I am seriously contemplating the heresy of an ATI card.
Should I get the Radeon X800, or a GeForce 6800? I'm not hearing happy things about the new GeForce cards. 
And should I get the Audigy2 Gamer or Audigy2 ZS?
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
Alaan fucked around with this message on 04-20-2005 at 08:39 PM.
quote:
Alaan startled the peaceful upland Gorillas by blurting:
Where were you hearing bad things about the nVidias? I really haven't heard much negative about them and even some ATi guys on EC have said they are good.
I've heard good things about performance and iffy things about heat, power, and spacing.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
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The logic train ran off the tracks when Bloodsage said:
I've heard good things about performance and iffy things about heat, power, and spacing.
I have a GeForce 6800 Ultra, and while the heating and performance is pretty good, Power is iffy.
I thought I had purchased a suitable power source (500, nVidia advised 480), but I noticed that I would sometimes get a warning awhile back that performance had been automatically lowered because the card wasn't receiving sufficient power.
For one reason or another, that went away after awhile, but still, it made me very uncomfortable. Other than that though, I have to say the card runs really pretty nicely.
The card performs flawlessly and I have never had any issues with it since it was installed. I believe someone on the boards went through a couple bad cards of the same make and model but sometimes that happens. I choose nVidia because I have always had better luck with them and I use it mainly for EQ2 which I was told is optimized for GeForce cards.
To be honest though I don't think you could go wrong with either card. Both perform wonderfully and cost about the same.
Forgot to add:
The GT version of the card takes up only a single slot. It is smaller than my old 5900. I am not sure about the Ultra version of this card though.
I have a 380Watt Power supply and have had no problems with it. This is the first time I have ever heard of a 480Watt+ Power supply being recommended. Azizza fucked around with this message on 04-20-2005 at 08:54 PM.
this thing tears 8 kinds of ass in peformance, aside from the open ended settings of HL2, EQ2, and Doom 3, every game is its perfectly running bitch.
I think it retails for 250-300 nowadays
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Azizza had this to say about Captain Planet:
I personally have a 6800GTThe card performs flawlessly and I have never had any issues with it since it was installed. I believe someone on the boards went through a couple bad cards of the same make and model but sometimes that happens. I choose nVidia because I have always had better luck with them and I use it mainly for EQ2 which I was told is optimized for GeForce cards.
To be honest though I don't think you could go wrong with either card. Both perform wonderfully and cost about the same.
Forgot to add:
The GT version of the card takes up only a single slot. It is smaller than my old 5900. I am not sure about the Ultra version of this card though.I have a 380Watt Power supply and have had no problems with it. This is the first time I have ever heard of a 480Watt+ Power supply being recommended.
Yeah, that was me.
I got a Leadtek 6800GT, and I got it from a shady dealer on the web I had never heard of, which had probably been RMAed to them, and they turned around to sell it to me. After a couple weeks of playing phone tag and emails and whatnot, I got a working card from Leadtek. I'm VERY pleased with the performance of it.
Although it was running a little hot, so I removed the HSF and put some Artic Silver between the GPU and the copper cooler, and some of the gunk for the RAM that comes with a popular aftermarket cooler for the 6800s. It's since run MUCH cooler, almost on par with the person who bought said aftermarket cooler.
I'm glad that I got mine, it was just a slight hastle to get it.
I'd recommend going with a BFG, eVGA, or Leadtek card. MSI also makes a very good product, as well as ASUS, but stay the HELL AWAY from XFX, which has been notorious for bad cards, and horrible customer service.
Scared me at first, because it didn't have an option for my new monitor's rather odd resolution of 1680 x 1050--yes, I bought the slightly-more-expensive 20" Apple Cinema--but that was resolved by updating the driver.
Hope it works out.
Now to install the Audigy2 ZS soundcard that caught my eye!
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
I'm certain it all chalks up to nonsense as it's what I'm running in my phase change system. 
quote:
Channeling the spirit of Sherlock Holmes, Snugglits absently fondled Watson and proclaimed:
I still have to wonder where you heard "bad things" about the 6800.I'm certain it all chalks up to nonsense as it's what I'm running in my phase change system.
Haven't heard a bad thing about the performance, but the heat and power requirements are another thing.
Anyway, WoW with all the settings maxed is 
.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
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Verily, the chocolate bunny rabits doth run and play while Naimah gently hums:
I run WoW maxed on my old 9700 Pro and a 3200+ XP. Still chugging away. Probably going to need an upgrade when the next generation comes around though. Having to go to PCIx is going to be painful.
Yeah--I may take the opportunity to build a system before I go back to Europe next January. It's just too hard to find high-end components there.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
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Bloodsage had this to say about Optimus Prime:
Haven't heard a bad thing about the performance, but the heat and power requirements are another thing.Anyway, WoW with all the settings maxed is
.
Heh, the GT runs fine on 500W from my experience. It's hard to say about heat; the first thing I do with a new video card is replace the stock heatsink+fan.
Naimah, the prices of PCIe will be fine pretty soon since it's becoming pretty common.
quote:
Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Snugglits who doth quote:
Naimah, the prices of PCIe will be fine pretty soon since it's becoming pretty common.
According to Anandtech nobody is buying PCIe but enthusiasts right now.
quote:
Snugglits's unholy Backstreet Boys obsession manifested in:
Heh, the GT runs fine on 500W from my experience. It's hard to say about heat; the first thing I do with a new video card is replace the stock heatsink+fan.Naimah, the prices of PCIe will be fine pretty soon since it's becoming pretty common.
Mainly it is that the change of standars forces me to upgrade the entire system as opposed to be able to do it incrementally.
And you got me, I hit the wrong key. Point for you.
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Maradon! wrote this stupid crap:
According to Anandtech nobody is buying PCIe but enthusiasts right now.
Woops, you're right. But it's looking like Intel is (has?) going to stop making AGP boards for desktops.
Naimah, there actually is a PCIx. It's not the same as e. Just saying.
As for standards changing, that's what happens to processors all the time. What about DDR2? Standards changes are the norm for the industry. Snugglits fucked around with this message on 04-22-2005 at 12:27 AM.
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Quoth Tarquinn:
What are you going to do with your old one?
It's only an FX 5200--not worth the time to crush it beneath a bootheel.
If you mean my old computer when I build one, I'll probably use a lot of the innards in the new one.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
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Bloodsage had this to say about Cuba:
It's only an FX 5200--not worth the time to crush it beneath a bootheel.If you mean my old computer when I build one, I'll probably use a lot of the innards in the new one.
Umm, mind stuffing that told thing into a parcel, and sending it to me, if I pay for the shipping?
The graphic card in my ancient system isn't working properly anymore. I wanted to buy a new PC last year, but then I moved, I had to spend several thousand euros on new furniture and other stuff for my new, bigger and better apartment. Buying a new PC has been postponed. Tarquinn fucked around with this message on 04-22-2005 at 05:25 PM.
my eVGA 6800GT. (256 mb AGP)Biggest boost I got from switching from my 5700 Ultra was DOOM 3 performance easily doubled. SWG runs a lot darned smoother, and EQ2 let me turn off the darned letterboxing and up the texture resolution.
I offered my brother the 5700 Ultra to upgrade the 5200 that came in his Dell, but my brother doesn't have a gaming chromosome in his body. Last time he got excited about a game was NHL '98 when I put my old R3D in his pc, and he played it in Glide for the first time.
quote:
Channeling the spirit of Sherlock Holmes, Tarquinn absently fondled Watson and proclaimed:
Umm, mind stuffing that told thing into a parcel, and sending it to me, if I pay for the shipping?The graphic card in my ancient system isn't working properly anymore. I wanted to buy a new PC last year, but then I moved, I had to spend several thousand euros on new furniture and other stuff for my new, bigger and better apartment. Buying a new PC has been postponed.
PM me your address. Don't worry about the shipping.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
quote:
Bloodsage said:
PM me your address. Don't worry about the shipping.
I PM'ed my address to Bloodsage and all I got was an envelope of anthrax. 
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Channeling the spirit of Sherlock Holmes, Mortious absently fondled Watson and proclaimed:
I PM'ed my address to Bloodsage and all I got was an envelope of anthrax.
Ohhh, sorry 'bout that. I didn't have any of their CDs, so I did the best I could.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
