ATI vs Nvidia

stickroad · 2 Jan 2007 at 20:56

Which card would come out best the 8800 GT Nvidia or the ATI x1950?

And which one would go for and why?

thanks

LoadsaMoney · 2 Jan 2007 at 20:57

Oh Dear.

8800 GT as its a next gen card, and not much more than an old gen x1950, so no contest, x1950 XTX's aint worth buying anymore.

PinkFloyd · 2 Jan 2007 at 20:59

Oh god, the thread title shouts our flame war.

8800 wins at the moment on speed and quality by far.
X1950s are cheaper though

LoadsaMoney · 2 Jan 2007 at 21:00

Anyone who buys an x1950 XTX now when you can get a Dx10 new gen 8800 GTS for only £40 more is absolutely bonkers.

UNiQU3 · 2 Jan 2007 at 21:01

I think the guys above sum it up

PinkFloyd · 2 Jan 2007 at 21:04

LoadsaMoney said:
Anyone who buys an x1950 XTX now when you can get a Dx10 new gen 8800 GTS for only £40 more is absolutely bonkers.

I agree completely

stickroad · 2 Jan 2007 at 21:13

Ok thanks, lol i wasent trying to start a flame war far from it, im just not in tune to Graphics cards not my thing really.

Thanks everyone for the replies

1dmf · 2 Jan 2007 at 21:16

The question is do you want to SLi or Xfire , is your Mobo Xfire and do you want to run 2 cards.

I had the same dilema, and decided that for future proofing I would go with running 1 x 8800GTX as it is DX10 compatible, but if I wanted to run 2 cards I would have to get 2 x X1950XTX as Xfire is only 2 x 8 PCI-e lanes and the 8800 requires 16 PCI-e lanes

Crossfire boards are a max of 20 PCI-e lanes (at the moment and its still unclear if R600 will be 2 x 8 also)

But at the moment you can only run 2 x 8 or 1 x 16 in a XFire boards.

DX9 is by no means dead and by the time it is the 8800GTX will be just as out dated.

So really it's up to you, the 8800GTX is concidered the best card available today, whether it actually beats Xfire I cannot say, but when the next gen ATI cards come out if they are still 2 x 8PCI-e they will be DX10 compatible and so maybe you might want to wait to see how the land lies.

As I said I've gone for the 8800GTX as a stop gap, you could always get the GTS if money is a bit tight.

stickroad · 2 Jan 2007 at 21:24

Ok thanks, Yeah the Motherboard im getting is ATI Crossifre but its slightly gimped i belive, one PCI-E slot is x16 but the other one is only x4 so you know

Thats the ASUS P5B Deluxe by the way

lay-z-boy · 2 Jan 2007 at 21:33

8800 doesn't need 16x slots, it just recommends them so you have to go out and buy more stuff from nvidia. I would know, i built a brand new rig for someone today and tried their 8800gtx in my machine (dfi lanparty expert) and it worked a-ok.

Final8y · 2 Jan 2007 at 21:50

1dmf said:
The question is do you want to SLi or Xfire , is your Mobo Xfire and do you want to run 2 cards.

I had the same dilema, and decided that for future proofing I would go with running 1 x 8800GTX as it is DX10 compatible, but if I wanted to run 2 cards I would have to get 2 x X1950XTX as Xfire is only 2 x 8 PCI-e lanes and the 8800 requires 16 PCI-e lanes

Crossfire boards are a max of 20 PCI-e lanes (at the moment and its still unclear if R600 will be 2 x 8 also)

But at the moment you can only run 2 x 8 or 1 x 16 in a XFire boards.

Not true
Depending on the motherboard some have 2x16 pcie in crossfire & a lot of 939 socket mobo have them with the CrossFire Xpress 3200.

PinkFloyd · 2 Jan 2007 at 22:43

lay-z-boy said:
8800 doesn't need 16x slots, it just recommends them so you have to go out and buy more stuff from nvidia. I would know, i built a brand new rig for someone today and tried their 8800gtx in my machine (dfi lanparty expert) and it worked a-ok.

The DFI Expert has 16x slots.
Only when running in SLI does it go down to 2 x 8x.

Presume you were trying it in SLI as you haven't made that clear.

easyrider · 2 Jan 2007 at 22:48

stickroad said:
Which card would come out best the 8800 GT Nvidia or the ATI x1950?

And which one would go for and why?

thanks

The 8800 GTS is a far faster card with better IQ and DX 10 capability.

Its a no brainer.

lay-z-boy · 3 Jan 2007 at 00:27

PinkFloyd said:
The DFI Expert has 16x slots.
Only when running in SLI does it go down to 2 x 8x.

Presume you were trying it in SLI as you haven't made that clear.

yes that's what i meant

fornowagain · 3 Jan 2007 at 00:43

Then you were using the SLi bridge and its extra bandwidth for the second card? Still x16 on the first?

lay-z-boy · 3 Jan 2007 at 00:51

fornowagain said:
Then you were using the SLi bridge and its bandwidth for the second card?

Is that a reference to me and the pics in the g80 thread?

The bridge between the 7600gt and 8800gtx is to keep the bandwidth rates high, if its not connected the 7600gt struggles to get the data to the 8800 fast enough and the performance as a *** drops heavily.

Sorry if it wasn't

fornowagain · 3 Jan 2007 at 00:53

lay-z-boy said:
Is that a reference to me and the pics in the g80 thread?

The bridge between the 7600gt and 8800gtx is to keep the bandwidth rates high, if its not connected the 7600gt struggles to get the data to the 8800 fast enough and the performance as a *** drops heavily.

Sorry if it wasn't

I thought from the comment up there you tried SLi G80, no?

lay-z-boy · 3 Jan 2007 at 00:57

Yes i did, (it worked).

fornowagain · 3 Jan 2007 at 01:09

lay-z-boy said:
Yes i did, (it worked).

It just that I read somewhere that a single GTX's maximum bandwidth is beyond x8 PCIe 2GB/s. Its not that a x2 or x8 slot won't work, just that it could potentially hold it back at low res etc. I'm interested because 775 boards like the 975 or RD600 with a maximum x8+x8 may need a bridge to supplement the lack of PCIe bandwidth with xfire R600.

http://www.techpowerup.com/?22503

lay-z-boy · 3 Jan 2007 at 02:39

the crossfire cable iirc has the speed of 8x speed pci-e between the cards so data between the cards isnt an issue.