ATI and NVIDIA knife fight

x1600c

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 24, 2004
Messages
406
I need a simple answer ( benchmark scores and tech specs ) not opinions here...

which is better the 6800 Ultra or the x800 pro?
 
6800 Ultra is not even on the same level as the X800 Pro. If you want to talk about them that way, you'll need to compare the X800 XT with the 6800 Ultra.

But, in answer to your question, A 6800 Ultra is better than an X800 Pro on almost all counts. I say ALMOST all because I'm sure there's something out there that is weird like that.
 
6800u/6800gt

in hl2 the x800xtpe is faster than the 6800U, but the 6800U and 6800GT are still faster than the x800pro. And all four can play 1600x1200 with everything maxed and all aa/af turned on. Pretty much everything else 6800U matches or beats ati. Doom3 is especially taxing and this is where the 6800 cards shine - x800pro can't manage 1600x1200 without slowdown.

Plus the 6800u/6800gt have more features than the x800 series and are better equipped to deal with future games with their SM3.0 and OpenEXR HDR support.
 
Brent_Justice said:
depends on the game

overall both will give you a great gaming experience

I would say this is a very correct answer.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
I would say this is a very correct answer.

I would say it's an overly politically correct answer...the Ultra is faster hands down...
 
^eMpTy^ said:
I would say it's an overly politically correct answer...the Ultra is faster hands down...

For sure

not to mention the GT beats the pro in HL2 = will beat it in almost any game

Has newer tech

I can't see anyone buying a pro unless you just love ATI cards. Nothing wrong with that but it can't compete with a ultra and really a GT is a better buy even
 
for what is worth my personal benches in CS source are smoking about every 6800 GT and Ultra bench on the web.

at same res me 82.36

6800 Ultra 73.88

6800 GT 66.54

thats a typical result...
 
I went from a X800 Pro to a 6800 Ultra and i've been pretty happy.

Only complaint I have is that I can't set different display settings (FSAA, AF, etc) differently for OpenGL and Direct3D. It's not the card's fault, it's a driver issue.

All my games play faster on my 6800 Ultra, however, I did go from a Athlon XP 2100+ TBred to a Athlon 64 3400+ Clawhammer at the same time I upgraded to 6800U so it makes actually comparisons slightly difficult.

In FarCry, I actually prefered the way it looked on my X800 Pro. On my 6800U, FarCry didn't look as good - I'm not sure what it is. With my X800 Pro, FarCry looked more vibrant - I can't quite explain it. May be I'm imagining the difference :confused: Anyhow, FarCry performs better on my 6800U, that's for sure - way better.
 
Brent_Justice said:
depends on the game

overall both will give you a great gaming experience
Agree but in this case the Ultra would be faster. If you want to really compare then it would have to be the 6800 Ultra and the X800 XTPE....then it's pretty much a coin toss with the Ultra winning just by the fact that you can actually get one.

ATI and NVIDIA knife fight
lol, unfortunately it will turn into that soon
 
LordBritish said:
Only complaint I have is that I can't set different display settings (FSAA, AF, etc) differently for OpenGL and Direct3D. It's not the card's fault, it's a driver issue.

Using application profiles you can set display settings differently per game, that is you can set each game to use different aa/af settings if you want.

right click on the tray icon, hit "analog display", go to "Application Profiles", switch it to "Global Driver Settings," hit "Add," give the new profile a name, use Browse to find the .exe file you want to apply the settings to, then check that box in the list. Now check whatever you want to override default settings and hit apply, when that game is started your custom settings will take effect.
 
Brent_Justice said:
depends on the game

overall both will give you a great gaming experience

if you were to play doom3, HL2, and CSS...which card wuld u get? considering you would play each game the same amount.
 
Retardo said:
if you were to play doom3, HL2, and CSS...which card wuld u get? considering you would play each game the same amount.
Easy, the Sapphire X800 pro VIVO oem....I just got one Thursday that I ordered on Tuesday and it's the one with the 1.6ns ram. :D

But between a 6800 ultra and an X800 pro it's a no-brainer, the 6800 ultra will toast the X800 pro.
 
Retardo said:
if you were to play doom3, HL2, and CSS...which card wuld u get? considering you would play each game the same amount.

digitalwanderer said:
Easy, the Sapphire X800 pro VIVO oem....I just got one Thursday that I ordered on Tuesday and it's the one with the 1.6ns ram.

x800pro vivo? For less money the 6800GT matches the x800pro vivo in VST/HL2 & CSS, and is almost twice as fast in Doom3. And obviously the 6800U is even faster than the 6800GT. The 6800GT can do both HL2 and Doom3 at 1600x1200 8xAF smooth, the x800pro can't.

and before you can say bios flash, the 6800GT has 16 pipes out of the box without voiding your warranty and most overclock to or past 6800U levels without issue using a simple OC util with stock cooling. And it has more features, too - shader model 3.0, openEXR HDR, etc. 6800GT is the no-brainer choice there IMO, unless you are a particular fan of ATI cards.
 
"Brings a knife to gun fight" Sean Connery --Untouchables


Well would have to go with the ultra if you are compair it to the pro, beats it in every benchmark. Even the gt beats the pro in pretty much all benches.

the pro is like a knife can't compare that to the ultra.
 
tranCendenZ said:
x800pro vivo? For less money the 6800GT matches the x800pro vivo in VST/HL2 & CSS, and is almost twice as fast in Doom3.
Twice as fast in Doom3 with an ungodly fast A64 processor and at max resolutions with AA/AF, mebbe...but I can run D3 just peachy on my unmodded X800 pro with all the eye-candy so who cares?

As for less money, the best deal I could find on a 6800 GT was $399 (all prices without shipping/tax) and I found a Sapphire X800 pro VIVO oem for $439.

Yes you can get a 6800 GT for less, but not neccessarily a LOT less. ;)

I don't plan on modding my card yet, although the temptation is great...I just can't justify it. I got more GPU power right now than my CPU can handle (I got a barton 2500+, NF7-S rev2, 1Gb PC3200), so I'm just putting that off until I need it.

So for me it came down to a $40us difference 'tween the two, which I decided was pretty much chump change consider the size of the investment and I just trust/like ATi better.

Yup, that's right....I said it. It came down to choosing 'tween saving $40 or getting ATi, and I felt that I would be far happier with the ATi card so I got it.

It came down to a preference, and I chose mine. Your own mileage may vary, either way they really are both excellent cards.
 
digitalwanderer said:
Twice as fast in Doom3 with an ungodly fast A64 processor and at max resolutions with AA/AF, mebbe...but I can run D3 just peachy on my unmodded X800 pro with all the eye-candy so who cares?

The people who haven't bought a card yet care. That's the idea. If you want to spend more money for a slower ATi card, that's your decision, we all have our favorites...I bought a 5900Ultra last gen knowing it was slower just because there are a lot of things I liked about nvidia besides raw speed.

But I still recommended the 9800 to everyone who ask me because I knew it was the better gaming card. So while it's cool to make a personal decision on your purchase, recommending that others make that same decision is a little wrong in my opinion...
 
I will make this simple. You can not compare the 6800U to a X800Pro, unless you overclock the sheet out of the Pro, it is not a contest.

Dig is right though (btw: what posessed you to partake?).... The X800Pro VIVO comes with 1.6ns RAM and has all 16 pipes ripe for the taking. Now that will beat the Ultra at a lower cost. Remember most all Ultras come with 2.0ns RAM so will be very limited.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
I will make this simple. You can not compare the 6800U to a X800Pro, unless you overclock the sheet out of the Pro, it is not a contest.

Considering the x800xtpe isnt available, what do you expect to compare the 6800U to?

Dig is right though (btw: what posessed you to partake?).... The X800Pro VIVO comes with 1.6ns RAM and has all 16 pipes ripe for the taking. Now that will beat the Ultra at a lower cost.

If you don't mind voiding your warranty and hoping you get a good card that overclocks well, it might get to x800xtpe speeds. Or it might not. Even if it does, the x800xtpe isn't "beating" the ultra anywhere except the synthetic VST benchmark, and in that case its less relevant as the 6800U can do 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF at 60fps+. OTOH, even the x800xtpe has troubles matching a 6800GT stock in Doom3, and therefore wouldn't be able to enable 4xAA in Doom3 at 1600x1200, while you could with the 6800U. The 6800GT is a better buy for $40 less, guaranteed faster out of the box and likely will hit 6800U speeds. And more features too.

Remember most all Ultras come with 2.0ns RAM so will be very limited.

Uhh, proof? It was smart of Nvidia tho to set the 6800U memory at 1100mhz instead of 1150 or 1200mhz. Now we are seeing 6800U in stores.
 
^eMpTy^ said:
So while it's cool to make a personal decision on your purchase, recommending that others make that same decision is a little wrong in my opinion...
Why? I'm not just pulling my personal opinion out of my butt, I'm basing it on a number of factors. The biggest was probably ATi's monthly driver updates vs nVidia's whenever ones, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the fact that I just flat-out prefer ATi influenced my decision.

What is wrong with that? :confused:
 
If you didn't only post in threads that could be a flame war or simply to inject FUD you would see the many threads about people concerned about get the 2.0ns RAM Ultra. Take a look in the Nvidia sub forum.........
 
R1ckCa1n said:
btw: what posessed you to partake?
I saw a referal from HardOCP to us in our site tracking and came over and saw Hanners article on the frontpage, then decided to just poke around the forums since I hadn't been here in a bit. I saw this thread and felt like responding but my username wasn't recognized, so I tried to get me password e-mailed to me but it didn't recognize me account, so I re-registered and posted up.

It's nice to be unbanned if I am, if it's a mistake I have a feeling it'll quickly be rectified. I'm gonna try and behave and hopefully not get banned again, I really missed the "for sale/trade" board here. It's one of the best on the web.

Sorry for the OT, just thought I'd address the question. :)
 
digitalwanderer said:
Why? I'm not just pulling my personal opinion out of my butt, I'm basing it on a number of factors. The biggest was probably ATi's monthly driver updates vs nVidia's whenever ones, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the fact that I just flat-out prefer ATi influenced my decision.

What is wrong with that? :confused:

Dig... you will soon learn that only their opinions are the correct ones.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
many threads about people concerned about get the 2.0ns RAM Ultra. Take a look in the Nvidia sub forum.........
I hadn't heard any of that, I'm off to the nVidia sub forum to check it out.

Thanks. :)
 
R1ckCa1n said:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=782182&highlight=2.0ns here you go!

this was also mentioned at B3D, but was more about my nvidia was overclocking the ram out of the box. the cause for the overclock is 2.0ns ram.

still waiting for proof other than a forum post that was speculation in itself :)

Even if true, it was a very smart move for Nvidia. They have a $500 card available now, ATI doesn't.
 
tranCendenZ said:
No, I said proof other than forum speculation that "most ultras are 2.0ns ram" as you claimed. Still waiting.

Speculation? read the threads and see the replies from owners, and not too happy. Ready to give up yet or should I do a quick search on Futurmarks forum? LOL

Heres a quote that didn't take to look to find

"I have a PNY 6800U, and I'm happy with it (except for the fact that I'm sure it has 2.0ns memory instead of the 1.6ns it should have...)."
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Speculation? read the threads and see the replies from owners, and not too happy. Ready to give up yet or should I do a quick search on Futurmarks forum? LOL

Are you understanding the concept of proof other than forum speculation as I have posted twice already? Show me 20 people with links who actually removed their HSF and found 2.0ns RAM on their 6800U, not people asking a question or complaining based on speculation. If most 6800U have 2.0ns, 20 people shouldn't be hard to find (who have actually verified it has 2.0ns ram).

And BTW, the smart move to use a mix of 1.6ns and 2.0ns is paying off for Nvidia, probably something they may have planned based on the clocks of the 6800U (1100mhz memory)... ATI is still waiting to launch their x800xtpe... again :) while the 6800U is in stock all over the place. By the time ATI gets the x800xtpe out the door, the 6900U will probably be near release.
 
Considering my 'crappy' 2.0ns Ram does 1150 just fine... :rolleyes:

People are bitching about semantics now. I'd rather take 'crappy' ram over vaporware. When/If ATI gets the XTPE out the door then you might have something to talk about.
 
tranCendenZ said:
Are you understanding the concept of proof other than forum speculation as I have posted twice already? Show me 20 people with links who actually removed their HSF and found 2.0ns RAM on their 6800U, not people asking a question or complaining based on speculation. If most 6800U have 2.0ns, 20 people shouldn't be hard to find (who have actually verified it has 2.0ns ram).

And BTW, the smart move to use a mix of 1.6ns and 2.0ns is paying off for Nvidia, probably something they may have planned based on the clocks of the 6800U (1100mhz memory)... ATI is still waiting to launch their x800xtpe... again :) while the 6800U is in stock all over the place. By the time ATI gets the x800xtpe out the door, the 6900U will probably be near release.

Yes,,, it's good to sell products with components running over it's ratings. Very smart move indeed. :rolleyes:

So in three months when we have all the NV40's dieing because they are underpowered (as BFG has already warned) and the ram is crapping out, life will be good.
 
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