Are you going to wait on ATi's next generation video card?

BWX

Same here- had X800XL AGP for a month... won't be upgrading any time soon.. but will upgrade my CPU/mobo to get most out of this card.

Bowen

That's what I came from before my upgrade. I had...still do have a 9800 Pro that my son is now getting. That is one awesome card! I could play Battlefield 2 at 1280x1024 at medium detail. With this 7800 GTX, I can play every at 1600x1200 at their highest details!!! It's just awesome!!!

Now if you don't care about the eye candy then no you don't need a new card, but to turn everything on, all the AA and AF on to the max, then you'll want it either a 7800 GTX or a X1800 XT. Honestly though I don't think the X1800 XT is gonna be a GeForce killer. I think the X1800 is more about 2D features than performance. I don't think the card will suck but I think it's only slightly faster than the X850 XT if the early prelease numbers are correct. I know those numbers can't be qualified yet but their Avivo tech that ATi is talking about now was top secret before today. If the numbers were awesome performance wise on the R520 then they would have touted that!

Really I'm very pleased with my G70 right now and I haven't even O/Ced it!! Still like I said before, if you can wait for the X1800 XT to be released that's not a bad idea. I just got tired of ATi's crap and tardiness and I really don't think the X1800 XT is gonna be faster than the 7800 GTX anyway. If you want a great card now, then get the G70 but if you want to make sure then by all means wait!

HawgsHead

Yep,Yep.That old 9800Pro walked the walk,and talked the talk in it's day.It was 1 bad ass card!

Bowen

What do ya mean was...it still is baby! I mean a card that will still play todays games; albeit at medium quality and some in high quality. I'll never sell that card! It's an instant classic!

BWX

I think the 9700pro was the real classic card.. When it came out it blew the competition away. I still used mine until a month ago..

It will go into a second PC sometime..

I went from a:
- NV ti4200 64mb (A3 core, ti4600 core basically, it went 315/615 'ddr')..
- to a 9700pro 128mb (360/320)
- to an X800XL 256mb AGP.. (does 425/525- going to get better cooling before I push higher even though it will go much higher with stock cooling- I want to be safe)..

Each card about 2x faster than the one before. Next will probably be whatever comes after the 580.. the X800XL will last a while.

cragga36

Stick with me ati x800xt plat - These cards still kick ass big time so i'll hang on a bit

Bowen

Ahh well eVGA has a really good thing going! I used eVGA's "Step Up Program" and was one of the lucky few to get a GeForce 7800 GTX 512 A.KA. GeForce 7800 Ultra. I liked my 7800 GTX but not like I loved my Radeon 9800 Pro. This 7800 512 is more what I felt that 7800 GTX should have been. Don't get me wrong, I liked my 7800 but considering I was going from an 8 pipe 9800P to a 24 pipe 7800 GTX, I thought the performance would be a little better. Well with the 7800 512, it is like I felt it should be.

Regarding the new Radeon X1900 XTX (R580) vs the GeForce 7800 GTX 512, I'm not sure how fast the R580 will be. If you could trust the hype that's written about the R580 then it would be the card to get hands down, but as I recall not so long ago the same hype was written about the Radeon X1800 XT oh my....what a letdown! The X1800 XT doesn't suck, but when you compare it to the hype and what it should have been, then yeah it does.

Now assuming the R580 is as awesome as the hype now is (I'm not holding my breath until I see full reviews of the final product), the R580 is what ATi intended the R520 to be. In other words the R580 was supposed to be the card that was originally intended to be released last April I believe. That was the original date I think.

If the R580 really does have 48 Pixel Pipelines then Oh my! It would seem that it would be at last twice as fast as the 24 pipe 7800 GTX 512. The thing is I hear two different stores, one that the X1900 XTX has 48 pipes, while the other story says it has 16 pipes. Both stories indicate that the R580 will run at the same clock speed as the X1800 XT does. If it does have 48 pipes then I would be inclined to think that it will slaughter nVidia. Right now though, I'd bet on nVidia.

nVidia is moving to a 90nm process with the 7800 GTX 512 so even if they changed nothing at all, they would be able to raise the clock speed up considerably because of that alone. In fact I'd say they could raise the core to 650MHz with the 90nm. I've also heard stores with nVidia too, saying it would not only be moved to a 90nm process but they would add 8 more pipes, making it have 32 pipes. That combined with being able to O/C much more is a winner.

Judging ATi from the past year, I wouldn't rely on them coming out with an amazing card or a GeForce killer. I would bet on nVidia though as they already have an awesome card out. This 7800 GTX 512 is utterly amazing. To think they are shrinking it from 110nm to 90nm is awesome. ATi will need at least a 20 pipe card to at least tie the 7800 512 and possibly beat it but they'll probably want a 24 pipe card to soundly beat it.

I believe if the Radeon X1800 XT had 24 pipes like the GeForce 7800 GTX/7800 GTX 512 does, it would easily beat it as I think ATi's current design is superior to nVidia's. nVidia simply has more pipelines and at least for right now, more pipes equal a faster card!