X1600Pro for $150, worth it?

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CHAoS_NiNJA

[H]ard|Gawd
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May 26, 2005
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I'm helping a friend put a new computer together, but hes on a bit of a budget. $150 for a GFX card, firm. I spotted the X1600Pro 512MB of $149, but...it doesn't seem right. 512MB for 150 bucks? Theres gotta be a catch. Its obviously not the highest end card, but is it my best bet for one fiddy? Hes not a hardcore gamer, nor is he even really a computer guy, but he wants the best bang for his buck.

Anyone got any input on the X1600?
 
Its 512MB of Physical Ram right? No stealing system Memory? If so I would imagine it would be a nicer card than the GS for higher resolutions but even still the GS (6800GS) is faster anyhow. At least from the old Benchies I saw a while back.
Dont take my word, someone should know the true performance diffrences better than I.
 
If it were a XT... but the Pro has alot lower clock speeds so... huh pretty shitty card imo.. (and im ati biased) tell him to get a x800gt or something like that
 
Hey, guys, that's actually a pretty good deal. It might not be as good as an X1600XT but it will get the job done handily and is certainly better than a vanilla X800.
 
What about the 6800 vanilla pci-e I am pretty sure it is better than the x1600pro. It has a 256bit bus and has 256mb of memory and only cost about 165$. What do the rest of you guys think? I know Hardocp has 6600gt, x1600xt and 6800 benches here

http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=ODIyLDIw

and thats a x1600xt not a pro other than that I would have to say 6800GS
 
6800GS all the way. Best bang for your buck under 200$. You can find them for around 179$ Just cut back a tad on something eles.
 
CHAoS_NiNJA said:
512MB for 150 bucks? Theres gotta be a catch.
Click to expand...
The catch is that it has 128-bit memory, only 12.5GB/s bandwidth. Unfortunately that puts the x1600 Pro in about the same performance league as a 6600GT. http://www.vr-zone.com/print.php?i=3092

Like others have suggested, spending a few more dollars gets a much better card. Newegg has the x1600XT for $179 (590MHz core, 1400MHz memory). I can't find any 6800 GS cards for less than $191 + shipping.
 
rcf1987 said:
What about the 6800 vanilla pci-e I am pretty sure it is better than the x1600pro. It has a 256bit bus and has 256mb of memory and only cost about 165$. What do the rest of you guys think? I know Hardocp has 6600gt, x1600xt and 6800 benches here

http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=ODIyLDIw

and thats a x1600xt not a pro other than that I would have to say 6800GS
Click to expand...

No, the X1600PRO would smoke the vanilla 6800. Even a 6600GT can smoke a vanilla 6800. Generally, you do not want a vanilla 6800. :D
 
Vanella 6800 >> 6600GT. And with the X1600XT it looks pretty even on the bench marks.
 
PWMK2 said:
No, the X1600PRO would smoke the vanilla 6800. Even a 6600GT can smoke a vanilla 6800. Generally, you do not want a vanilla 6800. :D
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Umm.. what are you smoking and where can I get some?
 
PolarbearBigEd said:
Umm.. what are you smoking and where can I get some?
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He's taking PCI-E.

Remember that, in general, the PCI-E 'vanilla' 6800 is clocked slower than the AGP 'vanilla' 6800 (325/600 clocks on the PCI-E vs 325/700 clocks on the AGP version).

That's enough of a difference for the 6600GT to pull up closer. 8 pipes at 400mhz does 4000 operations per second (6600GT), while 12 pipes at 325 mhz does 3900 operations per second (6800). 128-bit memory access at 1000mhz has 16 GB/sec fillrate, while 256-bit memory access at 600mhz has 19.2 GB/sec fillrate.

Ergo, the 6800 PCI-E has a bit higher fillrate (and fillrate matters less and less any more vs shader power) but the 6600GT has greater core shader power.

As to the X1600...well, the pro doesn't compare so favorably. That's certainly true of the *XT* model - it's noticeably faster than the 6800nu/6600GT....but the 'Pro' model is a LOT slower than the XT. IIRC., isn't the ram barely more than half as fast?
 
If only that 512MB of memory could be put to better use. It may not be very fast for gaming, but it's plenty fast for RAM. But does PCI-E have enough bandwidth to even make this feasable?
 
Vengance_01 said:
6800GS all the way. Best bang for your buck under 200$. You can find them for around 179$ Just cut back a tad on something eles.
Click to expand...

I said in my first post, $150 firm. There is no cutting back, he already has the other stuff. So no 6800GS.
 
thespymaster said:
shows to be the 256bit version...should do OK for awhile...
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Ummm...there IS no 256-bit version. Or, perhaps, they ALL are 256-bit versions. Depends on how you look at it.

The X1600 series has a '256-bit ring bus' internal to the GPU for addressing the memory modules, but only has 128-bit access to the memory (basically, it's two 128-bit rings going either direction...but still 128-bit. It's just designed that way to reduce latency.)

That's true of *all* X1600s.
 
dderidex said:
Ummm...there IS no 256-bit version. Or, perhaps, they ALL are 256-bit versions. Depends on how you look at it.

The X1600 series has a '256-bit ring bus' internal to the GPU for addressing the memory modules, but only has 128-bit access to the memory (basically, it's two 128-bit rings going either direction...but still 128-bit. It's just designed that way to reduce latency.)

That's true of *all* X1600s.
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Thats what I thought but here is the link to the exact same card, different model number 128bit...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102652
 
thespymaster said:
Thats what I thought but here is the link to the exact same card, different model number 128bit...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102652
Click to expand...

It's a Newegg goof. The OEM listing has the correct spec. All X1600s have 256-bit ring bus and 128-bit memory bus. At least, until (?if?) ATI releases an 'LE' model that might end up being 128-bit ring bus and 64-bit memory bus. But I wouldn't count on that.

You notice the model number is not the same - one has an 'L' on the end of it. That's to distinguish the OEM model from the RETAIL model
 
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Well, the 3dMark numbers sure are interesting. Seems like the memory bandwidth on that core really isn't the most limiting factor, as is commonly thought (IE., if the benchmarks between the X1600Pro and X1600XT are so close given that one has just over HALF the bandwidth of the other...it's safe to say that doubling the bandwidth of either by going to 256bit wouldn't make that much difference, either)
 
mitsuhide said:
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Is that some special edition (or pre-release) X1600 Pro with 1GHz stock speed memory? Those are interesting from an unlikely overclocking perspective, since the X1600 Pro cards i've seen come at 500MHz core and 780MHz memory stock.
Click to expand...
 
6800pcie are awesome cards guys. they have a rep of great overclocking. they hit 430-450 pretty easily on the core and 800-850 on the mem. I had a pair that did 480 on the core. they were basically GS's at those speeds.
 
chameleoneel said:
6800pcie are awesome cards guys. they have a rep of great overclocking. they hit 430-450 pretty easily on the core and 800-850 on the mem. I had a pair that did 480 on the core. they were basically GS's at those speeds.
Click to expand...

What kinda cooling were you using? My 6800GT doesn't like it over 415....
 
nobi125 said:
What kinda cooling were you using? My 6800GT doesn't like it over 415....
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different cores:
6800GT AGP = NV40, 6800 GT PCI-E = NV45 (same as NV40, but with on package bridge)

6800 PCI-E = NV41/NV42
 
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