Difference worth it between X1800XT & 8800

schnipps · 7 Mar 2007 at 10:36

Tend to play supreme commander at 1920x1200 on max everything and its a tad slow with AA turned on, also tinkered in Catalyst control and ramped up the AF etc, looked very nice in game but started to notice it struggling. Is it worth the jump to 8800? I could sell my X1800XT for around £70 to my brother, its the 256meg version btw.

System C2D [email protected] | 2 GIG of ram | Vista | In a thermaltake Soprano case so i dont think i can fit the top end 8800

zytok · 7 Mar 2007 at 11:16

3500 posts and you don't know the answer to this question already?

should be a huge boost though if you're running at fairly high resolutions, it is probably worth looking at the 640MB version as opposed to the 320MB as the 320MB tends to tail off quite sharply as you take the resolution up.

Sean_UK · 7 Mar 2007 at 11:25

Tell you what though, i went from single core to dual cpu and that made the biggest diff at higher rez with supreme commander.

LoadsaMoney · 7 Mar 2007 at 11:47

Definately worth it, i went from an x1800 XT 512mb here to a 320mb GTS, unbelievable, the GTS just totally decimates it in every way, i never thought the perforamnce increase would be so huge, but its incredible, absolutely astonishing, and the image quality is far superior to, ATi just can't compete with these, R600 has gota go some way to beating these.

zytok · 7 Mar 2007 at 11:49

Think it's safe to say that it's the best £200 that Loadsa ever spent.....

Kyo · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:00

LoadsaMoney said:
Definately worth it, i went from an x1800 XT 512mb here to a 320mb GTS, unbelievable, the GTS just totally decimates it in every way, i never thought the perforamnce increase would be so huge, but its incredible, absolutely astonishing, and the image quality is far superior to, ATi just can't compete with these, R600 has gota go some way to beating these.

o0o0o - when did u switch over to nvidia? So it really that good?. I will still hanging on to my 1900xt

but it still good to know what out or what my next card may be

Camalot · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:01

My x1800xt 256 is still kicking arse for me

Had it nearly a year now :eek:

Bear in mind im only playing wow at 1440x900 all max, but it ran smooth on COH as well

zytok · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:03

the GTS has no competition at present unless you're talking crazy resolutions.

LoadsaMoney · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:11

Kyo said:
o0o0o - when did u switch over to nvidia? So it really that good?. I will still hanging on to my 1900xt but it still good to know what out or what my next card may be

Soon as the 320mb GTS came out for about £200 i switched (about 2x weeks ago now i think), and it is that good, its more than that good, im well impressed, they have really done an amazing job on the 8 series, i only got one on price alone, my x1800 XT was still cutting through everything maxed fine, but when i seen these coming out for around £200 what could i do, i had to buy one.

Incredible cards, as zytok said its the best £200 ive ever spend, to think of all the cards that have gone before, and how much they were when they came out, the x1800's/x1900'/x1950's, Nvidia's 7800's/7900's/7950's etc... all came out at around the £350-£400 price point, and here we have a card for around £200 that just blows em all away, ATi have really dropped the ball with an 8 month delay, there is just no reason to buy ATi at this present time.

zytok · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:14

Camalot said:
My x1800xt 256 is still kicking arse for me Had it nearly a year now

Bear in mind im only playing wow at 1440x900 all max, but it ran smooth on COH as well

to be fair, WoW is hardly a serious test for a graphics card......

Kyo · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:31

LoM - IQ really that good. I noticed a good improvement between my 7800GT to my current 1900xt. I take it nvidia have more than matched in IQ deparment as well? What brand u go for?

hmm..tempting very tempting

LoadsaMoney · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:35

Iq is miles better on the 8 series, they've well overtaken ATi in the iq stakes, everyone was saying when going form the other Nvidia cards to them that the iq was amazing, and i thought, yeah will be going from an older Nv card as they had crap iq anyway, but i bet if you go from an ATi card to one you wont notice much difference as ATi have always had superior iq, but oh how wrong i was, absolutely huge difference in iq, Nvidias ahead now in that dept by a long, long way.

schnipps · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:36

zytok said:
3500 posts and you don't know the answer to this question already?

To be fair i know its a better card, some may suggest its a waste of money as its not a huge jump and to wait for something else. Doesnt seem to be the case though

wondering ig the OC version with an extra 50mhz on the core is worth the few quid over the stock one at 500mhz, going from past experience with cards probably not.

zytok · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:40

schnipps said:
To be fair i know its a better card, some may suggest its a waste of money as its not a huge jump and to wait for something else. Doesnt seem to be the case though wondering ig the OC version with an extra 50mhz on the core is worth the few quid over the stock one at 500mhz, going from past experience with cards probably not.

It's a big jump for not an awful lot of money. You can always overclock the card yourself to save a few quid provided you're not running Vista. Overclocking is not currently possible (BIOS mods excluded).

LoadsaMoney · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:41

It is a huge jump from an x1800 XT, its well over 30fps faster in everything, they are incredible.

zytok · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:43

is it supersampling or multisampling that does the job without sacrificing fps....?

Kyo · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:52

Bah - you guys are making me so jealous and it really tempting me into going for the card

Btw LoM- brand u go for?

Jack Bauer · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:59

I made the same upgrade few weeks back too altho I had the 512 Mb version. TBH there was nothing my x1800xt couldnt manage, the main difference is I can add lots of AA and AF etc without worrying about fps.
O yer and fear, it finaly runs well at high settings (by well I mean constant desent frame rate). Image quality I aint sure about, the ATI had good image quality to so for me unless its from close inspection of ss I cant tell. I will point out however that the 8800 makes the games look much richer, can realy explain this any better

Overall worth it just to finaly put Fear in its place.

Word of warning, xp drivers have horrible issues with CSS, which is a pain in the arse if you play as much as I do, force DX 8.1 for now to fix but its aint exactly ideal

Jack Bauer · 7 Mar 2007 at 13:01

zytok said:
is it supersampling or multisampling that does the job without sacrificing fps....?

multi, but Ive heard mixed reports on super, some saying it kills fps and others not...

LoadsaMoney · 7 Mar 2007 at 13:02

zytok said:
is it supersampling or multisampling that does the job without sacrificing fps....?

Multisampling, supersampling is a big hit, but i find i can have 2xAA on with the supersampling and get hardly any hit on performance, and im not bothered about more AA as the supersampling looks incredible, and at least i can have 2xAA on with it and have hardly any hit, Fear maxed out 1280x1024 (my max res due to TFT) minimum framerate is 58-59, average is 105, and maximum is over 200. my x1800 XT's minimum was about 29, and thats without having the superior supersampling.

Oblivion on my x1800 XT 2xAA/16xAF +HDR on, maxed everything, outdoors was between 32-42fp, on my GTS same settings, but also have the superior supersampling on, the minimum framerate is 44, my x1800's maximum couldn't even reach my GTS's minimum, and thats without having supersampling as they dont have it, the boost in performance is astonishing, i cant get over the huge, huge boost, i never thought it would be so great, and these cards are less than £200!!!