Should I Change My Graphics Card Order?

Ambro · 27 May 2007 at 21:44

I just ordered the leadtek 8800 GTS 640MB for £225 and should get it when it finally comes in stock. Although i'm not sure whether I should change it for the ATI 2900 as it is only £25 more. I heard some bad things about the ATI card but is it honestly that bad, on paper it seems twice as good as the 8800 GTS but on benchmarks it seems only slighlty better and even worse on some things. I want to get a card now really but once i've bought it I will not replace it for a few years maybe so am I making the right choice here? I have the dell 2407WFP monitor and E4300 cpu.

IceShock · 27 May 2007 at 21:47

will be interesting what people reply here.

But id go for the HD 2900 XT for 25 more.
Once the drivers are optimised more, the 2900 will show its true colours and the 25 more will show a huge difference once its truely optimised good.

The 2900 beats even the GTX in 3dmark06 and every beta driver update i get 200-300 more 3dmarks just from driver updating with my 2900, so once the drivers put the power into the games like 3dmark, it will be the champ

Ambro · 27 May 2007 at 22:07

Thats what I am now thinking. :confused:

The massive power and noise levels of the ATI card are a major detraction of the ATI card though.

Biglunn · 27 May 2007 at 22:12

Ambro said:
Thats what I am now thinking. The massive power and noise levels of the ATI card are a major detraction of the ATI card though.

Well.... if your PSU is up to it, you may as well take the chance. If not and you want to play it safe, get a nVidia 8800GTS.

The HD2900XT is a hugely advanced card. Its not performing well with antialiasing at the moment, and has one or two other issues, but Im convinced that these will be resolved. Yes they are noisy, but I dont think many GTS/GTX cards are much quieter.

IceShock · 27 May 2007 at 22:13

well i run a overclocked system, and a 2900XT (spec in sig) all day long on a hyper type R 580W

theres a lot of fake reviews out there saying stuff like "you need a 700W just to run it"

and as for the noise, its not actually that bad. i cant really hear it and my case has 5x 800rpm 12cm fans in.

it does slighty rev up in games tho, but when your looking at every pixel on screen concentrating with your headphones on loud on a shooter game or racing simulator game (i do both) then you dont notice the noise anyway,

its not that loud because i cant stand a slight buz or noise but i dont mind the 2900.

i once threw a 80cm fan out of the window cause i got so anoyed with it because of the loudness, thats how much i hate noise and like i say, the 2900 doesnt anoy me

plus there will be fan fixes soon anyway.

and as for the heat, mine runs at 41/43c idle (when the fans silent at low) and thats in a hot 24c room. and full load never goes past 65c its a brilliant card

Squakingcow · 27 May 2007 at 22:24

Well I got my HD 2900 XT today. I haven't bothered installing RC 7 (do you think it's worth it?), but I've noticed a few things about it....

The fan issuse; yes there only appears t be 2 speeds set in the drivers, min & max. And most of the time in 3D apps it's noisy, vewry noisy. But the chances are if you're in a 3D app you'll have your volume up so you won't hear things anyway

And @ min it's near silent. The thing that's slightly worrying is that the fan seems to acctually need to sping that fast to keep the temps below 80 (it's like a room heater out the back of it :eek:

).

The power issue isn't really an issue, as anyine with a good quality 450w psu (and 2 pci-e plugs) can power this (I'm using a 520w tagan, and even though it's proberbly under quite a bit of load it's still silent).

There are 2 things that give me hope that the aa isue can be solved.
1. Quake 4 with 4xaa on a 2900 performs better than a GTX at high res.
2. EATM (or whatever) sound interesting as it's supposed to give very little performance while giving better aa results than traditional methods (although this could just be ATi talking)...

Ambro · 27 May 2007 at 22:24

IceShock said:
i once threw a 80cm fan out of the window cause i got so anoyed with it because of the loudness, thats how much i hate noise and like i say, the 2900 doesnt anoy me

LOL, Poor 80cm fan.

Wow the positive reviews of the 2900 are coming out of the shadows now, this is making my choice much more difficult.

esiemi · 27 May 2007 at 22:27

Biglunn said:
Well.... if your PSU is up to it, you may as well take the chance. If not and you want to play it safe, get a nVidia 8800GTS.

The HD2900XT is a hugely advanced card. Its not performing well with antialiasing at the moment, and has one or two other issues, but Im convinced that these will be resolved. Yes they are noisy, but I dont think many GTS/GTX cards are much quieter.

actually 8800gts is a really quiet card, i had one but it broke so i had to send it back. now i have a 2900 on order which should be here sometime next week.

i had the gts back when they released it and im sure everyone agrees with me that they had so many issues with games, especially source games and the famous fogging problem that we see now with 2900. even the ntune didnt work properly till couple of weeks ago.

gts is a really good card and yes its quiet, but if i was buying a card now it would be 2900, this is just my opinion so up to you.

besided you can get the card and if its too noisy send it back, you have the cooling off period according to DSR

thats what im gonna do anyways.

Ambro · 27 May 2007 at 22:27

Squakingcow said:
The power issue isn't really an issue, as anyine with a good quality 450w psu (and 2 pci-e plugs) can power this (I'm using a 520w tagan, and even though it's proberbly under quite a bit of load it's still silent).

The power isn't really an issue as I have a corsair 520W so im sure that it will run, I just prefer that it cost a little less to run in electricity terms, also I was thinking overcloking potential could be reduced if it is running so hot that it heats up the whole case.

Squakingcow · 27 May 2007 at 22:34

Ambro said:
The power isn't really an issue as I have a corsair 520W so im sure that it will run, I just prefer that it cost a little less to run in electricity terms, also I was thinking overcloking potential could be reduced if it is running so hot that it heats up the whole case.

But most of the heat is ejected out of the back (really, with my accelero X2 I used to have a little hotspot beneath my card, but now that's gone

), so your OCing potential isn't really affected. But the main good thing about the card is it's OCing potential, it really clocks well

The electricity bill problem could be an issuse, but it really depends on how much you care about it

The main thing is, atm, the card costs the same amount as the cheapest 640 in stock (the cheapest one has been out of stock for a while now), and with new driver releases I'm fairly sure that the 2900 will beat it by a reasonable margin.

HangTime · 27 May 2007 at 22:37

Tough one to call really, maybe the best thing to do would be wait until the Leadtek comes into stock and make your decision then. Things may change in terms of pricing and also you can see if there are any driver improvements from AMD.

As it stands personally I would go for the 8800GTS because it is cheaper and performs better in the majority of situations. The HD2900 may end up better in the long term but it's a bit of a risk - my concern is that if it really was that easy to boost a lot of extra performance via driver optimisations then AMD would have done it already.

Just because cards look good on paper doesn't mean that they will always live up to their potential - cards like the PowerVR Kyro II and the Matrox Parhelia had a lot going for them from a technology standpoint, but they never acheived the performance numbers they should have.

~>Dg<~ · 27 May 2007 at 22:41

well im sorry i would save your money ive got a massive gut feeling that nvidia or ati are gunna drop something just in time for crysis everyones talking about upgrading for this game alone and is going to be a milestone for pc gaming.You only have to look at dirt and see that people with gtxs arnt getting high fps and i think that wont be the highest rig tester this year do you.i would really bite your nails for 2 months as thats when the big games start to appear.Also theres no way a 8800 gts will last 2 years maybe one how gamings going now days.
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esiemi · 27 May 2007 at 22:50

Squakingcow said:
The electricity bill problem could be an issuse, but it really depends on how much you care about it

2900 uses only 50-60W more, so turn off a light bulb and can make up for it

Ambro · 27 May 2007 at 23:18

I agree it would be probably best to wait for a few months as it is a bit chaotic in the graphics market atm, and i'm sure nvidia will be dropping prices to compete with ATI, although the leadtek is very good value and I can't see them going below £225 for a while. Also I just bought a new system and atm am using an onboard ati graphics chipset which isn't ideal, plus I would like to unleash the power of my E4300 and Noctua Heatsink but the ATI graphics is holding it back at the moment!

Ambro · 27 May 2007 at 23:24

I think I will just go for the 8800 GTS 640 still as it will play all the game I am using at the moment on high settings without driver problems and without masses of noise, power consumption and heat, also I am sure it will handle games of the future albeit with reduced settings. At the moment though I am happy with the games i've got, even though I bet I will change my mind when I see the next "best game ever" in pc magazine.

bfar · 28 May 2007 at 00:05

Really tought one to call - these are neck and neck imo.

I'd say go with which ever you're used to

willhub · 28 May 2007 at 00:32

Go for EVGA, I think if anything new from EVGA comes out in 90 days, then you can upgrade and just pay the difference with the step up program, thats what I am doing, I am getting the 8800GTS ACS3 640mb as its as cheap as the superclocked one with the standard cooler and its only like £100 to step up ot an 8800GTX.

I doubt the HD2900XT will ever 100% beat an 8800GTX, gonna have to wait for the HD2950's.

They should still of used the X, X2950XT sounds/looks better.

setter · 28 May 2007 at 01:18

cant reccomend the 8800gts 640mb highly enough, i have the bfg version runs as quiet as a mouse, plus bfg's warranty is one of the best u can get

Ambro · 28 May 2007 at 01:23

willhub said:
Go for EVGA, I think if anything new from EVGA comes out in 90 days, then you can upgrade and just pay the difference with the step up program, thats what I am doing, I am getting the 8800GTS ACS3 640mb as its as cheap as the superclocked one with the standard cooler and its only like £100 to step up ot an 8800GTX.

I doubt the HD2900XT will ever 100% beat an 8800GTX, gonna have to wait for the HD2950's.

They should still of used the X, X2950XT sounds/looks better.

Would you mind explaining this EVGA step up program, do they give you a free upgrade? Also I really liked the EVGA ASC3 640mb 8800gs but it is £300 at overclockers, is that the one you were talking about?

HangTime · 28 May 2007 at 01:28

dgmug said:
well im sorry i would save your money ive got a massive gut feeling that nvidia or ati are gunna drop something just in time for crysis everyones talking about upgrading for this game alone and is going to be a milestone for pc gaming.You only have to look at dirt and see that people with gtxs arnt getting high fps and i think that wont be the highest rig tester this year do you.i would really bite your nails for 2 months as thats when the big games start to appear.Also theres no way a 8800 gts will last 2 years maybe one how gamings going now days.
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First of all I very much doubt Crysis will be out in 2 months, and even if it were, it won't necessarily be everyone's cup of tea anyway.

In general waiting around in the hardware game is rarely that beneficial, sure if you know for certain a new card is coming soon, or price drops then maybe but both Nvidia and ATI have only just launched new cards in recent weeks. I doubt we will see anything major in the next few months. In the PC industry there is always something faster around the corner, either you wait forever or you spot something you consider good value and take the plunge.

As for a 8800GTS lasting 2 years, maybe not in terms of good performance but then hardly any cards in that price range do historically. Probably the only one I can think of in recent years is the Radeon 9700. People who genuinely want a card to last them that long need to buy the real top end stuff i.e. 8800gtx/ultra. But in many ways the best option is to get a top-midrange card and then replace it after say 12-18 months.