Worthy Upgrade?

pcknight · 26 Apr 2006 at 07:47

Is it worth going from a 7800 GT to a 7900 GT? Is it worth spending the money?

nbkpsycho · 26 Apr 2006 at 07:57

You would be better goin for a ATI X1800XT unless you plan on doin mods to the 7900GT

kbc · 26 Apr 2006 at 08:09

monkeybutt said:
Is it worth going from a 7800 GT to a 7900 GT? Is it worth spending the money?

I did and in both performance and benchmarks terms, I saw a good boost. But I managed to sell my 7800GT early just 2 days after launch of the 7900 series, so the sale of the 7800GT formed the majority of the funds for the 7900GT.

Though there are always better cards to consider such as the X1900 series by ATi or the 7900GTX.

pcknight · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:05

Thanks. I have heard of problems with ATI and some games so that is why i stick with Nvidia. I could change to ATI, need more reassurance!

vanandjuanunited · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:07

What problems exactly?? :confused:

pcknight · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:08

Just heard about issues with the ATI with some games. Driver issues etc. I was looking at the X1800XT 256mb card as that looks great for the price. Is that a much better card than the 7900?

Rob43 · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:11

monkeybutt said:
Just heard about issues with the ATI with some games. Driver issues etc. ?

Not had any driver issue's since changing over to ATI a month or so ago :confused:

with any of the latest games,the new 6.4 cats are not the best,but i'm using the 6.3s without any problems at all

So don't know what you've heard mate

Rob

pcknight · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:13

Thats good to know. Never has an ATI card. Just heard about some people having issues with them as apposed to Nvidia.

vanandjuanunited · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:13

Most likely nvidia fanboys.

\ducks.

Rob43 · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:15

You better watch out mate

They will be out to get you now

The ati control panel is a bit fiddly for me though,although there are other options -ATT or the older style CP

I do prefer the Nvidia CP,not as much messing around & coolbits for clocking,bit easier all round

Rob

pcknight · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:17

Well, Nvidia / ATI, does not matter to me. Just want a superb Graphics Card that will play all game out and coming out soon. 256mb is enough for me. Budget is around £200. See the X1800XT 256 is at a good price here. Would that be better than the 7900?

Rob43 · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:27

Both cards are great & will happilly run all the latest & greatest games at high details

The X1800XT is an absolute bargain though,so that would swing it for me

If i had'nt bought my X1900XT last month,i'd be buying the X1800XT right now & that was to replace my 7800GT

Rob

pcknight · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:29

What about overclocking the ATI? Is it easy to do? Will that card go up quite a bit on the clock?

Rob43 · 26 Apr 2006 at 11:35

The control panel/drivers let you clock the card with the overdrive feature,or you can use ati tool & ati tray tools,this is a bit more fiddly to set up though.

As far as clocking goes,it's a bit pot luck with any card you get,you just won't know how well it will OC untill you try it

Rob

wellibob · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:01

X1800Xt is without question a stella buy, and ive had no issues with ati drivers with any games, now and in the past, well not since the 9700 pro anyway. The 7900GT at stock is a tad slower, but they overclock to near GTX speeds, and if i can get 5905 on 3d mark 06 with my clocked 7900GT, i`d say its worth it.

Darkwave · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:06

The X1800XT is unbeatable performance for the price right now.

You're going to need to do a volt-mod on a 7900GT to get it to GTX speeds, which is cool if you feel confident with that.

kbc · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:09

Going by 3DMark06 scores alone... the 7900GT can do over and above 5,500... I'm not sure of what the X1800XT cards do though...

But there's one side of the comparison.

The volt mod is a very simple process, no soldering is required. Just get a conductive pen and draw a connection, comes off easily too.

Darkwave · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:27

I'd love to see what A random name gets in 3D Mark '06 with his X1800XT scores, his '03 and '05 scores are ridiculous compared to mine and it's not just because mine were at stock CPU and VPU speeds (huge bottleneck on my system.)

man_from_uncle · 26 Apr 2006 at 13:23

kbc, getting 5,500 with a 7900gt can be done with a single core processor moderately easily enough (probably even attainable with only the 1.4v mod and a good CPU). With a dual core it'd be well over 6,500 I think and with one of the higher voltage mods 7000+ is probably a possibility.

As for A Random name, he really did work the nuts off his X1800XT to get the score he did. I checked his link to ORB when he broke 11,000 in 3dmark05, the core was about 100mhz over what was in his sig and the memory about 300mhz over. He also ramped his CPU up by 0.3ghz. I suspect that the run was not entirely artifact free or gaming stable, but still a monsterous score compared to what most other people can get with an X1800XT.

kbc · 26 Apr 2006 at 15:40

man_from_uncle said:
kbc, getting 5,500 with a 7900gt can be done with a single core processor moderately easily enough (probably even attainable with only the 1.4v mod and a good CPU). With a dual core it'd be well over 6,500 I think and with one of the higher voltage mods 7000+ is probably a possibility.

Hmm... the 3DMark06 score I'm getting now at 630MHz/1800MHz on my dual core system is only about ~5800... I'm on a 1.5v mod just to ensure a bit more stability.