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Hi,
I currently have a ATi Radeon 9200 128MB card. This plays some games well, but games like Splinter Cell: Pandora tomorrow and KOTOR play with low frame rates.So i have decided to get a new card. Id like something with enough power to play new games, at a decent frame rate.
I have £200 to spend...
My pc spec's at the moment:
P4 2.66 Ghz
512 MB RAM (thinking of upping to 1GB)
80 GB HDD
ATi Radeon 9200 128MB
DVD+ Rewriter
what new cards does anyone suggest with a budget of £200. I plan to only upgrade my graphic card once a year.
I currently have a ATi Radeon 9200 128MB card. This plays some games well, but games like Splinter Cell: Pandora tomorrow and KOTOR play with low frame rates.So i have decided to get a new card. Id like something with enough power to play new games, at a decent frame rate.
I have £200 to spend...
My pc spec's at the moment:
P4 2.66 Ghz
512 MB RAM (thinking of upping to 1GB)
80 GB HDD
ATi Radeon 9200 128MB
DVD+ Rewriter
what new cards does anyone suggest with a budget of £200. I plan to only upgrade my graphic card once a year.
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I was referring to Intel and AMD over clock speeds, not ATI and Nvidia. My argument is that Intel go for higher clock speeds on the "CPU's" when really it doesn't matter.
I thought that would be fairly simple to work out.
I thought that would be fairly simple to work out.
As are Nvidia. That makes sense. Make something go faster and.. well... it goes faster.
What you're saying is essentially hypocrisy - you go on about "faster means nothing" yet then decide that ATi are better. ATi are all about clock speeds!
The Doom 3 saga though is down to lazy programming. If you look into google for X800 performance on Doom you will see a programmer has actually amended a table look up for one of the Doom 3 files which actually increases performance anywhere between 4-10 FPS for ATI cards. This has since been reported as something that ID will implement in the Doom 3 patch. For now the 6800 Ultra runs better in Doom 3 due to lazy code on behalf of the programmers which means ATI cards are immediately at a disadvantage. The general word though is that once it is patched the X800 won't just equal the 6800 performance in Doom 3 but it will actually better it. Click [URL]http://www.videocard-forum.com/ati/Real_Doom_3_performance_boost_187337.html[/URL] . That offers a link to [URL]http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14874[/URL] . It definitley works, I can conclude that from personal experience.
That coupled with the new 4.9 official release and the fact ATI are working on the issue themselves means that ATI will pretty much prove conclusively across the board that they have the best graphics card on the market.
Then of course you have the classic AA and AF argument which has pretty much plagued Nvidia cards since that FX range.
That coupled with the new 4.9 official release and the fact ATI are working on the issue themselves means that ATI will pretty much prove conclusively across the board that they have the best graphics card on the market.
Then of course you have the classic AA and AF argument which has pretty much plagued Nvidia cards since that FX range.
I have to disagree a bit. The 9800 Pro is no longer the best value card under £200. For around £175 you can get the Nvidia 6800 - not the GT or the Ultra, but still considerably faster than a 9800 Pro, and only £50 more. That's the best one to get. [URL]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/GeForce_6800.html[/URL] - it is the one at the top of the page there.
As for X800 v 6800, well the 6800 has the advantage just now, for Doom 3. What you get is that Nvidia cards tend to have the higher frame rates, but that ATI cards tend to have better image quality. Of course, you do in fact see images, not individual frames, so it is a valid concern. However, what tends to be happening more these days is a polarisation in the PC games world over which card you choose to support. Now, Half Life 2 will look great on an Nvidia 6800, because it has the brute power and of course is DX9 compatible. But it will be even better on an ATI card because it is tweaked for ATI. It was the other way round for Doom 3.
The reason for this is that if ATI or Nvidia offer you help and / or money, you take it. You end up with either a better product or more money - both of which are highly appealing.
I've backed ATI recently, but it is all down to personal choice.
As for X800 v 6800, well the 6800 has the advantage just now, for Doom 3. What you get is that Nvidia cards tend to have the higher frame rates, but that ATI cards tend to have better image quality. Of course, you do in fact see images, not individual frames, so it is a valid concern. However, what tends to be happening more these days is a polarisation in the PC games world over which card you choose to support. Now, Half Life 2 will look great on an Nvidia 6800, because it has the brute power and of course is DX9 compatible. But it will be even better on an ATI card because it is tweaked for ATI. It was the other way round for Doom 3.
The reason for this is that if ATI or Nvidia offer you help and / or money, you take it. You end up with either a better product or more money - both of which are highly appealing.
I've backed ATI recently, but it is all down to personal choice.
Also to add to the X800 vs 6800 argument, the ATI cards feature native PCIe support whereas the 6800 series rely on a bridge from native AGP support to PCIe, this causes losses in the conversion process = ATI have the better interface.
My X800 Pro arrives this Thursday (ASUS AX800 Pro 256mb)! Managed to get hold of a VIVO which can be clocked and opened up to an X800XT PE. Cards cost about £289 + delivery, but I've lived with my 9500pro for just over 2 years and it still cope with Doom3 well, but wanted something with a bit more "oompf"!
Ali mate you got Source yet? If so email me and we can organise a game :)
Also, what better PCIe compatibility are you talking about? Bothe X800 cards and the X600 series are lined up with PCIe support.
Mav, you have been into PC gaming for about... 2-3, maybe 4 months? What prior knowledge of Nvidia cards or the 6800 Ultra do you have?
The 6800 Ultra is like all previous Nvidia Cards before it. Better drivers than the ATI Catalyst drivers but apart from that ATI 99.9% of the time make it count where it matters, in the bench testing and in game results.
Nvidia do what Microsoft do, they bash a load of pretty figures down on paper but in practice they have little to no effect on game performance. For instance the 6800 series made a big thing about Shader 3.0 technology, in practice on games developed with Nvidia cards it did improve performance very slightly but certainly nothing to write home about, a good example would be Thief 3 which can be checked on Toms Hardware for bench test results.
The bottom line is though, the X800 series is better than the 6800 series, in a similar way that AMD are better than Intel, clock speeds and figures don't make up for actual performance at the end of the day.
The 6800 Ultra is like all previous Nvidia Cards before it. Better drivers than the ATI Catalyst drivers but apart from that ATI 99.9% of the time make it count where it matters, in the bench testing and in game results.
Nvidia do what Microsoft do, they bash a load of pretty figures down on paper but in practice they have little to no effect on game performance. For instance the 6800 series made a big thing about Shader 3.0 technology, in practice on games developed with Nvidia cards it did improve performance very slightly but certainly nothing to write home about, a good example would be Thief 3 which can be checked on Toms Hardware for bench test results.
The bottom line is though, the X800 series is better than the 6800 series, in a similar way that AMD are better than Intel, clock speeds and figures don't make up for actual performance at the end of the day.
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