ATi X850 XT Platinum or GeForce 6800 GS CO?

Dialamo

Dialamo

New Member
My part hunting for my new PC was going fine untill I hit the part where I need to choose a graphics card. Now I am stuck deciding between the X850 XT Platinum or the GeForce 6800 GS CO.

My basic needs for my new PC is for it to play Battlefield 2, Counter-Strike:Source and other source games, FEAR, Doom 3, and Unreal Tournament 2004 very well or playable. I like to run games on either 800x600 resolution or 1024x768 resolution and on medium-high settings.

I think the ATi card is better, but it is way more expensive than the Nvidia card. The prices are the main factor about why I need to decide between these two cards.

Now here are my questions:

Will both of these cards run the games I listed at a very good or playable rate?

I noticed the Nvidia card has a lot higher Memory Clock than the ATi card, but the ATi card has a higher core clock than the Nvidia. The Ati cards core clock is 50MHz higher than the Nvidia's, and the Nvidia's Memory clock is 510MHz higher than the Ati card. How would this influence my desicion? (I read Video Card 101, did not help me)

Will any of these cards bottleneck a AMD Athlon 64 3400+?(Socket 754)

If you know better prices for the exact same video cards, can you tell me? (Try to tell me the Canadian price)

Links(They are in Canadian prices):
X850 XT Platinum
GeForce 6800 GS CO
 
The 6800GS co has 12 pixel piplines, the X850XT Platinum has 16, resulting in higher performance for the ATI card. However, the 6800GS CO has the newest Shader model, helping in games where there is underwater reflection, such as Age of empires 3. That is the main diferences there. In the US, the prices are not that much different, probably like $50-$75. In canadian, I'd go with the 6800GS because of the HUGE price jump to the X850XT. They will both play your games at a very good rate. I don't think that the cards will bottleneck the cpu. Is there any reason why you're getting socket 754? The newest socket, socket 939, has support for newer technologies, and will last longer and be more upgradable.
 
Jet said:
The 6800GS co has 12 pixel piplines, the X850XT Platinum has 16, resulting in higher performance for the ATI card. However, the 6800GS CO has the newest Shader model, helping in games where there is underwater reflection, such as Age of empires 3. That is the main diferences there. In the US, the prices are not that much different, probably like $50-$75. In canadian, I'd go with the 6800GS because of the HUGE price jump to the X850XT. They will both play your games at a very good rate. I don't think that the cards will bottleneck the cpu. Is there any reason why you're getting socket 754? The newest socket, socket 939, has support for newer technologies, and will last longer and be more upgradable.
Click to expand...

Hmm....Yes I was thinking of changing to a 939, I'll see my options. Thanks for the help by the way!
 
Dude, go with the X850XT PE, for a long time it was ATI's top dog. Its stilla very powerful card too.
 
Did you look at the prices though?
X850XT PE = $445 canadian
6800GS CO = $239 canadian
Thats too much of a price jump. Besides, the 6800GS Co has shader model 3.0
 
SM 3.0 is overrated. The x850XTPE is clearly a better card. Now, if he can use the money saved on upgrading a different component in his system, that'd be a good choice too.
 
I have a 6800 GS OC to 520/1.2 and it plays all the games you mentioned on high settings with a s939 sempron. The ATI may be a better card. Up to you to decide if the price difference is worth it.
 
The X850XT is the better card, but it's not worth anywhere near that sort of money. For that price, you can get a far superior 7800GT
 
He is in canada. I agree the 7800GT would be a better choice, if Dialamo wants to spend the extra 100 canadian
 
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Wow, that 7800GT does not look so bad at all! Thanks alot for refering me to that!

The 7800GT is better than the X850 PE right? Wanna make sure.
 
Yes, the 7800GT is about the same as an X1800XL, so it would be better than a X850XT PE
 
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