Contemplating X800XT

Greetings,

Please advise/flame where appropriate.

I want to upgrade my VisionTek GeForce 4 4600 TI to one of this season's best performers.
The 4600 TI has become an FPS sloth with the latest EverQuest engine, and Doom 3.

Specifically, I'm considering a Radeon X800XT or a GeForce 6800GT 256MB (look for an
almost-crosspost in the nVidia group).

My gaming system is 2 years old - a 2.4GHz P4 on an Abit BE7-RAID (533FSB, 4x AGP), 1GB
DDR333 memory, 2x 7200-8MB striped array, and a 6-month old Dell 21" tube monitor.

I will be replacing the system core (mobo and relevant components) before year's end.

I believe my PC Power & Cooling Silencer-350W to be up to the task of driving the big
video card, and a new system core. If it's not, no biggie, I'll chuck it and pick up the
470W version.

My questions a

I perceive a current shortage of X800XT cards. Am I right? If so, when will relief
arrive?

I intend to shop for a Built-by-ATI, Asus or VisionTek. Sound OK?

Does any particular state-side vendor have a good stock of any of these cards?

Should I expect my aging system core to drag the performance of the X800XT down to the
vicinity of the 4600 TI? I'm a little concerned about the 4x AGP slot.

Best regards,

Tim ==
(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')
_________________

Visit the Surrender Dorothy web !! (http://dorothyrocks.com)
Visit the Crunch Monkey web !! (http://crunchmonkey.com)

Timothy J. Trace wrote:
Greetings,

Please advise/flame where appropriate.

I want to upgrade my VisionTek GeForce 4 4600 TI to one of this
season's best performers. The 4600 TI has become an FPS sloth with
the latest EverQuest engine, and Doom 3.

Specifically, I'm considering a Radeon X800XT or a GeForce 6800GT
256MB (look for an almost-crosspost in the nVidia group).

My gaming system is 2 years old - a 2.4GHz P4 on an Abit BE7-RAID
(533FSB, 4x AGP), 1GB DDR333 memory, 2x 7200-8MB striped array, and a
6-month old Dell 21" tube monitor.

I will be replacing the system core (mobo and relevant components)
before year's end.

I believe my PC Power & Cooling Silencer-350W to be up to the task of
driving the big video card, and a new system core. If it's not, no
biggie, I'll chuck it and pick up the 470W version.

My questions a

I perceive a current shortage of X800XT cards. Am I right? If so,
when will relief arrive?

I intend to shop for a Built-by-ATI, Asus or VisionTek. Sound OK?

Does any particular state-side vendor have a good stock of any of
these cards?

Should I expect my aging system core to drag the performance of the
X800XT down to the vicinity of the 4600 TI? I'm a little concerned
about the 4x AGP slot.

Best regards,

Tim ==
(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')
_________________

Visit the Surrender Dorothy web !! (http://dorothyrocks.com)
Visit the Crunch Monkey web !! (http://crunchmonkey.com)


Hey Tim,

With your system, I think you would see considerable performance increase. I
am currently an ATI guy, so can't offer any experienced advise on the Nvidia
cards.
I have a 128 mb 9800 Pro, and it is an excellent card. I run it on an Athlon
XP 2800+ Barton core , overclocked, to 205x11 ( 410x5.5) ( 2.25ghz). The
card will run everything I have that I throw at it, very well - especially
with aa and as on.

I have had both the 9700 Pro, and the 9800 Pro, both built by ATI. No
complaints.

With your current system, i would think the 4600 is holding the 3d
performance back some. I upgraded from a 4400 Ti, to a 9700 Pro, back when I
had an Athlon XP1600+ I think, and saw significant performance increase even
then.

Also, with your current system , spending the price diff between a 9800 Pro
and an X800 XT may not be worth it for the performance gain with your
system, I believe your system would be a bottleneck in getting the X800 XT
to shine. But, you would be set for a while - but dang, that is a lot of
money to spend on a video card.

I really think you would be quite happy with the improvements seen by a 9800
Pro - just my opinion of course.

Btw, AllstarShop shows the Saphire X800 XT in stock. Saphire I believe, for
the most part, does a pretty good job.

And I doubt you would see much if any difference in running agp at 4x versus
8x. I do not believe cards fully utilize even the 4x agp as of yet.







--
Don Burnette

I know this is ATI group but doom3 and games based on doom3 engine run a lot
smoother on 6800GT nvidia cards than ATI..

For your refrence you can always google it yourself and find out...

Yes you do need more watts in PSU, both of those cards will drain more
power..
your system can do atleast 1-2 yrs the way it is now.. and maybe more if u
ain't power hungry user.

Good luck...



Cheers
"Timothy J. Trace" wrote in message
...
Greetings,

Please advise/flame where appropriate.

I want to upgrade my VisionTek GeForce 4 4600 TI to one of this season's
best performers.
The 4600 TI has become an FPS sloth with the latest EverQuest engine, and
Doom 3.

Specifically, I'm considering a Radeon X800XT or a GeForce 6800GT 256MB
(look for an
almost-crosspost in the nVidia group).

My gaming system is 2 years old - a 2.4GHz P4 on an Abit BE7-RAID (533FSB,
4x AGP), 1GB
DDR333 memory, 2x 7200-8MB striped array, and a 6-month old Dell 21" tube
monitor.

I will be replacing the system core (mobo and relevant components) before
year's end.

I believe my PC Power & Cooling Silencer-350W to be up to the task of
driving the big
video card, and a new system core. If it's not, no biggie, I'll chuck it
and pick up the
470W version.

My questions a

I perceive a current shortage of X800XT cards. Am I right? If so, when
will relief
arrive?

I intend to shop for a Built-by-ATI, Asus or VisionTek. Sound OK?

Does any particular state-side vendor have a good stock of any of these
cards?

Should I expect my aging system core to drag the performance of the X800XT
down to the
vicinity of the 4600 TI? I'm a little concerned about the 4x AGP slot.

Best regards,

Tim ==
(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')
_________________

Visit the Surrender Dorothy web !! (http://dorothyrocks.com)
Visit the Crunch Monkey web !! (http://crunchmonkey.com)

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 18:03:45 +1000, "Chingy"
wrote:

I know this is ATI group but doom3 and games based on doom3 engine run a lot
smoother on 6800GT nvidia cards than ATI..

How many games are based on Doom3 besides Doom3. Answer=none.
Only a fool would buy a vid card based on one game. Go look up the
benchmarks and you will see the X800XT PE kicks serious butt.

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 02:20:05 -0700, Bruce Mckown wrote:

Go look up the benchmarks and you will see the X800XT PE kicks serious butt.

And looks to be backordered everywhere as of this date :-

Hi Tim,
You are at one of those crossroads in the upgrading path. PCIe and mobos
with SLI are on the horizon. I have two hi-end systems: an FX53/Asus
A8V/Corsair 3200LL/X800XTPE and a 3.2P4EE/IC7-Max3/Corsair 4000XMS/6800
Ultra w/oc. The fx53 system kicks ass. Both systems are overclockable. If
you're not in a rush, you might wait on PCIe and the nForce4. Right now you
might look at the A8V 939 pin and the Athlon 64 3500-3800 and the X800XT.
This card will definitely perform better in HL2 and DirectX games. Good
luck, Craig.

"Timothy J. Trace" wrote in message
...
Greetings,

Please advise/flame where appropriate.

I want to upgrade my VisionTek GeForce 4 4600 TI to one of this season's
best performers.
The 4600 TI has become an FPS sloth with the latest EverQuest engine, and
Doom 3.

Specifically, I'm considering a Radeon X800XT or a GeForce 6800GT 256MB
(look for an
almost-crosspost in the nVidia group).

My gaming system is 2 years old - a 2.4GHz P4 on an Abit BE7-RAID (533FSB,
4x AGP), 1GB
DDR333 memory, 2x 7200-8MB striped array, and a 6-month old Dell 21" tube
monitor.

I will be replacing the system core (mobo and relevant components) before
year's end.

I believe my PC Power & Cooling Silencer-350W to be up to the task of
driving the big
video card, and a new system core. If it's not, no biggie, I'll chuck it
and pick up the
470W version.

My questions a

I perceive a current shortage of X800XT cards. Am I right? If so, when
will relief
arrive?

I intend to shop for a Built-by-ATI, Asus or VisionTek. Sound OK?

Does any particular state-side vendor have a good stock of any of these
cards?

Should I expect my aging system core to drag the performance of the X800XT
down to the
vicinity of the 4600 TI? I'm a little concerned about the 4x AGP slot.

Best regards,

Tim ==
(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')
_________________

Visit the Surrender Dorothy web !! (http://dorothyrocks.com)
Visit the Crunch Monkey web !! (http://crunchmonkey.com)

Timothy J. Trace wrote in message . ..
On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 02:20:05 -0700, Bruce Mckown wrote:

Go look up the benchmarks and you will see the X800XT PE kicks serious butt.

And looks to be backordered everywhere as of this date :-

You haven't been searching hard enough.

xPCgear has x800XT in stock both the AGP and the PCI-E version.
Check it out: http://www.xpcgear.com/ativideo.html

You can also try newegg (my favorite place to shop). I recently
bought a Gigabyte x800XT PCI-E 2 days ago (10/18/04).

newegg also has x800XT AGP and PCI-E in stock.
Check it out: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1


If your not a ATI fan. Nvidia4 brings PCI-E with SLI. (I can't wait
that long so I went with ATI)
Check it out: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_16486.html

"Timothy J. Trace" wrote in message
...
Greetings,

Please advise/flame where appropriate.

I want to upgrade my VisionTek GeForce 4 4600 TI to one of this season's
best performers.
The 4600 TI has become an FPS sloth with the latest EverQuest engine, and
Doom 3.

Specifically, I'm considering a Radeon X800XT or a GeForce 6800GT 256MB
(look for an
almost-crosspost in the nVidia group).

My gaming system is 2 years old - a 2.4GHz P4 on an Abit BE7-RAID (533FSB,
4x AGP), 1GB
DDR333 memory, 2x 7200-8MB striped array, and a 6-month old Dell 21" tube
monitor.

I will be replacing the system core (mobo and relevant components) before
year's end.

I believe my PC Power & Cooling Silencer-350W to be up to the task of
driving the big
video card, and a new system core. If it's not, no biggie, I'll chuck it
and pick up the
470W version.

My questions a

I perceive a current shortage of X800XT cards. Am I right? If so, when
will relief
arrive?

I intend to shop for a Built-by-ATI, Asus or VisionTek. Sound OK?

Does any particular state-side vendor have a good stock of any of these
cards?

Should I expect my aging system core to drag the performance of the X800XT
down to the
vicinity of the 4600 TI? I'm a little concerned about the 4x AGP slot.

Best regards,

Tim ==
(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')
_________________

Visit the Surrender Dorothy web !! (http://dorothyrocks.com)
Visit the Crunch Monkey web !! (http://crunchmonkey.com)

I just recently replaced my VisionTek (NVidia) Ti4600 card with a new
VisionTek (ATI) Radeon X800 XT 256. This is the model that is the same as
the X800 XT PE, but clocked down to 500mhz core from the PE's 520mhz.
Other than that, it's the same card, including VIVO. I got mine in just one
week ordering it directly from the VisionTek site. I put it in a 3.0GHZ
Intel i875 system w/1MB RAM. So far, everything, including Doom 3 and Sims
2 runs very fast at 1280 rez. The only thing I notice is that, in OpenGL
(Doom 3, Quake 3), there is a slight bit of stuttering when panning
horizontally (turning left and right). I never noticed any stuttering with
my Ti4600, even though fps performance was slower. I'm hoping that future
drivers will provide better OpenGL performance.

Direct 3D games, however, appear to run very smooth. MS Flight Simulator
2004 runs very smooth at 1280 with AA and everything turned up. With my
Ti4600, I had to run FS2004 at 1024 to get smooth frame rates. I'm also
hearing that Half-Life 2 will run very well with the x800 GT. I hope so,
because that is the premier game that I bought this card for. Alas, I am
not able to compare this with an NVidia 6800GT (I wish that I could).

Bottom line is that I could have gone either way, but was influenced by an
IT guy at my workplace who had purchased the ATI card and had praised it
highly. I paid about $70 more for the ATI card than I would have paid for
the NVidia card. The other bonus with the ATI card is that it has hardward
video capture and encoding built in (VIVO), whereas the NVidia 6800GT does
not.

I would be interested to hear from those who have the 6800GT how the
performance is in OpenGL.