Gmespy's ATI vs Nvidia decision

[LordShard]

The Big Decision

After seeing the performance on all these cards, it will sooner or later hit you that whatever your current video card is will never catch up, even with all the liquid cooling and overclocking you can do. At the same time, the current high-end stuff, ATI's Radeon 9800 XT and NVIDIA's GeForce FX 5950 run most of the current games fine, at least at 1024x768. However, as new games come out this year, they will begin showing their age more and more. Games like Halo and Far Cry already stretch the limits of the current generation, so if playing at high resolutions with everything on is your idea of good gaming, you've got a decision to make.

Even if you're a fan boy/girl of a particular brand, there's no denying that, for the most part, ATI's Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition is the speed leader. While it's very close throughout most of the race, the X800 XT Platinum Edition just comes out on top more often. It's important to remember that NVIDIA's cards offer full SM30 support and FP32. It's just that games with these features won't be out for quite some time.

A more important consideration is one you may not expect. To run both the GeForce 6800 Ultra and Ultra Extreme, NVIDIA recommends a 480W power supply (PSU). While I'm lucky enough to have very high-end stuff and a power supply that powerful, these things are not common. I looked through the May issues of popular computer gaming magazines, and not a single "über extreme ultra high-end maximum" gaming machine came with anything over a 425W PSU. If you've got an OEM machine like a standard HP, Dell, Gateway, or other "mass-market" brand, chances are you have a 350W PSU at best, and it may be proprietary, meaning you can't just replace it on your own. This means that you may be required to update your PSU along with your video card, a task that many haven't the first clue how to do. In contrast, both the new Radeon X800 cards have a recommended PSU of 300W, as does the GeForce 6800 GT.

Additionally, both the 6800 Ultra and Ultra Extreme are double-wide cards, and both require two molex connectors. (A molex connector is one of those white power cords like the one plugged into your hard drive and optical drive.) Even then, both cards require two separate feeds; a y-connector that splits one molex in to two will not suffice. Again, in contrast, both new Radeons and the GeForce 6800 GT have one molex connector and are single space cards.

For many (especially those with small form factor cases that are all the rage), such power and space considerations make their next video card purchase a no-brainer. (Remember that as soon as I've got a working GeForce 6800 GT, I will post its numbers.) Sure, the benchmarks were mostly close among the big boys and all these cards are vast improvements over the current generation. However, only two of these four video cards are realistic options for most gamers. ATI has come through again.

[Jim0322 Profile]

So when are either nvidia or ATI going to come out with a mid-range version either the x800 or 6800? I don't want to spend $400+ on a video card. I just can't seem to bring myself to pay more than $200 for a video card.

Jim

[Major SONAR Profile]

Let me ask a question that's somewhat related to the topic:

Should I go with the ATI 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder or the ATI 800 XT and some sort of video capture card?

I have a SSF computer (Small Form Factor), which I love, but I only have 2 slots (1 AGP and 1 PCI). I would like to save my home movies (VHS) and burn them on DVD. Money is not really an issue.

Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?

Thanks!

[Major SONAR Profile]

One more thing on Nvidia Power Supply:

NVIDIA Corporation said it seriously reconsidered the recommendations about power supply units for computers with its latest high-end product called the GeForce 6800 Ultra and derivatives. The company told that 480 PSU are not compulsory for such PCs.

Originally NVIDIA Corp. recommended to use a 480W power supply units for use with its recently announced graphics processors GeForce 6800 Ultra in order to ensure maximum stability and reliability. However, it turned out that the requirement is not compulsory.

“When we initially specified out the power supply requirements for the GeForce 6800 Ultra we made an error on the conservative side. The reason is that this is an Enthusiast class product, and enthusiast users tend to max out their system configurations with the fastest CPU, lots of peripherals, etc. The original 480W power supply specification was targeted at these users. This spec gives them the power they need for their other system components, while also enabling overclocking headroom,” NVIDIA’s spokesperson Luciano Alibrandi told X-bit labs.

“For users who want to run the GeForce 6800 Ultra at its standard clocks, a good quality 350W power supply is more than enough. In fact a number of web-sites have done reviews of the GeForce 6800 Ultra using a 350W PSU. Based on this and additional test time that we have had with the GPU, our new minimum power requirement is a 350W power supply,” Mr. Alibrandi explained.

The GeForce 6-series of graphics processors will be available across entry-level, mainstream, performance-mainstream, high-end and, apparently, so-called ultra high-end graphics cards. The new series of NVIDIA’s graphics processors is the company’s second generation lineup of DirectX 9.0-compatible offerings that greatly leverage the feature-set of NVIDIA GeForce FX graphics chips and brings important additional caps like Shader Model 3.0 as well as great performance improvements over the previous generation hardware.

So far NVIDIA has unveiled only a $499 offering called the GeForce 6800 Ultra that is based on a 400MHz chip that integrates 16-pixel pipelines, 6 vertex pipelines as well as equipped with 256MB of GDDR3 memory at 1100MHz. Later graphics cards powered by similar graphics processors priced at $399 and $299 will be introduced.

The claims made by NVIDIA look pretty reasonably, but give a clear signal to enthusiasts who tend to be on the bleeding edge of technology that they should get quality power supply units in order to use it with the latest hardware. The same is generally effective for other high-end systems with powerful microprocessors and forthcoming graphics cards, such as ATI RADEON X800 XT.

While the intensification of requirements for more powerful PSUs and other system components is a natural trend, surging the requirements towards very high-end power supplies or other parts of PC systems is something that is able to negatively affect sales of products with such demands.

NVIDIA’s spokesperson denied to comment on actual power consumption of the GeForce 6800 Ultra, GeForce 6800 GT and GeForce 6800, but suggested that the company may announce the information sometime in future.

[Bullhead]

Originally posted by Major SONAR
Let me ask a question that's somewhat related to the topic:

Should I go with the ATI 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder or the ATI 800 XT and some sort of video capture card?

I have a SSF computer (Small Form Factor), which I love, but I only have 2 slots (1 AGP and 1 PCI). I would like to save my home movies (VHS) and burn them on DVD. Money is not really an issue.

Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?

Thanks!

If I recall correctly (and I'm feeling to lazy right now to go look ), some of the x800pro/xt's will have a rage theater chip onboard, giving them VIVO capabilites. (although no TV tuner).

If you can really wait, I'm sure that they'll release an AIW version of the new cards (based off an x800, probably) within 2-3 mo's.

[LordShard]

Well don't go with nvidia,, just the fact their cards take up 2 slots is reason enough. But the fact the ATI card does better is anouther great reason.

[Cpl. Bingham]

Originally posted by Bullhead
If I recall correctly (and I'm feeling to lazy right now to go look ), some of the x800pro/xt's will have a rage theater chip onboard, giving them VIVO capabilites. (although no TV tuner).

If you can really wait, I'm sure that they'll release an AIW version of the new cards (based off an x800, probably) within 2-3 mo's.

What he said. If you've got the cash and don't wanna wait, get the 800XT and a seperate video board. That'll net you the most performance overall. If you don't want to spend that much though, or can wait, get the AIW 9800 now, or wait for an AIW version of the 800XT chipset.