Video card

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Video card

Postby Midnight_LS1 » Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:21 pm

I'm building a new computer case and I'd like to see where I can get the top of the line or excellent video card.

Re:
http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/ ... 1102557141

Ranking in these order (1 highest priority, 3 low piroity)
1. Performance (FPS)
2. RAM (may fall under the performance catagory but the more the merrier  :) )
3. Price

I see that Nvidia and ATi are popular video cards in the FS sim world.
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Re: Video card

Postby GunnerMan » Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:51 pm

Well its personal prefference kinda...
ATI will get slightly better FPS is alot of first person shooters but the drivers tend to be not the greatest....
Nvidia has excelent drivers, are very stable and are alot cheaper 50-100 bucks cheaper...they run better in some FPS such as FarCry(I think) and Doom3...also many games are developed on them wich is a plus...

If I were you I would go with Nvidia as it may (im not 100% on this)perform better in FPS, the difference in fram rates between the ATI and Nvidia and detail will be less than 5 FPS + or - difference and detail the same thing, hardly knowticeable....Nvidia will OC better also.... so if you must have the the ATI thats gonna get you those extra 5 fps in some games and you want to shell out the cash go for it....but as far as I am concerned ( I don't want to cause a flame war here) Nvidia is the better product, it will OC to get the extra FPS of the ATI and OC farther than the ATI....so if you have 600 to spend the Nvidia option is  Chaintech Power Now! 6800/2600 Ultra(air cooled or watercooled) that card cost more because its clocked at 450 core/1200 RAM Your ATI option in that price range would be somethng like the Powercolor ATI Radeon X800XT Platinum Edition with clock speeds of 520 core/1120 Memory, so you ask if ATI is clocked that much higher why dont I get that well because the ATI has less Pixel Pipes than the Ultra, not shure how many less...P.S. with ATI you get VIVO, Nvidia you do not

500 dollar Range... Nvidia there is something like the BFG 6800 Ultra OC wich has clock speeds of 425/1100Mhz, it should OC to 450/1200 pretty easy....this is a very popular card..

ATI there is somethig like the   GIGABYTE ATI RADEON X800 XT wich is clocked at 500/1000 also has VIVO...

So its kind of personal prefference, comfort and what you plan to use it for... NOTE: These cards are AGP and have 256 Mbs GDDR3 memory.... Any one feel free to add on to this as im shre I have missed a lot but my final say is for the best card/bang for the buck would be the Nvidia...
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Re: Video card

Postby Midnight_LS1 » Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:30 am

I agree about the Nvidia reliability.  I have them in 2 of my comps and they never gave me problems.

I did some research on the models you listed and I think I will opt for the BFG 6800 Ultra  ;)
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Re: Video card

Postby Gixer » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:19 am

When you all get your 6800Ultras please remember to turn off fastwrites in your BIOS.  I think a few off the  Ultras are ok but with most you get serious stuttering if fastwrites is left turned on!  Try it out thats the best way.  I did and was getting 2-8second pauses with it on!!
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Re: Video card

Postby the_autopilot » Wed Dec 29, 2004 8:05 am

Nvidia current generation cards are much more expensive than ati current gen cards. They also have massive power requirements so you may need to upgrade your PSU. 6800 are able to be OC'd a lot though. Nvidia's current generation of 6xxx series cards also have pixel shader 3 support, ati cards do not. Very few games support ps3 (fs9 does not) and there is no real benefit to ps9. No ATI cards support ps3 at the moment. Some argue there is a performence gain, but most will agree that the difference between ps2 and ps3 is marginal, especially if the ATI card supports ps2h.

As for performence, ATI cards always prevail unless its opengl based game (fs9 is not) like doom 3 or SLI. the X800 XT outperforms the nvidia in almost all the games. IF your building a new comp, go with a pci-e mobo and get an x850 XT PE. No nvidia card can outperform it unless its doom3 or its SLI. I'll post some benchmarks if you would like.

Personally, unless you opt for massive OC'd or SLI, go with ATI cards as they have better stock performence and have less problems with games. As for driver issues, I have never had a problem with my x800 xt pe. I guess its just how you configure it. On the other hand, nvidia seems to have problems with games like HL2.

Keep in mind all the flagship cards of both brands are expensive. However, ATI cards are slightly cheaper.
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