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SM3.0 ??? card compatible ?

R B Customs

R B Customs

R B Customs

Soldato
Joined
22 Sep 2005
Posts
3,267
Location
Manchester
hey guys been reading a few threads usign the mighty search tool on the forum.
and when my little dreams of buying a saphire 256MB X850XT to replace my 6600GT silencer (both pci-express) were about to come true...
i read all this about SM3.0...
what is it? and is it true that it may not be 'supported' by some cards / games etc ?

cheers
Rick
 
R B CUSTOMS said:
hey guys been reading a few threads usign the mighty search tool on the forum.
and when my little dreams of buying a saphire 256MB X850XT to replace my 6600GT silencer (both pci-express) were about to come true...
i read all this about SM3.0...
what is it? and is it true that it may not be 'supported' by some cards / games etc ?

cheers
Rick
Click to expand...


Sm3.0 is the newst shader language supported by all modern graphics cards, and by Nvidia cards from the 6100 and up. It allows for better IQ, improved shader complexity, dynamic branching, higher precision shaders, better performance.

TBH, I wouldn't watse any money buying the X850 if you already have a 6600GT. I would either upgrade to something bigger and better, or wait and svae your money. How about a 7600, an excellent card. OR an X1800 or 7900GT.

The X850s are showing their age now and are really bad value for money.
 
so does that include HDR stuff??

im in a situation where im selling most of my rig to my brother, and building another for a mate which includes selling my 6600GT, and giving away my 6200TC

budget is tight, and a £148 x850xt fits in snugly, although i can get a x1800 for about £230

was just wondering what id be missing without sm3.0 support... is it somethig that will be able to be run in fture with a driver update or is it a deffinate hardware restriction ?

cheers guys
Rick

btw im getting a 975x chipset mobo, which is crossfire compatible... so for 'futerproofness' im going ati... even though iv always been a little bit of a Nvid fanboy ;p
 
Last edited:
It's a hardware restriction, so no driver will get around it.

If you're getting the X850 with a view to go crossfire in the future I'd say that was a bad decision.

If you want future expandability with Crossfire spend the extra and go for the X1800XT.
 
i can tag a 256Mb GECUBE ATI PCI-E X1800XL GDDR3 256Bit Dual DVI AViVo £233.83 onto the end of my mates order at a cpetitor, or get

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP) (doubt ill make it in time for this week only offer)
£234

or

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
for £217



id rather spend as little as possible...unless the difference between those two superb !
ofcourse it i will have to pay for seperate postage thrugh OCUK.

boy this gonna take me weeks to save up !!
gonna check some auction sites for CHEAP pci-e gfx cards to plug the gap i think ;p
 
R B CUSTOMS said:
i can tag a 256Mb GECUBE ATI PCI-E X1800XL GDDR3 256Bit Dual DVI AViVo £233.83 onto the end of my mates order at a cpetitor, or get

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP) (doubt ill make it in time for this week only offer)
£234

or

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
for £217




id rather spend as little as possible...unless the difference between those two superb !
ofcourse it i will have to pay for seperate postage thrugh OCUK.

boy this gonna take me weeks to save up !!
gonna check some auction sites for CHEAP pci-e gfx cards to plug the gap i think ;p
Click to expand...

The X1800XT is far better than the XL which is very poor price-performance ratio. Definitely reccomend the XT over the XL.

And both the XT and XL would be much better than th X850. You really will be loosing out on some games, and will have a slower card. X1800XT is much better value than the X850.

IF I was you I would wait a week or 2. The 7900 GT should lower in rpice, indeed it has already been spotted on another etailor for £207 (prices may have changed subsquently). £215 7900GTs have been widely sighted. OCUK will have similar prices soon, mauben even lower.
 
oh didnt even realise that the top one was an XL. :eek: 215 wouils be a good price for a 7900, but i can see mroe sense ingoing to ATI with a cross fire board... it may save me a lot of money int he future....

so connect 3D x1800XT, or the sapphire X1800XT ?
( again bearing in mind cant take advantage of the this week only deal :( )

thanks again guys !
 
whichever is cheapest!

I take it the ones your are on about are both 256mb cards? If so then they are identical in all but the sticker on the cooler.

If one of them is the 512 model then that is slightly better at higher resolutions.
 
sorry, yea both 256MB.
well if thats the case ill go for the cheaper one :P... its a little bit more red too i think ( got a bit of a red theme going on :P )

the specs are identicle between the two cards too.
well thats saved a few quid.
cheers
Rick
 
R B CUSTOMS said:
oh didnt even realise that the top one was an XL. :eek: 215 wouils be a good price for a 7900, but i can see mroe sense ingoing to ATI with a cross fire board... it may save me a lot of money int he future....

so connect 3D x1800XT, or the sapphire X1800XT ?
( again bearing in mind cant take advantage of the this week only deal :( )

thanks again guys !
Click to expand...

In theory that is great but I wouldn't bet on getting an X1800XT X-fire setup in the future. The X1800 Master cards are extremely rare as it is, and I don't know if they even work on the 256Mb X1800XTs. They certainly don't work with the XL cards.

But the X1800XT is a great card, just don't plan on cross-firing it later. IF you are serious about multi-gpu in the future either 7900GT or an X1900XT would be better choices.
 
D.P. said:
If he goes to the trouble and expesnive of buying a new MoBo just to support it.
Click to expand...

... im getting a Asus P5WD2-E Premium Intel 975X ... does that count ?
lol
to be honest im probobly never going to go multi GPU... but i want a 975X board, and it just so happens to support Xfire, so i thought i may aswell go for ATI card... seems sensible to me.
i just reckoned it would be more 'future proof' than buying a Nvid card.

in the mean time i think the X1800XT is over kill for me... i never paly at more than 1024x768 in FEAR and all the other next gen games, with 2 or 4AA at the most and 2 or 4x AF, ( i have a 16" screen lol)

so is there a lot of difference in RL between the sapphire and the connect 3D card ? except the money ?
Rick
 
Its the new Xpress 3200 chispet boards that don't require master cards, like the new Asus A8R32-MVP, but thats an A64 board. :)

Only differnence between the Sapphire and Connect3D cards will be the pics on the cooler, and what software you get, the cards are the same. :)

The Sapphire comes with a choice of 2x games out of 4 for free, not sure what the Connect3D one comes with, think it may just be the card and the drivers.
 
ah right...
i thought you had to have a ati chipset / crossfirwe certified baord to run crossfire ( on an intel system) like an nforce SLI chipset ofcourse for a SLI setup.

this new 975x express chipset isnt a 'crossfire' mainboard as such but i think its capable of running it ( or atleast thats how i think it works :P)|

didnt realise the cards were the same... was wondering why a lot of the 7900s seem to look VERY similar except the stickers / logos.

Thanks... ill certainly get the cheaper one !

well by the end of this upgrade ill own my brother 138 quid ! lol
thanks a lot guys !!
Rick
p.s ill post in a few weeks with soem benchies :D
 
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