What to go for 7900GT or X1800XT?

easyrider · 13 Apr 2006 at 13:39

Skyline said:
Will the 7900GT do that ok?

At those resolutions you really need 512mb ram on your gfx card.

man_from_uncle · 13 Apr 2006 at 13:48

With a bit of tender loving care (in other words heavy overclocking) both the 7900gt and X1800XT will get you to max settings at 1600x1200 with any game on the market. Oblivion will be the biggest challenge but unlike other demanding games an average 30+ fps is really quite playable (i'm playing oblivion with a 7900gt with max settings (HDR) at 1600x1200 and it's 'smooth enough' but not perfect. Once I have done the volt mod though and overclocked another 50-100mhz core and 100-200mhz mem, I expect i'll be smooth as ice cream). But you will need to overclock quite a lot. At stock settings those cards will get mostly high settings at that resolution.

ZXSpectrum · 13 Apr 2006 at 13:52

TBH i never really run games at that res... 1280x1024 is the best before going too small for me to read/aim...

easyrider · 13 Apr 2006 at 13:53

man_from_uncle said:
With a bit of tender loving care (in other words heavy overclocking) both the 7900gt and X1800XT will get you to max settings at 1600x1200 with any game on the market. Oblivion will be the biggest challenge but unlike other demanding games an average 30+ fps is really quite playable (i'm playing oblivion with a 7900gt with max settings (HDR) at 1600x1200 and it's 'smooth enough' but not perfect. Once I have done the volt mod though and overclocked another 50-100mhz core and 100-200mhz mem, I expect i'll be smooth as ice cream). But you will need to overclock quite a lot. At stock settings those cards will get mostly high settings at that resolution.

At 1600x1200 you need the 512mb ram for the extra textures involved.
If gaming at that res 512mb is a must IMO.

easyrider · 13 Apr 2006 at 13:55

Skyline said:
TBH i never really run games at that res... 1280x1024 is the best before going too small for me to read/aim...

Then the 7900 GT will be fine and give you the option of sli if you get and sli mobo.

man_from_uncle · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:06

512mb unquestionably starts to become distinctly appreciable at 1600x1200, but higher clock speeds can make up for it, at least with the current generation of games (that will of course change though). As has been the case pretty much from year dot, vram size is only one of factor that contributes towards overall performance at any resolution (though at higher resolutions it becomes a more significant factor).

The benchmark I saw comparing a 7900gt vs an underclocked 7900gtx showed that the extra ram gave up to a 13% improvement at 1600x1200 in Oblivion, but only a 5-10% improvement in most environments. A hefty overclock, even at stock volts gets about 10-20% improvement (I think the CPU throttles this game quite a lot which is why the range of improvement is so varied).

easyrider · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:14

Having gamed with my old 7900 GT at widescreen resolutions which was overclocked 590/1760 my GTX has a clear advantage over the GT at this res with max settings due to the extra ram.

Don't get me wrong the 256mb 7900GT's are fine cards and great clockers but it is advisable to get 512mb ram at these resolutions IMO.

As he games at 12x10 then the 7900 GT will be a great choice.

superpc · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:18

I suppose that if i game at the normal 17" TFT resolution then a 256mb 7900 GT would be more than enough?

ACESHIGH · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:22

I would suggest the X1800XT 512MB, as more & more games are requiring the extra ram to run at max settings. Besides they are quicker than the 7900GT at stock overclock like crazy.

jrodga2k5 · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:33

ACESHIGH said:
I would suggest the X1800XT 512MB, as more & more games are requiring the extra ram to run at max settings. Besides they are quicker than the 7900GT at stock overclock like crazy.

I second that.....why get the GT with 256mb of ram when you can get an x1800xt with 512mb for like the same price?
I can garrantee you that 512mb of ram will be very handy with the unreal engine 3.0 (when games come out) at 1280x1024

it certainly is in Oblivion

easyrider · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:39

jrodga2k5 said:
I second that.....why get the GT with 256mb of ram when you can get an x1800xt with 512mb for like the same price?
I can garrantee you that 512mb of ram will be very handy with the unreal engine 3.0 (when games come out) at 1280x1024 it certainly is in Oblivion

This is were it gets tricky for £40 quid more he can get a Gainward BLISS Geforce 7900 GT "Golden Sample" 512MB and have this running faster than GTX speeds.

performing on par with an X1900XTX

man_from_uncle · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:42

I really do have to agree with all those that sugget the X1800XT512. Despite my own proclivities towards the 7900gt I do think the X1800XT512 is the better card. In fact the X1800XT512 is better is almost every measureable way. The only advantage of the 7900gt (other than that it's cooler, quieter and requires less power which isn't all that important to most people) is that it's got some interesting overclocking possibilities that probably do exceed those of the X1800XT.

Bogiee · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:55

Sorry to semi Hijack this thread,

For £350 what is the best card I can get? Is it a Nvidia 7900 or ATI's X1900?

The Games I play are COD 2, Battlefield 2 and soon Oblivion, as well as a few other non graphic intensive games.

Rest of the details are
AMD 3500 venice
2gb Geil
PCI-E mobo
Nvidia 6800GT
Hyundai ImageQuest L90D+

Many Thanks

easyrider · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:58

Bogiee said:
Sorry to semi Hijack this thread,

For £350 what is the best card I can get? Is it a Nvidia 7900 or ATI's X1900?

The Games I play are COD 2, Battlefield 2 and soon Oblivion, as well as a few other non graphic intensive games.

Rest of the details are
AMD 3500 venice
2gb Geil
PCI-E mobo
Nvidia 6800GT
Hyundai ImageQuest L90D+

Many Thanks

Do a search,There are countless threads on this subject both with differing views,

Both cards perform on par with each other and both have positves and negatives so its needs some reading up I'm afraid

Bogiee · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:59

easyrider said:
Do a search,There are countless threads on this subject both with differing views,

Both cards perform on par with each other and both have positves and negatives so its needs some reading up I'm afraid

Ok, thanks.

easyrider · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:59

man_from_uncle said:
I really do have to agree with all those that sugget the X1800XT512. Despite my own proclivities towards the 7900gt I do think the X1800XT512 is the better card. In fact the X1800XT512 is better is almost every measureable way. The only advantage of the 7900gt (other than that it's cooler, quieter and requires less power which isn't all that important to most people) is that it's got some interesting overclocking possibilities that probably do exceed those of the X1800XT.

Would have to agree But the x1800xt is still £252 quid and GT's can be had for £200 and with the clocking options make it the best bang for buck in this price range IMO.

superpc · 13 Apr 2006 at 15:18

I have noticed that the 7900 GT clocks very well indeed!! Looks like a cracker of a card to own. Just got to convince myself to fork out for one soon!!

ZXSpectrum · 13 Apr 2006 at 15:53

Right... I have decided... That i am going to go for the X1800XT512Mb mainly as its only £195 + VAT on this week only...

Dunno on the mobo yet. I may not even bother with SLI or CF as i am happy to drop the res to the next one down rather than spending another £230 on another card...

Nforce 4 Ultra should be fine for me.

superpc · 13 Apr 2006 at 16:22

Let us know how you get on with your choice.

warren_1979 · 13 Apr 2006 at 19:36

I Don't think its memory.

I had a 6800gt in a Asrock 754 socket motherboard and it ran fine with 1gig of generic RAM. Its did stutter for a few seconds at the beginning of a level but from then on mostly fine.