Originally posted by: MrCoyote
They ended this coupon early. Bad business decision if you ask me. I was going to get the X1800XT, but am now buying it at another store. Newegg's prices have just shot up recently on everything. Shipping has become a joke too, when you order several small items. Instead of having a combined shipping charge that is based on the final weight of all items, they use the individual shipping prices. Example...Put 9 Arctic Silver in your cart. Shipping is $18 which is ridiculous. They need to re-evaluate their shipping prices.
Got my MSI ATI X1800XT 512MB using fedex midday thursday after ordering it after business hours on monday. Basicly to shop at Newegg you apparently need to be patient and pick up what parts you need on sale when they offer free shipping. When ordering a complete system worth of individual parts they do sting you on shipping charges. But it's all give and take. Their reputation for service is as good as it get's from what i hear and read.
Now about how happy i am with this video card...
The Geforce 5500 (128mb) that got booted out scored only 1109 on 3DMark03. Playing oblivion was like watching a slide show in slow motion. Now compare that to 15510 3DMark with the MSI ATI X1800XT 512MB and total playability in all games.
Since i have not re-installed WindowsXP in quite awhile there is a load of garbage on my hardrive. This does not help the Catalyst 6.4 control center. It is not opening up sometimes when i double-clip on that program. ???
Anyhow, i hear a lot of talk about the fan being noisy but i notice no great noise from my Antic Sonata II case. Nothing loud. Certainly no reason to upgrade the fan. At stock speed.
I could use advice on the best driver setup, but will go to another forum section to learn that.
Total cost 245$ shipped fedex is what to keep in mind when comparing this card to the 7900 GT that costs 20% more and has half the memory and 10% slower memory chips.
In terms of game performance the X1800XT 512MB vs. the 7900GT each do better in certain games.
So i have no buyer's remorse here. I like Nvidia drivers and products but the ATI option this time was the better choice. It all depends on when you buy and how much over-clocking you like doing. The 7900GT does offer higher overclocks with a volt-mod but i don't get into that much modding.
Heatwize, the X1800XT pushes it's hot air out of the case. The 7900GT does not.
It's choosing between apples and oranges based on your budgit and modding intentions.
Performance boosts on the X1800XT on overdrive at 700/800 looks very easy to achieve. Will go there after this card breaks itself in.
Board: ASRock 939Dual-SATA2
CPU: AMD Opteron 144 (CAB2E 0545 MPMW) (not-overclocked)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix PC3200 2x512 (2-2-2-6)
Video: MSI X1800XT 512mb (not-overclocked) (score: 15512 3DMark03)(1024x768)(catalyst 6.4)
Case Antec Sonata II 450watt