X1950 XTX or 7950GX2?

[Ardan]

Hello! I'm looking to get a good video card. The one in here, a 6800 GS overclocked slightly, is being taken out for the purpose of using it in a system that is being upgraded. I just recently changed out the 420W PowerStream PSU for a 550W Antec Neo HE power supply in preparation for whatever I choose. You can see what I have if you click on my system rigs, but basically it is an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ @ 2.4Ghz (didn't see an improvement at my previous 2.6Ghz/core setting in relation to 2.4Ghz), 2x 512mb OCZ Platinum Rev 2 DDR400 with a DFI LANparty UT nF4 Ultra-D motherboard, which I noticed is on nvidia's compatibility list. I've seen reviews of both, etc. If i'm shooting for the $400-$500 range (and do not have an SLI motherboard), should I just simply go for the 7950GX2? I have a 21" Samsung SyncMaster 215TW and prefer to run games that offer the 1680x1050 resolution at that resolution. Is that a wise choice, or is there something about that new Radeon card that I don't know?

Talk to you guys later.

 

[akshayt]

To use even a 7600GT/7900GT fully you need atleast 2GB RAM. First get that and then spend the rest on a single 1900xt/xtx or 7900gtx depending upon the games you play, you can plan for a step up as well if you want.
If you still have money for an even higher card after the RAM upgrade, I would get a 1950xtx over the 7950gx2 allthough it is overall slower as of now, it has HDR + AA, better IQ and better drives may slightly increase its performance later.

OR wait for Dx 10, they are very very near.

 

[BFG10K]

To use even a 7600GT/7900GT fully you need atleast 2GB RAM.

What heck are you talking about? While many games do like 2 GB it's quite easy to saturate a video card with a 1 GB system.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: akshayt
To use even a 7600GT/7900GT fully you need atleast 2GB RAM.

Please don't try to make your posts sound like you know what you are talking about :roll:, as we all know you do not.

Sure, 2 GB is ideal for several newer games, but to say that you require 2 GB RAM to get maximum performance out of a high GPU = LOLz0rs :laugh:

Now Ardan, my recommendation would be the X1950XTX for a couple reasons:
Better cooler (also alot quieter AFAIK)
No SLI driver issues (take inability to run dual displays w/o disabling SLI as an example)
Very similar performance compared to the 7950GX2, & at least in Canada, for a much lower price.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: akshayt
To use even a 7600GT/7900GT fully you need atleast 2GB RAM. First get that and then spend the rest on a single 1900xt/xtx or 7900gtx depending upon the games you play, you can plan for a step up as well if you want.
If you still have money for an even higher card after the RAM upgrade, I would get a 1950xtx over the 7950gx2 allthough it is overall slower as of now, it has HDR + AA, better IQ and better drives may slightly increase its performance later.

OR wait for Dx 10, they are very very near.

what the hell you going about

Dude 2GB is all myth :! you can play your BF2 , Fear , HL 2 , CS , Quake 4 with a AMD X2 3800 , 1GB DDR 1 400 2.2.2.5 ram , Nvidia 7900GT/X1800XT 256mb @ 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF easy

 

[akshayt]

2GB is no myth. In games like Fear, BF2, BF 2142, Quake 4, and all/most new games you will need more than 1GB to max out settings.

 

[VioLent]

Originally posted by: akshayt
2GB is no myth. In games like Fear, BF2, BF 2142, Quake 4, and all/most new games you will need more than 1GB to max out settings.

not true. Maybe on a single core system at stock speeds? I built my brother's computer with a 7800gs and 1 gig of ram and needless to say, it runs max settings, want pix?

 

[Ardan]

I agree. I wanted to know what people thought of those two cards, not about RAM. I definitely agree with you, n7 and BFG10K. I've already played some of the games you've mentioned with the settings maxed out. Quake 4, for instance, is extremely smooth at 1280x1024 with most of the settings cranked up (I don't usually push the FSAA up all the way, however). It will be a big improvement to FEAR, Most Wanted, and Test Drive Unlimited (which I plan to purchase when it is released for the PC next year). I definitely have a hard time believing the whole 'you need 2GB of RAM to max the settings out" type of thing someone else tried to tell me once too. That being said, i'm not going to be playing any games at 1600x1200 anyways. That sure would be tough on a screen that is 1680x1050 . Besides, now my video card will have HDCP support in it, like my monitor does. That might come in handy some time.

After looking at some reviews, I see what you mean, n7. It is indeed cooler, and definitely looks quieter. I totally forgot about possible SLI issues, as seen in some of those benchmarks I bet (where the performance of the GX2 dropped considerably). I thought the GX2 was a lot better, but once I went and did a double take, it isn't really that far off. Plus, its around $400-$20 on newegg, whereas the minimum price of the 7950GX2 is $495 on there . . . ouch! I thought the prices were closer, but they aren't. Thanks for the help! I probably won't buy it for a few weeks, though. I thought maybe getting a decent response would be like pulling teeth, but it came right away! Thank you, everyone.

 

[hardwareking]

2 gigs is always good to have.But its only in games like FEAR where page file swapping could happen.
Anyway i'd suggest the x1950xtx cause it's cheaper and it has a really quiet cooler.But if u can wait,go for the G80 as when it comes out.(well it wont be long before it comes out)If u can't,i suggest the x1950 xtx.

 

[BFG10K]

I would go with neither. Get a 7900 GTX instead.

A 7950GX2 won't run on any motherboard so it becomes a problem when you want to upgrade your motherboard and also when you want to sell the card.

2GB is no myth. In games like Fear, BF2, BF 2142, Quake 4, and all/most new games you will need more than 1GB to max out settings.

That's great but it's also irrelevant. His 6800GS is a far bigger bottleneck than 1 GB RAM is.

 

[akshayt]

You can't wait even 2 weeks?

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
I would go with neither. Get a 7900 GTX instead.

A 7950GX2 won't run on any motherboard so it becomes a problem when you want to upgrade your motherboard and also when you want to sell the card.

2GB is no myth. In games like Fear, BF2, BF 2142, Quake 4, and all/most new games you will need more than 1GB to max out settings.

That's great but it's also irrelevant. His 6800GS is a far bigger bottleneck than 1 GB RAM is.

Wont run on any?? i think im missing something.. lol

Check for the motherboards listed as supported for the GX2. The 7950GX2 is the fastest card out even with HQ.

But with G80 (8800GTX and 8800GTS) coming out in couple of weeks, why bother buy the cards you mentioned. With the 8800GTS being priced at $499 MSRP, im sure it will be better of than buying the GX2 or even the XTX.

Edit - hard launch at Novemeber 16th.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
I would go with neither. Get a 7900 GTX instead.

WTF?

You can get an X1950XTX for $400, but you recommend a 7900 GTX for what newegg shows as $430+ :Q?

I know you dislike ATi's drivers, but lol, recommending 7900 GTXs these days makes absolutely zero sense when there are cheap 7900 GTOs, X1900XT 256 MBs, nevermind X1900XT/X 512 MB card, & X1950XTX cards for less.

Or is there something i am missing?

 

[Ardan]

I actually had no idea they were coming out so soon. I was wondering now so that I can keep my budget accordingly for the next few weeks. Someone asked why I can't wait two weeks or something, which I find strange because I said I wasn't getting it for a few weeks. I haven't followed the video market as close as I should have been, so I was unaware of the release schedule of their next-gen designs, of which I glanced at once and really enjoyed.

You're right, the 6800 GS is probably where the bottle neck would be. I really see absolutely no need to buy additional RAM when I am comfortable with the performance as it is. I do a lot of video encoding/creation and, for instance, and I don't have any problems. I think I might as well wait for G80 if its coming out that soon. I thought maybe it was going to be later or something, but I guess I thought wrong .

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: BFG10K
I would go with neither. Get a 7900 GTX instead.

WTF?

You can get an X1950XTX for $400, but you recommend a 7900 GTX for what newegg shows as $430+ :Q?

I know you dislike ATi's drivers, but lol, recommending 7900 GTXs these days makes absolutely zero sense when there are cheap 7900 GTOs, X1900XT 256 MBs, nevermind X1900XT/X 512 MB card, & X1950XTX cards for less.

QFT. If Nvidia at all, a 7900GTO is a far better bang for buck performer than the 7900GTX considering it is virtually the same thing for around half the price. Just make sure to get the EVGA model if you're at all interested in G80.

 

[redbox]

Originally posted by: josh6079

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: BFG10K
I would go with neither. Get a 7900 GTX instead.

WTF?

You can get an X1950XTX for $400, but you recommend a 7900 GTX for what newegg shows as $430+ :Q?

I know you dislike ATi's drivers, but lol, recommending 7900 GTXs these days makes absolutely zero sense when there are cheap 7900 GTOs, X1900XT 256 MBs, nevermind X1900XT/X 512 MB card, & X1950XTX cards for less.

QFT. If Nvidia at all, a 7900GTO is a far better bang for buck performer than the 7900GTX considering it is virtually the same thing for around half the price. Just make sure to get the EVGA model if you're at all interested in G80.

I thought the only maker you could get the 7900gto through was EVGA?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster

Originally posted by: BFG10K
I would go with neither. Get a 7900 GTX instead.

A 7950GX2 won't run on any motherboard so it becomes a problem when you want to upgrade your motherboard and also when you want to sell the card.

2GB is no myth. In games like Fear, BF2, BF 2142, Quake 4, and all/most new games you will need more than 1GB to max out settings.

That's great but it's also irrelevant. His 6800GS is a far bigger bottleneck than 1 GB RAM is.

Wont run on any?? i think im missing something.. lol

Check for the motherboards listed as supported for the GX2. The 7950GX2 is the fastest card out even with HQ.

But with G80 (8800GTX and 8800GTS) coming out in couple of weeks, why bother buy the cards you mentioned. With the 8800GTS being priced at $499 MSRP, im sure it will be better of than buying the GX2 or even the XTX.

Edit - hard launch at Novemeber 16th.

I think he meant , not just any , motherboard. Check the compatability list on nvidia's website OP.

 

[videopho]

If you insist to get one today and cannot hold.
Then get the eVGA-7900GTO then step-up later to a G8800 (GTX or GS) of your choice.
It'd be foolish to buy any g/c today that costs over $300, knowing the launch date is less than 3 weeks.
7900GTO by eVGA for USA
7900GTO by MSI for Europe

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: videopho
If you insist to get one today and cannot hold.
Then get the eVGA-7900GTO then step-up later to a G8800 (GTX or GS) of your choice.
It'd be foolish to buy any g/c today that costs over $300, knowing the launch date is less than 3 weeks.
7900GTO by eVGA for USA
7900GTO by MSI for Europe

It may not be foolish - considering an 8800 is likely going to cost well over $500 at launch.

But then again, after the 8800 launches, the 1950XTX and 7950's are going to come down in price quite a bit.

For the record though, I agree with you. Get an eVGA and then step up once the prices of the 8800's fall from insanity to something more reasonable.

If you don't want to wait, I'd suggest the 1950XTX, except for the fact that the current drivers don't support it (without modding them).

 

[Ardan]

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: videopho
If you insist to get one today and cannot hold.
Then get the eVGA-7900GTO then step-up later to a G8800 (GTX or GS) of your choice.
It'd be foolish to buy any g/c today that costs over $300, knowing the launch date is less than 3 weeks.
7900GTO by eVGA for USA
7900GTO by MSI for Europe

It may not be foolish - considering an 8800 is likely going to cost well over $500 at launch.

But then again, after the 8800 launches, the 1950XTX and 7950's are going to come down in price quite a bit.

For the record though, I agree with you. Get an eVGA and then step up once the prices of the 8800's fall from insanity to something more reasonable.

If you don't want to wait, I'd suggest the 1950XTX, except for the fact that the current drivers don't support it (without modding them).

Good point. Well, I can wait actually. I just simple was curious because it was on my mind. I'm thinking of waiting a few weeks anyways, but I can wait longer if it would be worth it. I don't think I'd want to buy a 7900GTO 'for now' since I already have a 6800 GS . Its not like purchasing something now is desperately needed. It is probably best to wait and see in regards to the 8800, its performance and prices. If its reasonable, I'll go for one of those and if it isn't, I'll go for a 1950XTX since it will no doubt probably have dropped in price by now. Would probably make more sense to just jump to a DirectX 10 card though. If I can plunk down $500 now for a card, then I might as well wait and set aside a little more to make sure I can get the top-end 8800 if it is worth it.

 

[BFG10K]

Wont run on any?? i think im missing something.. lol

As in not every motherboard is supported:

Click.

If you get a 7950 your motherboard choices will be limited and it becomes harder to sell the card too.

You can get an X1950XTX for $400, but you recommend a 7900 GTX for what newegg shows as $430+

At this stage I wouldn't buy an ATi card due to lacking drivers and AA quality.

But yeah, it is best to wait but I thought the OP was in a hurry.

 

[Ardan]

It wasn't a hurry initially, it was something for next week. Then I found out they want to hold off, so I was going to wait as well. After that, I saw the posts about nvidia's pending releases in week or three and thought I should wait. I figured it was worth discussing anyways, too.

Does anyone know what the dimensions of the 1950XTX or 7900 GTX cards are? My 6800 GS is already getting very close to the HD cage as it is. Probably want to look at a slightly bigger case if someone has one of those cards and could let me know. That would suck to buy one (or the new G80-series of cards) and find out that it won't fit .

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

At this stage I wouldn't buy an ATi card due to lacking drivers and AA quality.

But yeah, it is best to wait but I thought the OP was in a hurry.

I respect your opinion BFG as you seem to be pretty level-headed and have some good knowledge about graphics cards but I have to respectfully disagree with you about the AA options. For those that run older games, or games that aren't too gpu-intensive, the extra AA modes that Nvidia offers are nice to have. For newer games, especially when played at 1600x1200 or above (1680x1050 in this case), the 8xSS and above modes don't work very well. I tried 8xSS on a few games (UT2004, FarCry, Source games) with my 7800GTs@550/1300 and it wasn't very playable. I'm not even hugely picky about fps but it was very apparent that my cards were struggling a bit under the load.

IMO, for newer games the extra AA modes just aren't very useful unless all other eye-candy is turned off in which case it kind of defeats the purpose.

 

[josh6079]

I tried 8xSS on a few games (UT2004, FarCry, Source games) with my 7800GTs@550/1300 and it wasn't very playable. I'm not even hugely picky about fps but it was very apparent that my cards were struggling a bit under the load.

IMO, for newer games the extra AA modes just aren't very useful unless all other eye-candy is turned off in which case it kind of defeats the purpose.

Whoa, that's weird. I had almost the exact same GPU configuration you did +/- a few core MHz--575 on water, 535 on air--and 8xS was very usable.

I think the 8xS mode is the setting to use with an SLI setup and highly suggested for powerful 79 series single GPU's. I liked using it whenever I could, which was quite often. Of course, I'm also content with ~22 fps in Oblivion, so what's my word worth?

With echoes of G80's 16xAA fluidity, I hope all of their image-quality attention didn't leave out their much-needed AF improvements. That's just one of my perks, I'm more sensitive to AF than AA.

At this stage I wouldn't buy an ATi card due to lacking drivers and AA quality.

But yeah, it is best to wait but I thought the OP was in a hurry.

Still, if Nvidia is the vendor of choice whats the reason to get a 7900GTX over a 7900GTO?

 

[CP5670]

I found 8X way too slow in modern games when I had two 7800GTs (although not clocked that high; they were at 500/1150). Actually, even 4X was often too slow for my liking and I played most newer games without AA. That being said, I play old games quite often and I sort of miss not having the 8X and 16X modes anymore for those. ATI's smartshader feature compensated for it at one point, but they removed that in the 6.4 drivers for no apparent reason. I'm probably going to downgrade to 6.3 soon so I can get that fake HDR effect once again.