The X800XT is not the PCIe version of the X800XT PE becuase i have an X800XT which is agp. The PE version is an overclocked version of The X800XT Also A great deal of Reviews show that Nvidia are actually lagging behind slightly not to mention the extra power the 6800 needs over the X800XT. Basically The X800XT is a finely crafted card ( and Im not just saying that cuz i got one)
True, but as far as price/performance, nVidia seems to have a slight edge. Either side is going to be fast, unlike when ATi came out with the original Radeons (no numbers behind them)---which sucked due to the then awful ATi drivers (this is pre-Catalyst). Took them awhile, but they finally got it right during the heyday of the Radeon 8500.
What I find funny is how ATI fans said ATI was better not only because it wass faster, but because it had very early DX9 implementation, even when no DX9 games were available. And even now, they're not the norm. Right now, Nvidia has more features, but ATI fans won'T admit that they have been defending a side of the coin while now, they're defending the opposite side. Look at how much the X800 cards cost when they came out compared to the nvidia ones, now tell me which one's a better buy ? No wonder why people (and I'm not saying you're one of them as I have no idea) are defending their buy 'til death. I saw a 6800GT for $450 CANADIAN 3 months ago, while the X800 Pro (which isn't even competing with the GT) was significantly more expensive than that... EDIT: I think it was at hardocp. They had a couple of XT PEs in their possession, but they all had different names (XT, XT PE, or nothing at all - on the hsf). So if you go by what's written there, it's not reliable.
I suppose the performance of these cards can be batted around with no real numbers to back them up. Here is a Benchmark of these cards with Doom3. http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040809/doom3-02.html It all really comes down to the types of games that you want to play. Even then it can be a toss up. Some game manufacturers write the code to be processor dependant, and others are memory dependant. Despite the genre or categor the game falls under. I recommend overall the AMD over the Intel, it performs best over a broad group of game types. However, getting the 939 socket is a must, and choose between the 3500 and the 3800 if you can afford them. Luckily with all 939 socket 64 processors the memory controller has been updated, regardless of the CPU clock. Corsair XMS memory and the best Nvidia card you can afford. If you can't afford a new 6800 GPU, then make sure you compair benchmarks with ATI cards...as the perfomance may be closer on the older cards. Good Luck!
That's true about what you play. For Direct 3D, ATi tends to do better than they do in OpenGL; with nVidia it's just the opposite. This time, overall nVidia does have the edge in raw power for starters. The one thing ATi does have going for them is that they don't need quite the same amount of juice as the 6800GT and Ultra do.
