If you haven't taken a read yet? DO!

Should be interesting, as well as how nVidia is using a bridge for PCI Express and if that makes any noticeable difference in the end.

Hopefully 3rd parties will make some smaller PCB's and cooling solutions

If you havent noticed yet

http://home.pacific.net.hk/~nv330/gf6power.htm

Hopefully, there will be a sub-$200 budget conscious version of the 6800 later this year capable of spewing playable frame rates on Doom 3 at 1024x768 with everything maxed on the visual settings. For now, I'll save some money for an Audigy 2 ZS to replace my ancient PCI64 that's been hanging on since the glory days of Socket 7, while the 128MB GF4MX440-8X continues busting its balls to belt out playable frame rates in UT2004 demo with all the detail settings crank up along with 4x anti-aliasing at 1024x768.

Well, my budget is prett tight, so even the sound card might wait a while. In relation to the video card upgrade, I'm definitely waiting for the release of Doom 3 to see how well the different cards fair with it.

Apparentley the lower clocked and 12 pipelined ATI offering that they are bringing out (X800 Pro) comes very close to the 6800 Ultra, which has 16 pipelines, imagine what the X800XT can do, which is a full blown 16 pipelines higher clocked design... i cant wait!

This is what I've upgraded my computer with recently:

2.6Ghz P4 800Mhz FSB/Intel D875PBZ
2x Crucial 256MB PC3200 ECC memory (512MB total)
2x Seagate 7200.7 80GB 8MB cache SATA hd's in RAID-1

Not exactly blistering fast by todays standards, but its a screamer compared to the 1Ghz P3 it replaced. Very stable, too, which is what I was really looking for. Only downside that I noticed recently after perusing the Intel website for information about the Extreme and Prescott processors is that my mobo is one digit short on the revisions from being able to use them. That's okay, as I'll be using what I have for a while.

The ATI.

1. Better 2D
2. Better Video Input/Output.
3. Cooler
4. Faster
5. Better looking.
6. Smaller (Doesn't take up as much space.
7. More efficient. Same reason I buy AMD.

I definetly buying it when I get back from Iraq. Last vid card I bought was the 9700 AIW Back in Dec 2003 in England.

NVNEWS

MikeC
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=28275


ANANDTECH
NVIDIA=5
ATI=7

Digit-Life
ATI=5
Nvidia=4

ExtremeTech
Nvidia=6
ATI=4

Firing Squad
Nvidia=6
ATI=2

Gamers Depot
Nvidia=1
ATI=3

Hot Hardware
Nvidia=3
ATI=4

Tech Report
Nvidia=6
ATI=3

Tom's Hardware
Nvidia=3
ATI=5

X-bit Labs
Nvidia=8
ATI=14


TOTALS
NVIDIA=42
ATI=47


Draw counted both for Nvidia and ATI.

ATI WINS overall for gaming!

Obviously if you care about just OGL then Nvidia is the winner here but overall the ATI card is "better".

if I was buying one of these 2 today, oit'd be ATI by a long shot. Ownage in pixel shader, ownage in dieect3d games. not so good in opengl, but plenty strong anyways.

I dont see pixel shader 3 suport as being any value. by the time games come out using it, it will be time for a new card anyways.

Still in the military...in Iraq. Can't say much for obvious reasons but I can say that it is.....interesting.

Been drooling over all the DVD's and computer hardware since I've been over here for the past 3 months. A new vid card and some 400gb HD's along with about 50 DVD's oughta sate my appetite....for about 2 weeks.

There was no way for me to actually use the viedo card and compare the quality untill FarCry came out. the graphics i see in FarCry is the graphics i saw in the benchmakrs.

What the hell is the point of buying the latest video card when you will never use all the capabilities of the card for the existing games. I'll still stick to my All-In-Wonder 9700Pro. It runs farcry with no problems and there has neve been any games that truely used my resourses so far.
when there is a game out there that actually can't run on my card anymore then i'll change it (i have a 9200SE that can't run FarCry, that is the end for Radeon9200, but just the right time to have a 9700pro!!!! I hope that makes my point clear )

Originally posted by DosFreak:



Whoah. Holy time warp batman! I actually bought the 9700 in Sept 2002 because I knew it was that good...I bought the AIW in DEC I believe. That means I've had the same chipset video card for exactly 1 year 8 months...and as a PC enthusiast I have been perfectly happy with it. In fact the only reason I'm upgrading is because I like my 1600X1200 gaming and the 9700 doesn't perform that well with AA/FSAA at that res. Which is why I'm getting this new card.

The bandwith on PCIe will be way more than needed...kinda like AGP 8x (heck, even 4x is plenty even today). I guess the main benefit is more power available to the card, and the option for more than one PCIe 16x slot (unlike AGP, except for the unreleased Micron Samurai chipset for the PIII's ;))

NVNews updated their comparison.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=28520


5/10/2004

Anandtech

NO AA
NO AF

6800U=5
X800XT=6

4X AA
8X AF

6800U=5
X800XT=6

Digit-Life

NO AA
NO AF

6800U=4
X800XT=4

4x AA
8X AF

6800U=3
X800XT=4

ExtremeTech

NO AA
NO AF

6800U=6
X800XT=3

4X AA
8x AF

6800U=3
X800XT=4

FiringSquad

NO AA
NO AF

6800U=2
X800XT=3


4X AA
8X AF

6800U=4
X800XT=3


Hot Hardware

NO AA
NO AF

6800U=3
X800XT=5

4x AA
8x AF

6800U=1
X800XT=3

Tech Report

NO AA
NO AF

6800U=7
X800XT=1

4X AA
8x AF

6800U=3
X800XT=3


Tom's Hardware

NO AA
NO AF

6800U=4
X800XT=4

4x AA
8X AF

6800U=2
X800XT=6

X-Bit Labs

NO AA
NO AF

6800U=12
X800XT=11

4x AA
8x AF


6800U=3
X800XT=16


TOTAL

NO AA
NO AF


6800u=43
X800XT=37


4X aa
8X af

6800u=24
X800XT=45


ATI WINS FOR GAMING!


I would have edited my posts but it seems that I do not have permission. :rolleyes:

I think it's due to the professional attitude here...I think we haven't had a flame war in years.

Anyway, the way it stands now, the 6800 vs the X800, the big thing is: will you notice a performance difference without benchmarking? No. Now, I have to check around for this, but I've seen the 6800 apparently having trouble running at 16xAA/6xAF, or something. This, of course is only for those that have to have their eye candy turned to the max. I like some, but with the likes of Far Cry around, even having the stuff turned off still gives you a good picture.