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"The better Card?"

Right I'm looking at either getting an ATI X850 XT PE for £325 inc del from Komplett (club 3d) or a Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/2600 256MB AGP DVI-I VO for £297 inc del from Dabs. Which is the faster card and which will last me longer? As I know the X850 XT PE card is harder to come by at the moment in AGP for a decent price I'll go for that now rather than missing out, if it's the better card! Cheers!

I would say an X800XL.

I can never keep on top of it anyway.

So if someone was to spend £250 on a new card, you'd recommend what?

Games aren't like films though, just because films are capped at 24fps and look smooth doesn't mean games handle the same way. Game frame rates fluctuate and the human eye notices fluidity no matter what the frame rate is. If it drops from 120 to 70 it is instantly noticeable.

The picture quality isn't an opinion, ATI cards produce better quality images, again it is proven in the bench tests.

It's 6 to 1 and half a dozen to the other.

Humans cant physically notice over 60 frames per second, so just because the X800XT PE runs games faster, it doesn't mean they'll look better.

6800 series cards use the Shader 3.0 stuff and and many of todays top games are made with nVidia cards in mind.

It's ultimately up to you...

The X800 XT is faster, but not as good as the BFG OC'd Ultra IMHO.

tigamilla wrote:
> Don't make me link to evidence...

Ha, so true.

Still not sure how they come to the conclusion against what pretty much every bench test shows, not to mention the better picture quality with ATI cards and the last 4 ATI drivers pushing the top end cards even further than the original X800/early X850 bench test results.

I'm going nVidia.

But that's because nVidia actually provide the kits that are used to make games... And SLI, :D.

Game wrote:
> I don't mean to be rude, but you'd be better off with a 6800GT or a
> 6800 Ultra.
>
> nVidia own Radeon this generation. Plus, now might not be the best
> time to buy a card with E3 just around the corner. Anyone you buy
> now, top end, will last you a good while. But a lot of games are made
> with nVidia cards in mind.
>
> Seriously, get a BFG 6800 Ultra OC and you won't look back... ATi
> aren't really a factor this generation.
>
> nVidia all the way.

??? Dude?? There are benchmarks plastered all over the net to proove that despite having a shorter name the ATI X850 series utterly totals the best that Nvidia can offer. With the possible and only exception being when running DOOM 3, although I believe the constant driver updates from ATI have rendered the performance gap almost negligible.

ATI Pwn this generation...ATI Fanboy


Don't make me link to evidence...

I don't mean to be rude, but you'd be better off with a 6800GT or a 6800 Ultra.

nVidia own Radeon this generation. Plus, now might not be the best time to buy a card with E3 just around the corner. Anyone you buy now, top end, will last you a good while. But a lot of games are made with nVidia cards in mind.

Seriously, get a BFG 6800 Ultra OC and you won't look back... ATi aren't really a factor this generation.

nVidia all the way.

I think that one is the dual slot design. I'm not sure if the others on dabs are (connect 3D/Sapphire). Check out their official sites to check if it's single or dual slot.

Oo-er, just noticed the picture - does the X850 spill over onto another slot space? If so, I don't have the room - although I could leave the case off my Shuttle :S

Gah! Nothing is ever simple!