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Another should I buy a X1800 XT thread

Soldato
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Hi all,

I currently have a 6800GT, AMD64 +3400 754 socket.

Im wondering if its worth me buying a new mobo that has PCI E and get this Sapphire X1800 XT or not.

Would the difference justify the effort and money spent? Would my CPU bottleneck the card?
 
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Soldato
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Just over your shoulder
2StepSteve said:
Hi all,

I currently have a 6800GT, AMD64 +3400 754 socket.

Im wondering if its worth me buying a new mobo that has PCI E and get this Sapphire X1800 XT or not.

Would the difference justify the effort and money spent? Would my CPU bottleneck the card?

it all depends........the 6800GT is no slouch......there will be a fair amount of cost involved.....and then comes the 'should I stretch to a 512MB version (or perhaps even a x1900xt)

what resolution are you likely to be gaming at ?
 
Soldato
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kevpuk said:
it all depends........the 6800GT is no slouch......there will be a fair amount of cost involved.....and then comes the 'should I stretch to a 512MB version (or perhaps even a x1900xt)

what resolution are you likely to be gaming at ?

Thanks for the reply...

it will be at 1280 x 1024 id be playing at. My 6800GT fan is dieing at the mo and is overheating non stop. Was thinkin about gettin a new and better card but would need a new mobo for it aswell
 
Associate
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2StepSteve said:
Hi all,

I currently have a 6800GT, AMD64 +3400 754 socket.

Im wondering if its worth me buying a new mobo that has PCI E and get this Sapphire X1800 XT or not.

Would the difference justify the effort and money spent? Would my CPU bottleneck the card?

Depends what games you play if you play a lot of the older games like cs then the 1800xt won't show much difference as the game will be cpu limited if you planning on playing the newer games like oblivion then the 1800xt will make a bigger difference
 
Soldato
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Leicestershire
mattx2 said:
Depends what games you play if you play a lot of the older games like cs then the 1800xt won't show much difference as the game will be cpu limited if you planning on playing the newer games like oblivion then the 1800xt will make a bigger difference

it will show a big difference on CS:S on the HDR maps. nearly doubled my frame rate over my X800XL and that was no slouch in CS:S.

also, FEAR and Far Cry maxed out at 1280x1024 play great. :)
 
Soldato
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mattx2 said:
Depends what games you play if you play a lot of the older games like cs then the 1800xt won't show much difference as the game will be cpu limited if you planning on playing the newer games like oblivion then the 1800xt will make a bigger difference

Will be playin a mixture of old and new games.. UT2004, battlefield 2, oblivion, FS2004.. half life 2.. mostly FPS'ers
 
Associate
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I'd go for the X1800XT. A PCI-E motherboard doesn't cost that much compared to the graphics card. I think it would make more sense to buy the X1800XT than another AGP card. I just bought an X1800XT 256Mb myself.
 
Soldato
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13,779
2StepSteve said:
I currently have a 6800GT, AMD64 +3400 754 socket.
It's not long since I was using almost the exact same setup. :)

2StepSteve said:
Im wondering if its worth me buying a new mobo that has PCI E and get this Sapphire X1800 XT or not.
It's definitely worth it for the moment. The Sapphire X1800XT is daylight robbery at £170 inc. VAT, and you can grab a Gigabyte GA-K8NE nForce4 motherboard for only £50. The performance increase would completely blow you away, take my word for it. ;)

2StepSteve said:
Would the difference justify the effort and money spent? Would my CPU bottleneck the card?
Don't worry about bottlenecking. The only thing that'll really be below optimal performance is benchmarks, games will run absolutely fine.

If you do think that your CPU is holding you back, though, it'll overclock to 2.6GHz (~3700+ equivalent) easily on stock air cooling.
 
Soldato
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Exsomnis said:
It's not long since I was using almost the exact same setup. :)


It's definitely worth it for the moment. The Sapphire X1800XT is daylight robbery at £170 inc. VAT, and you can grab a Gigabyte GA-K8NE nForce4 motherboard for only £50. The performance increase would completely blow you away, take my word for it. ;)


Don't worry about bottlenecking. The only thing that'll really be below optimal performance is benchmarks, games will run absolutely fine.

If you do think that your CPU is holding you back, though, it'll overclock to 2.6GHz (~3700+ equivalent) easily on stock air cooling.

Thats cool! Hmm im even more tempted now to go for it.. lol.. end up skint for the rest of the month though! But ah! If the jump in performance is what you say it is, think it might just be worth it. Just need to find a suitable mobo with SATA and RAID if possible as I have a lot of drives.. i'll get looking. I was gonna hold off and do a big upgrade nearer the end of this year, but I suppose theres still some life in my CPU yet to ditch it especially if I over clock it alittle.

Thats true Danny I could get an artic cooler and flog the 6800GT.
 
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Soldato
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I was going to hold out until DirectX 10 myself, but my old card just wasn't cutting it in games like Oblivion and I caved. £170 is great value though, and considering DirectX 10 won't be around until early 2007 (if it doesn't get pushed back again), you'd definitely be getting your money's worth. :)
 
Soldato
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I used a 6800GT for a while, but it wasn't mine. My last card was an X800 GTO² @ X850 XT PE clocks and I noticed a massive increase over that with my X1800XT.

Before the GTO² I had a 6600GT, and even though it was a bloody amazing card for a bloody amazing bargain, my X1800XT makes it look like a Voodoo 2.

You'll notice a huge improvement over your 6800GT, for sure. :)
 
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Soldato
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Well ive done it lol... gulp! :eek:

Went for the Abit NV8 Mobo and Sapphire X1800 XT.

I wasnt planning on going out much this month anyways lol. I'll sell my 6800GT make some ££ back.

Hope i'll like it!

Thanks for your help everyone :)
 
Soldato
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2StepSteve said:
Well ive done it lol... gulp! :eek:
ROFL, I said precisely that when I ordered mine. I was so full of doubt.

Soon went away when I loaded up Oblivion for the first time though. :cool: Kicks the utter crap out of my X800 GTO² that's for sure, and I was doing a lot better than a good few X850 XT PE's with that. :)
 
Soldato
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Yeah I imagine it will, I'm using a Gigabyte board myself and it's not great for overclocking at all but it does just enough. I'll probably end up switching my motherboard for a DFi and getting an Opteron at some point though, getting hungry for more speed. :D
 
Associate
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I got the Sapphire from OCUK. Man it kicks serious butt :D
NFSMW looks fantastic with everything maxed out at 1280x1024. I do have a very good spec all over tho, dont know if this makes a big difference.

Anyway: BUY the card mate. It is a steal.
 
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