[Mr. Killjoy]

Heya, I got a choice to do.

I saw some 6800 non-GT with prices often over 220€, and today I received
a newsletter from a site I bought some stuff on... it has a promotionnal offer
for a X800pro 256mb (AGP) at 180€. Considering I mostly play HL2 and mods,
which should I buy?

Is it worth buying to replace my old 9800 pro 128/128?

Oh btw, if the X800 doesn't support SM3.0, just tell me and I'll wait for a better prices on 6800

 

[D.D.]

wait for better pices on 6800 it is then.

 

[Guyver2K6]

Definetly sping for the extra 40€ lol

 

[Mr. Killjoy]

Ok thanks
Anyways, I don't like Ati drivers, they always tend to get bugged if you update them
without purging
I got to install Omega ones to fix all the issues I had in many apps, officials never work fine

 

[Typhoon 01]

Well a X800 Pro kicks the GF6800 in the nuts, plus if you mostly play HL2 and mods it's the most logical choice (if you're not worried about SM3.0).
But i recommend you to check some reviews and benchmarks on both.

 

[Mr. Killjoy]

I got some info:

-1/
X800 pro (not VIVO) has 12 pixel pipelines, no moddable
6800 has 12 as well, but can be modded to 16
Even though modding shouldn't be taken in account when buying a card, it's nice
to have a random chance of succeeding in softmod

-2/ HL2 will have an engine update soon, it will add HDR, High-quality will require
SM3.0 and Low requires only 2.0, and the different is huge between them.
Also, SM3.0 is faster than SM2.0 on the same code

So my choice is done, I'll wait, I don't want to have to spend more bucks
the day lots of games will use SM3 just cause I bought an X800

But thanks for helping

 

[ChrisRay]

The big difference here is the X800 Pro has significantly more bandwith and higher clocks and subjectively better shading capabilities. ((more powerful, less advanced/flexible.))

 

[Mr. Killjoy]

I see, so it's better than GF today, but it will suck tomorrow :s

 

[KillerShots]

My experience between ATI and nVidia has been bad recently... my desktop uses a 9800 Pro (128M) and with about 5% of my games, I have to walk over to my laptop with a GF 5600FX (64M) and play on there because the Radeon couldn't get the game to play right (usually bad texture management - after a while the graphics become corrupt. Starts with 2D background (probably because they're large) and works its way down to individual 3D textures).

I figure if I keep getting forced to play on a less powerful machine due to incompatabilities, it doesn't matter how powerful the GPU - it ain't worth it.

Problems that I've noted this on:

1. Stronghold 2
2. Thief 3 (a bit old now - still has the problem)
3. Vampire: Bloodlines

Also, their poor linux driver support doesn't help matters any (though I am glad they at least have something).

 

[Mookster]

Meanwhile, I've never had a single problem with my 9800 Pro

 

[Viper_Viper]

Meanwhile, I've never had a single problem with my 9800 Pro

I havent had any problems with my 9800 pro except the last time I tryed updateing the drivers, it screwed over my entire comp. Had to use the system restore to roal back the comp. Never updated the drivers since, guess I'm a little scaired...

 

[culubalo]

I havent had any problems with my 9800 pro except the last time I tryed updateing the drivers, it screwed over my entire comp. Had to use the system restore to roal back the comp. Never updated the drivers since, guess I'm a little scaired...

Seriously on a money to performance/quality ratio the 9800 pro is the best out there provided you dont do something stupid like update the drivers...

 

[Mr. Killjoy]

Yeah, I know, the best Cat for 9800 are 5.1 .... all others were bugged with me
Though I updated to the latest Omega based on 5.6 and it gave my a small perf boost.

 

[salam_azad]

Meanwhile, I've never had a single problem with my 9800 Pro

Mee too...


Mr. Killjoy: I recommend 6800 , SM3.0, I think Nvidia's Drivers more stable(even if i hadent seious problem with catalyst) and last thing with i think is very important is that there is Nvidia Drivers for linux that Works Greatly!

Yours,

 

[Player-X]

I am guessing the guy with problems forgot to uninstall old drivers before installing the new ones (yes I made that mistake before with my first ATI card the: 9600pro)
I would say go with ATI if you only want to buy one go with nvidia if you can buy 2

 

[Mako Eyes]

Meanwhile, I've never had a single problem with my 9800 Pro

My X800 pro worked completely fine. Y'know, besides the fact it was on a VIA chipset.

It crashed a lot, either because of the chipset or it was faulty, but produced absolutely NO graphics corruption. Not even after a driver update that I didn't even purge first.

Hrm, I sent my machine back for repairs not to long ago. Now I'm wondering if I should replace my X800 with an equivalent nVidia card.

 

[toplerone]

My first ATI card was x800 pro vivo @ XT PE and before that i had many Geforces (2,3 and ti4600). I fell in love with ati at first sight, I really dont care much bout openGL speed where gf:s dominate, but when it comes to D3D ATI is true king. Buggy drivers huh? Never had any problems with drivers or games, except KOTOR where you had to install latest catalyst to fix loading crashes.

Go for x800 pro VIVO agp model if you wanna get all pipes unlocked via bios change. Then the card is badass

 

[Mr. Killjoy]

Yeah, but the X800 pro was the only one I saw at an interesting price, and when I knew it was SM2 only, I thought better to give up on it... I prefer a slightly (and I really mean _slightly_) slower card that supports SM3

 

[Mr. Killjoy]

K, I just ordered a 6800, but I couldn't afford buying a PSU, so I'll have to stick with
my 300w one till I get something better. Question, what happens with GF cards when
the power lacks?
Shutdown, instability, or crash?
Will underclocking the card lower the power draining enough to play without side-effect?
(I don't care if my framerate isn't optimal for just 1 week or 2)

Oh, and finally, what's the best way to unlock the 4 pipelines on it? (It's AGP)

EDIT:
Here is a page for those who told me the 6600GT was very minor improvment over 9800 pro
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_6800_unlocking/page12.asp

 

[n_w95482]

The best way to unlock the 4 pixel pipes and additional vertex pipe is with RivaTuner. The link you provided will show you how to do it . As for the power, it could cause any of the three problems you mentioned. You could try underclocking the card but I don't think it'll substantially lower the rate of power consumption. Just remember, if you lower it too much, it can temporarily screw up the card (similar to overclocking too much). In my experience, a reboot fixes it though .