to work out AA :)

[afireinside]

if u use the proper aa like 2x aa or 4/8/16x maa the 2900 is faster, and smooth game play should count for soemthing so what if the 8800 beats the 2900 in half the benches by 5% the ati isnt jumpy and it dosnt go from 150-300 and back in cycles in css or bf2142 but maintains a solid advrage

and wait for a real dx10 game u wont be able to use your 8800 since it dosnt have full dx10 support only d3d10 so u dont have 8/16x maa or dynamic cashing or full shader model 4 with hdr

and if the 2900xt isnt the fastest then why is its scaled down ddr3 512mb vershion in vf the fastest bench in 3d mark 06

What is proper AA and what is improper AA?

Proof that the 8800s jump all over in FPS? I have yet to see that. My 7 series cards did that but not 8 series.

Real DX10 games? We'll wait and see, but by the time "real" DX10 games get here, 8800s AND 2900s will be far to slow to play them even if supported

Scaled down ddr3 512mb version in what? What is vf? And it's not the fastest in 06 lmfao. Please prove.

[Alik4041]

if u use the proper aa like 2x aa or 4/8/16x maa the 2900 is faster, and smooth game play should count for soemthing so what if the 8800 beats the 2900 in half the benches by 5% the ati isnt jumpy and it dosnt go from 150-300 and back in cycles in css or bf2142 but maintains a solid advrage

and wait for a real dx10 game u wont be able to use your 8800 since it dosnt have full dx10 support only d3d10 so u dont have 8/16x maa or dynamic cashing or full shader model 4 with hdr

and if the 2900xt isnt the fastest then why is its scaled down ddr3 512mb vershion in vf the fastest bench in 3d mark 06

What I find remarkably funny is that most of these statements are made by people who have NEVER owned the card. If that's true, then you MUST include a source when you post something as ridiculous as that or we're all going to think it's just that...Ridiculous.

[DilTech]

Zanza...

I don't care what camp you prefer, I don't care what card you own.

What I DO care is that you've been spreading BS mis-informative posts in well, just about every thread you've posted in. I'm tired of telling you this, RESEARCH BEFORE YOU TALK. I'm seriously annoyed at the sheer utter ignorance you have on the topics you speak in.

Oh, and zanza, since you mentioned bioshock...
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/bioshock_directx10_performance/page6.asp
Even the 320mb GTS can beat the hd2900xt 1gb in that title, in DX10 mode at that.

With that said, to answer the topic creators question...
When CF works, the HD2900's will be faster than the 8800GTX. When it doesn't(which, presently, is a LOT of the time), the 8800gtx will slaughter the CF setup.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q3/radeon-hd-2900xt-1gb/index.x?pg=1

Essentially, what I'd do is look around the web and find out how it works with the games you want to play. Personally though, I generally advise staying away from multiple card setups from either vendor, mainly due to driver hassles and the fact that with some games it just don't work.

[AliG]

neither, go with either two rv670s and save some cash or two r670s as ati claims they have nearly gotten down 3 and 4 gpu xfire on the rd790

[ChaosMinionX]

neither, go with either two rv670s and save some cash or two r670s as ati claims they have nearly gotten down 3 and 4 gpu xfire on the rd790

That is completely irrelevant to this post, sorry but we saw last time how long it took ati to get a new card out. R700 im not going to pull the R600 waiting game with, if 9800 drops in fall-winter and crushes current cards. I will be getting one of those.

[Forsaken1]

2x 2900 they are getting way better every driver and if u use vista and play dx10 like biosock or crysis they will own

Agree with this statement:clap: .

[Alik4041]

Zanzabar, after all the responses you've received for your statement, it's amazing that you have nothing to say :stick:

[DilTech]

Considering most of what he said is bs, there's not much he can say.

Anyone who knows anything about DX10 knows with DX10 you're all or nothing when it comes to compatibility. So his "not fully SM4 compliant" is outright BS, as if the 8 series wasn't compliant than they couldn't say the card was DX10 compatible, and DX wouldn't allow it to run any DX10 code.

Then he mentions real AA, I guess he doesn't realize both brands are capable of 2x/4x/and 8x multisampling, and that neither brand can do 16x Multisampling AA. They both have a work-around for 16x, but it's not true 16x MSAA. Also, it's a well known and accepted fact that the 8800's are faster with AA than the HD2900's.

Seriously, he's had this all explained to him a few times now, but he continues to spread false information.

[Alik4041]

Considering most of what he said is bs, there's not much he can say.

Anyone who knows anything about DX10 knows with DX10 you're all or nothing when it comes to compatibility. So his "not fully SM4 compliant" is outright BS, as if the 8 series wasn't compliant than they couldn't say the card was DX10 compatible, and DX wouldn't allow it to run any DX10 code.

Then he mentions real AA, I guess he doesn't realize both brands are capable of 2x/4x/and 8x multisampling, and that neither brand can do 16x Multisampling AA. They both have a work-around for 16x, but it's not true 16x MSAA. Also, it's a well known and accepted fact that the 8800's are faster with AA than the HD2900's.

Seriously, he's had this all explained to him a few times now, but he continues to spread false information.

Recalling x1800's and x1900's AA performance, which was spectacular in that FPS drops weren't exponential when AA was turned up, makes you wonder wtf is going on with the x2900xt...even after the new driver :rolleyes:

[DilTech]

Recalling x1800's and x1900's AA performance, which was spectacular in that FPS drops weren't exponential when AA was turned up, makes you wonder wtf is going on with the x2900xt...even after the new driver :rolleyes:

It's pretty obvious, it's using shader power to handle AA, which presently is slower than using dedicated AA hardware like the 8 series and x18/x1900's do. Due to this, there's a much larger hit when enabling AA.

If ATi had included the ability for hardware AA as well, they'd likely have been crushing nvidia.

[Alik4041]

It's pretty obvious, it's using shader power to handle AA, which presently is slower than using dedicated AA hardware like the 8 series and x18/x1900's do.

Your "obvious" is my "Headline of the day" lol. You learn something new everyday :)

[AliG]

Recalling x1800's and x1900's AA performance, which was spectacular in that FPS drops weren't exponential when AA was turned up, makes you wonder wtf is going on with the x2900xt...even after the new driver :rolleyes:

That's not with the driver, that's due to the new aa filter ati made. Supposedly for dx10 it'll be a big improvement, but it's just not optimsed for dx9.

w00t for another ali being around though!

[ChaosMinionX]

That's not with the driver, that's due to the new aa filter ati made. Supposedly for dx10 it'll be a big improvement, but it's just not optimsed for dx9.

w00t for another ali being around though!

Well the shader modes they added actually multiply the amount of aa being applied, allowing up to a 24x with 8x and edge detection enabled. So the new AA modes run like crap, especially edge detect haha :(

Good ideas in increasing past 8x, so like you could set 2x and go wide tent and have 6x or narrow tent and have 4x.

I wonder if this is a driver limitation, or if it is as diltech says and the problem lies in the fact ATI is using shader to do the AA and not hardware.


Still researching it.

[aintz]

The image quality statement is pretty much unfounded, as both companies have about the same IQ these days. Its kinda funny how the brain and siding with one company over another allows you to see an image as it is of less quality than the others. Its all in your head, the image quality on the current releases is identical, you could not tell me one is a HD2900 and one is a 8800.

And I would go with 2 HD2900XT 1GB cards for super high rez, give them time on the drivers to work out AA :)

if youve never tried to compare them side by side obviously you wont know.

the iq is simply better on 8800gtx period.

unless your saying my 250dollar monitor is better then his 800dollar one.

[ChaosMinionX]

if youve never tried to compare them side by side obviously you wont know.

the iq is simply better on 8800gtx period.

unless your saying my 250dollar monitor is better then his 800dollar one.

Proof? Otherwise its just FUD

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/images/articles/1188018161stehAr6rV1_7_1_l.png

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/images/articles/1188018161stehAr6rV1_7_2_l.png

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/images/articles/1188018161stehAr6rV1_7_3_l.png

ATI and NVIDIA DX10 IQ Comparison

There is always the question of how image quality looks between ATI and NVIDIA hardware and especially so since DX10 is so new. For this comparison we are running the game at maximum settings in DX10 mode and comparing directly between a Radeon HD 2900 XT and GeForce 8800 Ultra.

Article Image Article Image Article Image Article Image

This entire section can be summed up in one sentence. There are no differences between ATI’s and NVIDIA’s current high end GPUs in Call of Juarez using DX10. We saw absolutely no differences in textures, shaders, particles, HDR and post processing effects.
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM4NCw3LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

I certainly cannot tell any major differences in those images, any more FUD youd like to throw arround concerning "Nvidias IQ is better period"?

The entire article says there was no differences between the 2 flagship cards in image quality and it was posted yesterday using the latest driver sets from both companies. So please research before you post, and leave your FUD at the door.

and icing on the cake....

We were pleased to see that there were absolutely no differences in image quality between the Radeon HD 2900 XT and the GeForce 8 series. We found that the textures looked exactly the same, the relief mapping looked exactly the same, the water looked exactly the same, the particles looked exactly the same, and the HDR and lighting looked exactly the same. We also found that antialiasing image quality was the same between both. This game does suffer from a good deal of aliasing and if you can muster it, AA will help with image quality. Overall you will receive the same visual quality experience between current AMD and NVIDIA GPUs.
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM4NCw5LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[zanzabar]

stop bashing me with bias benches look the test dil linked, look at the test setup

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/bioshock_directx10_performance/page3.asp

it has a 680i mb witch limits bandwidth of non nvidia cards since 16x slot will only operate in 16x mode with the side band it limits all cards to 8x that dont have the side band (the normal call for a bad bench when its cross brand) , but it says that they did the ati cards on the 975x chipset but the p35 is the closest on nonoced performance to the 680i, and bioshock needed a hotfix if u wait 2 weeks for the relies drivers the benches will be different

bioshock is also a horribly glitchy game in dx10 due to using dx10 but dosnt use sm4 (it uses sm3 with the expanded command set) so wait for a patch and some drivers to compare that game. if u look at the benches for lost planet:xc or call of juarez the benches point to the ati as being better


so, why dont u read white papers before bashing me


and no1 will really know how they will do until dx10.1 comes out when they fix the problems in the engine and have vista optimized for more performance


edit - and they used diamond cards with ati chipsets that like the ecs of grafix cards, while they used an unmentioned brand of nvidia cards most likely being engineering samples or xfx cards

[Alik4041]

Nice grammar :rolleyes:

[ChaosMinionX]

Nice grammar :rolleyes:

Id think more people would wanna use better grammar when defending a serious matter :)

[zanzabar]

sorry about that, but i think that u can get what im saying i fixed some of it

ill fix more latter if its still unclear i just went and checked what i had posted and saw that i was being attacked, and then there was nothing to back up the claim that i was wrong but a great game that was poorly coded and supported by drivers (at least on the pc end since there is more to code for a pc than a console but its a good showing for 2k's first big pc game)

[ChaosMinionX]

sorry about that, but i think that u can get what im saying i fixed some of it

ill fix more latter if its still unclear i just went and checked what i had posted and saw that i was being attacked, and then there was nothing to back up the claim that i was wrong but a great game that was poorly coded and supported by drivers (at least on the pc end since there is more to code for a pc than a console but its a good showing for 2k's first big pc game)

HD2900XT comes down to 1 of 2 things.

Really bad drivers thus far?
or
Severely flawed hardware.

Either of which have yet to be determined, leaning more toward a driver malfunction given the performance gains since R600's release.

[zanzabar]

HD2900XT comes down to 1 of 2 things.

Really bad drivers thus far?
or
Severely flawed hardware.

Either of which have yet to be determined, leaning more toward a driver malfunction given the performance gains since R600's release.

the hard problem is because amd jacked ati's new manufacturing plant to rushs out 65nm cpus when ati was ramping up for 65 nm gpus so then they got stuck waiting for a new facility so they went :banana::banana::banana::banana: it and made it in 90nm, but it stall has more rendering power but that wont transfer to gameing power unless u have good memory (gddr4 in the sapphire and his is there), and good drivers and its not there for antialiasing, but amd's demo boxes with that dx10 demo with maa looks great but that dosnt mean that retail will work the same. in the builds i have done with the 2900xt i did one with an his 2900xt 1gb, 1 with the sapphire 512 and one with the diamond 512 and the 512 cards wernt very good but those were with teh early drivers

at least thats what i can figure out since amd got a new plant when ati was saying that they were build a new one 6 months before the buy out

[ChaosMinionX]

Im not sure 65nm could have helped the R600, if its a hardware problem at this point. However if you want the fastest HD2900XT on the market, only 1 place has them, and thats the same place Me and a few others have gotten theirs from extremePC canada, they come 825/1075 in bios, which is pretty slick :up: BC09 sammys though :( I have yet to see BC06 surface, and if they did Im sure its going to be either R650 65nm 1GB BC06, or they gonna skip right over and go right to R700 with BC06's

PS: 1,000 Posts :)

[zanzabar]

the bc06 are in the in the his and sapphire cards that were made in early july, but then the 09 chips were back in stock so they were only for a short period of the 1st and 2nd batch of the 1gb cards, but i heard a roomer that asus had it coming in their cards, and the ones from his in the falcon nw cards have it too

[ChaosMinionX]

the bc06 are in the in the his and sapphire cards that were made in early july, but then the 09 chips were back in stock so they were only for a short period of the 1st and 2nd batch of the 1gb cards, but i heard a roomer that asus had it coming in their cards, and the ones from his in the falcon nw cards have it too

Any link to these chips? I have the same line that would have used BC06, I got mine in july but its not from sapph or his. And I have not seen any BC06 on the net.

[CraptacularOne]

stop bashing me with bias benches look the test dil linked, look at the test setup

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/bioshock_directx10_performance/page3.asp

it has a 680i mb witch limits bandwidth of non nvidia cards since 16x slot will only operate in 16x mode with the side band it limits all cards to 8x that dont have the side band (the normal call for a bad bench when its cross brand) , but it says that they did the ati cards on the 975x chipset but the p35 is the closest on nonoced performance to the 680i, and bioshock needed a hotfix if u wait 2 weeks for the relies drivers the benches will be different

Do you have a link to back that up? Because you are aware that the mother board doesn't "care" what card you put in it right? You are still going to get all the X16 slots available bandwidth with either nvidia or an ATI card, you are still going to get all 16 lanes.

edit - and they used diamond cards with ati chipsets that like the ecs of grafix cards, while they used an unmentioned brand of nvidia cards most likely being engineering samples or xfx cards

Now you propose that the motherboard has a preference as to what video cards you use in it? Again, I'm going to demand to see a link verifying that. Because ALL HD2900 cards are reference models, with the only difference being the box you buy it in and the stickers on it.

[ChaosMinionX]

I missed that one Zanzabar, no board is going to limit link width with one brand or another, it cannot delineate between 2 brands.

You use ATI or nvidia on that mobo and it will operate 16x, so long as its not an electrical limitation like the P965 and P35 chipsets have with 16x main, 4x slave crossfire or SLI (if you could run SLI on it). That being said be it G80 or R600 it or any other iterations of Nvidia of ATI will run 16x regardless of brand.

Zanzabar, if you wish to remain credible in your posts I would suggest you do some research, and post facts not speculation to back up your reasoning and logic.

EDIT: Far too much FUD being thrown around in this thread, clean it up a little bit guys.

[CraptacularOne]

Whatever zanzabar is on, it must be some good stuff. He's just spouting mindless drivel.

[PrometheusCon]

...anyways...
I'd go for the single card solution now, because later down the road you will be able to upgrade to SLI. I chose a 7950gx2 over a 7900gtx and I regret it. Sure the performance was better in most aspects, but I was stuck with a permanent solution. :-/ [I know quad SLI exists, but meh...]

[zanzabar]

Any link to these chips? I have the same line that would have used BC06, I got mine in july but its not from sapph or his. And I have not seen any BC06 on the net.

go get the white papers it runs computability mode witch is 8x and no side band

[HotGore]

Well there are a few ways to look at the R600.

#1 The 8800 is the better value since by the time you upgrade the 2 2900XT's would have cost you a ton in electricity.

#2 Winter is coming up. If you have a furnace that just can't handle the cold weather then the 2900XT's might come in handy.

But all in all I would go for the 8800. Yes the R600 is getting better with every driver release, but the 8800 was amazing at its first driver release. Do you really want to buy a card from a company that releases a card, and then can't seem to release solid drivers for it?

[ChaosMinionX]

go get the white papers it runs computability mode witch is 8x and no side band

What? I nobody has even reported these chips being used on the card yet. I think you are reading other peoples FUD and regurgitating it as fact. Please post links instead of "do this, go here"

And to say 8800 was amazing at its release, well hardware wise yes, driver wise no. It might have seemed flawless launch, but there was no competitor product to compare it to. But yes, the leap from the G70 to G80 was a landmark day for Nvidia. Not so much at launch for ATI for R600 "the sleeping giant" :(

[zanzabar]

u have to have an msdn account with the privileges to view white papers for the hardware compatibility list, or do a test and get a 16x motherboard and a 680a/i or nforce 4/5 and plug the ati card into teh 1st non nvidia board do a bandwidth test do the same with the nvidia card, then do the same test on the nvidia board and watch the ati card drop while the nvidia card will go up, then tape the pins to make the ati and 8x and watch the identical results (well +- 1-3%)


they have done this for a while and were even sued by ati over it in 2002 but ati lost since the cards still worked so it wasnt locking their platform to stop completion

[The0men]

Well I have no intention in jumping into the argument thats going on, but in answer to the question, I would probably go for the one GTX. Whilst in extremely large environments etc you might see some benifits of crossfire, the GTX is still a wicked fast card. You should really also think of upgradability, you cant go any further if you have 2x2900XT, but give it a little while, and you will be able to add another GTX (if you have SLI Mobo available, mobos are cheaper than GFX also).

I guess also that installing and using a GTX you will most probably be trouble free, and then on liquid will overclock pretty widly aswell. Crossfire doesnt seem to scale aswell as SLI in most cases, although it isnt reliant on CPU.

I think its really more of a personal thing.... Some people are die hard ATI fans, some Nvidia. Whatever works for me i tend to stick with, i had bad experiences with ATI cards back in the day, and have been with Nvidia since so my opinion is probably bias. I personally would take a GTX.

[Alik4041]

Well first I would like to say that this thread HAS been hijacked and many people are trying to stay ontopic here. So for the people that want to discuss the bandwith and all that mumbo jumbo, MAKE A NEW THREAD. When you get your answer, come back here and post. Thanks. :)

Back to the topic, I would recommend you get a good GTX card for now. No reason doing SLI/CF when a card that's coming out into a couple months can match/better the performance. G80 now -> G92 Later :) I think it would save you much $$$ and give you the best performance and features in the long run.:up:

[Xcel]

If you only game at 1680x1050 I'd say get 8800gtx, much less heat and you save a lot of electricity.



Back to the topic, I would recommend you get a good GTX card for now. No reason doing SLI/CF when a card that's coming out into a couple months can match/better the performance. G80 now -> G92 Later :) I think it would save you much $$$ and give you the best performance and features in the long run.:up:

My thoughts also

[osiris999]

i have decided to get the gtx. might be able to step it up in a few months also

[ChaosMinionX]

i have decided to get the gtx. might be able to step it up in a few months also

2 2900's would have smoked that GTX. But enjoy your purchase :)

[Alik4041]

2 2900's would have smoked that GTX. But enjoy your purchase :)

You mean 2 2900's would have smoked period with all that heat it's outputting :p:

[CraptacularOne]

You mean 2 2900's would have smoked period with all that heat it's outputting :p:

lol...but let's be honest here, the G80s aren't exactly refrigerators either are they? :rolleyes:

[Neuromancer]

Zanza...

I don't care what camp you prefer, I don't care what card you own.

What I DO care is that you've been spreading BS mis-informative posts in well, just about every thread you've posted in. I'm tired of telling you this, RESEARCH BEFORE YOU TALK. I'm seriously annoyed at the sheer utter ignorance you have on the topics you speak in.

Oh, and zanza, since you mentioned bioshock...
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/bioshock_directx10_performance/page6.asp
Even the 320mb GTS can beat the hd2900xt 1gb in that title, in DX10 mode at that.


Interesting article thanks for the read. According to that.. the 2900xt 512 is better then a GTX and about equal to a Ultra in DX9 mode. But for some reason takes a massive 50% performance hit when switching to DX10 mode... whereas the nvidia cards actually improve in framerate in DX10 mode.

Would be interesting to find out why that is...

[osiris999]

well the reason im going with the gtx is because problems with my credit card so i couldnt buy the 2900s last week. my card is fixed now but the guy sold the cards. this will be going in a DFI LanParty UT P35-T2R with a q6600 g0 so sli is an option right now. if i can find a good deal on 2900s ill get them but for now i think the gtx is my best bet.

[ChaosMinionX]

Thats an intel chipset, it doesnt support SLI.

[StealthyFish]

lol...but let's be honest here, the G80s aren't exactly refrigerators either are they? :rolleyes:

there's no such thing as a refridgerator when talking about air//water cooling :p: we all rejoice when we see 29C, but 29C is like 80 degrees, lol. I highly doubt my milk and cheese would survive a couple of hours in that.

[zanzabar]

cheese dosnt go bad on air, at least non processed cheeses

[CraptacularOne]

there's no such thing as a refridgerator when talking about air//water cooling :p: we all rejoice when we see 29C, but 29C is like 80 degrees, lol. I highly doubt my milk and cheese would survive a couple of hours in that.

erm, you do know that my refrigerator remark was a joke right? :poke:

[binormalkilla]

Interesting article thanks for the read. According to that.. the 2900xt 512 is better then a GTX and about equal to a Ultra in DX9 mode. But for some reason takes a massive 50% performance hit when switching to DX10 mode... whereas the nvidia cards actually improve in framerate in DX10 mode.

Would be interesting to find out why that is...
It's due to the DX10 bug that caused the hotfix release....I didn't experience any texture problems in DX9 mode with XP, but in Vista x64 DX10 I had the problems.....so I installed the hotfix. It's still playable at 1920*1080 with DX10 (30-65 FPS), but I was getting 65-130 in DX9.....
I'm sure that the 7.9 Catalysts will fix this bug.

[purecain]

i bought two hd29000xt's when they were first released instead of one gtx and i made the right choice. there are many people who didnt who feel bitter about their own decision who went with the gtx or even the gts(lol).
it is a known fact that two hd2900's will beat even two ultras in some games and apps. now thats what i call value for money.
then we have the ever improving drivers released each month, 7.9's out soon and i know i'll see an improvement in bioshock although i wont be able to see it as it runs over 60fps anyway.....
if i had the chioce again i would do the same NO QUESTION!
there is an opengl fur rendering benchmark available and the hd2900 smokes the ultra in sli by a massive margin. take a look for yourself http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=268336
telling someone to buy a gtx over two hd's is doing them a disservice imho....

[NKD]

i have two systems one with hd 2900 and other with 8800gtx, i dont really believe the fact that some of us say that its hot wow, more electricity. first thing the hd2900 runs cooler than the 8800, and yes 8800gtx is faster overall. secondly i love the 2d clock feature in the r600, go look at the power usage for r600, yes its more than 8800 series but not nearly as much as some of us blame it to be, like its a volcano or something. i just hate when people bash each other over graphic cards, and yea this thread is hi-jacked.

now back to the point, i always look at the price and never pay retail price for any graphic card, i got the hd 2900 for 300 and gtx for 350.

[ChaosMinionX]

I think all the Nvidia/ATI fanboys should just meet in a large field, and have a Medieval battle for the crown :)

[NKD]

I think all the Nvidia/ATI fanboys should just meet in a large field, and have a Medieval battle for the crown :)

lol, i will pay to watch.

[zanzabar]

ati would win their flame throwers of cards, and heavy blunt pieces of copper

and with the funds of the intel and amd war machines to make giant arrays of copper projectiles that are on fire fired from cross bows aka cross(bow)fire

[osiris999]

Thats an intel chipset, it doesnt support SLI.

i meant to say isnt an option. i went ahead and bought an evga 8800 ultra since they are only 600 now. it should be in tomorrow with my q6600

[nitteo]

so i can get 2 2900xt's for 640$ shipped and a 8800gtx will run me around 530$.
so is it worth it to get the 2900s. i game at 1680x1050. this will be going with a q6600 g0 on phase and the cards will be on water when overclocking is able in crossfire. ill have to buy a psu either way. was thinking of getting a 1000 watt. one. i just wanted some input first. it looks like im gonna go with the 2900s and overclock them when i can.

Get a SINGLE 2900 and use the rest of your money to buy your G0 or PSU. A single 2900 will run 1680x1050 with no problems, and since you are on Vista, 2900 is the way to go.

Thats what I did with my rigs, Vista=2900, XP=Ultra/GTX.:up:

[spajdr]

First i got 2900XT single, was not really satisfied, bought second piece to improve DX10 performance, most of games doesnt support Crossfire, so i sold both cards and now im really enjoying 8800 Ultra, while two ATI cards are more powerful, NVIDIA have more support in games and DX10 part doesnt suffer so much fps loss in games, sometimes its even little faster.
Crossfire sucks, osiris999 makes a right choice, enjoy it :)

[strange|ife]

if ur only gaming at 1680x1050 with current gen titles, a 640mb GTS is more than enough. GTX, hell why not.

IQ between ATI&NVIDIA is 90% identical nowdays. Driver releases sometimes will cause a slight change, whatever who cares anymore.

the ATI cards are very nice from what i see, but running 2 cards isnt worth it as far as power concerns go. One solid card is all anyone needs, unless your trying to crush the orb.

my vote goes to GTX or ultra for staying power. Or wait a few months for whatever the next best thing will be to come out..as usual

[zanzabar]

how dose the gtx have staying power it dosnt support 8x or 16x maa, or the dx10 hdr library, hence why nvidia hasnt announced dx10.1 while ati has said that it will support it with the r600

[Neuromancer]

how dose the gtx have staying power it dosnt support 8x or 16x maa, or the dx10 hdr library, hence why nvidia hasnt announced dx10.1 while ati has said that it will support it with the r600

bump


Has this been answered?

[ChaosMinionX]

bump


Has this been answered?

Its rather irrelevant since 8x and 16x MSAA kills the performance of R600, and the fact that Zanzabar has bad info leaking out of his keyboard, and a severe lack of grammatical aptitude and spelling.

And has been cited many a time that he talks alot of game on hardware, but has no foundation what so ever. Im quite surprised he has been allowed to drone on with his FUD for this long, oh well sooner or later if not already people will notice he has some good posts that are helpful, but when it comes to hardware specs and especially ATI cards he has zero credibility.