[ZmaN]

Hey guys!!! man its been awhile since I last posted.  Hey, well my video card blew, and well..... it PCI-Express.  That means I cant juss go out and buy a cheap AGP caard.  the cheapest PCI-e Card is like 50 bucks.  so that means im gunna buy a killer video card.    HERES THE DEAL!  I DONT want an NVIDIA!! Had enough problems with them, and i wanna go back to ATI.  now Im lookin in the X800 Series, and possibly the X700 Pro.  Could I get some comparisons for the X800 Cards (juss the X800 Series), and whats the best value?  Im lookin to buy from New Egg, and I wanna spend between 100 to 200 bucks.  Opinions??  thanks for your help guys, ZmaN

[CP5670]

Just get this: http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2700726

Can't beat the value there.

[edit] oh wait, didn't see that you needed PCIE. Look for a vanilla X800 in that case; there are quite a few on Newegg and Monarch in both 128mb and 256mb flavors.

[phatosealpha]

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2707477


That bargain also comes in Pci-E. Almost certainly aren't gonna do better then that in the price range.

[ZmaN]

THEY'RE BOTH REFURBS!   I dont do refurbs.

[Unknown Target]

This should be in Hard Light.
I'd try a Radeon 9600, or an older Geforce4Ti if you can find one cheap enough.

[brozozo]

Originally posted by ZmaN
Hey guys!!! man its been awhile since I last posted.  Hey, well my video card blew, and well..... it PCI-Express.  That means I cant juss go out and buy a cheap AGP caard.  the cheapest PCI-e Card is like 50 bucks.  so that means im gunna buy a killer video card.    HERES THE DEAL!  I DONT want an NVIDIA!! Had enough problems with them, and i wanna go back to ATI.  now Im lookin in the X800 Series, and possibly the X700 Pro.  Could I get some comparisons for the X800 Cards (juss the X800 Series), and whats the best value?  Im lookin to buy from New Egg, and I wanna spend between 100 to 200 bucks.  Opinions??  thanks for your help guys, ZmaN

I've got an x700 Pro. Works pretty good for me.

[Turambar]

NVidia is the shiznit, why dont you like them.  im on ATI right now and i just miss my NVidia, with spec and env on at the same time, and my digital vibrance, ATI seems so dull and lifeless

[ZmaN]

because I keep hearing that radeons are better for gaming..... besides they're graphical effects are better....... Nvidia juss doesnt work for me.  and btw i cant get a 9600 pro, I dont have AGP, its PCI-E

[CP5670]

I don't know where you are "hearing" these things, but neither company has the best cards in all the price segments. The graphical quality is almost the same. If anything, out of current cards you will get better quality with nvidia with SM3 and HDR support, which makes a big difference in the few games that can take advantage of that. ATI has slightly better AF, but you can only see the difference in side-by-side screenshot comparisons.

I personally prefer nvidia because I am familiar with their drivers and tweak utilities and also for their somewhat better driver compatibility with older games, FS2 being an example. Although at any rate, the price range you are looking at is dominated by ATI.

If you're not hot on refurbs (although the ATI one is reportedly just overstock and has a full three year warranty with it), then get this:
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=190696

Good stock speed and the memory overclocks really well.

And yeah, this should really be in the main forum.

[Getter Robo G]

I'm starting to HATE ATI...  over the last 5 years everytime I upgrade to a "better" card I keep having problems... Mostly ATI driver related.

First I get it home and install the drivers disk, then run an app like tv view then it shows an ATI error, then you go to the site and download every related driver till something works, or not.

Just had same problem with a capture card (also ATI) finally gave up 3 days later and fell back on my 5 year old Happauge USB win tv, old but works.

[ZmaN]

Originally posted by CP5670
I don't know where you are "hearing" these things, but neither company has the best cards in all the price segments. The graphical quality is almost the same. If anything, out of current cards you will get better quality with nvidia with SM3 and HDR support, which makes a big difference in the few games that can take advantage of that. ATI has slightly better AF, but you can only see the difference in side-by-side screenshot comparisons.

I personally prefer nvidia because I am familiar with their drivers and tweak utilities and also for their somewhat better driver compatibility with older games, FS2 being an example. Although at any rate, the price range you are looking at is dominated by ATI.

If you're not hot on refurbs (although the ATI one is reportedly just overstock and has a full three year warranty with it), then get this:
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=190696

Good stock speed and the memory overclocks really well.

And yeah, this should really be in the main forum.

The X800GT is better than the X800, and its cheaper as well.... check the benchmarks at legionhardware.com...

[CP5670]

oh right, I forgot that those GTs just came out. They are probably a better deal. It seems that the vanilla X800 has higher fillrates and shader power but the 256MB GT has better memory bandwidth.

I looked into this a bit and it looks like the Powercolor ones are superior to the rest, as they use the R480 core rather than the R423 one that's on all the other cards and can be overclocked much higher.

[ZmaN]

oh really!! i didnt know that the r480 isnt in the sapphires..... pretty interesting point..... yea i was considering the powercolor anyways....... besides they work soooo much better than the x800's, like not much, but better...