which ATI graphics card is the best?

[drthundr]

I want to get a new video card. I'm looking at the ATI RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition, which looks pretty sick. Is there a huge difference between this and the X800 XT? Hypothetically speaking, let's say money is no object, which one would be best purchase and where can I get one?

[palmer]

these are the best ati cards > here

[DJZeke]

the new card is pci express bus only
"The only change that has been made is the clock speeds. The RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition features a 540MHz core with 590MHz memory (1.18GHz effective) while the RADEON X850 XT sports a 520MHz graphics core and is outfitted with 540MHz memory (1.08GHz effective). Both of these chips feature 16 pixel pipes and ship with 256MB of memory, so the new clocks should allow the X850 XT PE to outperform the RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition, while the X850 XT vanilla should finish a hair behind the X800 XT PE, which featured a 520MHz core with its memory running at a slightly faster 560MHz."

that link above is workstation graphics cards, its not for gaming

[palmer]

he asked for the best card.... gaming was never even part of the equation.

[evangelion]

That palmer...always thinking with his rendering engine.

Bottom line...the X850 XT Platinum Golden Sample Extra Cool New Edition is defintely faster that the X800 XT. But is it worth the price??? Looking way long term yes as even an X800 XL (best price to performance card on the market) is more than enough to run all current games full out (HL2, Doom 3 et al). This time next year my be a different story. If money is no option, go for it. But if it is really no option, go with a dual 6800 Ultra SLI array. Look up some numbers on it, they're staggering.

[palmer]

That palmer...always thinking with his rendering engine.

of course




Booya
I would kill, I think, for that setup.

http://tech-report.com/reviews/2004q4/sli/index.x?pg=1

its pretty fucking impressive

[evangelion]

PC Power and Cooling just came out with an 850W power supply geared towards the lucky few who are running these setups.

And yes...killing would definitely be an option.

[Civic_Zen]

If you wanted the best card, you wouldn't be buying ATi right now at all. The x850 is impossible to find, go ahead, try to find a retailer with one in stock. Even the x800 is nearly impossible. nVidia is the way to go right now.

[drthundr]

Yes, it is for gaming. I'm a gamer and proud of it. My brother has the Nvidia 6800 Ultra, but he's had some problems with it, so I'm leaning towards ATI. I've had the 9800 Pro for a while now, no problems at all, but it's time for an upgrade. I'll have to upgrade my motherboard soon as well, since I'll be limited by it.

[Civic_Zen]

What sort of problems has he had? Whatever they are, I'm sure they are driver related or if hardware, then perhaps it is defective. Otherwise he would not be having issues, its not like all nVidia cards have problems or something if thats what your getting at.

[drthundr]

He's been getting blue screens with the error nv4_disp.dll. we checked out guru3d.com and tried a few things they suggested but nothing worked. we're going to try uninstalling XP SP2. it's possible that there is some sort of conflict.

[Civic_Zen]

Wouldn't suprise me, SP2 is utter shite. Of course, when I tried to uninstall SP2 on my dads computer, it went to hell and wouldn't boot. I've heard of a lot of people who tried to uninstall SP2 and ended up having to wipe and reload, luckily I got my dads machine back with a bit of work.

Still, that is most definetely a driver issue, unless like I said, its defective hardware. Regardless, you shouldn't let that stop you from going nVidia, if indeed you do want the best GPU available at the moment.

[Jammer8]

That palmer...always thinking with his rendering engine.

Bottom line...the X850 XT Platinum Golden Sample Extra Cool New Edition is defintely faster that the X800 XT. But is it worth the price??? Looking way long term yes as even an X800 XL (best price to performance card on the market) is more than enough to run all current games full out (HL2, Doom 3 et al). This time next year my be a different story. If money is no option, go for it. But if it is really no option, go with a dual 6800 Ultra SLI array. Look up some numbers on it, they're staggering.

yea but he's need an nforce 4 motherboard for that. and a processor unless he already has an amd athlon 64 socket 939 chip.
ati cards always have crisper images then nvidia's it's a fact. look on tomshardware.com or anandtech.com

[evangelion]

Like I said...if money is no opition.

I've owned an ATI for over a year, so I know about the image quality difference.

[nubreed000]

If money isnt an issue and you want the absolute best performance then go with a top-of-the-line ATI cards. But, the only way to get a 850PE is through Dell right now. THey'll be available through retailers at the end of the month or in February, and it's a PCI-E only card. So if your motherboard supports AGP you might as well forget it. Your only choice would be a Radeon X800XT or a BFG Geforce 6800Ultra. The Radeon beats it in sheer power though, but it is harder to find (eBay is your best bet, but once again, only if price truly isnt an issue)

As for nVidia cards: they give you the best bang for your buck, but they are by no means the most powerful. I have a 6600GT right now and it runs pretty good, but I think the rest of my PC is bottlenecking it (only 512MB ram and a 1.8Ghz cpu...although I do plan on OC'ing it to 2.2-2.4Ghz). People will mention SLI but for a high-end SLI setup (6800GT x2 or higher) you're gonna need a whole new system most likely, unless you already have an nForce4 mobo, 450+ W powersupply, and a high-end cpu. And the numbers aren't as impressive as they should be.