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GeForce 7900 Or X1900 Series

gargoyle67

gargoyle67

gargoyle67

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28 Dec 2003
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40
I'll be upgrading shortly to pci-e mob, and as such I'll be upgrading my old agp 9800 pro graphics card to Pci-e card and just wanted to know your thoughts on the best bang for my buck.Is it worth spending loads on one of the Top cards or just go for one of the £200 range cards, Or spend a little more say £350. Two Cards I'm looking at GeForce 7900 & X1900 Series.
Thanks in advance.
 
Well to be honest it all depends on the rest of your system.

I personally would save your money and get a single 7900GT / X1800XT which will last you a good few months.

They offer 85%+ of the performance of the top end cards yet cost in some cases as little as half of the top end cards.

Another thing to take into consideration is what monitor will they be outputting too? If it has a large resolution then possibly a top end card would be better if you are stuck at 1280x1024 and below then one of the cards I have mentioned above would be better.
 
Hi there

Agreed with above you can get the Sappire X1800 XT 256MB from OcUK for less than £200 Inc. VAT from OcUK, which is an absolute bargain and will play any game including Oblivion at maximum detail levels. :)
 
THC_SsSsSnake said:
what games use 512 mb graphics ram?
Click to expand...

It mainly gets used when you pass 1280x1024 resolution and starts to have a good impact at 1600x1200 and higher resolutions. At lower resolutions it offers only a slight improvement depending on the game. Somtimes at resolutions under 1280x1024 256MB cards can be quicker from time to time.
 
Just to add I *think* Oblivion(or any game that has a very high texture count) benefits if you have 512mb GPU ram. This could be one of the main reasons that the 512mb X1800XT runs away from the 7900gt in this particular game.
 
THC_SsSsSnake said:
thanks Gibbo,
where does a samsung lcd with highest res of 1376x768 come in that ?
More like the 1280 x 1024 that you mentioned
thanks
Click to expand...

Yep pretty much so. Two best value cards at the moment of ideally the Sapphire and PowerColor X1800 XT's. The Sapphire has 256MB of RAM and the PowerColor has 512MB. Both are priced very cheap for what they are. :)
 
Do the nvidia cards still have a problem with shimmering,a few guys who play pacific fighters mentioned that and wont use anything but ATI for that game?
thanks
 
No mention of the fantastic clocks of the 7900 GT here.

I have no shimmering in maxed settings either

If you have the budget get get a 512 mb card and if you can get a 7900 GTX.

The x1900 xtx is on par with th 7900 GTX but the 7900 GTX is a better card in terms of its design.


IF you must stick to budget then go for the x1800 512mb.

But if you can get a 7900 GTX they are very quick cards that run silent under load.

If the x1900xtx was faster i would put up with the noise and the heat and the power issues.

But its not so you don't have to. :)
 
Well went I with the 7900gt over the X1800XT because of the rather exciting volt-mod options. At stock speeds, and even at unmodified overclocked speeds the X1800XT is both better value and simply better (512 version at least) full stop. But tweaking the voltage on the 7900gts lets you get some monster overclocks that will certainly get close to 7900gtx speeds, all be it with only 256mb. Having said that you'll need an after market cooler like a vf900 (£25) and a conductive ink pen (£7-£20) to actually make the connections and suddenly the value vs performance slider starts to even up in ATIs favour again.

Still, if you put a value on getting your hands dirty and potentially ruining £250 worth of gear, you can't go wrong with the 7900gt! (I have actually gone down this route for exactly this reason and I can't wait).
 
Thanks Guys, I have a Dell Ultrasharp 2001FP 20.1 rez upto 1600x1200 and I'm running an AMD 4400 Dual core. So I guess I'm looking at a 500 meg graphics card ? elder3 almost stops on certain points of the game for me on my lowly 9800pro@800x600 !.
 
Get the ....

PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
Available This Week Only for just £194.95 +VAT.
(ends Thursday)
 
ACESHIGH said:
You hear it when it starts up, fan spins up to full but after that, when in general use its pretty quiet.
Click to expand...

Agreed, when underload i can hardly hear mine, just a slight hum, but i have to pick it out when listening for it, but if your gaming you won't hear it at all, unless you game with the sound muted. :D
 
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