What would you buy?

schrickvr6 · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:41

A week or so ago i bought an x1900xt for £285 but the supplier let me down big time(not ocuk btw

)sent me the wrong item and now the gfx card is aparrently discontinued.

Now £285 is more than i normally would or ever have spent on a gfx card but this seemed like a great deal......So now the question is what do i buy instead?

I could get another x1900xt but i'm not prepared to spend £300+ so scratch that.

I've got my shortlist down to this -

1. Get a 256mb x1800xt for about £190and pocket the £90 difference.

2. Get a 7900gt for about £230 pocket the differnce and have the possibility of going sli.

3. For some reason i'm finding this strangely tempting....Get 2 7600gt's in sli, from all the benchmarks i've seen this setup is pretty much on a par with a 7900gtx which makes this pretty good value....doesnt it?

My system should be as little a bottleneck as possible being an opty @ 3080mhz and g.skill f1le @ ddr616 on a dfi ultra d(modded to sli)

So what would you do?

pcman · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:46

Buy a Xbox 360

easyrider · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:49

Get a 7900 GT with the option to sli them

it will overclock great and can reach 580/1750 with ease

easyrider · 6 Apr 2006 at 18:50

pcman said:
Buy a Xbox 360

Why would he want do to that?

and whats that got to do with his question? :confused:

LoadsaMoney · 6 Apr 2006 at 21:24

Get the x1800 XT, save the £90, and enjoy the faster card.

Tis also an awesome overclocker.

man_from_uncle · 6 Apr 2006 at 21:37

I've actually been tempted by twin 7600gts too. For £280 you've got a set up that'll match any single card on the market and overclock to about the same level. The down sides though are that it's a dead upgrade path and you'll have slightly more heat than the other options.

The ATI card (or cards if you consider the X1800XT512 too) is probably the best value option though. Great performance, great price. The down side, it'll be a pain installing it if you were running an nvidia card before and, if you've got an SLi motherboard, then you aren't going to be going dual card any time soon.

The 7900gt is more expensive than the ATI card and, at best, on a par with it at stock speeds. On the plus side though they overclock like a fake Rolex from a Chinese market and the volt mods are as simple as they come. Getting close to 7900gtx speeds (with one of the bigger volt mods) on air is not out of the question though you will be limited to 256 megs of vram.

For simplicity of installation (both in terms of hardware and drivers) I'd go for the 7900gt. If you go that mile further and put a good heatsink on it and have the ****** for volt mod then you've got the best value card too.

schrickvr6 · 6 Apr 2006 at 22:03

Thanks for your advice everyone, well everyone except for xbox boy.

Yeh the x1800xt 512mb is an option as well for exactly the same price as the 7900gt.

Ease of installation isn't an issue for me and the stock cooler will be coming straight off whatever i buy as it will be watercooled. My current card is an x800gto2(16).

I guess really i wouldn't go far wrong buying any of them, i just want to be sure i don't buy a turkey.

young lad · 6 Apr 2006 at 22:25

Buy the crossfire master card for the x1800xt 512mb and possably got crossfire? or ure mobo sli?

young lad · 6 Apr 2006 at 22:39

from another thread

Lanz said:
I think the X1800XT is best for the price, offering almost X1900's for £100 less.

Hope this helps

easyrider · 6 Apr 2006 at 23:13

young lad said:
Buy the crossfire master card for the x1800xt 512mb and possably got crossfire? or ure mobo sli?

I think he has a sli mobo hence the question:

should I get two 7600 gt's in sli

young lad · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:59

schrickvr6 said:
I could get another x1900xt but i'm not prepared to spend £300+ so scratch that

So appears not?

ACESHIGH · 9 Apr 2006 at 08:10

X1800XT 512MB. The extra ram will come in handy & its quicker than the 7900GT. The 256bit (512 ring internal) bus should be better at high res over the SLI 7600GT option, & its cheaper too.

Available This Week Only for just £194.95 +VAT.

easyrider · 9 Apr 2006 at 09:17

young lad said:
So appears not?

He has a DFI ultra mobo modded for SLI.

He states this in his opening post.

easyrider · 9 Apr 2006 at 09:21

ACESHIGH said:
X1800XT 512MB. The extra ram will come in handy & its quicker than the 7900GT. The 256bit (512 ring internal) bus should be better at high res over the SLI 7600GT option, & its cheaper too.

Available This Week Only for just £194.95 +VAT.

Two 7600GT's in SLI wipe the floor with the card you mention.

7600 GT are faster than 6800 ultras so in sli a single x1800 would be slower.

The 128 bit interface of the 7600 does not affect its performance to that extent.Plus they overclock insanely well too.

He has a SLI mobo so a single x1800 is a limiting option to him.

welshtom · 9 Apr 2006 at 09:23

x1800XT is a bargain at the moment. should handle 99% of the games out there at 1280x1024.

Tom

easyrider · 9 Apr 2006 at 10:00

If you get the x1800 which is a great card you limit your upgrade path.

If you get a 7900GT you don't, and two running in SLI will be fantastic performing setup.

Having the possibility of going SLI is a wise decision.

Why be stuck with a single card solution if you dont have to?

schrickvr6 · 9 Apr 2006 at 10:02

Thanks for the advice guys, in the end i went for the sapphire 256mb x1800xt for £202.05 delivered, seeing as i mainly play css it will be more than good enough for what i need.

I may well have a play with 2 7600's in my other pc when the prices drop a bit.

Noxis · 9 Apr 2006 at 10:05

young lad said:
from another thread

Hope this helps

Not at all as you are showing a single games benchmarks where ATI do particularly well. I can quote another 10 titles showing that a X1800 is slower than a slow thing in a slow shop on slow sunday

young lad · 9 Apr 2006 at 10:45

Lmao sorry just the only 1 i could find so posted that to maybe help

The Running Man · 9 Apr 2006 at 10:58

tbh the only cards i would be looking at are 7900GT and X1800XT 512mb...

dont go the 7600GT SLi route.. more hassle than its worth!

maybe find a cheap 7800GTX if u can. they can be had much cheaper than a 7900gt and will likely have vivo