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DEAL OF THE CENTURY - Sapphire X1800 XT @ £145 !!!

Am I the only one who doesn't think it's THAT amazing? Sure, it's a fantastic deal but not one that made me leap 6 feet out of my chair screaming OMG OCUK WTF must spend money. I personally think the 512mb one at £200ish is a better deal. I must say, when I bought my GTX, I remember looking at hundreds of benchmarks and they all said the GTX was better.
 
A random name said:
Not necessarily true, remember the deals OcUK had on the X1900 XT's and XT-X's? Well it's a long time on from them and prices aren't near what they were ;)
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Just wondering. What were they going for?

They've got an MSI XT at under £300 and an XTX at around £320 atm. Best prices I can find.
 
Tommy B said:
Am I the only one who doesn't think it's THAT amazing? I personally think the 512mb one at £200ish is a better deal.
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Yes you are :o

The 512MB model is about £240 all inc, whereas the 256MB model weighs in at under £180 and is the exact same speed in the vast majority of scenarios. What other card can you get for that price that delivers as much performance as an X1800 XT? And where else can you get one for this price (rhetorical question I don't want competitor links :p)

Suman
 
I hear what you're saying, Sumanji; but that extra £60 is going somewhere, right? That extra 256MB is going to help out when the game you are running is using over and above the 256MB of the Sapphire to hold all the texture data and starts leeching off the system memory.
 
Yeah random name's 3dmark with a much lower spec system, basically identical to mine (11300 odd in 3dmark 05 standard test)

How did you get it that high?
 
Another question to throw into the melting pot.

I understand ATI cards are able to render AA and HDR at the same time? What games actually offer you this as an option at the moment?
 
glitch said:
I hear what you're saying, Sumanji; but that extra £60 is going somewhere, right? That extra 256MB is going to help out when the game you are running is using over and above the 256MB of the Sapphire to hold all the texture data and starts leeching off the system memory.
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£60 is 33% of £180, but for about 10% gain and only at the very top end of the res/detail spectrum. That's not worth it imho.

Bear in mind most guys going for this card will be gaming at 1280x1024 and under in which case the gain is about 5% at best?

So yeah, not worth it ;)

Suman
 
In relation to HDR AA i dont think it is a major issue.

Not too many games use HDR yet, fewer still allow even the Radeon's to use AA and the performance is hardly stellar before AA, and dire aferwards.

The Oblivion benchmarks i saw showed that x1900xt getting pummeled by HDR down to sub 45fps and Oblvion doesnt even support HDR AA. An x1800xt woulnt fare any better.

I reckon by the time many games support HDR AA the performance on an x1800xt will be so horrible as to make it worthless even at 1024x768

Nontheless i ordered me one today :D
 
Tommy B said:
Am I the only one who doesn't think it's THAT amazing? Sure, it's a fantastic deal but not one that made me leap 6 feet out of my chair screaming OMG OCUK WTF must spend money. I personally think the 512mb one at £200ish is a better deal. I must say, when I bought my GTX, I remember looking at hundreds of benchmarks and they all said the GTX was better.
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Yes, but the 512 Mb one isn't £200ish, it's £234.95 inc VAT, while the 256 Mb card is only £170.32 inc VAT. That makes the 512 Mb card £64.63, or 38% more expensive. That's why I ordered the 256 Mb card this morning. I'd have preferred the 512 Mb card (who wouldn't?) and agonised other whether to wait and see whether the 512 Mb card comes down in price.

The way I see it, either card will work fine with the games I'm playing at the moment (Dungeons & Dragons Online and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004). The most demanding game that I'm likely to buy soon is Oblivion (I'm not interested in first person shooters). The benchmarks at http://firingsquad.com suggest that, at 1280x1024 (the resolution I'm most interested in), 512 Mb increases frame rates by 10% in the mountainous areas and makes little difference in the foliage areas (where the frame rates are lowest).
 
Right guys this is a serious question now as I've been paid and will be ordering a card today.

Here's a brief run down on my spec

AMD X2 4400+
DFI 580 Crossfire mobo
2gb Corsair
Dell 2405 24" TFT (1920x1200)

The games I will be playing the most is GTR and GTR2 when it's released. I used to have a 6800 Ultra which played GTR maxed out at 1600x1200 so that's something to work on I guess. The other games I'm interested in:

Need for Speed Most Wanted
OutRun Coast2Coast
COD1, UO, COD2
some other FPS I guess

I'd love to play games at native res (guess at that res I can turn AA off?)

so what card do I buy?

This one because it's such a good deal, a little bit more for the 512mb or LOADS more for the x1900 (which will be really pushing my finances)

Cheers!
 
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glan8:
If you want to run such a high native res then you should go check out the banchmarks for games that are tested at those res - and there are loads of them to choose from !!!
but to summerise: that high res will need more power and memory for the frame buffer, so ideally you want 1900xt 512mb. if your really on a tight budget then 1800xt 512mb *might* do. I doubt that the 1800xt 256 will cope (ie NO stuttering during gameplay).
as they say - you pays your money...
 
glen8 said:
That's what I thought to be honest mate.

Thing is, my 6800 Ultra was a cracker at 1600x1200. Have the games moved on 'that' much?
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Need for Speed Most Wanted - YES !
OutRun Coast2Coast - probably
COD1 - N0
UO- dont know/maybe
COD2 - deffinately YES - this one well worth checking out benchmarks for (as most reviews use it)
some other FPS I guess - well thats pretty much a YES (check out FEAR for an idea of current/next gen engines - its demanding yet out now)
 
TLJester1 said:
Need for Speed Most Wanted - YES !
OutRun Coast2Coast - probably
COD1 - N0
UO- dont know/maybe
COD2 - deffinately YES - this one well worth checking out benchmarks for (as most reviews use it)
some other FPS I guess - well thats pretty much a YES (check out FEAR for an idea of current/next gen engines - its demanding yet out now)
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brilliant, thanks very much for that. I really want the x1900xtx but the girlfriend will kill me if I spend £350
 
glen8 said:
brilliant, thanks very much for that. I really want the x1900xtx but the girlfriend will kill me if I spend £350
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Everyone here agrees the XTX is overpriced !
Buy the 1900xt and overclock it.
Someone here bought a Powercolor 1900xt and it and the same memory as the XTX and so managed an identical overclock to XTX.


as for the girlfriend ... send her off to the spa for the day so you can get some decient game time in with your new 1900xt ... I am sure she wont mind so much then ;)
 
If the programmers of games could actually learn to code properly we would not need such insane graphics power.

Their lazyness drives the graphic cards business forward, at our expense ;)
 
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