Final decision: ATI X1800XT or NVidia 7800GTX

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jpinard

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
194
OK, I think I've sold my current video card and I have to make a decision in the next 2 days. Do I go with the ATI X1800XT video card, or the NVidia 7800GTX based card? Don't let price be a factor.

I will have to swap out my motherboard at this point too. So if I get the ATI card, I'll get the ATI (shown below), and if I get the NVidia card, I'll get an NV board (shwo below).

ATI Crossfire board (A8R-MVP ):
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=236&model=787&modelmenu=1

Asus NV SLI board (A8N32-SLI Deluxe)
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=744&modelmenu=1

I'm also getting the Creative Labs XiFi sound card too (the cheapest version).

I am really desparate for some good advice. So I thank all of you that come in and help me make a tough decision. Thank you so very much!
 
in all honesty, both give absolutely awsome performance, but if you want to look for some other things that could highten your gaming experience i think the X1800 offers more to the plate, of course these aren't just offering higher AA/AF, just new bells and wisles, you get AVIVO with it for free, the option for HDR (fp16) with AA (now i think only one game will ever support this any time soon, which will be farcry), HQ AF which is amazing

if you don't care about the extra's and only care about raw performance both give competitive performance when factoring in AA/AF in just about any game, OpenGL pretty much isnt a factor anymore concerning the two, or DX for the fact

i'm a fan of the X1000 series, so i'll vote for the X1800XT, but if you do decide to go with the GTX its still a good purchase
 
Both are honestly good cards. If I were you, I would flip a coin. But, being kinda biased to nvidia, well, nvidia it is.

But seriously, if you like both, just flip a coin. Can't go wrong, usually...
 
I'd go X1800XT.. it's got a couple of features over it, but both are good. they practically have the same performance in many games.
 
Since they're pretty close in preformance just buy whichever you can find for cheaper, even if it's only by like 10 cents =P, better than flipping a coin.
 
Someone wrote this: BTW, the A8R-MVP mobo uses an ULi South Bridge and considering that this company will cease to exist in the next few months, I would fear a bit about support (new driver update e.g. for Windows Vista, normal bug fixes, etc) - i.e. personally I don't think it's a safe buy now.

And I know NVidia bought out one of ATI's motherboard chip partners. But on the same token, I've heard the Asus ATI mobo is just blazing fast with a Radeon 1800XT in it. This is an important decision because it will be my last upgrade for about 1 1/2 years and I'm nearly emptying our bank account to get setup - so I want to get the best.

Other things I didn't mention before (which are of utmost importance to me):

I like to run my games (if rarely possible now)
* Best Quality Textures
* 1600x1200
* 4x FSAA
* 16x Anistropic Filtering
* Crank up all the graphic options in each game.

Beatiful graphics with a playable frame rate is what matters most. Not 3dMark scores... just how they look/perform in my games. I especially want thhe best setup for Elder Scrolls Oblivion
 
jpinard said:
OK, I think I've sold my current video card and I have to make a decision in the next 2 days. Do I go with the ATI X1800XT video card, or the NVidia 7800GTX based card? Don't let price be a factor.

I will have to swap out my motherboard at this point too. So if I get the ATI card, I'll get the ATI (shown below), and if I get the NVidia card, I'll get an NV board (shwo below).

ATI Crossfire board (A8R-MVP ):
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=236&model=787&modelmenu=1

Asus NV SLI board (A8N32-SLI Deluxe)
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=744&modelmenu=1

I'm also getting the Creative Labs XiFi sound card too (the cheapest version).

I am really desparate for some good advice. So I thank all of you that come in and help me make a tough decision. Thank you so very much!
Click to expand...

A single X1800XT is generally faster than a single 7800GTX. It has more ram, and more features. Its pretty clear to me which one is better. There are some games in which the GTX is much faster than the XT though, such as AOE3, and B&W2. So if those are your favorite games, perhaps you should stick with the GTX. But then there are some games which are much faster with the XT.

You can get a X1800XT retail for $450 right now, from CompUSA. They have it for $500, and ATi has a $50 MIR going on. Lower than any online store right now.

The Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe is not available anywhere that I can find. Newegg, ZipZoomFly, MonarchPC, etc. are all out of stock. ZZF has a price of $299 (and out of stock)... while they have the Asus A8R-MVP in stock, for $115. There really is only one choice in motherboard, unless you can find the A8N32 in stock somewhere.

mjz_5 said:
i'll get nvidia, just because ATI motherboards suck
Click to expand...

Review of A8R-MVP Seems like a very good motherboard to me, especially for only $115. Not to mention DFI's board is very nice as well.

Anantech said:
In the end, the Asus A8R-MVP is definitely not what we expected. It is not top-end, expensive, 8-phase, or designed for the top overclock that anyone will ever achieve. It is really much more than any of those expectations. The A8R-MVP is a reasonably-priced, full-featured board that is not really missing any important features. Instead of the limitations of SB450, it has the advantages of ULi M1575. And this value-priced board produced the highest overclocks that we have ever seen with our OCZ Rev.2 Platinum memory and our 4000+ CPU.
Click to expand...
 
A single X1800XT is generally faster than a single 7800GTX. It has more ram, and more features.
Click to expand...

Yep. Someone must wear some very thick green glasses if he prefers a GTX/256 over a XT/512. The XT has;

-FP HDR + AA which looks awesome in Farcry and is very good playable @1280/4xAA.
-Angle indepandant AF.
-Better video (according latest reviews, Avivo>Purevideo)
-In the majority of games @1600x1200/4xAA, the XT is faster.

i'll get nvidia, just because ATI motherboards suck
Click to expand...

When was the last time you've read a review? Check out the link Fallguy gave.
 
The X1800XT is faster than the 7800GTX by quite a bit, it sits between the 7800GTX 256mb and the 7800GTX 512mb in terms of performance. But, it also sports newer features such as Avivo, FP16 HDR + AA, and angle-independant AF.

So I say X1800XT... it performs better all-round, has more features, and has double the RAM.
 
jpinard said:
Someone wrote this: BTW, the A8R-MVP mobo uses an ULi South Bridge and considering that this company will cease to exist in the next few months, I would fear a bit about support (new driver update e.g. for Windows Vista, normal bug fixes, etc) - i.e. personally I don't think it's a safe buy now.

And I know NVidia bought out one of ATI's motherboard chip partners. But on the same token, I've heard the Asus ATI mobo is just blazing fast with a Radeon 1800XT in it. This is an important decision because it will be my last upgrade for about 1 1/2 years and I'm nearly emptying our bank account to get setup - so I want to get the best.

Other things I didn't mention before (which are of utmost importance to me):

I like to run my games (if rarely possible now)
* Best Quality Textures
* 1600x1200
* 4x FSAA
* 16x Anistropic Filtering
* Crank up all the graphic options in each game.

Beatiful graphics with a playable frame rate is what matters most. Not 3dMark scores... just how they look/perform in my games. I especially want thhe best setup for Elder Scrolls Oblivion
Click to expand...

If you get the x1800xt, the AF level will no longer be a critical thing, ATi does so much better than nVidia on LOD you really don;t need AF above 2x (and it looks better than nVidia at 16xAF). This offsets any performance loss of needing high AF levels that nVidia costs if you want the same IQ. Also, with the XT, you will get the 512 MB memory.

If I was going with a lessor card than the GTX 512 MB nVidia, I would probably buy the X1800XT.
 
Get the X1800XT and make sure to download the new BIOS flash. It'll clock the XT at 700/800, which is supposedly the Platinum speeds. It will blow the GTX away.
 
ATI stays up to par with Nvidia by overclocking their low bandwidth cards to ridiculous speeds. Simply by matching the clock speeds, the GTX will annihilate the XT. The bonus features are somewhat attractive, but I compare that to the incentive in buying a Nintendo revolution over a XBox360/PS3. Oh yea, and if I am not mistaken, the XT does not support crossfire.... does it?
 
As you can see from my sig I would advocate SLI 7800GTs too, but I read that Microcenter will have 20% off of computer components starting Monday. With the 20% off and the $50.00 ATI rebate you can get a X1800XT for $430.00 plus tax. I would definately go for one X1800XT instead.
 
X1800XT over the 256mb GTX. 512mb might not mean much but it seems rather nice to have, the AA and AF performance is awesome and its overclock potential [700ish / 1600ish at least] will really leave the 7800 behind IMO.
 
well simple fact the x1800xt gets beaten in most benchmarks by the 7800gtx 256mb and the 7800 512mb puts the x1800xt in the dust. The most reasonable cost effective solution for speed is going with sli and 2 7800gt with a dual core amd processor.
 
 
cyks said:
That was uncalled for. The GT, let alone the GTX, beat the x1800 in a majority.
Click to expand...


Only in the case of the 512 MB GTX, and when you consider you have to bump up AF in the nvidia cards just to have the same image quality of ATi with no AF enabled, the true performance is more in favor of ATi.
 
Bona Fide said:
You must be kidding me. Go through these articles, learn a thing or two, then post. Please.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2556
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/radeon-x1000/index.x?pg=1
http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=734&cid=2
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1867116,00.asp
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-x1800.html
Click to expand...

I was looking at the xbitlabs review here and noticed you posted an xbitlabs link of a review that was dated back when the ATi did not have the improved OpenGL driver.

I am sure anyone who buys a card now would use the better performing driver. In fact all the reviews you pointed too were aged.

Here is a recent review:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/games-2005_6.html
 
The GTX 512MB is fastest right now as it beats the X1800XT in a good majority of the tests. The X1800XT beats the 256 in the majority of tests so its basically like
GTX 512 > X1800XT > GTX 256

Thats my opinion from all the reviews ive seen. THe GTX 512 will be the best thing for a little bit, but early next year nvidia is releasing newer cards so just wait and see what they put out...then ATi will put out more. Its an on going ripple.
 
DangerIsGo said:
Thats my opinion from all the reviews ive seen. THe GTX 512 will be the best thing for a little bit, but early next year nvidia is releasing newer cards so just wait and see what they put out...then ATi will put out more. Its an on going ripple.
Click to expand...

Yeah I reckon...You should just hold on. Supposely the "X900XT" is gonna be out at the end of this month. Soo Id just sit tight with what you've got and enjoy the show :)
 
DangerIsGo said:
The GTX 512MB is fastest right now as it beats the X1800XT in a good majority of the tests. The X1800XT beats the 256 in the majority of tests so its basically like
GTX 512 > X1800XT > GTX 256

Thats my opinion from all the reviews ive seen. THe GTX 512 will be the best thing for a little bit, but early next year nvidia is releasing newer cards so just wait and see what they put out...then ATi will put out more. Its an on going ripple.
Click to expand...


Your restating the majority opinion in reviews...

BUT: The decision in this post was for a 256 MB GTX -OR- a 512 MB X1800XT.

The 512 MB GTX was probably out of the question for multiple reasons, money, availability and well...what ever else.
 
If you can afford a Geforce 7800 GTX 512 Extreme it will be the best thing to get for games.

I have 2 of them and they can clock up to 630mhz core and 1.8Ghz mem in SLI mode.

It is a beauty play games with extreme quality settings with a Dell 24" LCD mon.
 
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