Ati X800 Pro Questions


Octavious

Programer Guru! ...in the making
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well, I want to buy a x800 pro and get on top of the game, literally
I have a deal for 450$ that I can get one shipping included and a warranty
good deal
but I got a question for those who are video geeks , im just a borderline geek in trainging

I heard someone say
WITH DIR - X 9.0c COMING OUT SOON AND GAMES WITH PS 3.0 SUPPORT THIS CARD WILL BE OUTDATED FAST!!
so.. what are those 2 things?
dosnt the x800 series practicly dominate DirX 9 ?
thats one reason I want it, my card dont do DirX 9 ( damn 7500 AIW Radeon )
will 9.0c not be able to be run on the x800? what does DirX have to do with anything? should be irelavent on new cards of this power right?
and WTF is PS 3.0???
is that also non x800 stuff?
what is it and why is it so bad I wont have it?
I also believe that the new XNA will replace DirX and will be better than a PS sumtin or other ( watch the XNA preview video, uber good and one plate is PSWHO )
will XNA work on my x800 PRO????

so, could I get some explanation
pls , thx

~Octavious
 
There shouldn't be any huge differences between DirectX 9.0 and DirectX 9.0c. A major DirectX version (say 9 versus 10) has new features but the a,b,c versions just offer some bug-fixes and improvements but no major new graphics-functions.

PS 3.0 is PixelShader 3.0. Ati decided to go with PS 2.0b for this card. If the gamestudios all decide to start using PS 3.0 functions in their next games your graphics card will not support them.

There never is a 'right' time to buy a new graphics card, it will be outdated within three months anyways. It just sucks when you buy the latest and greatest just before a new (major) DirectX version is released
 
I am of course biased but 450$? Get a 6800 GT for the same price. The Geforce outperforms this card, and supports PS 3.0. PS 3.0 is going to be in the next Unreal engine, among other things, so I would try to include it if this is going to be a long term purchase.

As for DirectX 9.0c, that's bullshit. Once again the GT says 9.0c support on the box, but if it only supported 9.0b I wouldn't particularly care. The added features are probably not noteworthy and any game 'designed for 9.0c' will still run on 9.0b.

Btw they'll be no DirectX 10, it's being replaced with the Longhorn API I think (and XNA on XBox) If XNA has any chance of success, it will be backwards-compatible so it runs on older cards. Of course, a very new gfx card that you might buy in two years' time might be 'designed for XNA' and will run it faster.
 
Rico posted on Sep 9 2004 at 11:46 AM said:
Get a 6800 GT for the same price. The Geforce outperforms this card, and supports PS 3.0.
I was faced with this same decision recently and decided to get a 6800 GT card even though I am something of an ATI fan. 6800 GT outperforms the X800 Pro in nearly every category and costs less.

Take a look at the benchmarks on Anandtech or THG.
 
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the pixel shader 3 thing is hard to comment on atm because I don't know of any games that support it. EXCEPT... farcry has had a patch released adding support and apparently gets about a 10% - 33% performance boost.

If thats anything to go by then pixel shader 3 support will speed up rendering more than improve it.

ATI cards do have a feature that nvidia doesn't though, and thats a type of texture compression. I can't remember what it's called but I remember reading that it can allow 2 or 3 times as many textures without any noticable drop in quality.

(Please, someone but-in if they know better what I'm talking about!)

However, I think pixel-shader is likely to have better support in upcoming games as it's a standard directX feature, not a manufacturer specific feature (even though only nvidia has it atm!).

As far as the x800 pro is concerned though, apparently it suffers (when compared to the higher models) because it has only 12 pixel-pipelines instead of 16.

I would (and am) going for the 6800GT and it should cost you, at most, the same price. If you were going for the next model up though, then it's a tough call between ATI's X800 XE and nvidia's 6800 Ultra.
 
ATI's next one is the x800XTPE not PE , less theres another?

and the suggestion is that I should get a 6800gt?
I want what will kick ass now and be damn good for a good while

~Octavious
 
ok, so their like 50 bucks cheaper, i like
so i will get a 6800gt , but from who?
new egg has a bunch of them and they seem the same the same
out of these which is the best?
please member price, but will go a few up for good differance

~Octavious
 
pubjoe posted on Sep 9 2004 at 09:49 PM said:
As far as the x800 pro is concerned though, apparently it suffers (when compared to the higher models) because it has only 12 pixel-pipelines instead of 16.
BTW: I'm almost 100% sure that the GT only has 12 pipelines, as well. You need the Ultra for 16 (hardware mods don't seem to be working).

Octavious, your link doesn't work. However, the XFX is a good brand. You may want to look up cheaper models though since the XFX probably comes bundled with some games you probably don't want.

You could also try http://www.ebuyer.com/ who have a US store.
 
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I got the EVGA one from zipzoomfly.com and it has worked perfectly. I also had the Gainward one briefly but the dual fan was just too damn loud.

Last I checked the evga one came bundled with Doom 3.
 
Rico posted on Sep 9 2004 at 10:24 PM said:
BTW: I'm almost 100% sure that the GT only has 12 pipelines, as well. You need the Ultra for 16 (hardware mods don't seem to be working).
Nah, the GT definately has 16. I cba to find a link, but it has, that's what make it such a good price/performance card: it's just a slightly underclocked ultra. the non-ultra (or vanilla) is the only one with 12 pipelines atm.

What confuses the specs though, is that gainward seem to be releasing their own varients and calling them names such as: "geforce 6800 golden sample ultra" or some bollocks like that. When it's actually just a 6800 and the "ultra" is refering to the size of gainward's big, fat, misleading (dressed as a fanny) ARSE HOLE! :angry:

I was so close to buying one of these falsely-titled cards it's not funny. And I used to be under some stupid impression that gainward was a decent manufacturer???
 
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pubjoe posted on Sep 10 2004 at 02:56 AM said:
Nah, the GT definately has 16. I cba to find a link, but it has, that's what make it such a good price/performance card: it's just a slightly underclocked ultra. the non-ultra (or vanilla) is the only one with 12 pipelines atm.
You are correct, indeed. Guess it was less than 100% sure ;) I read an article on people trying to unlock the pipelines and failing miserably, and I believe someone tried it on their GT which is how I got the notion. Looks like that person was merely a fucking retard. Anyways, more pipelines for me ;)

pubjoe posted on Sep 10 2004 at 02:56 AM said:
What confuses the specs though, is that gainward seem to be releasing their own varients and calling them names such as: "geforce 6800 golden sample ultra" or some bollocks like that. When it's actually just a 6800 and the "ultra" is refering to the size of gainward's big, fat, misleading (dressed as a fanny) ARSE HOLE! :angry:
Well I assume you know, but if you don't - the golden sample is guaranteed overclockable or something. If they'd said 'geforce 6800 ultra golden sample' then they might have gotten into trouble, but the 'ultra' here is just to say it's expanded in some way. Maybe it comes with 3D Pong on CD or something. It's definitely misleading, I daresay designed to be.

Octavious posted on Sep 10 2004 at 03:16 AM said:
my bro says the x800 will be PS3 compatable, but i should still go gt right?

~Octavious
Yes, unless you are a diehard ATI fan and plan on never playing Doom 3, I'd go for the GT.
 
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