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What Graphics Card for £300?

Trouble is the 2900 has gone the other way with the latest Cat 7.7 drivers, they've decreased performance, check out the thread here , not many happy bunny's in there. :p

Id get the GTS, you get 128mb more Ram for the same price, and it doesn't need as much power, as the 2900 uses more than the GTX so your going to have to make sure your PSU can handle it as well, if not then you may as well get the GTX over the 2900, otherwise you'll be spending your £300 on a much slower card and a new PSU, or get the GTS and get 128mb more Ram for free, and save some cash. :D
 
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Darg said:
Look at how bad the 8800 was before decent drivers came out for them. Lots of crashes and glitches and slowdowns all over the place. Now they are a mature card that's reached the peak of their performance. We can only hope for the same development with 2900XTs.
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Didn't read about too many problems with the first 8800s and their speed was damn quick from the beginning.
But I would like to see the Radeons improve in speed as well, to at least improve prices in the gfx card market.
 
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ScReWeD said:
ahhhh i dont know which one to get now!

to many choices
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if your motherboard/chipset is ati you'll be better to get the 2900 card, if your motherboard/chipset is Nvidia you'll be better to get the 8800 card. that way if u wanna crossfire or SLI u can.
 
i dont have the motherboard yet but the processor will be a core 2 duo e6400 with 2gb of ram.

so i could go ati or nvidia lol

more confused now!
 
ScReWeD said:
i dont have the motherboard yet but the processor will be a core 2 duo e6400 with 2gb of ram.

so i could go ati or nvidia lol

more confused now!
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well theres not that many motherboards that have ati chipsets for intel processors,.. so maybe nvidia would be better for u.
 
gareth170 said:
well theres not that many motherboards that have ati chipsets for intel processors,.. so maybe nvidia would be better for u.
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But Intel chipsets do crossfire not SLI and imo Intel do way better chip sets.
 
jaykay said:
But Intel chipsets do crossfire not SLI and imo Intel do way better chip sets.
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ok sorry for being wrong. :D

im not in to intel, i had one intel system in the past and it gave me so many problems. so ever since then i've stayed with AMD.. :)
 
Asus P5K P35 intel chipset motherboard with a 2900XT works well. Just built one for my boss and it flies.

@Richdog:

Please read more carefully. I never said it would get a massive boost. I'm not unrealistic. I said that it has a lot more maturing to do. It's a completely new architecture so of course driver development will play a big part in increasing performance.

If by architectural problems you are referring to AA then yes you are right. It does have problems with current methods of AA but in my experience can still play games maxed out with 4X AA. They're trying their best to improve the AA performance and I'm sure it will get a little better but won't ever be as good at it as the 8800. However the reason it has poor AA for current games is that ATi concentrated on supporting future technologies that the 8800 doesn't support.

These technologies will be used a lot in DX10 games in the next few years and that is where the 2900XT will shine. It's optimised for DX10 games and we're judging it on DX9 ones. The 8800 is a crossbreed between DX9 and DX10. Until we get solid DX10 benchmarks then we can't know which will perform better but I would lay high odds that the 2900XT will perform much better then the 8800GTSs and close to the GTX.
 
Darg said:
However the reason it has poor AA for current games is that ATi concentrated on supporting future technologies that the 8800 doesn't support.
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Optimising a card for games that aren't out and won't be out until it is no longer high-end? Madness.

These technologies will be used a lot in DX10 games in the next few years and that is where the 2900XT will shine. It's optimised for DX10 games and we're judging it on DX9 ones. The 8800 is a crossbreed between DX9 and DX10. Until we get solid DX10 benchmarks then we can't know which will perform better but I would lay high odds that the 2900XT will perform much better then the 8800GTSs and close to the GTX.
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By which time G90 will be out, possibly even R6/7XX. Fact is that ATI really shot their load early this time and have imo made a big mistake by implementing architecture that isn't yet suitable for the market. The reason G80 is doing so much better is that NV read the market correctly and produced a spot-on card that everyone can use NOW as well as in future games. 8800/2900 will never see heavy DX10 use by people who buy high-end GPU's... by then we'll be playing on the next gen.
 
Darg said:
Asus P5K P35 intel chipset motherboard with a 2900XT works well. Just built one for my boss and it flies.

@Richdog:

Please read more carefully. I never said it would get a massive boost. I'm not unrealistic. I said that it has a lot more maturing to do. It's a completely new architecture so of course driver development will play a big part in increasing performance.

If by architectural problems you are referring to AA then yes you are right. It does have problems with current methods of AA but in my experience can still play games maxed out with 4X AA. They're trying their best to improve the AA performance and I'm sure it will get a little better but won't ever be as good at it as the 8800. However the reason it has poor AA for current games is that ATi concentrated on supporting future technologies that the 8800 doesn't support.

These technologies will be used a lot in DX10 games in the next few years and that is where the 2900XT will shine. It's optimised for DX10 games and we're judging it on DX9 ones. The 8800 is a crossbreed between DX9 and DX10. Until we get solid DX10 benchmarks then we can't know which will perform better but I would lay high odds that the 2900XT will perform much better then the 8800GTSs and close to the GTX.
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Off Topic

I agree. I think there will be an improvement over time but in reality they are playing catch up with a card that's been released over 3 quarters ago. If ATI/AMD spend too much time in trying to sort all these cards out and try and creep up the numbers then they might just make it worse for the next release.

Nvidia have it easy in the DX9 market now and has the time to spend in correcting the poor DX10 performances that current cards are now having. Who knows, maybe Nvidia will have to change their next release and anything related to the 8800 series will be dropped and the next release could be as buggy as the X2900 cards. ATI seem more in line regarding DX10 and when the titles start spitting out they might have the head start with the current cards available.

I can't see Nvidia messing it up now after taking the scalp off ATI as the 7 series was flawed a bit like the current x2900's. To change to DX10 and get good performances might be a little tricky for Nvidia, this is the only way I can see the next card having problems.

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Back on Topic.

If I were the one deciding then I'd take the GTX without thinking. The GTS and X2900's are a much harder choice though. I think the X2900 will start pulling away from the GTS with (successful :rolleyes: not 7.7's) driver releases but there is greater stability with the GTS. It would take a lot of reading to determine between the GTS/2900XT if it were me.

GTX is the beast you want. If Colin Mcrae Dirt is one of those games you want to run smoothly with stunning details then this is the card for you. The newer the game, the more it will want more power to run everything the way you want so for peace of mind then get it.
 
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Darg, Hate to tell you, but the 8800 is not a cross breed card, its the worlds 1st DX10 card same as 6800Ultra was for DX9C, DX is backawards compatible as always.

There is no reason not to buy a Nvidia on todays market.
 
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Hopefully the early implementation of the new architecture will bode well for the R700 series as they know the flaws etc now..

Anyway yes i agree if you can stretch get the gtx, if not then its a matter of preference with the regards the GTS and 2900 and use the spare cash to treat yourself and not your pc :p
 
helmutcheese said:
At least a 8800GTS 320/640 wont heat his room like a greenhouse or rape his PSU :p
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I would hardly say rape his psu...

2900xt_power.gif


yes it would consume just over 55 wats more under peak load but i would hardly constitute that as rape.
 
helmutcheese said:
At least a 8800GTS 320/640 wont heat his room like a greenhouse or rape his PSU :p
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Also temperatures on the 2900 are around the same as a GTS.

But I think I'm going to force the fan to stay at 25%, 30% + is getting loud.
 
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