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x800xt or x800xt pe

P

poach

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 31, 2004
Messages
97
I am about to build a new pci-e system and are unsure about what vid card to buy.
I have rounded it down to 2
The GV-RX80X256V
(gigabyte x800xt pe card form France)
$940 au
or

The VIDATI-GVR80X256V
(gigabyte x800xt card that I can get in Australia)
$980 au

In actual gaming performance, is there much difference between the xt and xt pe?
Would I have trouble with the European card or software with components purchased in Australia?
Is it worth the trouble?

:confused:
 
I heard that the x800 xt's are officially named x800 xt platinum edition. So I think and I've heard they are the same card.
 
The x800xt is not the same as the x800xt pe, the differece is about 20 mhz higher clock speed and 80+ higher memory clock.
Ive read that the x800xt pe does proform better than the x800xt.
 
Confusion seems to stem from lazy people calling XT-PE's just XT's. Mainly because at first there were only XT-PE's and no plain XT's out.

Oh, and Maxx got the clocks right on.
 
Again, refer to my clocks...they denote the model.

As for OGL 1.5, you can safely ignore that, ATI cards have supported OGL2.0 for quite a long time now. It just hasn't been used yet and has only recently been fully released.
 
OT: if i buy x800xt PE, would it be ok to run it w/ my current system? see sig.
any info would be great.
 
Thanks Maxx, i should be picking one up soon when newegg have in stock.. another question:

should i get the powercolor or the asus?
 
You can check out my Asus preview (check my sig) to see how the Asus runs. I guess it really comes down to which bundle you prefer. :)
 
Silverghost said:
Confusion seems to stem from lazy people calling XT-PE's just XT's. Mainly because at first there were only XT-PE's and no plain XT's out.
Click to expand...

All AGP XT's are PE, except the new AIW cards. The PCIe editions are available in both XT and XT PE.
 
It seems to me the only thing different is the clock settings. Does this mean that the non-PE can be OCed to the PE settings with the existing cooling solution? Possibly higher with a water block?
 
NadmanET said:
It seems to me the only thing different is the clock settings. Does this mean that the non-PE can be OCed to the PE settings with the existing cooling solution? Possibly higher with a water block?
Click to expand...

That is how it always is with video cards...But the one with high clock speeds stock will also overclock higher...

Btw, will ATI discontinue AGP cards overall? Because I am thinking of getting an XT-PE and I was wondering if I sohuld upgrade my motherboard toa PCI-E board if they were going to do this...
 
So if the PE will overclock higher than the regular XT, that means that they are physically different at the component level then, right?

Last thing I read from ATI reference AGP vs. PCI-E was that they were going to start making native PCI-E chips but release AGP versions of them via a bridge. Basically the opposite of what Nvidia is doing; continuing to make native AGP chips and bridging them to PCI-E. So both versions of cards should be around for a while.
 
The PEs generally overclock better because they have the advantage of a higher-clock yield, but this isn't always the case. You can see this with R360 core 9800 Pros; the 9800XTs tend to have better maximum core overclocks, but that's not a guarantee. PCI-E is a great technology in my opinion, but it's lagging a lot right now and won't be fully realized for quite some time.

ATI's solution does indeed suggest PCI-E as native and AGP as a bridge, however when going backwards you get essentially 100% efficiency. This isn't the case currently but will probably be more relevant in the next generation. ATI plans on PCI-E for 2005 but I secretly suspect we'll see AGP as well.
 
The XT-PE ram will oc higher causes it uses 1.6 ns ram, whereas the regular XT is using only 2.0ns ram.

Atleast I think that is what it is, correct me if I am wrong.
 
Silverghost said:
The XT-PE ram will oc higher causes it uses 1.6 ns ram, whereas the regular XT is using only 2.0ns ram.

Atleast I think that is what it is, correct me if I am wrong.
Click to expand...

Not sure if this is true, I believe they do use 1.6, although they could get away with 1.8 but they like having some overhead.
 
I guess what I am getting at is that if they are indeed the same physical card, have all the same components rated at the exact same specs, one would be an idiot or just ignorant to overclocking to spend the (currently) 150-200 more on the PE instead of the regular XT. Right?

The reason I am so concerned about this is that the other night in a drunken haze, I bought a regular XT still thinking that all XTs were PEs. The following morning I reviewed my purchase and found that I had, in fact, bought the regular XT. After spending 560 bucks on a video card, I'll be a little salty if I can't say that I have the best on the market. So if the regular XTs are PEs that have just been downclocked, can overclock it back to PE specs and maybe higher with an after market cooling solution? Or are there physical limitations on the regular XTs that are not on the PEs (such as memory latency) that will limit the amount I can overclock it? Like I said before, the only difference that I've seen on ATI's and other web sites are the clock speeds. I haven't even found the memory latencies quoted above.
 
The cores are identical, but the yields on them are not. It's very possible that your XT will overclock to PE speeds. But this is no guarantee, you must comprehend the yield process of silicon to see why this is true. If they have a R420 core off the line that operates fine with 16 pipelines at say 510 MHz, but fails at 520, then it can be appropriated for a regular XT. Therefore the XT-PE in essence has a better chance at getting a higher core clock because it's pre-approved for at least 520 MHz. RAM operates similarly to this.
 
Gotcha. Thanks alot Maxx! And now I'm off to try to edumacate myself on this "yield process" and overclocking video cards. Never done this before... Thanks again for your help! :D
 
Maxx said:
The cores are identical, but the yields on them are not. It's very possible that your XT will overclock to PE speeds. But this is no guarantee, you must comprehend the yield process of silicon to see why this is true. If they have a R420 core off the line that operates fine with 16 pipelines at say 510 MHz, but fails at 520, then it can be appropriated for a regular XT. Therefore the XT-PE in essence has a better chance at getting a higher core clock because it's pre-approved for at least 520 MHz. RAM operates similarly to this.
Click to expand...
I fully agree with maxx but the rate of success of getting an XT to XTPE speeds is so high i dont think its worth the extra money, they are defantly the same cards just with different bios, most people are getting a 30core increase and a 80mem increase on the XT total 530/580 and people with the XTPE are getting 10-15core and bout 20mem total 535/580.
This is based on stock cooling, every card will have slight variances some clock a little more than others, even exactly same cards make/model sometimes produce slightly different clocks. Basically its up to you but even if you did get an extra 10mhz out of an XTPE, that probly accounts to an extra 1 or 2 frames in latest games, Either XT will produce so many frames :) you wouldnt notice it
 
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