I'm about to pull the trigger but would like your input

D

dphu2

New Member
My video card died over the weekend. So I"ve got to get a new one pronto. Timing doesn't seem all that great with dx10 around the corner. Prices will probably be coming down on the top card over the next 12 months or so. But I can't wait so please give me some input.

Budget: I need to keep it $100 - $150. I've been pouring over forums and I've narrowed it down to the 7900gs, X1950 PRO, or the X1950 XT. Tom's Hardware says the X1950 Pro and X1950XT are the cards to get, but Fry's currently has the BFG 7900gs with a factory overclock for $100 after $50 MIR, So that's where I'm leaning at the moment. I'm not an overclocker, so I won't need to take oc capabilities into consideration.

Here are a few questions:
  1. A 100 bucks for a BFG 7900gs oc. Is that a good enough price to to make me buy it over a X1950 Pro?
  2. I currently have a PNY 6800GT from a few years ago. At the time I purchased it, it was somewhat top of the line. Will a 7900gs outperform this card? Will it be substantial?
  3. I read somewhere that new dx10 games will also require Vista. Is this true? Will I be able to play dx10 games with a dx9 card and XP (just at lower settings)?
  4. I have an Antec 2.0 400w PSU. Will that be sufficient for any/all of these cards? I don't know what Mobo I have, but I've got a Athlon 64 3400+ proc, 1gb RAM, 750gb seagate 7200.10 (IDE), a 500gb seagate 7200.10 (SATA), a DVD/CD Burner, and Floppy.
  5. Lastly, I tend to do more graphics oriented stuff than gaming (Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, etc). Would that affect your advice to me?

Any input on any of these points will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance. :)
 
1. I would stick with nvidia myself, although the x1950 is better if Im not mistaken.
2. Yes, it most definitely will.
3. No, you HAVE to have vista in order to play dx10 games. You also have to have a dx10 card to play dx10 games. All the cards you listed do NOT support dx10.
4. Depends on the amps on the rails, but it should be.
5. Some what, depends on who you ask.

I wish people would be more organized like you, so easy to answer questions. If you want dx10 why dont you get a cheaper card like another 6800 and use it for a year, then get an expensive and powerful dx10.1 card.
 
1) DX10 capatible cards are now available for a little more then $100 depending if you intend to stay with NVidia or ATI. The 8600 and 8800 lines are the high price tickets while ATI models by MSI and Asus so far seen round from $50 upto $167 with the RX2400s, RX2600s seen at newegg.

2) The difference between the old card and a newer 7900 series card would be noticed. Again for the price you may want to look over the DX10 capatible models.

3) DX10 is included in Vista right from the start. It's no longer an optional download as seen in the earlier versions of Windows there. DX9 goes right on Vista since Direct X is simply set of 3d rendering drivers. Many games don't even require Direct X to begin with while some will see a DX9 installer used just to get a game like Fear installed. As long as drivers are available for the make and model card installed in order to run Vista DX10 will still run on a DX9 card. Vista is already multibooted with XP here on a Radeon X1300 Pro 256mb DX9 card. Games that mandate DX10 will be games that wouldn't be capatable for XP to begin with will take a few years to go there like 98 game are gone now.

4) The low end Antec model there probably still has a 20pin not 20+4pin power connector. If so that will need replacement preferrably with a newer and larger Antec or going for a heftier make depending on budget there. I am currently runng 4 hard drives, 2 ide -2 sata and two optical drives first with an Antec TP2 480w now TP2 550w with the new build seeing an OCZ GameXStream 700w model to cover future expansion.

5) ATI is known for seeing better image quality over NVidia cards which have been geared more as performance intended(gaming in mind). For $5 more less $10 rebate you can go for a slightly faster RX2600XT Diamond model NOW SEEN at newegg finally over the model just ordered here with only a 1400mhz memory clock at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127305 This one sees a 2300mhz memory clock like the other $165 model.
 
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The Alky project is working on a Dx10 solution for Windows Xp. They already have a working Alpha out.

If you don't plan to do much Dx10 gaming then i vote 1950xt. Very good card.

If you do plan to play Dx10 games then save up for one, like Kobaj recommended.

None of these gaming cards show preference for the graphical tasks you have in mind. Obviously the more powerful card will produce better results, but if you're looking primarily for a workstation card then a FX would be best, though they have no gaming ptential whatsoever.
 
Wow. I really appreciate the input so far. After carefully reading through the posts, I've learned that dx10 games will only really be playable on Vista (apart from the Alky project mentioned by hermeslyre). And honestly, I think that it'll be at least a year or so before I dive into Vista - at which point I'll probably start from the ground up with all new components. So here are my conclusions so far. Feel free to chime in if I'm wrong of if you've got any other advice.
  1. No Vista for me for at least a year, so a dx10 card will be for another time, another build.
  2. Therefore I need to go after the best dx9 card within my current budget of $100 - $150 for an XP system.
  3. skidude suggests the x1950xt. Newegg has a few listed. There's the SAPPHIRE 100186L Radeon X1950XT for $167 and the GECUBE HX195XTGA3-D3 (R) Radeon X1950XT for $256. I'd be curious to know why there's almost $100 difference in price? Also interesting to note: The Sapphire has 294 customer reviews while the Gecube has 4.
  4. kobaj says he'd stick with Nvidia (I assume he's referring to the 7900gs?) - which I can pick up for $100 after rebate currently at fry's.

So is the Sapphire X1950xt worth the extra 67 bucks over the BFG 7900gs oc?

Thanks again

Any workstation card that'll really help you are WAY out of your budget.
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I don't know that I agree. I'm not a hard core graphic artist or anything. I would like to think that either the x1950xt or the 7900gs will be an improvement over my 6800gt? Wouldn't you agree?
 
The difference in price is purely business. Gecubes obviously hoping they'll rope some unsuspecting sap in, but according to the infinitesimal amount of reviews, looks like they failed.

Sapphire is one of the best ATI OEM brands. Much recommended. I think the 1950xt is worth the extra $67 bucks.. Plus the 7900gs' price tag relies on a MIR, which are hardly guaranteed.
 
dphu2 said:
I don't know that I agree. I'm not a hard core graphic artist or anything. I would like to think that either the x1950xt or the 7900gs will be an improvement over my 6800gt? Wouldn't you agree?
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Yes I agree that both the x1950xt and the 7900gs will be an improvement over your old 6800gt. My point was that workstation cards are usually extremely expensive, thus they will not fit in your budget.
 
Here's an interesting quote from ocforums.com:
The x1950XT is the fastest out of the three

they go like this in order of performance (generally)

x1950XT > 7950GT > x1950pro

Oh and I'd say that unless you have Vista right now, I'd skip the 8600GT. There's no point in having a DX10 card if you can't play the games with the DX10 features turned on because the card cannot handle it. I'd say wait until you get Vista, then the DX10 cards will be cheaper.
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I'm especially interested in this part of the quote:
There's no point in having a DX10 card if you can't play the games with the DX10 features turned on because the card cannot handle it. I'd say wait until you get Vista, then the DX10 cards will be cheaper.
Click to expand...

This sounds like my situation. I'm not planning on upgrading to Vista anytime soon, so will a dx10 card really serve me any better than a dx9? I reckon by the time I go vista, dx10 cards will be much more price-accessible and time-tested than they are today.

No 8600GT, the 2600XT beats it, although, I too, like kobaj, would stick with Nvidia....
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Intelkrazy, I've done a quick google of 8600gt vs x1900xt and can't seem to find any reviews with actual benchmarks - only forum comments.

One other thought just came to me. I've read in reviews that Crossfire is much more difficult to set up than SLI. If, sometime down the road, I decided to get a second card of the one I choose today, will going dual-card crossfire be difficult thing to do over going SLI?
 
Yes I agree that both the x1950xt and the 7900gs will be an improvement over your old 6800gt. My point was that workstation cards are usually extremely expensive, thus they will not fit in your budget.
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Yeah, I see what you're saying. I'm not sure what a 'workstation card' is exactly, but, from the sound of it, it's probably something I'll only ever get if I win the lottery!:)
 
It is extremely hard to find a crossfire edition of any ATI card at the moment, I'm not sure why. You need a crossfire master card to be able to use crossfire. The crossfire edition card would look something like this:

Picture%205285%20copy.jpg


But I bet you would decide to buy a DX10 card before you buy another DX9 card to put it in crossfire.
 
From general experience most people here will tell you that the 1950xt is much better than the 8600gt. I believe the 8600gt is around, or alittle better than my 7600gt, and the 1950xt totally owns my card.

To use SLI you need a SLI board, and likewise for crossfire. I haven't any experience with either but I don't believe crossfire is that much more difficult to set up, as there would be threads with headlines like "HELP!!11! I cantd set up my CROSFIR cards!" And I haven't come across any. ;)
 
An ATI model like the ATI FireGL would be a start there. They run from over $100 upto $1500 like the models seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+106790682&name=FireGL+series

The RX2600XTs are the mid range models for the R600 series chips. The early reviews pointed as those climbing over the 8800 lineup of cards as well as the 7950s and X1950s. If the model at the link posted earlier was seen when ordering that would have been grabbed over the non Diamond model for the faster memory clock as well as core there. The FireGL are geared towards the graphics work with the 1gb GDDR3 memory seen on those.
 
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