Prey Benchmarks Are In!

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Were they launched directly against those cards on anything but? I didn't think so... there was a gap of several months in there where nvidia was very clearly superior...

Evidently we are only talking about high end hard ware, because other wise we would have to compare the x1600 vs the 7600. Another easy pick. Hopefully ATI fixes this soon.

This may always happen when refreshes come out, but this was a long gap, and nicely contradicted lopris assertion which is wrong. The x1800xt vs 7800 is a much more interesting battle, and I would have to say ATI retook the crown then.

Nat

No, thats because the X1800's were late. They were never supposed to go against each other. But since it was, they did. There was also a gap between when the X1900XTX's and the 7900GTX were available. I guess that was "laughable" too? Since the 7800GTX gets stomped by the X1900's.

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Were they launched directly against those cards on anything but? I didn't think so... there was a gap of several months in there where nvidia was very clearly superior...

Evidently we are only talking about high end hard ware, because other wise we would have to compare the x1600 vs the 7600. Another easy pick. Hopefully ATI fixes this soon.

This may always happen when refreshes come out, but this was a long gap, and nicely contradicted lopris assertion which is wrong. The x1800xt vs 7800 is a much more interesting battle, and I would have to say ATI retook the crown then.

Nat

No, thats because the X1800's were late. They were never supposed to go against each other. But since it was, they did. There was also a gap between when the X1900XTX's and the 7900GTX were available. I guess that was "laughable" too? Since the 7800GTX gets stomped by the X1900's.

You got me before my edit

Anyway, these gaps always exist, but the fact remains that they did compete, much like the very late 5800U and 9700 Pro. During that time a Ti4600 would have been a poor choice too.

Were the 7900GTX's late? Not really, they did have poor availability I suppose.

The point was to disprove Lopri, not dig ATI. Don't take things so personally, man...

 

[Ackmed]

Im not taking them personally. Just found it funny that you were trying to compare the 7800GTX and the X850, yet didnt mention the X1900 was out well before the 7900GTX. And thus should have been compared to the 7800GTX going by your standards.

Personally, I agree somewhat with lopri. I dont think ATi has always had better hardware, just most of the time. Such was the case with the 8500. The hardware was great, the drivers sucked for the first several months. Not all of the features were available when it was relesaed, and performance wasnt so good. Later down the line, performance went way up, and all the features came out. During the whole FX debacle, I think ATi had better hardware. The 6800U vs. X800XT was fairly even. 6800's had SM3, not that it mattered to me. Here we are several years later, and there is what, 6-8 games with SM3 available? The 6800GT was faster than the X800 Pro overall however. Then as you and I said, the X1800's were late. The X1800XT is faster than the 7800GTX, again, better hardware to me. With HQ AF, and the ability to do HDR+AA, although in very few games. And here were are today, pretty even speed wise with the 7900GTX and X1900's. Yet ATi has better IQ, thats better hardware to me.

But to get back on topic, NV just released some new drivers, that have a Prey profile built in for the SLI users who were SOL before. The demo is not final code, NV nor ATi has released their "optimized" drivers yet (though NV may just have today), so things could change. Personally, I hope they tie every benchmark.. less of these threads.

 

[blckgrffn]

I owned an 8500 My only wish was that it had been 128 meg, but since I got it on BB clearance for $135 about 2 months after launch, I thought that I had done pretty well. That card served me the second longest of all my video cards, second only to my 9500 Pro, which I got for the same price at BB and used for 2 years until Doom3 came out and, well, you know how that went. I then bought a 6800 and have flipped flopped since, preferring to try out as many cards as possible without losing too much money

The only reason I compared the 7800 vs the x850's is that lopri used the dangerous term "always". I am fully aware that ATI didn't have that in mind when designing that card (x850)!

I can only hope for such similar results, I just wish ATI would pick up their midrange. Seriously, what is there to really choose from ATI for less than $200? It seems like "outdated" x850xts are clearly the best choice.

FWIW I really would like to have ATI HQ AF available to me, I just can't find a card in my price/performance sweet spot that'll do it for me

Nat


*I think that we can all celebrate that ATI finally closed the gap in OpenGL performance so that it is no longer an important factor when picking a card.

 

[Ackmed]

The X1800XT's were at, and a little over $200 for the past several months at newegg. Now they only have a few X1800XT's left, and prices have gone up. Just last week they had a retail one for $220. There is no better card at that price to me for that amount. You may have missed the boat on that deal however. You may be able to find a used one for about $200.

 

[Sc4freak]

Actually, the delays of the X1800 was not ATI's fault - a third party package caused the soft ground issue, which in turn caused the delays.

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
The X1800XT's were at, and a little over $200 for the past several months at newegg. Now they only have a few X1800XT's left, and prices have gone up. Just last week they had a retail one for $220. There is no better card at that price to me for that amount. You may have missed the boat on that deal however. You may be able to find a used one for about $200.

The 256's, sadly. I want a 512! There was a deal for an XL that was really an XT under the hood, but I would have had to replace the HS on that as it was only a single slotter to really dial up the performance past 7900GT levels... so...

I am just not please with the selection of over $200 video cards out right now. At higher clocks with a nice cooler the x1900GT might be a decent deal, but they are too expensive for the performance, the 7900 series lacks good AA and the ability to do HDR and AA, and while that isn't a big deal now, it probably will be in the future.

Basically it boils down to the fact that, for me, a $125 card does the job way to well to justify any kind of upgrade. Good thing I play CS:S and GW and not Oblivion!

I just hope there is something midrange that I can get in the next refresh, I don't like the space heaters so much (this x850xt falls into that category as well)

The soft-ground issue may have been third party, but it was hardware and definitely in the ATI hardware engineers hands for long enough

Nat

On topic - at least Prey runs well enough for me on my 6800 256 (haven't tried the x850xt) that I won't be upgrading for it either. I suppose the next UT engine may break me though...

 

[eastvillager]

Originally posted by: Ackmed



He asked why not try it on Doom3, since Prey was capped at 60. I asked if Doom3 was as well, thats what I remember. Then said that I doubt anyone would even have it installed at this point. Which Im pretty sure very few even do play it now.

In doom3, timedemos are not capped at 60. This is expected to be the same in Prey, but as noted in the original quoted testing, it isn't at the moment(timedemos are capped at 60 in Prey for some reason).

Now people need to stop putting words in my mouth too. I didn't say anything about the card itself, other than an indirect note that the hardware is obviously faster. I don't have any problem saying the x1900xtx is faster than a 7900gtx in many/most cases. I also don't have any problem saying that it sounds like a bat out of hell and consumes much more power than the 7900gtx. There are some aftermarket solutions for the noise issue.

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
Im not taking them personally. Just found it funny that you were trying to compare the 7800GTX and the X850, yet didnt mention the X1900 was out well before the 7900GTX. And thus should have been compared to the 7800GTX going by your standards.

Personally, I agree somewhat with lopri. I dont think ATi has always had better hardware, just most of the time. Such was the case with the 8500. The hardware was great, the drivers sucked for the first several months. Not all of the features were available when it was relesaed, and performance wasnt so good. Later down the line, performance went way up, and all the features came out. During the whole FX debacle, I think ATi had better hardware. The 6800U vs. X800XT was fairly even. 6800's had SM3, not that it mattered to me. Here we are several years later, and there is what, 6-8 games with SM3 available? The 6800GT was faster than the X800 Pro overall however. Then as you and I said, the X1800's were late. The X1800XT is faster than the 7800GTX, again, better hardware to me. With HQ AF, and the ability to do HDR+AA, although in very few games. And here were are today, pretty even speed wise with the 7900GTX and X1900's. Yet ATi has better IQ, thats better hardware to me.

But to get back on topic, NV just released some new drivers, that have a Prey profile built in for the SLI users who were SOL before. The demo is not final code, NV nor ATi has released their "optimized" drivers yet (though NV may just have today), so things could change. Personally, I hope they tie every benchmark.. less of these threads.

Not even speed wise between X1900XTX and the 7900GTX at equal image quality settings. Note they had to CHANGE Nvidia image quality settings to high quality while LEAVING the ATI quality settings at high.. I wish more reviews were done properly this way

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/310/12/

 

[Matt2]

According to Rage3D, Nvidia has the lead across the board in all AA/AF situations and resolutions. Single cards and multi-cards.