HELP! Powercolor X850XT or MSI 6800 GS?

[lank]

Hi,

I have just built a new machine of the following spec:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+;
2 x 512MB Corsair PC3200 CAS2.5 Memory;
ASUS A8N SLi Deluxe Motherboard;

and the usual hard drive, dvd rw stuff!

I havent yet purchased a graphics card, because of a) funds! (payday in a week!) and b) am unsure of what to get.

My budget of about £150-160 will let me look at a Powercolor X850XT 256MB PCI-E Card, and I was going to get that, but after looking around the forums, I have noticed a lot of people rating the GEforce 6800, and has now left me unsure! - Especially as my Mobo has SLI Capabilities, and ive found an MSI Geforce 6800 GS at the same price as the x850 - £160 inc. delivery!

After looking through these forums, I'm considering an X850 until the 7800 prices drop and then getting myself one (or two?!) of these.

I currently use a Radeon 9800 pro in my older machine, and have always found it excellent for games(well, back in the day!)

Does anyone use the powercolor x850 card? any pros/cons? How does it compare with the NVidia line-up? Are the extra feature sets offered by the 6800 gs really worth getting, when the reviews i've read on the x850 say that it outperforms the 6800?

If anyone could make any recommendations, that would be great!


Thanks, Lance.

 

[hartty]

I personally would go for the ati card mate as it is a lot faster and i hear IQ is better on the ati cards.
The Gs is basically the replacment for the 6800GT and the the X850 was the competitor of the 6800 ULTRA so the X850 would be a better card imo

Welcome to the forums btw

 

[lank]

cheers mate, blimey that was a quick reply!!

I'l properly introduce myself in the forums at some point - jus needed to find out about the cards before I ordered one, obviously

thanks again.

 

[lee-gti]

Well i'm new here too and i know now't about PC's compaired to this lot! but i'm running a powercolour 9800XT 256mb and its great!!!!

 

[Cyber-Mav]

in 3dmark06 the x850 is slower since it does not support shader model 3.0

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Yep but that's not a fair comparison

The X850XT is faster in 3D Mark 01,03 and 05 and it's quicker in games (save Doom 3 but I think the latest drivers help with this)

Go for the X850XT

 

[blackbull]

I got the X850XT last week and I am very pleased with it, o/c to PE with ATiTool and would go further but will wait till I fit Artic Cooler to card.

 

[pmbuzz]

I have recently upgraded from a 9800pro to the Powercolor X850XT and am very pleased with it.
I also got an Arctic Cooler which has permitted overclocking to the tune of 605 Core and 632 Mem (Clocked down slightly from max).
Get it ....... you won't regret it.

 

[Zephyrus]

Can't help with the comparism as i've never tried the 6800 but i got the X850Xt a few weeks ago and can run all games on max settings. Great card, especially at that price

 

[Big.Wayne]

I have recently upgraded from a 9800pro to the Powercolor X850XT and am very pleased with it

 

[Street]

Id go with the Zalman cooler over the Arctic cooler for the X850XT. From experience, ive found that they are of better build quality, run quieter and cool better

 

[lank]

thanks all for your suggestions, I have gone with my first instincts and purchased the x850! cant wait for it to arrive...

 

[Gibbo]

thanks all for your suggestions, I have gone with my first instincts and purchased the x850! cant wait for it to arrive...

Hi there

Good purchase and the X850 XT is faster, plus you clearly did not look hard enough on the OcUK site as we have 6800 GS for just £140 Inc. VAT which makes it cheaper than X850 XT.