Looking For current most FUTURE PROOF Upgrade

[BluePhaze]

Ok so Alot of people are telling me to get the x1900xtx in crossfire but I want to hear from people who have actually seen it. I have had issues in the past with ATI drivers so my opinion on them is a bit Biased but I am willing to hear what anyone has to say. The order will be placed in the morning.

 

[Wreckage]

As a single card the XTX is pretty good, but crossfire is still lagging behind SLI.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Nothing is future proof. You should just buy a X1900XTX and wait for the upcoming G71 before you go spend all that money.

 

[n7]

SLI's implementation > Crossfire's

I'd suggest neither though, unless you run games at some insanely high resolutions.

Why not just one X1900XT/XTX?

 

[GOREGRINDER]

wait for the 7900 next month and buy 2 of those for SLi instead

 

[BluePhaze]

So looking at not waiting a month. What would you get right now? Or I guess I could always just get something cheap on the pcie side of the house and wait. Whats a good cheap card in order to wait till the 7900's hit? I don't want to get anything expensive if I am gonna wait for the 7900's.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: BluePhaze
So looking at not waiting a month. What would you get right now? Or I guess I could always just get something cheap on the pcie side of the house and wait. Whats a good cheap card in order to wait till the 7900's hit? I don't want to get anything expensive if I am gonna wait for the 7900's.

Don't buy a cheap card if you need something now. What a waste. Get an X1900XT. SLI should not be used as an upgrade path anyways; it's to have the fastest performance NOW. The X1900XT is often faster than *TWO* 7800GTX's (in FEAR especially), so it's not like you're losing anything.

All signs are pointing towards the 7900 being slower than the X1900XT anyways. There are also rumour of production problems.

 

[BluePhaze]

Putting down the cash on a 21 inch LCD with 8ms response and 1600x1200 native. So I really want to get the cards I am going to use for awhile. I don't want to have to think about any other cards for atleast a year. So I want whatever is faster now. Are the x1900xtx's in crossfire performing well?

 

[TecHNooB]

Judging from recent news, it looks like you'll have to wait for G80 / R600 ++ for some kind of "true" HDCP (goddamn not again) video card.

 

[BluePhaze]

Honestly as long as it runs Quake 4 and hopefully ut2k7 well then I will be happy. I think I will just go with my evga 7800 w/256 gtx KO's in SLI. I really am not a benchmark hound. I just want my games to play well at 1600x1200. I don't play fear and figure that atleast going with an nvidia platform now I can always upgrade later if I really need it.

There is always gonna be a new shiny right around the corner. I don't think anything I am doing will require anything more than my 7800's for the near future.

 

[TecHNooB]

Oh god, not the KOs. So overpriced =/ A single 7800GTX 512 is almost the same as two 7800GTs. The 7900GTX coming out will probably outdo 2 7800GTX in SLI. Get that instead. Unless you're really finicky about the two-slot cooling solution.

 

[imported_thefonz]

The 1900xtx will easily fit your needs for a year if your running at 1600x1200. If you run driver cleaner you should have no issues with ATI's drivers. CF or SLI are not good, in my opinion, unless you run at resolutions higher then 1600x1200.
Also within the next year cards will be comming out with a unified shader/texture architecture for DX10, so if your only planing on keeping the card for a year or so the 1900 would be your best option, IMO.

Edit: Check out some benchmarks aswell, from what i have seen you won't need more then 1 card if your going to be running 1600x1200

 

[BluePhaze]

is there a good review on the x1900xtx so that I can see it compared to 2 gtx's in sli?

 

[Giscardo]

I would say get a X1900XT right now. I don't think the next NVIDIA card will be that much faster if at all, than the 1900XT, so I think it's a good purchase for one willing to spend $500+ on a video card.

I wouldn't put any money into SLI or Crossfire at the moment. But if you're willing to spend the money then go for SLI over Crossfire. In that case, I'd recommend getting a 7800gt right now. When the G71 comes out, sell the 7800GT and get something with a G71 GPU in SLI. Assuming G71 continues the trend of SLI being better than Crossfire that'll probably be the best possible gaming setup for a while.

 

[Giscardo]

Originally posted by: BluePhaze
is there a good review on the x1900xtx so that I can see it compared to 2 gtx's in sli?

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/radeon-x1900/index.x?pg=7

 

[otispunkmeyer]

if want future proof your not gonna get it lol. but id imagine 1900's in CF would last you a decent amount of time! and theres no time like now to build, if you wiat for the next best thing, you'll never build anything

 

[M0RPH]

He wants dual cards because it's sexy.

 

[Skott]

Didnt the 1900XT and 1900XTX have some driver issues? Or did they get a fix in an driver update?

 

[tuteja1986]

X1900XT crossfire with RD580 motherboard :
WHY :?
Better IQ , AA with HDR , Games like Oblivion use alot of shaders so you will see the benfit ect :!

 

[nib95]

My recommendation is to wait for the 7900 GTX.
But the best future proof combo in terms of value for money will undoubtebly be the X1900.

Put it this way, in the UK the GTX 512mb sells for £540-£680!!
In comparison, you can pick up a X1900 XTX for a meagre £380. A faster, better and more future proof card.

I have spoken to the guys at Overclockers UK and they predict a 7900 GTX price of £550-£600.
Think about that for a minute. It's nearly double the price of an XTX.
So Nvidia (for the time being) can go stuff themselves.
Sinces when did we have designer GPU gear?

Till Nvidia start acting up and being reasonable with pricing, ATI gets my vote.
Even IF the 7900 GTX is better (which it most probably will be).

Only thing I'm waiting on now is the RD580 Mobo.

 

[Bull Dog]

RD580 coming soon to a review site near you (Feb 23 rumors). Reportedly ATi still has an ace up its sleeve with a 80nm half-node die shrink of the R580 (codename: R590 probably). It'll probably be clocked up higher and be designed to compete with whatever nVidia has coming.

Oh and I'd say the X1900XTX+X1900XT Crossfire.
Reason: Better performance than 7800GTX. Far cheaper than the 7800GTX 512. With 8xAA and 16xAF you will see better performance than with 2x7800GTX 512 cards.

 

[RobertR1]

For 1600x1200 a single x1900xt/x will do fine for a while.

 

[Kaeishiwaza]

I'd vote for the X1900XTX as well. I've noticed that ATI has been improving the performance of the Crossfire setup via drivers since it came out. No, it still doesn't match SLI, but my gut says that with the next few iterations of drivers it will probably come close to the 7800GTX SLI performance. It's already pretty close. That said, you can get the X1900XTX now for far less than the 7800GTX and have the single fastest card out there. In the future, you have the upgrade path of going Crossfire if the driver performance has improved or going with a newer generation card. If you go with the 7800GTX SLI you'll spend more money than the X1900XTX for more performance now, but have no real path to upgrade in the future besides scrapping both the cards and buying something new.

 

[Munky]

My recommendation is: buy what you need for current games, because nothing is certain about the future. And no matter how powerful a new card may seem, or even 2 of them in SLI, there will be games in the future that will make 2 x1900's or 2 7900's cry - it's only a matter of time. So, if you play at 1600x1200 or greater resolution, you may need dual cards already, but if you dont need dual cards then dont get em, because a year or less from now a single future card may offer similar performance and newer features.

 

[Steelski]

Originally posted by: nib95
My recommendation is to wait for the 7900 GTX.
But the best future proof combo in terms of value for money will undoubtebly be the X1900.

Put it this way, in the UK the GTX 512mb sells for £540-£680!!
In comparison, you can pick up a X1900 XTX for a meagre £380. A faster, better and more future proof card.

I have spoken to the guys at Overclockers UK and they predict a 7900 GTX price of £550-£600.
Think about that for a minute. It's nearly double the price of an XTX.
So Nvidia (for the time being) can go stuff themselves.
Sinces when did we have designer GPU gear?

Till Nvidia start acting up and being reasonable with pricing, ATI gets my vote.
Even IF the 7900 GTX is better (which it most probably will be).

Only thing I'm waiting on now is the RD580 Mobo.

This is very interesting. Who did you talk to at OCUK. £550+ (in USA would guess around $800+)is a terrifying prospect!!!
Maybee you should start a thread with this.