Which Graphics Card to choose???

Juggalo

Can someone please tell me which is the better graphics card. I'm out of my depth on this one and just need someone's advice, so who's in the know?

ATI Radeon X800GTO TVD 256MB vs. GeForce EVGA 6600GT 256MB

8T8

If you want a straight apples to apples comparison look here you can see that the HIS X800GTO is moderately faster than the XFX 6600GT 256MB though the XFX part is clocked slightly slower RAM wise compared to the EVGA part you list so I'd probably go with the X800GTO.

Although you would get much more bang per buck assuming €200 is your ceiling if you got a 6800GS OcUK sell them for for €197 not inlcuding delivery, see the OcUK branded GeForce 6800 GS (GX-034-OK) going for £135.

Juggalo

Thanks alot. My budget was €150 but I could stretch to €200. I found them both for €129.

I might go with your suggestion though. I found a 256mb 6800GS for only €179. Would the difference between the cards be major?

Judt

Juggalo wrote:

Thanks alot. My budget was €150 but I could stretch to €200. I found them both for €129.

I might go with your suggestion though. I found a 256mb 6800GS for only €179. Would the difference between the cards be major?

That's the big question with gfx cards, isn't it? Read reviews, as depending on what's on the end of the card (from GS to XTX) it can make a whole lot of difference between memory bandwidth to pixel pipelines and suchlike. Google each card you're looking at and compare them via reviews. Also, if they happen to be on them, you might be able to stack them up in our VGA charts.

8T8

Just to add in short & simple words yes the 6800GS has more under the hood than the other cards and would allow you to run games with more detail options enabled.

Also depending on how long you intend to keep the card it is a Direct-X 9 Shader Model 3.0 card which will matter a small bit more in the long run as most games coming down the pipe* over the next year or two will be built for SM 3.0 hardware in mind and so if you want all the fancy shader effects then you are probably better off going with the 6800GS as the X800GTO is a Direct-X 9 SM 2.0 device.

*Just to expand on that the difference at the moment between SM 2.0 and 3.0 is barely noticeable and there really isnt anything that cant be done SM 3.0 wise that cant be done with SM 2.0 with some elbow grease but the gap will widen as now ATI have their 1K line of SM 3.0 GPU’s on the market, the consoles have moved to SM 3.0 equivalent hardware and some of the new graphics engines such as those from Epic and Crytek are intended for SM 3.0 hardware as a starting point with a fallback SM 2.0 option, as a recent example Ubisoft sold the graphically enhanced Xbox 360 version of King Kong to PC gamers online but only to those with SM 3.0 hardware for the probable reason in that some developers have stated that if you start off with SM 3.0 porting back to SM 2.0 is a pain in the ass (but not vice versa) so they are less likely unless feeling particularly charitable to port all the natty effects you might see in a game but its nothing to loose any sleep over.

Hopes that clears things up for you

Also I prefer Digit-Life’s 3D Digest apples to apples benchmarks over Toms as TH enable thing like softshadows in FEAR in their benchmarks which doesn’t help as it kills performance stone dead on all but the most high end hardware Digit-Life’s are a bit more realistic in that they dont try and punish the GPU as much as possible like Toms seem to do, softshadows in themselves not being a image quality enhancement to die for either although Crytek seem to be pimping it in the their next game Crysis so maybe they have a method that doesn’t drain the life out of your GPU.

http://www.digit-life.com/video.html

Judt

Depends on the test, as we run several parameters. Generally though I find checking several reviews/comparison charts to be the best policy.

AnCapaillMor

Handy site http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=321&card2=187

ZiabR

8T8 wrote:

Just to add in short & simple words yes the 6800GS has more under the hood than the other cards and would allow you to run games with more detail options enabled.

Also depending on how long you intend to keep the card it is a Direct-X 9 Shader Model 3.0 card which will matter a small bit more in the long run as most games coming down the pipe* over the next year or two will be built for SM 3.0 hardware in mind and so if you want all the fancy shader effects then you are probably better off going with the 6800GS as the X800GTO is a Direct-X 9 SM 2.0 device.

*Just to expand on that the difference at the moment between SM 2.0 and 3.0 is barely noticeable and there really isnt anything that cant be done SM 3.0 wise that cant be done with SM 2.0 with some elbow grease but the gap will widen as now ATI have their 1K line of SM 3.0 GPU’s on the market, the consoles have moved to SM 3.0 equivalent hardware and some of the new graphics engines such as those from Epic and Crytek are intended for SM 3.0 hardware as a starting point with a fallback SM 2.0 option, as a recent example Ubisoft sold the graphically enhanced Xbox 360 version of King Kong to PC gamers online but only to those with SM 3.0 hardware for the probable reason in that some developers have stated that if you start off with SM 3.0 porting back to SM 2.0 is a pain in the ass (but not vice versa) so they are less likely unless feeling particularly charitable to port all the natty effects you might see in a game but its nothing to loose any sleep over.

Hopes that clears things up for you

Also I prefer Digit-Life’s 3D Digest apples to apples benchmarks over Toms as TH enable thing like softshadows in FEAR in their benchmarks which doesn’t help as it kills performance stone dead on all but the most high end hardware Digit-Life’s are a bit more realistic in that they dont try and punish the GPU as much as possible like Toms seem to do, softshadows in themselves not being a image quality enhancement to die for either although Crytek seem to be pimping it in the their next game Crysis so maybe they have a method that doesn’t drain the life out of your GPU.

http://www.digit-life.com/video.html

Agreed , but as many posters have mentioned, use google and look for reviews and test results.

That Guy 901

Id go with the 6800GS if I were you, from what Ive read they seem a bit better IMO.

Juggalo

In the end I went with the 6800GS. Thanks for everyones help.