X1800xt Or 7900gt Ko?

[-Blaze-]

well, I can get EVGA 7900GT KO or SAPPHIRE X1800XT 512MB for the same price.

which one should I get?

[alexio]

well, I can get EVGA 7900GT KO or SAPPHIRE X1800XT 512MB for the same price.

which one should I get?

The X1800XT:

1.) Better building quality, in particular the power-components on the PCB.
2.) Better AF.
3.) Smaller FPS-drop with AA enabled.
4.) Better overall image quality (opinions differ on this point, but I think most favor ATI).
5.) 512mb which will be really usefull in the future and in current games at high resolutions).
6.) Adjustable voltages.
7.) Faster at stock speeds.

The 7900GT:

1.) Runs cooler, but needs a 3th party cooler when voltmodded.
2.) Runs quieter when not voltmodded.
3.) Nvidia has better drivers according to some, I personally never had problems with ATI.

I'd favor the ATI by a lot. I have my current avatar because of nvidia's image quality which I find greatly inferior to ATI's.

This is just my opinion. I run an Nvidia card ATM and will upgrade to an ATI as soon as I go PCI-E.

[-Blaze-]

The X1800XT:

1.) Better building quality, in particular the power-components on the PCB.
2.) Better AF.
3.) Smaller FPS-drop with AA enabled.
4.) Better overall image quality (opinions differ on this point, but I think most favor ATI).
5.) 512mb which will be really usefull in the future and in current games at high resolutions).
6.) Adjustable voltages.
7.) Faster at stock speeds.

The 7900GT:

1.) Runs cooler, but needs a 3th party cooler when voltmodded.
2.) Runs quieter when not voltmodded.
3.) Nvidia has better drivers according to some, I personally never had problems with ATI.

I'd favor the ATI by a lot. I have my current avatar because of nvidia's image quality which I find greatly inferior to ATI's.

This is just my opinion. I run an Nvidia card ATM and will upgrade to an ATI as soon as I go PCI-E.

but the X1800XT needs much more power...
But I got an Enermax 535W, I assume that it will be enough, am I right?
and Ive heared that the X1800 is a better overclocker, is it true?

[alexio]

but the X1800XT needs much more power...
But I got an Enermax 535W, I assume that it will be enough, am I right?

Yes it should be ok unless you have 10+ HDD's :p:

EDIT: Without the hard vmod on the 7900GT the X1800XT is indeed a better overclocker. With the vmod the 7900GT overclock better percantage wise but the X1800XT is faster at stock. They should be about even when highly overclocked, but the power-components on the 7900GT are not made for this so they need some good airflow and maybe some sinks over the PWS area. People are having problems iwth the 7900GT when highly overclocked an overvolted and I guess this is gonna get worse overtime.

I really think the X1800XT will be as fast or faster and will last longer. So if you can get them at the same price you should really get the X1800XT 512mb ;)

[Call me Ugly]

The 7900GT:

1.) Runs cooler, but needs a 3th party cooler when voltmodded.
2.) Runs quieter when not voltmodded.
3.) Nvidia has better drivers according to some, I personally never had problems with ATI.


My observations:

1)My 7900GT KO, which happens to be one of the 520/770 cards, runs 68-69 ATI-Tool after approx 2hrs

2)Scratch number 2. The 7900gt KO model (as is reffered to here) is different and extremely annoying, 5 seconds after you start anything moderately graphical the loud whooooshing starts and won't stop untill 5-10 minutes after you quit the graphical app. Very annoying heatsink.

3)Add 1 vote to the former suggestion in number 3. ATI's drivers were a big headache for me. Nvidia is on top of their drivers for the most part.


P.S. I took a dremmel to a NV Silencer 5 rev. 3 yesterday. I'm installing today and I will wash my hands of this crappy stock heatsink.

Ugly

[RPGWiZaRD]

between those I'd choose X1800XT 512MB but for me it would stand between either the cheapest vanilla 7900GT that is quite a lot cheaper (at least here in europe) where u can get the cheapest 7900GT around 255 euro and cheapest X1800XT 512MB for around 290 euro.

If you'd choose 7900GT then I'd say 1.4vgpu is the honey spot for "safe" 24/7 usage since the power components seem to overheat easily and in a case with good airflow even stock cooler could handle that with below 70C load temps but I'd still swap it out for a cheap and more silent VF700-CU. The best overclock I've seen with 1.4vmod is 680/1840MHz stable 24/7 usage with VF700-CU with ~65C load temp which gave a bit above 11k with a SD3700+ @ 2.8GHz. It seems 1.4vgpu seems to achieve about 630 - 680MHz (note GTX speeds) core clock which is pretty good imo and memory usually clock very high even with stock voltage. 1600MHz+ should be easy. I dunno about you but I think a 255 eur card that scores in 05 ~8000 stock and with some vmodding ~11k is a damn good deal.

Using silverpaint is the easiest way and best way to do it imo, since u could also remove it (thx to the person who wrote a good guide and showed these pictures on another forum):
http://hem.bredband.net/artjac/7900GTvmodd002.JPG
http://hem.bredband.net/artjac/7900GTvmodd000.JPG
http://hem.bredband.net/artjac/7900GTvmodd001.JPG
http://hem.bredband.net/artjac/7900GTvmodd004.JPG

If you don't wanna consider vmodding a 7900GT or o/c at all or you're a image quality freak definitely go for the X1800XT 512MB.

[-Blaze-]

well, im taking the X1800XT 512MB
is the voltage change rally helps the OC?

[RPGWiZaRD]

well, im taking the X1800XT 512MB
is the voltage change rally helps the OC?

If we're talking 7900GT it seems ~70MHz core clock increase based on a couple of results is reasonable from going 1.2v -> 1.4v. I haven't checked how well X1800XT scales with voltage but I'm sure I've seen a list of different clock results at different volts somewhere. Anyways it sure is a huge benefit with software vmodding, but this 1.4vmod for 7900GT isn't THAT difficult to do...

[-Blaze-]

If we're talking 7900GT it seems ~70MHz core clock increase based on a couple of results is reasonable from going 1.2v -> 1.4v. I haven't checked how well X1800XT scales with voltage but I'm sure I've seen a list of different clock results at different volts somewhere. Anyways it sure is a huge benefit with software vmodding, but this 1.4vmod for 7900GT isn't THAT difficult to do...

10X
and how is the Arctic Cooling Accelero X2?
im planning on getting one, I need a silent and better then stock cooler. is this one good?

[RPGWiZaRD]

For X1800/1900 series cards it's a good choise, another good choise is Thermalright V1 Ultra but it's rated 31dB with the included fan and Accelero X2 is much more silent and can still cool it down a respectable amount and is much cheaper. I would prolly have chosed an Accelero X2 myself because of the price and noise level.

The only bad thing about it is that much discussed thing that the hot air is gonna exhaust towards the motherboard and with a DFI motherboard for example it may result in a few C degrees hotter chipset temp.