Video cards

miir · Post by **miir** » November 10, 2005, 3:40 pm

I like, and currently use a BFG card.

Whats' the main difference between a 6800 GT OC 256MB and 6800 Ultra OC 256MB. I imagine the 'ultra' is the faster of the 2, but they are pretty much the same price.

I also see a 7800 GT OC 256MB which is actually cheaper than the 6800s.

The water cooled and GTX 7800s won't fit in my budget, so I don't really want to hear how much superer and awesomer they are.

How do the 6800s and 7800GT stack up against the Radeon x1800XL and the x850XT?

Does anyone have a SLI setup?
Is the extra performance worth the extra cost?
Should I bother getting a motherboard that supports SLI?
Is this a 'technology' that anyone sees becoming standard?

Janx · Post by **Janx** » November 10, 2005, 4:34 pm

Just ordered a 1800xt 512 myself ^^. But if i had to choose between a 6800GT/U and a 7800GT I'd get the 7800GT (from what I hear easily oc'd to GTX speeds). Or if you can wait either a 1800xt 512/7800GTX 512. Lot of the newer games are taking advantage of the extra memory.

P.S. SZLOTEK

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 10, 2005, 4:40 pm

The BFG 6800GT is easily OC'able to 6800Ultra performance levels.

my BFG 6800GT. It's destined for the video card hall of fame as a price/lifespan/performer like the ATI9700Pro and others.

7800GTx's have a sizable performance increase over the 6800's. I didn't think this until after reading several reviews and benchmark articles.

If you want a comparison that gets to the point..EQ2, here's the specific page:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=ODc1LDg=

I'd recommend reading the entire review of the x1800XT that the above page comes from:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=ODc1LDE=

Or if short on time, here's the conclusion:

The Bottom Line:

We’ve said this time and time again in other reviews, but the bottom line comes down to price, performance, and availability. As of 11/03/2005, Newegg had the Radeon X1800 XT for sale. It has however since then gone on backorder. Talking to ATI about this, they explained that they had changed up their shipping strategy a bit, in that they shipped smaller quantities of the card to more e-tailers and retailers. Given this, we should see the X1800 XT moving into stock with a wider footprint than in the past. That said, ATI was not specific to how many cards had been shipped, so seeing if they stay in stock will be an issue to watch as well.

The MSRP for the 512MB Radeon X1800 XT is $549; this is no small amount of change. We have seen retail GeForce 7800 GTX-based video cards online for $100 cheaper than the X1800 XT’s MSRP. As of yesterday, the X1800 XT was selling for approximately $50 over MSRP. If money is no object, the Radeon X1800 XT keeps a steady pace with GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB video card; furthermore, in some cases, it offers a faster gaming experience than NVIDIA’s current top-of-the-line card.

The Radeon X1800 XT does have an interesting new feature – which is unavailable on the GeForce 7800 GTX – as it has the ability to do AA with all methods of HDR. Therefore, if this is important for you, the X1800 XT might be the better choice. There also seems to be a lot of performance headroom with the Radeon X1000 series, which we have seen with the recent OpenGL Fix drivers. I sincerely hope that ATI can keep making the X1000 series more efficient through driver updates. Whichever card you chose, you won’t be disappointed as each allows a very high level of game play performance and image quality.

The performance of the Radeon X1800 XT isn't an issue as there is plenty of it. As we saw in the past with ATI's top-of-the-line cards, pricing and availability are the big questions facing ATI's flagship cards.

Your bang for the buck card right now is OC'ing the 7800GT to GTX levels.

miir · Post by **miir** » November 10, 2005, 4:55 pm

Well yea, an x1800XT would be nice but it's in the same price bracket as the top end 7800GTX...
Which is to say, I can't justify (to myself) paying 50% more for a card that's only going to give me a marginal performance increase.

The XT is like $250 more than the XL.... provided you can find a place with them in stock.

I was already leaning towards the 7800GT and have yet to find anything to change my mind.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 10, 2005, 5:44 pm

What would one recommend in the AGP realm that doesn't cost $500 and performs fairly decently? I have a ATI 9800Pro at the moment but it's kinda pokey at 1920x1200. And when I try and run two EQ sessions the graphics gets all buggered up and it (EQ) usually crashes. Whereas on my previous machine, with a nvidia card, I don't have that problem. So kinda want my next card to not be ATI if possible.

I know PCI-Express is the way to go blah blah blah but I'm not going to get a new motherboard at this time. Which would probably lead me to go AMD this time which would mean even more money spent on processor etc.

Janx · Post by **Janx** » November 10, 2005, 6:26 pm

Probably one of the 6800's aslanna. Evga/bfg 6800GT (their warrantys rock) probably the way to go if they oc as well as Winnow says.

miir · Post by **miir** » November 10, 2005, 6:43 pm

A 9800 ATI or 6800 Nvidia offer the most performance you can get from an AGP card. Upgrading would be kinda pointless. Save it for when you upgrade your motherboard.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 10, 2005, 6:57 pm

Since I use the same 1920X1200 res as you, I'd recommend getting nothing less than the 6800GT (BFG if possible) Be sure you order the AGP. Newegg only seems to have PCI-e : (

It will probably run you around 300.00 currently.

CoV has mega special effects and I get through them on full graphics mode with the 6800GT in 1920X1200.

I have 3GB of ram but if you have 2GB you should be fine. With the new LCD display keyboard I bought, I've been keeping it in perfomance mode and memory use hovers around 1.5GB in CoV. I'd go 2GB if at all possible as it doesn't matter how good your graphics card is if you're short on system memory.

Rekaar. · Post by **Rekaar.** » November 10, 2005, 9:12 pm

Aslanna wrote:What would one recommend in the AGP realm that doesn't cost $500 and performs fairly decently? I have a ATI 9800Pro at the moment but it's kinda pokey at 1920x1200. And when I try and run two EQ sessions the graphics gets all buggered up and it (EQ) usually crashes. Whereas on my previous machine, with a nvidia card, I don't have that problem. So kinda want my next card to not be ATI if possible.

I know PCI-Express is the way to go blah blah blah but I'm not going to get a new motherboard at this time. Which would probably lead me to go AMD this time which would mean even more money spent on processor etc.

Don't rule out the 6600gt 256mb. It's a great card, costs considerably less than its big brothers, and you won't sink too much into an aging technology. Save up for a whole new pc.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 10, 2005, 10:18 pm

Rekaar. wrote:
Aslanna wrote:What would one recommend in the AGP realm that doesn't cost $500 and performs fairly decently? I have a ATI 9800Pro at the moment but it's kinda pokey at 1920x1200. And when I try and run two EQ sessions the graphics gets all buggered up and it (EQ) usually crashes. Whereas on my previous machine, with a nvidia card, I don't have that problem. So kinda want my next card to not be ATI if possible.

I know PCI-Express is the way to go blah blah blah but I'm not going to get a new motherboard at this time. Which would probably lead me to go AMD this time which would mean even more money spent on processor etc.
Don't rule out the 6600gt 256mb. It's a great card, costs considerably less than its big brothers, and you won't sink too much into an aging technology. Save up for a whole new pc.

I don't think the 6600GT would cut it in 1920X1200 res if you want to see the games as they were mean't to be played without sacrificing.

The cheapest solid AMD dual core PCI-e MB upgrade would be 1077.00 by my estimates.

322.00 AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
349.00 7800GT video card
249.00 ram (2GB)
157.00 ASUS DUAL SLI MB (in case you add a second 7800GT later for nice boost at low cost when 7800's are cheap later down the road)

OC that puppy to the moon! (great out of the box, excellent OC capability of 3800 AMD and 7800GT is desired with little effort an no extra cooling which turns it into a system that would cost 3 to 400.00 more stock)

If you have a decent CPU (close to 3GHz) and 1.5-2GB ram, a 6800GT should keep you happy for awhile at 300.00 or less compared to 1,000.00. The performance won't even be in the ballpark of the 1,000.00 upgrade but it's less than 33% of the cost.

Oh, you might need a new case and PSU!

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » November 10, 2005, 11:49 pm

I am shopping as well and came across these.. comments? What would be better in the same price range more or less? Looking for decent card, bang for the buck without going up to the $500 range. Should play EQ2/Quake/etc decently.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814143025

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814143037

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getp ... n+X800GTO2

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » November 11, 2005, 2:06 pm

Don't get an ATI card... Get the BFG 7800 GT, you will be very happy

Marb

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 11, 2005, 2:16 pm

7800's aren't available for AGP motherboards so be sure you have a PCI MB.

I remember when I first switched from my ATi to nVidia 6800. The drivers are so much more stable for the nVidia cards. That's another reason to pick up a 6800 or 7800 over an ATi right now.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » November 11, 2005, 3:11 pm

Let me echo Winnow's statement. The Nvidia drivers come out far more often (constant reworking to upgrade), and seem to be much more stable.

When I switched from ati to my 6800ultra...that's the first thing I noticed (after the sickening performance).

edit: Mine is also an eVGA, couldnt be happier. They have great phone support too, but most of my questions were on their message boards.

Kaelina · Post by **Kaelina** » November 11, 2005, 3:19 pm

I just bought this mobo/vid card combo last week from NewEgg. $399 for vid card, + free SLI motherboard.

I was dubious about getting an eVGA, after being a BFG fan for so long, but they seem to have the exact same liftetime replacement/upgrade plan.

The video card is fucking huge and needs a lot of space in the case to breathe, but so far it seems to be running fine. It can handle Quake 4 with all the settings maxed. The motherboard isn't half bad either.

http://www.evga.com/articles/public.asp?AID=258

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » November 11, 2005, 3:21 pm

Mine will be in a PCI-E PC. So you would suggest the extra money is worth it for a 7800GT over a 6800GT?

Post by **Xouqoa** » November 11, 2005, 5:03 pm

How exactly does one attempt to OC a 7800GT to 7800GTX speeds?

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 11, 2005, 5:09 pm

Xouqoa wrote:How exactly does one attempt to OC a 7800GT to 7800GTX speeds?

I'm pretty sure it involves putting a Type-R sticker somewhere.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » November 11, 2005, 5:17 pm

Actually as of right now Nvidia isn't make any more 6800 GTs or Ultras. They are making a new 6800 GS to replace the standard 6800 model. It's almost as fast as a GT on most things, especially at 1280x1024 or below but doesn't scale as well because it has less piplelines and pixel shaders. NOTE - the GS is a different chip than the 6800, GT or Ultra. It truly only has 12 pipelines and 5 shaders so you can't "unlock" the extra pipelines to make it a GT, they truly are not there. However considering this card will run just about any game out right now very well and you can pick it up for about $200 at NewEgg... who needs it, 2 of them in SLI are a little faster than single 7800 GTX. (do the math).

Look for Nvidia to come out with new cards by Feb or possibly sooner for the top end so that the 7800 GTs come down in price a little more. Right now that card is the sweet spot.

I've got a 6800 GT (AGP) because I have an older AGP motherboard (3000+ Athlon XP). I was going to get the BFG as well because of the warranty and over clocking but a week or so before (ie sometime last July) eVGA switch to the same warranty as BFG and implemented their trade up program where you can turn in your old eVGA card for a new one and get a refund (or something like that). The eVGA card is actually made by Nvidia, some have a different sticker on the heat sink but on many (including mine) it's the same one that's on the test board from Nvidia. The good thing was that the eVGA was under $300 at New Egg at if you could find the BFG it was $360+

I upgraded from a Ti4200 and it was night and day in EQ2 and WoW. I can run WoW at 1280 with every setting maxed and it smooth as silk, same for DOOM3 and others... only slow down I get is in Qeynos with a lot of people and I keep my settings on balance.

Even my 6800 GT is big though, luckly I have a big Antec case and it was still tight getting it in due to the hard drives. However I think my PC has been off for only a couple of hours, I just leave it up, since I installed the card in August and it runs a cool 64 degrees during intenst gaming and in the 50s when "working" from home or something boring. Very happy with the eVGA. They also offer a support msg board where you can look if you have specific problems.

I'm not a big overclocker and I like my components to run cool so if things continue like they are my next card will be an eVGA as well.

Marb

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » November 11, 2005, 5:22 pm

Well, you can used "tuned" drivers, like RIVAtuner, but there is no guarantee. This would be the softmod technique.

Programs like "coolbits" and "powerstrip" are registry hacks that will allow you to mess with core speeds on your vid card and test afterwards.

I don't condone any of these methods, especially on a new card/chip design. Usually, the newest ones run hotter than the ones that come out a year or so later.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 11, 2005, 5:34 pm

Xouqoa wrote:How exactly does one attempt to OC a 7800GT to 7800GTX speeds?

nVidia has OC built into the drivers.

Scroll down a little on this linked page to see some comments about OCing 6800GTs:

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/bfg_gefor ... age5.shtml

Kelshara: I'd get the 7800 over the 6800 for sure if it was for a PCI-e motherboard setup. 7800's are quite a bit faster.

Post by **pyrella** » November 14, 2005, 9:59 pm

I have a pair of evga 6800 GT 256's in SLI on the same monitor. It's pure sex!

Slightly more technical terms - I can play any game out there at max resolution (1600x1200 on games that suck my ass for not going to widescreen support, and 1920x1200 on games which were designed for enthusiasts!) with max details (max AA, max AF, Redraw, etc) with little to no performance hits. When I get home I'll try and dig up my 3d mark scores.

Biggest thing hurting my pc is it has a AMD 3000, so I need to get a 3500-4200 when the prices drop.

noel · Post by **noel** » November 14, 2005, 10:03 pm

Because of this thread, I have a BFG Tech 7800GT 256 on the way to my house.

Unfortunately, I'd need a new case/MB to SLI it, but I'm not ruling that out down the road!

Mr Bacon · Post by **Mr Bacon** » November 14, 2005, 11:15 pm

In about 6-12 months I'm going to be saving up money and going all out.

Possibly a new case
New motherboard, preferibly dual core, definitely PCI-E.
New processor (probably a dual core)
New Dual 7800GT's
2gb of DDR400 ram

It should kick ass. Any recommendations?

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » November 15, 2005, 10:58 am

Any suggestions? Sure: attach the case fan to your house air conditioning vent

Post by **Xouqoa** » November 15, 2005, 3:18 pm

Get a Zalman heatsink/system fan. They work excellent to keep your system cool and are very quiet.

Here's the one I got - it's my second time buying a Zalman heatsink/fan -- this one is a lot better design than the first one I had.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx ... ia=BA30045

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 15, 2005, 4:07 pm

I've got a Zalman heatsink/fan similar to Xou's and it's kept two generations of CPUs in my system quietly cooled.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » November 15, 2005, 11:44 pm

Video cards have become such a pain in the ass to keep track of. GT? XT? Ultra. Christ. I miss the days when you could just say GeForc 3 or 4! I'm looking to upgrade too, probably want to spend like 200-250 max (canadian!). Any suggestions?

*AGP

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » November 16, 2005, 2:49 am

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.ph ... id=999.821

(I don't know from Canadian stores...)

That's the 6600GT/128Mb, not a bad price given pricewatch has ASUS at US$178... but they don't have stock (which is likely to be the hard bit at the moment)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 16, 2005, 7:03 am

I still think going the 1,000.00 full upgrade route is the way to go over spending 200.00 on a card already being taxed if you own a monitor capable of the higher resolutions.

But if you own something like the Ati9800 or older card and know you wont be able to spring for the 1K option, I'd go for the 300.00 oprion and get a 6800/256mb card at least so you have a little breathing room.

This whole issue is being clouded by the comment that the 6800GT/256 is no longer being made..wtf? I did read that in a few months, there will be an Ati1800XT available in AGP...I bet it does well too seeing as nVidia has totally abandoned AGP in its high end cards...and also the fact that I don't think some people are understanding the total performance gains in CPUs and other areas beyond the video card in the new generation.

The 1K is a solid 2 year investment IMO as opposed to a 200.00 leaky patch that is a quick fix but will immediately begin to leak in a month or two (and is already inadequate for the highest settings (meaning the 6600, not 6800). If 200.00 is the only option, consider sticking with what you have and saving for six months as you'll be able to get the 1K fix at that time for 800.00 (just a guess) and still get 1.5 years (just a guess) out of it while the 200.00 fix will be taxed already...hmmm come to think of it...buy the 200.00 fix now...and the 1000 fix in 6 months for 800 and you've spent the same amount of money but have improved gameplay for the next 6 months while saving up the extra 800.00.

Syenye · Post by **Syenye** » November 16, 2005, 11:26 am

the x1800XL looks amazing. after a brief fling with nvidia, i'm back to being an ati girl.

what are you doing with the dual 7800s? i built a system with dual 6800s for my dad about a year ago, and i was kind of disappointed with the performance increase... wasn't as much as i had expected for the kind of money it cost. if you don't have the cash to spend up front, i'd recommend getting one card for now, then maybe upgrading with a second card later when you have the money. plus you'll have an upgrade to look forward to!

miir · Post by **miir** » November 16, 2005, 1:05 pm

Dregor Thule wrote:Video cards have become such a pain in the ass to keep track of. GT? XT? Ultra. Christ. I miss the days when you could just say GeForc 3 or 4! I'm looking to upgrade too, probably want to spend like 200-250 max (canadian!). Any suggestions?

*AGP

BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC 128MB DDR AGP w/DVI/Tv-Out

It's what I'm using at the moment. No complaints, it's a solid card.
They have a $40 mail in rebate so it's gonna end up costing you only $170.

The Canada Computers on College has some in stock.
The rebate is on until the end of the month.
If you're not gonna be down here before then, let me know, I can always grab one for ya.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 16, 2005, 1:27 pm

I really don't have much of a performance problem with my 9800Pro. The problem, I believe, is with the drivers. When I'm playing EQ fullscreen I have some bleedthrough. Sometimes when I click on something in EQ it minimizes EQ and makes what was under it current. I also tried to run two instances of EQ and was unable to even do that. The graphics got totally screwed up and eventually (within 15 minutes) it crashed. It's ridiculous that I can't run two EQ sessions on a 3.0GHz 1.5GB RAM PC.

That's the whole reason I inquired about a Nvidia AGP solution. But I don't want to spend $200-300 on something that doesn't really give better performance (I mean I am upgrading why not go for something faster) than what I have. And since everything else works fine spending $1000+ to upgrade motherboard/cpu/video isn't really an option either.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » November 16, 2005, 1:56 pm

You guys looking at a decent solution might consider this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130202

eVGA now has the same warranty as BFG so you are good to go if it breaks. This is the standard 6800 model. It's got a slower clock than the 6600GT and DDR rather than DDR2 however it has 4 more pixel pipelines than the 6600GT and a 256bit memory interface. If you are running at higher resolutions this card always beats the stock 6600GT and may in other solutions as well.

Here are some other things to think about though... The chip in the 6800, 6800GT and Ultra was designed for the AGP interface. To make those cards PCIe Nvidia puts a converter chip on board. The same can be said for the AGP versions of the 6600GT. Truly the 6600GT was the first card Nvidia designed specifiaclly for PCIe. Thus the AGP version has a converter chip... don't get me wrong, it works great but to me the less hassle the better.

Finally let me note that many of the 6800 have the ability to be unlocked. By that I mean you can take RivaTuner and unlock all the pixel pipelines and vertex shaders so that it has the same bandwidth (except for memory of course) as the 6800GT. I've had my AGP 6800GT since this summer and I'm loving it... also been very happy with eVGA. If things hadn't worked out just right I would have had this one, the 6800 instead... looking back on it I probably should have saved the cash and just gotten this anyway... but hey, I wanted to be like Winnow!

Don't just take my word for it, see how it performed against the competition on Firing Squad http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evg ... orce_6800/ Also note the number of good reviews it has on NewEgg as well.

Cheers!
Marb

Mr Bacon · Post by **Mr Bacon** » November 16, 2005, 1:58 pm

If you're looking to update an AGP card without upgrading again for at least a year, go for a 256mb card. Some 128's are just as good as some 256's, so in all honesty, it really depends on the specific details of the card.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 17, 2005, 6:21 am

Aslanna wrote:The problem, I believe, is with the drivers. When I'm playing EQ fullscreen I have some bleedthrough. Sometimes when I click on something in EQ it minimizes EQ and makes what was under it current. I also tried to run two instances of EQ and was unable to even do that. The graphics got totally screwed up and eventually (within 15 minutes) it crashed. It's ridiculous that I can't run two EQ sessions on a 3.0GHz 1.5GB RAM PC.

If it's drivers and you don't want to spend much, I'd go with the 6600GT.

There really are no driver issues with nVidia cards compared to ATi. The 6600GT also has hardware acceleration for WMV9 which the 6800GTs don't have...small thing but it is something the 6600's have that the 6800s don't. (the 7800s have WMV9 hardware acceleration as well)

Syenye, it's not yet time to go back to being an ATi girl. ATi is disappointed with their efforts on the 1300 and 1800 lines and are working hard to make the next generation actually a marked improvment as opposed to just catching up to what nVidia already has with rock solid drivers.

Sources close to ATI Technologies have said that the company has been testing its forthcoming high-end graphics processing unit (GPU) since July, 2005. The chip, which is due to be out early in 2006 is claimed to be a rapid one by persons familiar with the matter.

“It is really fast,” a person who knows approximate performance estimates of the code-named R580 graphics processor said. Another source noted that ATI Technologies has been “playing” with the code-named R580 part since early July, 2005, at least, trying to clock it at different speeds and measure its performance afterwards.

The nVidia 7800GTX 512mb is the fastest card out (including the unavailable 1800XT)

More than Just the RAM

Unfortunately, the Geforce 7800GTX 512MB name doesn't really tell you the real difference between this card, and the 7800 GTX that Nvidia rolled out six months ago. Nvidia's marketing people should be drawn and quartered for not giving this card its own name or descriptor ("Ultra" perhaps).

Though based upon the same chip as the original GTX, the 512MB also has its core clocked to 550MHz (up from 430MHz) and RAM clocked at 1750 MHz (up from 1200MHz). BFG has a board with a core clocked at 580 MHz. Obviously, the one thing the name does imply is that the card has 512MB of RAM, double the original design and giving it parity with ATI's X1800 XT. That said, more RAM in today's games hasn't really yielded significant performance boosts.

Performance

While we'll have some first hand experience with the card in a few days, Anandtech.com did its usual high quality tests on the card versus the original 7800 GTX, ATI's X1800 XT and X1800 XP.

The tests conclusively show that the card is the fastest around, though some higher level tests of anti-aliasing (beyond 4x) probably would have closed the gap slightly with ATI's X1800 XT. It would have also been nice to see X1800 XTs in Crossfire versus 7800 GTX 512s in SLI, though Crossfire master cards for the x1800 XT aren't yet available on the market.

Nvidia claims that a user in Singapore used a single GTX 7800 512 to shatter the existing 3Dmark 05 benchmark to hit 13,396, beating the prior record by 2,500 points.

As we've stated, the card is available today from various OEMs (BFG Tech, XFX, etc.) at a number of online retailers at prices starting at $700.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » November 17, 2005, 12:16 pm

Are you sure about the video stuff Win? I got a copy of NVDVD because it said the 6600, 6800, and 7800s all supported that acceleration and truthfully it has made a noticable difference in watching DVDs on my PC.

Here is a link form NVidia that says it's supported... or am I misreading?

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo.html

Thanks!
Marb

Edit - Nevermind... you're right, the WMV9 isn't support on the AGP version of the 6800GT, just the PCIe... what a crock!

Neost · Post by **Neost** » November 17, 2005, 1:37 pm

Why would anyone trust a guy that wears lederhosen anyway

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 17, 2005, 10:44 pm

Marbus wrote:
Edit - Nevermind... you're right, the WMV9 isn't support on the AGP version of the 6800GT, just the PCIe... what a crock!

Achtung!

You can still watch WVM9 videos, they just take more of your CPUs power due to lack of hardware support on the 6800s.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » November 18, 2005, 12:28 pm

Yea, I understand, it would just be nice if the pron wasn't so choppy!

hahah...

Marb

Rekaar. · Post by **Rekaar.** » November 18, 2005, 10:13 pm

From the little I've read, I don't believe the 512 can be put into SLI mode since it takes up two slots all by itself.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 26, 2005, 9:25 am

SLI is just sick. I know it's not needed for games right now but I'm finding it hard not to buy a MB that isn't at least SLI ready as popping in another 7800GT down the road will be a serious performance upgrade for probably 250.00 by then. I'm dealing with 1920X1200 so it matters.

I've been considering the DFI LANPARTY UT nf4 Ultra-d MB but while it has two PCE-e slots, it's not SLI. It gets rave reviews though and is only 113.00 at Newegg. I'm guessing another 100.00 for an SLI DFI MB is the way to go now in order to get that serious performance increase later for cheap whenever it makes sense to slap in a second video card.

With my Xbox 360 fun on hold, I've been researching upgrades again...PSUs...memory...Opterons 165's and 170's. It doesn't take long for new chips to come into prominence. X2s are falling in favor of the Opterons. Both AMD dual cores though!

Check these prices for Opterons:

Dual Core:
OSA165CDBOX BOX $295.00 Model 165, Dual Core, 1.8Ghz, 939pin, 110W, 2 MB Cache, step E6
OSA170CDBOX BOX $382.00 Model 170, Dual Core, 2.0Ghz, 939pin, 110W, 2 MB Cache, step E6

People are easily clocking both of these to 2.4 and many to 2.7+

Janx · Post by **Janx** » November 26, 2005, 12:37 pm

Er winnow. I have that mb..and its "pencil trick" modable to SLI. ^^

edit: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... i=2322&p=1

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 26, 2005, 7:41 pm

Janx wrote:Er winnow. I have that mb..and its "pencil trick" modable to SLI. ^^

edit: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... i=2322&p=1

Not anymore, DFI "fixed" it.

This board no longer unlocks to SLI. DFI fixed it with a few layers of epoxy. Theoretically, one could drill through it, but it would be risky.

I was off on the price of an SLI. Newegg has one a DFI board for 139.00 that's SLI, I'm looking to see if there's any other differences. There are also "Expert" versions of these boards coming out that have some modifications like spreading the PCE-e slots farther apart, etc.

Here's the Expert SLi board. It's 199.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813136166

This is the 139.00 board. Notice any difference between it and your Ultra-D? (besides the SLI) If not, 20.00 or so isn't much difference between the two boards for SLI and I'd just go with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813136158

Janx · Post by **Janx** » November 27, 2005, 2:00 am

Ah ghetto =/

Ransure · Post by **Ransure** » January 4, 2006, 1:48 am

So, to revive this thread... whats currently the best bang for the buck in $150 AGP cards with DVI or even dual DVI output?...

Just looking for something to tide me over until I move into my condo in March and this becomes a HTPC.... then I build a new gaming box (even though I dont think Ive played a game in like 4 months or so...)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » January 4, 2006, 3:50 am

Ransure wrote:So, to revive this thread... whats currently the best bang for the buck in $150 AGP cards with DVI or even dual DVI output?...

Just looking for something to tide me over until I move into my condo in March and this becomes a HTPC.... then I build a new gaming box (even though I dont think Ive played a game in like 4 months or so...)

For dual DVI and that price range, I'd say a 6600GT. Just make sure you pick one with dual DVI:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... x=0&Go.y=0

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » January 4, 2006, 4:01 am

I don't know if you have a Micro Center near where you live, but I get their email newsletter, and right now they have an incredible deal...

Radeon X850XT AGP
$199.99 after $50 rebates and some extra savings.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » January 4, 2006, 4:03 am

That's a $400 card, by the way.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » January 4, 2006, 12:57 pm

I would stay away from ATI

Marb