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X800XT vs 6800 Ultra PCI-E

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xTrEmEoVrClOcKr

member
Joined
May 26, 2004
Location
San Diego, CA
Which is better? Im looking to build a new pc with all the latest gadgets. Im defenitly investing into PCI-E. The most important part is the video card :). I have a feeling that the nVIDIA will own ATi on this one. What do you guys think? Im thinking of investing into Intel for processor, ABIT for mobo, Crosair or Kingston HyperX, and ATi or nVidia for video card. What do you guys think I should do? Thanks
 
there really is no difference between agp and pci-express so just decide as if it was agp.
 
from everything i've read everything is even. drivers will balance out the performance in doom3 and HL2, time and new technology will tell which series of card is the winner in the long run. for now though i'd consider them equal and go on brand preference and availability
 
So would you guys say that PCIe Cards are currently no faster then high end APG cards? If so then when will we see PCIe video cards actually take advantage of the extra bus speed? This generation (X800/6800)? Or the next generation of cards?
 
ClarkKent said:
So would you guys say that PCIe Cards are currently no faster then high end APG cards? If so then when will we see PCIe video cards actually take advantage of the extra bus speed? This generation (X800/6800)? Or the next generation of cards?

probably a few generations. i'd go with a 6800 series as well. for HL2 the 6800 and the x800 series will be within a FPS or two of each other, and with the 6800 taking Doom3 by such a large margin the choice is clear to me.
 
Wow I didn't realize it was going to be a few generations away. So is the AGP slot actually a bottleneck currently? I mustn't be if it's going to take a few generations to actually see PCIe cards make it worth while.
 
^^^ ATI new drivers have brought ATI upto the the 6800 Level and future drivers are also supposed to decreae the 6800 lead considerably - AYI si finally improving on their OpenGL drivers.

Also, where did you read thread starter that the Ultra blows away the XT ?


as said - PCIe is no faster then AGP 8x right now since games dont even use the full AGP 8z banwidth - i think they are just starting to use the full 4x bandwidth.

Also - personally the new PCIe mobo's out i dont think are mature enough -they lack many features that the regualr AGP boards have like PCI / AGP lock and other great over clocking features.
 
Mr.Guvernment said:
^^^ ATI new drivers have brought ATI upto the the 6800 Level and future drivers are also supposed to decreae the 6800 lead considerably - AYI si finally improving on their OpenGL drivers.

are you talking about doom3 here? i think you are because you said opengl but i'm not sure.

anyway the same beta drivers that are out now were the ones used in the initial benchmarks so there has been no real change in performance from what we initially saw.
 
If you want the "latest" gadgets then you'll need to find a dual PCIx16 motherboard for 2x 6800 Ultra PCIx cards. And if you're going Intel for CPU then wait for the 64 bit chips or even better wait for the Dual core 64 bit chips.
 
I agree with everyone that PCI-E doesn't provide a huge amount of performance YET. If I were you, I would wait a little bit untill PCI-E matures with all the mobos and then buy a 6800 card. Buying a PCI-E mobo will really make you future proof for the next gen of cards (SLI). The 6800 is a better choice because as Sen said, you can always upgrade to SLI. Good luck! :santa2:
 
Just wanted to point out that dual core CPU's will not the shelves until '06, according to Ed's research.

As for SLI, I am under the impression that only certain PCI-X Nvidia cards will support this feature. These cards can be recognized by the small block of pins located on the side of the card that is opposite where the main PCI-X pins are.

See the pictures and info in this article:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040628/index.html
 
Guys for crying out loud!! PCI-E is PCI-EXPRESS (the new technology). PCI-X is NOT new!!! Get it right please, and show the members we're all informed members. :cool:

One of these days, a person not very fimiliar with PCI will end up buying the wrong product b/c the mobo says "PCI-X Equipped" or w/e.. lol :beer:
 
<opinion>
Really, while PCI-E is the way that we're (slowly) headed, it's probably not going to be needed for a while. Just remember what that bus is for -- communication between the system and the card. When does this bus need 2.2GB/sec (AGP 8x) of bandwidth? Pretty much only when retrieving texture data from System RAM. When is texture data in System RAM instead of on the card? When there is not enough VRAM to hold all the textures for the game (and at level load time). When do video card makers not supply enough VRAM on their new cards? Never ;) (When 128MB cards were first released, 64MB cards were still enough. When 256MB cards were first released, 128MB cards were still enough. When 512MB cards are released, 256MB cards will probably still be enough). Once video card makers stop this trend of adding more VRAM to cards (and they will eventually for price reasons), THEN bus speeds will become important.
</opinion>

JigPu
 
You're waiting untill December to get a 6800PCI Express. Just get a AGP. Or do what I am doing and get a 915P with an AGP slot.
 
If you're going with the new Intel LGA775 systems, one thing to note is the PCI-E bus frequency floats along with the FSB. This is part of Intel's overclocking "lock." Mobo makers have found ways (at least partially) around this by manipulating the PCI-E frequency at boot. In all the tests, ATI's PCI-E X800's have been able to handle much higher FSB speeds than NVidia 6800's.

For example, in the latest Intel 925x mobo roundup over at AnandTech, they were able to get a 280 FSB (using a ES proc of course) with an X800 and an Asus P5AD2 mobo but only a 258 FSB using a 6800 on the same mobo.

I was originally interested in LGA775 when it first came out, but I realize more and more that Intel is trying to market new technologies because they're hitting a wall when it comes to clock speed increases. However, the industry may not have a need for these new technologies (yet). It will be a signifigant amount of time before the bandwidth of AGP 8x is fully utilized.
 
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