I am torn. X2900XT because I'm an ATi fanboy, or 8800GTS640 for the price?

[ColonelCain]

I'm in the market for a new GPU, and these are my two choices. As I mentioned, I am an ATi fanboy, but the price and generally better performance (of what I have seen) is downright inticing.
What do you guys think that I should do?

[Gunnz Akimbo]

ati fanboy with a nvidia mobo....

well, the 2900xt is noisy during 3D, but has powerful pixel shader processing.
i was going to buy the 8800gtx, 2 times i changed my mind because you can always use crossfire on my intel board but no sli, so that was my decider right there.

its still fast but needs a 3rd party heatsink mod for sure.

[Soulburner]

As of one week ago the eVGA 8800GTS 640 was $309 on newegg...if that influences your decision. They aren't running the -$30 deal at the moment though.

[Jimmer411]

Im in the same boat. I just cant convince myself that the 2900XT is as bad as people originally said. Im itchin to upgrade too.

[Okda]

check this thread with a vote talking about the same question
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=146104

btw X2900XT is not bad, the drivers are, like the 8800 6 months ago its drivers were very bad but now they are mature enough to be called good, five X2900XT sometime to unleash its powers

but personally i would wait a few week s for the price drop on the 8800 series from nvidia and the release of 1GB of X2900XT and see which will be the best bang for buck then

[Smoken Joe]

Well at least do yourself a favor and look at the reviews with recet driverup dates. Many of the reviews were clearly flawed with less than up to date drivers. Yes you can blame ATI for a driver release a few days before launch but at least point out the fact the drivers you tested with are not up to date.

It is an easy choice if you are watercooling though. With WC and a good OC there is no compitition look for ViperJoh's review. He said it was faster than anything but a modded watercooled Ultra GTX.

One thing to note the core on the ATI is of set so some of the older sinks wont fit.

[ColonelCain]

Yep, I'm going to be watercooling . I'm going to have a Maze 4 on whatever GPU I get. (I didn't specifically want to get it, but for the price that I purchased an entire w/c set-up for off of a member here, no one could resist).

but personally i would wait a few week s for the price drop on the 8800 series from nvidia and the release of 1GB of X2900XT and see which will be the best bang for buck then

Yeah, that is what I was thinking, but I sure hope that it is soon...

[tiro_uspsss]

Well at least do yourself a favor and look at the reviews with recet driverup dates. Many of the reviews were clearly flawed with less than up to date drivers. Yes you can blame ATI for a driver release a few days before launch but at least point out the fact the drivers you tested with are not up to date.

It is an easy choice if you are watercooling though. With WC and a good OC there is no compitition look for ViperJoh's review. He said it was faster than anything but a modded watercooled Ultra GTX.

One thing to note the core on the ATI is of set so some of the older sinks wont fit.

linky to aforementioned review please!

[Okda]

--^

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...0-games_3.html

[hstuehmeyer2000]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...07#post2243807

[Jimmer411]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1178926024172


HD2900XT for $319. Ive yet to see a 8800GTS640 for that too.

[G80]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122018

Leadtek Geforce 8800GTS 640mb 329$ after rebate so its not that far off.

[ColonelCain]

Only problem is the fact that it is not avalible for store pickup. I need to go there anyway today to get my 360 replaced (got the red rings of death.). I just hope that I can milk a 360 Elite out of them. Oh yeah, and I need to get them to replace my Gears of War disk that my 360 ate.

[quicksilverXP]

I'd get it... but the only thing holding me back is the drop in performance with AA on. But is that fixed already?

[DilTech]

--^

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...0-games_3.html

Xbitlabs used an older NVidia driver, the latest few upped vista performance even more.

Of course... Check out stalker's results, same review.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...s_8.html#sect0

Stalker isn't playable at ANY resolution maxed out with the HD 2900xt going by the xbitlabs review.

Neverwinter Nights 2 as well as Gothic 3
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid..._10.html#sect2

Supreme Commander is another huge one, the HD2900XT loses to the X1950XTX in that title.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid..._13.html#sect3


Now remember, this was with an older NVidia driver, performance has increased rather nicely since then. It was also under windows vista, and at the point inwhich that driver was released was when they were more worried about fixing stability under windows vista than increasing performance.

As for the original poster, the 8800GTS hands down.

[ColonelCain]

Great, just when I was thinking about taking the Best Buy offer, the sell out. Oh well. I guess that this is an idication of things to come.

Btw, has anyone seen a review of the 2 cards using the latest drivers?

[RBMP]

ati fanboy with a nvidia mobo....

Well that's what I am, I used to have all ATi vid cards. But one look at the 2900XT's specs and I quickly scurried off to get an 8800gtx. I'm also gonna get the 8900gtx, or the X2800XTX.

[ColonelCain]

Yeah, I got an nvidia mobo cause
a) only option out there
b) the model was cheap (screwed me over later)

Anyhow, I just saw some leaked speculated fps scores from Crysis, and the X2900XT beat out the 8800GTX, so, we will see.

[tiro_uspsss]

Yeah, I got an nvidia mobo cause
a) only option out there
b) the model was cheap (screwed me over later)

Anyhow, I just saw some leaked speculated fps scores from Crysis, and the X2900XT beat out the 8800GTX, so, we will see.

please share! (the leaked fps thingy)

[ColonelCain]

I'll post it in news
Please note, these are speculated. They include a range of ATi and nVidia cards.

[OpTioN]

yeah I saw that too... lost the link though i'll go look for it.


if you dont upgrade much get the 2900xt if you always upgrade get the GTS.

[ColonelCain]

Well, I don't normally upgrade much, but it is approaching the 18 month mark for me. I will also be getting a new dual-core opteron, a new DFI board, probably a new PSU, and a watercooling system. *Possibly* a new case, depending on how well the watercooling system fits.

[DilTech]

Great, just when I was thinking about taking the Best Buy offer, the sell out. Oh well. I guess that this is an idication of things to come.

Btw, has anyone seen a review of the 2 cards using the latest drivers?

Cat 7.5 didn't do much at all for the HD 2900XT. It was more increases for the X1950xtx then it was the HD2900. Read the driver release notes yourself and you'll see what I mean.

Yeah, I got an nvidia mobo cause
a) only option out there
b) the model was cheap (screwed me over later)

Anyhow, I just saw some leaked speculated fps scores from Crysis, and the X2900XT beat out the 8800GTX, so, we will see.

The "leaked fps scores" are 100% fake. Notice how the scores scale identically from card to card. They all lose the same exact amount of FPS, and that just doesn't happen. If you look at the copyright at the bottom, it's just written by random crysis fans.

In otherwords, it holds about as much weight as a woman's uterus after a miscarriage.

yeah I saw that too... lost the link though i'll go look for it.


if you dont upgrade much get the 2900xt if you always upgrade get the GTS.

Why would you say this? The HD 2900XT isn't going to magically last longer than the 8800GTS. You can say the HD 2900XT has a lot to gain from drivers, but so does the G80. "The Missing MUL" ring any bells? Theoretically, the 8800GTS/GTX both have 33% of their overall performance completely untapped.

Well, I don't normally upgrade much, but it is approaching the 18 month mark for me. I will also be getting a new dual-core opteron, a new DFI board, probably a new PSU, and a watercooling system. *Possibly* a new case, depending on how well the watercooling system fits.

I'd still have to tell you go with the 8800GTS.

You see, I know you're an ATi fanboy, but sometimes it's just better to suck it up and buy from "the other side". NVidia fanboys had to do this during the FX series. It just happens sometimes, and if you like anti-aliasing at all, now is that time.

[aiya]

i like ATI too, but this round they couldn't match up with the 8800 so i bought a GTS640 and haven't looked back. maybe next round but for now i'm happy with my GTS640.

i was one of those that "waited for the HD2900 to be released then compare" people.

[Gunnz Akimbo]

anti aliasing....

1920x1200 or higher, especially for long distance fragging...screw low res and anti aliasing.

i wanna see sharp detail at a distance, not fuzzy blur.

i prefer minimal frame rate drop (under 50 and you can see the struggle)