Which Graphics Card Do You Use?

Hi, i got this score running standard settings and while surfing downloading.

System;

P4 3.0ghz
1024mb ddr550
ATI X800 pro
120gb/8mb sata

 

It's a nice score kinda like 6600gt, little faster...

I know what you meant FireCat, and I am aware of the situation...but like it's always been the case: it will take me another year for upgrading my card...so I had to purchase one now...

I am 1000% convinced that whatever graphic card you have: if you use it with an amd64 you'll always get better graphics then if you have intel (like me) eventhough it is the 550...I will never make the same mistake to be honest...maybe I will I don't know...

I have seen some tests at anandtech between the intel 64bit and amd64bit...guess what: ... amd crushes intel again

have fun

 

I'll let Infinity comment on that - I'm a GeForce guy

I like your setup Sweetie - but are you a gamer?

If you got that score while surfing/downloading its definitely good - at least I think its good

You have a great PC. I'm jealous of your graphics card

 

11600 3dmarks03 with the new one...but didn't overclocked my cpu and didn't overclocked the graphic card yet...

maybe this eve but I am experiencing issues with the voltages...need to work it out first or I'll end up with an microwave oven again

 

Of course - my 5900 functions way better on my AMD64 than it did on my old P4. Doom 3 had better textures, 3DMark scores are acceptable and I can generall run most of my games very smoothly.

Intel's 64-bit is just the old 32-bit Extreme Edition with the new Enhanced Memory 64 Technology (EM64T)

AMD is miles ahead of Intel this time - and it better stay that way

 

Yours is an X800XL, Inf. - Sweeties seems like the regular plain vanilla X800

 

yes, you remember correctly...
sidenote: If Sweetie has a vivo connector on her X800pro then she could easily use the ATITOOL to unlock the pipes and shaders so she has the XT and then she'll blow me away in now time cause x800xl pro and x800pro are unlockeable (mine just by adding mem and core and x800pro just by using the tools available like voltmodding and atitool)...two excellent cards imho.

and better performers for the money then nvidea's (sorry Firecat) imho...that is why I changed to ATI

 

Umm...I think Sweeties is X800 vanilla - not Pro or Ultra or XT or anything

Since I am very interested in Graphics technology, I choose nVIDIA because thiers is better from a technology standpoint. Y'see, I'm more likely to become a developer rather than an end user, and NVIDIA offers the best platform for OpenGL gaming and developer platforms.

NVIDIA = Developer Flexibility/OpenGL exploitation
ATI = End user flexibilty

I am very interested in proper exploitation of graphics cards due to which I may end up as developer.

NVIDIA does indeed make things difficult for developers with Shader Model 2.0a for NV3x and SM 3.0 for NV4x and the different levels of precision - FP16 and FP32.

The end user is probably better off with ATI

 

I understand your point clearly, and I do deeply respect that.

As long as we can play games and watch movies with good quality, we'll be happy

p.s. we talk about the 6800 (nvidea) vanilla, never about ATI vanilla...but I understand what you're saying...but nevertheless x800 (without pro or xl) would never ever achieve such a score without overclocking this is a pro version and a good one cause if it is standard settings, it's faster then let's say msi x800pro's.

 

I think I should edit my post...cause normally the x800pro could get a better score then the one sweetie is having, but like she said: she was surfing and stuff...and if she didn't changed the internal 3dmark settings here points are accomplished with 4X antialiasing so it's a VERY good score anyway

take care

 

OK Then - its an ATI Radeon X800 Pro.

GeForce 6 Series graphics cards have had a lot of problems with video - especially the 6600 series - mainly related to PureVideo.

ATI is generally better at video quality. NVIDIA puts in huge transistor counts for technology which they havent yet perfected, I dont know what NVIDIA is up to.

Basically, NVIDIA wants to push the world away from standard compilers like Microsoft HLSL and GLSL, and wants to pull developers towards their Cg so that NVIDIA GPUs can perform the best.

Sorta like how 3Dfx pushed Glide.

Now, enter S3. Its back with DeltaChrome. It performs better than comparable NV3x graphic cards, and is a real 8-pipe architecture. It supports FP16 and FP24 to maintain a good performance, unlike NVIDIA who used FP16 and FP32.

The real problem with DeltaChrome - bad drivers and low clock speeds.

 

sounds like the parphelia cards...nice concept except for the high price and low speeds

the thing nvidea is working on (I read it on tom's hardware) is to build a card with 512mb too...in sli format this will be 1024mb...I cannot believe this is going to happen cause there are no games what so ever that needs this...
Nvidea has pro's no doubt about that...it is just that they don't have anything between the 6800 and the 6600...let's say the middle class...

 

I agree with you on that.

Lets not forget the peculiar behaviour of SLI with certain games.....

 

true, or it works great or it works very bad and then again: the price you pay for two 6600gt/6800gt is much more then one x800xl/xt and still be better performance/less noice/less heat then with the sli card...

I love the idea though but paying the double for an increase of 20% is not worth the $ if you know what I mean.

you'll do a good thing when you wait a little longer for that 6800gt, it'll cost you 200$ in a few months, like all cards btw

 

Yup - I think I'll wait a bit - then buy a 6800GT or X800 Pro.

Although this is never discussed in the comparatives - I know exactly why Doom 3 runs so well on NV3x/NV4x. Do you wanna know?

 

please tell Firecat, I don't know

 

Well here it is:

The Doom 3 beta version scores showed NV3x having a very big performance improvement over Radeon 9xxx. This was b'coz:

1)John Carmack used a special code path for GeForce FX which used the following workarounds

-UltraShadow for Shadow Volumes Acceleration (FX 5700, 5900 and 5950 only)
-NVIDIA vendor-specific extensions were used instead of the default ARB standard codepath
-Carmack used 12-bit integer and 16bit floating point (FP16) colour in his shaders for NV3x, while Radeons used 24-bit floating point (FP24) colour all the time

After this, in the final version of Doom 3:

-UltraShadow is disabled by default (but enabled after installing 1.1 patch)

-There is a specific extension not available to my GeForce FX 5900 (but it is used in the game), therefore I believe it is using some specific Shader Model 3.0 features

-Doom 3 seems to prefer using texture lookups instead of math functions while using shaders (I read this somewhere).

Radeons do better at math code and GeForce does better at texture operations. There was a huge controversy on this, b'coz it seems that the texture lookups were solely used keeping NV3x/NV4x in mind. An independent coder substituted the texture lookups with math code and found only a minimal quality loss. However, a trained professional should be able to put in a shader using math code without problems.

-The shaders seem to use FP16 where possible for GeForce 6800 (but FP32 most of the time). What is interesting is that Doom 3 renders ALL the shaders in FP16 colour for GeForce FX graphics cards.

If you observe carefully, and go very very close to certain textures, on FX cards, there will be a slight colour banding. This is because every shader is rendered in FP16 colour for GeForce FX graphics cards.

The performance difference between R3xx and NV3x is very low now because John Carmack stopped using the 12-bit integer colour for some shaders and decided to use FP16 throughout for GeForce FX.

Because of FP16 being used on NV3x, I presume NVIDIA also used FP16 on GeForce 6 where it was possible - but I assume FP16 was not used all the time because the slight texture banding of NV3x is not seen on GeForce 6 series.

Seeing all that, it does not surprise me that GeForce cards perform better in Doom 3.

 

Didn't know that, thanx for the heads up.

Actually, how is this Doom3? I know it is one of the heaviest games at the moment but do you know if is a pleasure to play it?

Thanx

 

Well Doom 3 looks good and plays good, at times it gets boring, but it picks back up again.

But I get plain scared playing it - One level a day is good enough for me!

 

one level a day lol Firecat...I have half life 2 now for a month and I am still at level 5...and I formatted my pc so I'll have to start all over again...I like it now better

Thanx for sharing your insights Firecat.

 

Hi, to answer the question from above, im not a hard core gamer but i do enjoy playing a few of the newer games.

I keep my pc very clean so it mabey helped my score a little, also the ram i have is very good (geil ddr550 1024mb)

I will try running it again O/C at around 3.5-3.6ghz with minimal background processes etc.

 

Dont OC your CPU Sweetie - You'd probably do better OCing your graphics card

Ask Infinity about that OK?

 

it's a mix from both...if you overclock your cpu 10% (from 3Ghz to 3.3Ghz), your score (in 3dmark03) would be like like 100 points extra.

if you manage to overclock your card together with your cpu this will benefit the most for benchmarking.

overclocking cpu's isn't that dangerous anymore...all motherboard builders are offering built-in tools in bios and software and if you stay between the lines "they" say: you won't break the waranty...never had that prob Firecat, never...the only prob I had was with my powersupply ... *boem*

the most important thing if you want to experiment:

1. is a good airflow (1*12mm fan in back and 1*12mm in front)
2. a good cpu cooler (zalman 7700CU - I managed from 62C idle to 41C idle with less noise)
3. good cooler on your graphic card like nv silencers...
4. Thermal Paste to conduct the heat from your cpu to the cooler...Arctic Silver 5 is the best, without that I have 52C (with standard paste) and like I said : 41C with AS5

only then you will have room for overclocking and playing around, seeking for that ultimate limit...except if you have enough money for watercooling or freezers (-35C)

 

yep: i run water and vapo chill
water on gpu and northbridge and vapo on p4 3.2c
if you are gonna oc and go nuts make sure to test with a good stress test program. i.e.: if you oc and you go past the limit of your cpu you will start getting errors from the cpu. this usually gets corrected by keeping it cool to a certain extent only though. and you need to make sure the ram you have is capable of running at those speeds as well. i use ocz only have never had better oc's than with the ocz and it is stable as a rock pushed far beyond what it should be capable of. i am running a x800xt w/ danger den water and also danger den maze4 on northbride.
i have tried literaly every air cooler around and most can get you a decent oc but be aware of your temps once you go beyond thier limits temps rise very quickly. the zalman is decent at best for oc'ing. will not achieve great oc's
the swiftech is much better as is the thermaltake with the heat pipes.
forget ram sinks they do nothing really i tested many of them and got maybe 1-2 degrees f less with them.
find a capable motherboard is the first step, i use asus only anymore. tried all the rest abit gigabyte etc... great oc's but never stable enough

my setup:
p4 3.2c @ 4.19 ghz ( i run it at 4.5 for games )
ocz gold rev 2 2gb
2 western raptors in raid 0 and
two more in raid 1
asus p4c-800e deluxe
x800xt
self made case out of aluminum with vapo chill on top
danger den water gpu and northbridge

any 3.2 should get 3.6-3.8 on ait though with the right config and setup

by the way artic silver works great but change it often as it tends to dry up quite a bit and does not work very well over time. also be very careful getting the sink of the cpu with artci silver sometimes it can be almost like glue once heat cycled

 

Any other comments on this card....................looking for the best bang for me buck(s) and only got 200 of them.............i'm running intel p4 3.2 GHz......w/512 MB PC3200 DDR400................nice thread Firecat