Pro or XT?

D

drivR

Geek Trainee
I am not very up to date on video cards but I am considering updating so I can play doom3. I was wondering if there is a significant difference in the ATI (Sapphire) Radeon X800 XT 256 MB ($549) or the ATI Sapphire Radeon X800 PRO 256MB ($394)? I see the price difference is almost $160. Or maybe there are some suggestions on a different less expensive card? Oh, and one dumb question - how do I tell what kind of AGP slot I have in this motherboard? thanks in advance for your help.
 
XT will give you more oopmf. But the pro will play doom3. I play doom3 on a 9600SE at low settings 1024x768

what motherboard do you have?
 
I'm not sure what mb it is. My system is a dell dimension 4550 series pentium 4 @ 2.66GHz (7kfdp21) thanks for your help.
 
According to Dell it does. All Pentium 4 chipsets from Intel (with AGP slots) support at least AGP 4x, which AGP 8x is backwards compatible with.

For the price, no, the XT is quite a bit more in price, but not as much in performance. Don't misunderstand: the XT is faster than the Pro, but not for the price it commands.
 
Why not get a 6800GT for roughly 400 bucks and overclock it to the Ultra's speeds for no extra cost? You basically get a 6800 Ultra for 100 bucks less. Another positive about the 6800GTs and Ultras is that you get support for SM3.0. The X800's only support SM2.0
 
The 6800GT Ultra is the fastest card on the planet. And the benchmarks show it too.

If you got the cash, get the card.
 
This round, yes, nVidia does have the grunt. For the money, you could get a GeForce 6800 non-GT/non-Ultra and still have about the same grunt as the Radeon X800. The only reason I can see to go with the ATi cards this round is if you're an ATi fanb0y.
 
Not sure why but ATi cards outperform the nvidia ones when it comes to high res UT2k3 benchmarks. But that was before, I think now the gaps closed with UT2k3.
 
Doom 3 is an openGL game, and this is the weakness of ATI cards. ATI, however, are stronger in Direct3d games, like Unreal Tournament.

With that said, the card I would ultimately aim for, is the 6800GT. I'm not getting one because I don't have the money, and I'm not getting anything else because this is what I want.

But, Doom 3 runs perfectly on a 9800 Pro/Barton 3200+ (better cpu than your current one) @10x7, high details.
 
Well like you need to OC anything is airflow. You'll need air passing through your case and maybe air circulated around your Video card.

That link you posted is a PNY card. Trust us on this one and get a different brand video card. PNY makes some pretty iffy stuff. You would be much better getting a solid card with a reputation like ASUS MSI or Gainward, etc. And you will save a lot of money.
 
GeForce 6800=yes. PNY brand anything=no. PNY makes crappy products that, at best might run at stock speeds. Might. The only thing with a supposed PNY brand on it turned out to be an MSI part, not PNY. PNY and Epox are about the only two companies I won't touch with a 10-ft pole. Generally, MSI is a pretty good bet on all counts, solid quality w/o charging an arm and a leg, and they have pretty good packaging with extras.

Also, I wouldn't buy from the store you linked. Their Reseller Rating is terrible.

I suggest Newegg or ZipZoomFly.
 
hell, go with a BFG. You cant beat a Lifetime Warranty! Plus they come overclocked 20MHz on the core out of the box all ready. I took mine to 450/1300 easy for benching and run it everyday at 400/1100. I used to run it at 430/1200 everday but theres really no use. I dont game anymore
 
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