need pci-e card. 6600gt or wait for x800 XL's?

[Aris]

i chipped and killed my first cpu ever. after over 100 installs of amd procs. i killed mine putting on an si-97 heatsink.

so i decided instead of just buying a new socket a proc to upgrade to one of the new 90nm socket 939 athlon 64 chips.

i went with the new MSI RS480M2-IL. got it for 100 bucks. it has everything i wanted. lan, sata, raid, matx, pci-e, firewire, usb 2.0, and most of all: a digital SPDIF coax output granted the on board audio chip isnt the greatest, and i'll prolly replace it with an audigy 2 zs card later, but for now its good cause i use the same connection for my current asus A7n8x-del board with soundstorm.

grabbed a retail 3200+ a64 chip.
and got the new thermalright xp-120 heatsink for it and a papst 120mm low speed fan to put on it.

i'll juse use the on-board video untill i get a vid card for it. but this is my delima now.

i was checking out some benchmarks on video cards. and the upcomming x800 XL seems to be a good combo of performance/price. its comparable to a 6800gt, but sug. retail for 300, which means i' should be able to get it under 300 shipped once it comes out. but its not out for at least another month

or do i just drop 200 bucks right now for a 6600gt. performance would be less, but id save about 100 bucks. and id be able to get it right now.

i sorta want to wait. but idunno. i figured id ask to see what you guys thought. i dont play religiously, but i do like to be able to from time to time. currently i'm stuck on World of Warcraft which works my current radeon 9800 pro pretty hard. i dont wanna upgrade my vid card to somthing just marginally better ya know?

so what do you guys think? ride out the integrated graphics for a month and get an x800 XL or drop the 200 bucks now for a 6600gt?

EDIT/PS:

anyone need a slightly used SI-97 heatsink? its only been installed twice, and never actually used on the processory since it was dead by that time i still have the packaging it came in and all the included accessories. got it from newegg for like 50bucks

 

[Zinn]

well I would personally go with Geforce 6800 gt if you can find it... the Radeon XL is pretty much neck-in-neck with it in a lot of tests, but the Geforce has support for SLI and SM3.0, and it will probably be in stock before the XL...

ohh.. and where are you seeing a PCI express 6800gt for 200 bucks? neverneverland???

wait nevermind... i need to stop smoking so much crack... you said 6600 gt...
meh, wait for the x800

 

[chris.c]

i went with the new MSI RS480M2-IL

its gonna be a while before you get that board... i heard ATi was having problems with the s/b.

you have a pretty capable system in your signature. it will play all the newest games with decent settings. i would honesty just replace the broken CPU and wait for next-gen to upgrade, because it will be a large step up in technology. that will also give ati/nvidia/via time to work out any bugs in their newest chipsets.

just my opinion.

i would go with the x800xl if i had to choose though

 

[Juan Sanchez]

X800xl is too sweet not to wait for. It will rip apart a 6600GT and is about the same performance as a 6800GT but at a lower price, I say wait till ATI make an AGP X800xl.

 

[erichui]

hi there, first post for me ever in this forum, haven't been looking at computer bits until recently after playing WOW that i need a new system to handle the game, currently have a out dated althon xp1600 with a radeon 8500.. and im in the excatly same situation that should i wait for the X800 XL or get the 6600GT.. like all you have said, the X800XL is too sweet to not to wait for, i really would like the performance of a 6800GT but in my country its too expensive that if i do get 1 it will cost more than me getting a new cpu with a motherboard (im talking about a althon 64 3500 with an Asus nforce 4 SLI board) so i decided that i will wait for it instead hope it will be out ASAP

 

[CastleBravo]

Of course, by the time the x800 XL comes out, the 6800 GT will probalby be the same price. There are already 6800 GT deals out there in the mid-$300 range. And remember that the 6600 GT is under $200 in PCI-e, so none of this is a fair comparison.

 

[Aris]

Of course, by the time the x800 XL comes out, the 6800 GT will probalby be the same price. There are already 6800 GT deals out there in the mid-$300 range. And remember that the 6600 GT is under $200 in PCI-e, so none of this is a fair comparison.

yeah but the sug. retail for the 6800gt is 399. so see'ing mid 3 hundred dollar cards isnt suprising. but remember, those are the AGP versions. the pci-e versions are almost 500 bucks.

but the sug. retail for the upcomming x800 xl is only 299. which means you'll prolly be able to find one for around $250 when it comes out. which is only 50 bucks more than the 6600gt pci-e but over 200 bucks less than the 6800gt pci-e with similar performances.

nvidia is just taking advantage of the situation with ati and cranking up their prices which piss me off.

 

[erichui]

i know its not really a fair comparsion, however for me i am willing to spend a bit more than a 6600GT but no as much as a 6800GT price yet
and yea the 6800GT might probably drop in price by the time the X800XL comes out which is always welcome

 

[MechaBouncer]

Aris, do you have the RS480M2-IL now? I'm on the verge of building myself a little game-box much like this. Actually, almost exactly like this. Although, I've heard that the RS480M2-IL doesn't offer itself well to overclocking and wanted to see if you might be able to confirm this. Recently, there was some sort of recall on the board as well. Some kind of slip-up, but it seems like MSI caught it. I'm just wondering what it was.

In any event, I'm also in the same boat about the video card. All the sub-$400 GeForce 6800GT (or even non-GT) boards all seem to be AGP. Anything PCI-Express is listing for over $400. I could get a good 6600 GT for around $200, but at the same time, if I wait, the Radeon X800 will be out for about the same price, but better performance, and the X800 XL will be on par with the 6800 GT but cheaper. I'd also prefer to be all ATi, not because it's a little bit better on performance, but the ability to use the onboard video as an additional monitor connection along with the two outs on the video card. Add a TV-out and you got up to 4 displays you can connect. PowerColor has some real nice dual DVI X800 and X800XL cards with video-in and video-out with MSRP in the same ranges. Downside is, I read they're rather loud, but I think that's a small price to pay.

So I'm thinking it would be better to just wait and see for a bit. That's what I'm doing. Granted, my current system is a GeForce4 Ti4200, so the integrated graphics will probably be about the same (or even better since it's a DirectX 9-based chip). I still think it'd be better to wait until there's actual availability of these cards and the prices settle.

 

[S_Z]

Of course, by the time the x800 XL comes out, the 6800 GT will probalby be the same price.

What do you mean? Its already out, I could order one right this minute if I wanted to.

 

[CastleBravo]

What do you mean? Its already out, I could order one right this minute if I wanted to.

Reading is fundamental, fuckwit. I posted 01-06-2005 08:50 AM. That's 3 weeks ago. There were no x800 XL cards out back then.

Yeah, you can buy an x800 XL now... for $130 over the MSRP. At that price, they are just another $400ish ATI product that doesn't quite stack up to the 6800 GT.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php?page_id=5&form_keyword=x800+XL&rd=1

My advice to people is to not be idiots. Just wait until the prices come down. They are way overpriced at the moment because the supply is small.

 

[S_Z]

Reading is fundamental, fuckwit. I posted 01-06-2005 08:50 AM. That's 3 weeks ago. There were no x800 XL cards out back then.

Yeah, you can buy an x800 XL now... for $130 over the MSRP. At that price, they are just another $400ish ATI product that doesn't quite stack up to the 6800 GT.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php?page_id=5&form_keyword=x800+XL&rd=1

My advice to people is to not be idiots. Just wait until the prices come down. They are way overpriced at the moment because the supply is small.

Sorry about that, the thread was so short so I assumed it was new. But you were wrong anyway GT is still priced much higher than X800XL. The cheapest X800XL goes for under 3000 SEK in Sweden (thats about 428$) and a 6800GT for almost 1000 SEK more (142$). That makes the X800XL a very interesting card.

 

[ThisMonsterLives]

Bravo you need to get laid.

 

[CastleBravo]

Sorry about that, the thread was so short so I assumed it was new. But you were wrong anyway GT is still priced much higher than X800XL. The cheapest X800XL goes for under 3000 SEK in Sweden (thats about 428$) and a 6800GT for almost 1000 SEK more (142$). That makes the X800XL a very interesting card.

Sorry I'm not an expert on prices 7,000 miles from where I live.

The x800 XL is SUPPOSED to sell for about US$300. The 6800 GT is supposed to sell for about US$400. Right now x800 XL prices are too high because it is very new, they should drop pretty quickly. So buying an x800 XL immediately is not smart.

Charging almost US$600 for a 6800 GT is CRAZY, even if it is PCI-Express.

 

[zone_86]

Agreed Bravo. This whole paper launches and overpriced BS with both companies is really pi55ing me off lately. Not to mention no-refined tech and bugged out drivers and overpriced 'rushed to review' products. It looks as if companies are gouging and 'baiting' gamers and early adopters big time. Also we have platforms like SLI that are beta at best causing their respective owners to wait for game profiles and for them to work correctly. Sickens me really. Times like these make me wan't to stay a generation or two behind with tech - especially since last gen tech with a moderate GPU card will play any game respectably. Makes me wish SIS would enter the fray with some very real and competitive GPU products.

 

[Dan_D]

ATI's not been great about getting new cards to market lately. I wouldn't expect to get a X800XL for MSRP. All PCI-E video cards are more expensive than they should be. Except for maybe the X300. If you ask me X600's are too expensive. Especially considering how the X700 rapes them.

If you're going PCI-E now, I'd say get a 6600GT PCI-E as you'll save more than $100 on it. Plus when the X800XL becomes available in reality is still up in the air. 6600GT's are plentiful. 6800's are starting to show up in greater numbers and should drive prices down soon.

You could always buy a 6600GT now and sell it off later and switch to an X800XL. You've got lots of options.