Running x850 pro on 4x agp.. worth it?

[timechange01]

Also I have this thing about buying other brands. I will only purchase Radeons that are Built By ATI. I know they cost more but I will never purchase anything other than BBA.

Could you possibly give me an estimate of the performance difference between an X850PRO, X850XT, and X850XT-PE.

 

[the_guru]

I don't know about the X850 Pro but the other cards are here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/page7.html

 

[timechange01]

Alright Ive decided that I will not be getting a PRO. But after seeing the benchmarks I really want the Platinum Edition to secure me for 2006. Platinum Edition would cost me more but is it really worth the money? or should I just settle for an XT?

My absolute max budget for the new video is $350-370.

 

[the_guru]

I don't know what the price difference is.

You can get a X850XT for less than $300.
And after all a X850XT PE is only an overclocked X850XT.

Unless there's a small difference ($20-$30) you should settle with the X850XT.

 

[Crashman]

Too much money. I can get an AIW X800 XT for only $260.

 

[timechange01]

Ive searched many sites and I cannot find a Built By ATI RX850XT for less than 300$

 

[the_guru]

Ive searched many sites and I cannot find a Built By ATI RX850XT for less than 300$

I guess I missed the part about BBA. If you want BBA you have to pay more.

 

[timechange01]

Well thanks for all the help guys. I decided Im goin with 2048mb of ram (2 1GB sticks and my motherboard's max ram is 2048) and x850 xt platinum edition because since its gonna serve me for 2006 I might as well invest good money in it. And then Il probably start building my comp early 2007

my friends comp is:

P4 3.0Ghz
2048 RAM
300GB hard drive
Nvidia Geforce 6200 (256MB) PCI-E

my comp will be:

P4 2.0Ghz
2048DDR RAM
80GB hard drive
Ati Radeon X850XT-PE AGP 4x

So for gaming, my comp will infact beat his?

 

[ikaz]

Well if realy your not geting to get to much increase in speed with 2gig of memory from the tests I've seen on most gaming right now. If you plan to build another machine in a year you may want to cut back to 1gig.

Yes your machine will beat his, realy your fried should be running at least a 6600GT PCI card (and your computer would still beat his if he went to the GT on most games though his loading may be quicker between levels).

 

[timechange01]

Is $315 USD a good deal for a BBA Platinum Edition?

 

[the_guru]

Is $315 USD a good deal for a BBA Platinum Edition?

I think it's a good deal. I don't think you will find any cheaper BBA.

 

[timechange01]

Alright cool I sent payment today. Its a sealed brand new Built by Ati Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition for $299USD plus $15USD for shipping. Now I wait for it to arrive. BTW whats the required power supply thing for it? I bought a 450w psu last year for my radeon 9800, will that run it?

 

[Crashman]

450W is more than adequate, but some power supplies are such poor quality that they're inadequate regardless of rated output.

 

[timechange01]

I have a question; in HL2 Lost Coast and FarCry, will I be able to enable HDR with the x850?

Because Ive been searching and searching and only found that FarCry HDR is for Nvidia cards??

 

[the_guru]

I have a question; in HL2 Lost Coast and FarCry, will I be able to enable HDR with the x850?

Because Ive been searching and searching and only found that FarCry HDR is for Nvidia cards??

X850 doesn't support HDR.

The following cards support HDR:

ATI Radeon X1000-series
Nvidia Geforce 6000-series
Nvidia Geforce 7000-series

 

[timechange01]

But how come on this site it says X850 with HDR on the second graph

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2005/09/21/lost_coast_benchmark/2.html

and also on the first post, which is updated, of this thread:

http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=93333

 

[the_guru]

But how come on this site it says X850 with HDR on the second graph

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2005/09/21/lost_coast_benchmark/2.html

and also on the first post, which is updated, of this thread:

http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=93333

Well you need Shader Model 3.0 for true HDR support. X850 only supports Shader Model 2.0 and the SM2.0 HDR implementation is not that good. But of course you can use it.

 

[timechange01]

Oh I see. So that means that my friends GF6200 has SM 3.0?

 

[the_guru]

Oh I see. So that means that my friends GF6200 has SM 3.0?

Yepp, but your card is much better. The visual difference between SM3.0 and SM 2.0 i very small and his card is so slow it can't really take advantage of it while your card can use High graphical detail in all games. And your card can use ansotropic filtering and anti aliasing much better than any 6000-series card.

Your system will be much better than your friends system when it comes to gaming.

Som charts for comparison:

Your card is no1 while his card is 7 from the bottom.

Your card would have been placed similar to the Radeon X850XT PE. While his card would be similar to the card dead last. So he wouldn't be able to play Quake4 at these settings while you could. 4xAF, 8xAA, Ultra quality looks really good.

 

[roncpem]

what about getting the x800pro vivo & flashing the bios to make it an xt pe? thats what i did about a year ago.

 

[timechange01]

thats awesome i love it when my friends card is dead last lol. could i get the link to the page you got the 2nd graph from? and I searched all over for COD2 benchmarks but couldnt find any with x850XT PE. any suggestions?

-thanks

 

[the_guru]

Here is the link to the page where I got the second graph:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/02/vga_charts_viii/page11.html


Here is a CoD 2 Demo benchmark with the X850XT PE:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/ati_radeon_x1800_x1600preview/10.html

The fps looks kind of low but they have run the tests using maximum detail. The X850XT PE is below 40 fps at all resolutions so you might wanna run the game at medium graphical detail. CoD 2 is a really demanding game.

And this is only the demo, both the drivers and the game might have been more optimized in the full version.

 

[timechange01]

But in COD2 with my friends 6200 it ran kinda smooth because i play with "force directx 7". And in games I never use any AA or AF except for hl2.

 

[the_guru]

But in COD2 with my friends 6200 it ran kinda smooth because i play with "force directx 7". And in games I never use any AA or AF except for hl2.

Force directx7? 8O Doesn't that look really ugly?

 

[timechange01]

lol not really it looks fine to me. its look like this

But in FEAR on the other hand, when force directx8 shaders are on it looks like garbage. Its like Doom 3 with no bump mapping. This is what fear looks like on my friends comp: