PCI-E Card for around £200-£220

[Darkwave]

As for AA + HDR... when you play at the resolutions I do (20.1" widescreen) nothing less than an X1900 XTX would make it remotely playable. An X1800XT would certainly wither and die.

Not really, you should check out the recent article at Firing Squad. They did a full analysis of HDR+AA on X1800 and X1900 graphics cards and confirmed that it's more than playable.

If I am not mistaken, a 20.1" widescreen LCD has a native resolution of 1680x1050 (or 1764k pixels.) When I was still using my 19" CRT I could play Oblivion just fine in 1600x1200 (or 1920k pixels) with 4xFSAA (or 2xFSAAA) as long as I turned shadows off.

For me performance goes in this order...

OC'd 256MB X1800XT > OC'd 512MB X1800XT > OC'd 7900GT > OC'd 7900GTX > OC'd X1900XTX

Hehe, that's quite a scale. I never knew the X1800XT was the best graphics card on the market. (You put the chevrons the wrong way around.)

As for the actual order, from what I have seen of benchmarks on Anandtech, Firing Squad, Tom's Hardware, Guru3D, X-Bit Labs, etc. it goes like this: -

• 7950GX2 (x2)
• X1900XT (x2)
• 7950GX2
• 7900GT (x2)
• X1900XT-X (oc)
• X1900XT (oc)
• 7900GTX (oc)
• X1900XT-X
• X1900XT
• 7900GTX
• 7900GT (pmod)
• X1800XT (oc)
• 7900GT (oc)
• 7800GTX (512)
• X1800XT
• 7900GT
• 7800GTX (256)

The X1800's are good, solid cards, but I would honestly rather have a 7900GT and OC the hell out of it. Performance would be equal or greater in the majority of games, and the thing would be a lot cooler. Saying that, I wouldn't trade my XTX for anything on the market right now besides a GX2.

Mmmmm, 7950GX2.

 

[Bennah]

Where does 2 7900 GTX's come in that list?

I think you missed them out at the top alogn with the 7950 GX2

The 7950 GX2 is the best buy out there atm.

 

[Darkwave]

Where does 2 7900 GTX's come in that list?

I think you missed them out at the top alogn with the 7950 GX2

Just below 2x X1900XTs according to the sites I mentioned. The GX2 is there, it's just not at the top since it's not much better than 2x 7900GTs in SLi.

I've added 2x 7950GX2 to the list so that your high green-ness can enjoy seeing an Nvidia solution at the top of the list.

 

[Bennah]

Lol, Im not any fanboy or anything

Quad SLI when it was tested on top end FX's and 965EE setups didnt work too well, as the cpu was the bottle neck.

Not seen anything with a Conroe yet and 2 7950 GX2's but as far as I go I would put the 7950 GX2 top, purely on tne performance it brings from a single card and its decently priced too.

 

[Richdog]

Not really, you should check out the recent article at Firing Squad. They did a full analysis of HDR+AA on X1800 and X1900 graphics cards and confirmed that it's more than playable.

If I am not mistaken, a 20.1" widescreen LCD has a native resolution of 1680x1050 (or 1764k pixels.) When I was still using my 19" CRT I could play Oblivion just fine in 1600x1200 (or 1920k pixels) with 4xFSAA (or 2xFSAAA) as long as I turned shadows off.

I have tested it myself... HDR + 4xAA + max details (distant lands etc) brings my system to its knees as it is... an X1800 would be around (or up to) 20% worse at the res I run. Besides, oblivion very heavily favour ATI, it's not an accurate judge of general performance of the 7900GT vs the X1800XT.

Hehe, that's quite a scale. I never knew the X1800XT was the best graphics card on the market. (You put the chevrons the wrong way around.)
D

Where does 2 7900 GTX's come in that list?

I think you missed them out at the top alogn with the 7950 GX2

The 7950 GX2 is the best buy out there atm.

lol I didn't include every card but that wasn't the point, all I was doing was giving a basic structure of my personal opinions on performance of the cards I was talking about. But that was obvious, right? Sheesh you guys can be pedantic, loosen up.

I just don't believe that the X1800 is faster than a heavily overclocked 7900GT in the majority of games.

 

[Bezinator]

ok lets get back to thread.

Probally would go for a 7900GT if i new how to overclock and as i dont i am going for the x1800

 

[Darkwave]

I have tested it myself... HDR + 4xAA + max details (distant lands etc) brings my system to its knees as it is... an X1800 would be around (or up to) 20% worse at the res I run. Besides, oblivion very heavily favour ATI, it's not an accurate judge of general performance of the 7900GT vs the X1800XT.

It should be noted that according to Firing Squad, X1900s actually suffer more of a performance hit (relatively speaking of course) when it comes to HDR+AA.

Like I said, my X1800XT does fine in up to 1600x1200 in near-max settings (with shadows off at 1600x1200 and half at 1280x960.) It also does fine in near-max with shadows at 1440x900 on my new 19" widescreen LCD.

I just don't believe that the X1800 is faster than a heavily overclocked 7900GT in the majority of games.

That depends purely on if you mean overclocked or pencil-modded really. A pencil-modded 7900GT spanks an X1800XT, but with just overclocking alone the X1800XT has much more headroom and can be volt-modded through software to boot.

Pencil-modded though, 7900GT hands down. No question. For the win.

 

[Darkwave]

ok lets get back to thread.

Probally would go for a 7900GT if i new how to overclock and as i dont i am going for the x1800

Hehe, sorry for the off-topic.

If you are not overclocking then the X1800XT is definitely your best bet as it's quite a lot more powerful at stock in most cases, and a lot cheaper too. If you were into overclocking (volt-modding in particular) and weren't worried about the failure rate of 7900s, I would have definitely recommended one of those instead.

 

[Bezinator]

Was a interesting read though what everyone thought though