ATI or Nvidia...best card in £200-£210 range

[ACESHIGH]

The X1800XL would be my choice too.
As for Quake 4; the newer cats have vastly improved OGL performance to be pretty much the same or better than Nvidia cards. See below..
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/quake_4_high-end_performance/page2.asp
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/quake_4_high-end_performance/page3.asp
Conclusion...
ATI’s pulled off one hell of an accomplishment. As shown by our testing, with one simple driver update, ATI’s gone from last to first place in Quake 4 performance. There’s a wealth of data you can glean from these benchmarks.

For one thing the RADEON X1800 cards really don’t begin to shine until you turn on 4xAA. For an example, let’s take a look at the Quake 4 numbers at 1600x1200 in high quality mode. While the margin between the X1800 XT and GeForce 7800 GTX was merely 5% in favor of the X1800 XT 512MB without AA, the margin opens up to a whopping 18% once 4xAA is applied. Meanwhile, the X1800 XL goes from finishing behind the GeForce 7800 GT, to outperforming it by 10% at 1600x1200 with 4xAA/8xAF.

[The X1800XL cards do seem to have better overclocks from what i have read too.]

 

[Moeks]

I can't tell you from experience how the XL performs in Q4 but you can bet it's pretty darn well, maybe not as good as the 7800GT but it's hardly going to be slow. Infact I just looked at ACESHIGH's links, so there you go, a pretty good idea of just what sort of numbers you can expect

My own 1800XT is great in Q4, I play at 1600x1200 with 4 x AA in High Quality, I can play in Ultra High Quality if I turn AA off entirely but to be brutally honest I don't think UHQ is really worth the performance hit, it looks amazing but not amazing enough compared to HQ.

 

[Pr0t0c0L]

get 6800 gs and overclock it

 

[smids]

get 6800 gs and overclock it

I'm sorry, but why? The 7800GT and X1800XL are FAR superior to the 6800GS. I personally think it a waste if you can afford the ~ £200 to spend £140 on a far inferior card.

 

[JonnyGLC]

Links to prove this would be ideal. Standard GT is 400/1000. Most overclock to 450/1100 and some upto 500/1200. Thats pretty good clocking. As for image quality I went from an x800 to a GT and the I.Q is spot on.

My leadtek comes clocked at 450/1050 and clocks to 488/1120.

=\

My X1800 XL came clocked at 500/500, and it clocks to 625/730.

And the ATi image quality is superior in my opinion, i'd go for ATi over and over again if i had the choice.

 

[pieman109]

IQ with the X1800XL is superior to the 7800GT thats for sure, you can deffo see the difference, colours are nicer and its a bit sharper. Also, my X1800XL hits 9200 ish everytime no probs at 625/650 with a slight bump in core and memory voltage. I run 24/7 at 600/600 and it plays everything I throw at it, even FEAR plays smooth. In Quake4, I have everything maxed out at 1280x1024 (max res) and the framerate only goes beplow 60fps when theres a real load of stuff going on like manic firefights and what have you, even then its only by about 5 fps.
Imho the X1800XL is a better card considering the IQ and in performance OVERALL I don't think theres much to choose between then performance wise.

 

[speeduk]

Well this GT is just a temp card until funds the newer cards are actually available to buy. If the x1800's so good then maybe I will see what the x1900 is like instead of going for a 512mb GTX.
.

And random name - please do a bit of research before having a go at me!

My leadtek comes PRE OVERCLOCKED! So saying your XL is clocked at stock and goes 125mhz higher on the core means nothing. What would be a better comparison is an XL @ 575 core then saying it reaches 625.

A stock GT is just 400 core.

Your XL overclocks 125% over a stock XL and my GT 122% over a stock GT and from what I have seen there is about a 10% window either way so they are pretty close.

Regarding image quality. I went from an x800 to a 6800 at first and the image quality was poorer on the 6800. With this 7800 its a lot better (text is not as blurry etc) but you need to adjust the colours a bit in the drivers to get the most out of it.

 

[JonnyGLC]

And random name - please do a bit of research before having a go at me!

My leadtek comes PRE OVERCLOCKED! So saying your XL is clocked at stock and goes 125mhz higher on the core means nothing. What would be a better comparison is an XL @ 575 core then saying it reaches 625.

A stock GT is just 400 core.

Your XL overclocks 125% over a stock XL and my GT 122% over a stock GT and from what I have seen there is about a 10% window either way so they are pretty close.

Uhm, let's point something out.

"My leadtek comes clocked at 450/1050 and clocks to 488/1120."

So how would an XL at 575 be a better comparison? An XL at 550 would be, and still it would wipe the floor with the GT in overclocking ability. And then you go on to show how your GT only clocks 38mhz more on the core and 70mhz on the memory, when the X1800 XL would clock 75mhz more on the core and 180mhz more on the memory.

Then comes the performance, simply the XL>GT once overclocked.

 

[speeduk]

Uhm, let's point something out.

"My leadtek comes clocked at 450/1050 and clocks to 488/1120."

So how would an XL at 575 be a better comparison? An XL at 550 would be, and still it would wipe the floor with the GT in overclocking ability. And then you go on to show how your GT only clocks 38mhz more on the core and 70mhz on the memory, when the X1800 XL would clock 75mhz more on the core and 180mhz more on the memory.

Then comes the performance, simply the XL>GT once overclocked.

Hmm another person who just doesnt want to try and understand a post.



Where are the unbiased people these days.

Edit oh I get it I like an NVidia card so I automatically get crap thrown at me?

 

[Raikiri]

Uhm, let's point something out.

"My leadtek comes clocked at 450/1050 and clocks to 488/1120."

So how would an XL at 575 be a better comparison? An XL at 550 would be, and still it would wipe the floor with the GT in overclocking ability. And then you go on to show how your GT only clocks 38mhz more on the core and 70mhz on the memory, when the X1800 XL would clock 75mhz more on the core and 180mhz more on the memory.

Then comes the performance, simply the XL>GT once overclocked.

his is OCed as standard so the OC would be smaller...

Anyway only 75mhz on the core? my GT does +97mhz and only 180 on the mem? bit naff really my GT goes up by 240mhz
All with stock cooling, stock volts etc.

They both perform very similarly, (i beat your 03 score, you beat my 05 score) which is how it would be running games. But then i also payed less for my GT than an XL costs

 

[D.P.]

GT has better performance and value when tested with equal quality (you have to raise the ATIs IQ to get on par results). But it all depends on the exact version you get with the different clocks speeds and how lucky you are overclocking.

 

[Goksly]

you have to raise the ATIs IQ to get on par results.

Thats simply not true.

 

[no_1_dave]

7800GT > X1800XL

 

[smids]

7800GT > X1800XL

But does this make sense when you consider that they perform almost exactly the same, yet the XL has the advantages of HDR with AA and AVIVO? Feature wise, the XL is superior, yet performance wise exactly the same. Seems a no brainer to me. I prefer extra features over no extra features for the same money .

 

[Raikiri]

But does this make sense when you consider that they perform almost exactly the same, yet the XL has the advantages of HDR with AA and AVIVO? Feature wise, the XL is superior, yet performance wise exactly the same. Seems a no brainer to me. I prefer extra features over no extra features for the same money .

They arent the same money, my GT was £25 cheaper than any XL i have seen and came bundled with a £30 game as well as having a better warranty

 

[JonnyGLC]

They arent the same money, my GT was £25 cheaper than any XL i have seen and came bundled with a £30 game as well as having a better warranty

Lets all agree to disagree

Fanboys = bad, which means that we = bad.

Now, lets all have a group hug.

 

[Raikiri]

Lets all agree to disagree

Fanboys = bad, which means that we = bad.

Now, lets all have a group hug.

Who you calling a fanboy?

I have had cards from both companies, never had a problem with either and I was going to buy the x1800xl. But because of the reasons you quoted I went for the 7800GT. And they are all true, a free game, £25 in my pocket and an extra 2 years of warranty are more important to me than another 800 points in 3dmark and the exact same ingame performance.

 

[GAMEfreak]

will you not require one of those super monitors to take advantage of the HDR though?

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Nope

You'll see the benefits of HDR on any screen - it just improves the quality of the image at the expense of frame rate

If you have HL2 try the Loast Coast demo with HDR to see the difference. I've suggested this as it can do HDR over SM2 (so the X800 cards can do it). Most, if not all other games cannot do HDR over SM2 so your card might not work

 

[Goksly]

will you not require one of those super monitors to take advantage of the HDR though?

Think you might be confusing HDR and HDTV? (High Dynamic Range / High Definition TV). One being realistic lighting etc and the other higher resolution on tellys?