Radeon X800XT-PE and X800Pro Review

[Jason425]

Now what we all have been waiting for. ATI's new X800Pro and X800XT Platinum Edition versus NVIDIA's GeForce 6800Ultra.

Check it out here (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjEx)

[gnogtr]

:D It looks like it kicks nvidia's ass on Far Cry. As I expected, it won. It looks like it's going to have a nice home inside my case, I hope I can put my watercooling and Ramsinks on properly :D, can't wait to tweak it.

[Jason425]

this summer i'll prob get it.. assuming I get a job soon

[gnogtr]

I've got the money now. I'll be selling my old motherboard (Asus A7V600) with an XP 3000+, a watercooler and my Radeon 9800 Pro for $400. If you know anyone interesed, let me know.

Man, the X800 XT PE was running as good as the 6800 or better on a higher resolution. I'm drueling....I know ATI would do it.

TAKE THAT MONEY LOVING NVIDIA! (ATI in market is 24% while Nvidia is 27%, two years ago, ATI was only 8%, do the math)

[Dragon]

well, looks like im buying ATI on this one then... how terribly dissappointing.

[StinkyMojo]

this summer i'll prob get it.. assuming I get a job soon

Assuming you'll turn in those apps I gave you!! Do it fast!!
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here are more benches:

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=517&cid=2

[gnogtr]

And ppl doubt me.

[eviltechie]

only 1 molex plug!
:D

i dont think NVIDIA thought that ATI would bring such a threat so soon

[gnogtr]

I knew they would all along.

[StinkyMojo]

yeah.. this is almost like the Radeon 9x00 vs the FX series all over again...

[gnogtr]

...And we know how that one turned out.

[Sea_Shadow]

Actually...

Do you remember that article awhile back on anandtech regarding the nForce 3 250? Where they were told that an nVidia Gfx card used in conjunction with an nForce 3 250 would perform better than if it was on a diff board or a diff gfx card was used in the comp. They tested it out with a nForce 3 250 refrence board and used an FX 5950 U and a 9800 XT. Turns out it was true the combination of the FX 5950 and the nForce 3 250 yielded better bench scores and results in testing games than the board used with a 9800 XT, or when they used any of the other motherboards and graphics cards. I think that nVida may have an ace up its sleve and release a revision of the nForce 3 250 chipset that will cause the 6800 Ultra Extreme to perform on par or better than a x800 XT PE. Also if you wanna watch movies or do any video encoding/editing it would be better to go with nVidia because the 6800 has a built in dedicated programmable video processor.

[gnogtr]

Blah, blah, blah. The Nvidia nforce 3 blows, and it blows hard. ATI can also do video just as well, and it uses less CPU than the Nvidia card does, it's all in the reviews. Nvidia die hards are really dying hard...ATI (the underdog) has gotten quite a following and it's continuing to grow, soon Nvidia will be 3rd in line in the market, they are only 3.4% higher than ATI, that says alot because it wasn't that way 1 year ago, there wasn't competition.

[Sea_Shadow]

Hey performance speaks for itself I tend to trust results more than an opinion, besides this isnt just video playback (ATi can do that too on some cards yes). The thing about this processor is that it DECODES and ENCODES video. The onboard dedicated video processor means that it uses a TON LESS CPU than any other competitor, this really levels the playing field between AMD and Intel. I am simply saying that if you are going to go 64 it would be wiser to get a 6800.

And how do you think that the nForce 3 blows? I am curious as to why you say this seing as how it (the nForce 3 250 Gb) has more features than any other previous mobo. Heck the only way to step up your hard drive functionality would be to get a RAID 5 setup. Not to mention the onboard firewall is a dream for gamers, just select the games you play and it automatically opens up those ports.

If you are going to go Intel then it would probably be ok to go with ATi since Intel are rather powerful at encoding video anyways.

And before anyone calls me an nVidia fanboy I will let you know that I actually am undecided at the moment. I was really excited for the Volari V8 DUO Ultra but because of crappy drivers they failed miserably. Heck if they managed to work out their drivers they could still compete, even with the 6800 and the x800!! They had the basic design right all along (who had 16 pipelines first?). I will wait to see how the nForce 3 works with the 6800 on a socket 939. Then I will decide, but I sure as heck will have to put a case side fan right over the x800 if I decide to go ATi.

[gnogtr]

Read the reviews, the Nforce 3 has gotten horrible reviews based on its performance. I use VIA which is right now the performance king. The AMD 64 platform blows most of the Intel line out of the water, and when XP 64 comes out of beta, it will be even faster. I have the beta and it is FAST. The ATI will run much faster than the Nvidia, read the review that is linked on the news page. The only time Nvidia beat ATI was in OpenGL games, and they are few and far between. ATI won in everything else, and it beat out the Nvidia when AA was enabled (I couldn't live without it), therefore, the ATI is by far the best choice to go with for gamers. My current setup slaughters the FX line and when I pop in a X800 XT, it will blow the 6800 out of the water. I already get more 3d2k1 marks than it does, so it's not a CPU holding the 6800 back. Plus, until this time next year, we won't even need the 3.0 shader (ATI and Nvidia will have new cards by then), so what's the point? I would much rather be cranking out more fps with AA because that's just the way I game, I was failed by Nvidia twice, and now I smile everytime they're beat. The same happened to me and Sony, I was diehard Sony until that little problem they call the PS2 and their cheap production methods.

To this day, I don't plan on buying Nvidia or Sony again, and I smile when they are beat by another company. I won't buy a Xbox because it runs on a Nvidia chipset, but the Xbox 2 will be running on a modified ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, so you can bet I'll be purchasing one of those. If a company screws me, I screw them back. I have always loved the underdog, and now it has paid off. ATI and AMD have come out into the open and shown what they can do. They caught Nvidia and Intel with their pants down. Oh, and what is this I hear of Intel using AMD code now?!?

[Jason425]

*has hated sony ever since the ps1*

[StinkyMojo]

*has hated intel ever since my PIII* >:)

[Sea_Shadow]

Read the reviews, the Nforce 3 has gotten horrible reviews based on its performance.
Yeah the nForce 3 150 chipset was garbage but you obviously haven't read the reviews on the nForce 3 250.

Here is what I was talking about with the FX 5950 used in conjunction with the nForce 3 250. :wavey:
When we compare Content Creation and General Usage performance with the 5950U, the nForce3-250Gb breaks away a bit from the pack. Certainly, the 9800 XT performance on both the SiS 755 and NF3-250 are about the same, so 5950U just gives a bit more performance boost. We see the same pattern on Future Mark's PCMark 2004, with all scores close, but nF3-250/5950U slightly ahead.
The 5950U with the nForce3-250Gb continues to pull away in the gaming arena - - outperforming both boards with the 9800 XT in Open GL (Quake 3) and DX 8.1 gaming, such as Comanche 4, X2, and Unreal Tournament 2002. In DX9 titles like Halo and Splinter Cell, the Radeon 9800 XT is equal or slightly faster than 5950U. However, the 9800 XT performs just as well or better on nF3-250Gb as it does on the SiS 755.

One DX9 standout for 5950U is Aquamark. Here, the combination of nForce3-250Gb with the nVidia FX5950 Ultra gives the highest score that we have seen for stock performance of a 3400+ at over 52,000.
If there is a surprise area in the 5950U tests, it is certainly workstation performance. The last time that we looked at nVidia graphics compared to ATI in Workstation performance, we had to consider the results something of a toss-up. This time, with a 5950U on the nForce3-250Gb, nVidia dominates most of the SPECviewperf benchmarks.

We see the usual nVidia/ATI architecture patterns in the last benchmarks with 5950U dominating ProE and ATI dominating UGS scores. It is worth mentioning that the ATI 9800 XT once again performs as well or better in the nForce3-250Gb than it does in the SiS755, which had been our fastest board.
You can compare these results to others that have been published to see the expected results with 5950U versus ATI 9800. There certainly does seem to be a synergy in the 5950U/nF3-250Gb combo that yields performance that is a bit better. The ATI 9800 XT performs just as well in nForce3-250 as it does in other Athlon 64 Socket 754 boards, but 5950U is a little faster.
nVidia would tell us that nForce3-150 was interim, and that now the market gets more serious. Regardless of the words, it does look like nVidia has really concentrated on making the nF3-250 family all that the nF3-150 was not.

Here is the beginning of where they tested a nForce 3 250 with an FX 5950 U http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=2009&p=10

The AMD 64 platform blows most of the Intel line out of the water, and when XP 64 comes out of beta, it will be even faster. I have the beta and it is FAST.
Here here, long live AMD.

I use VIA which is right now the performance king.
HAHA VIA's newest chipset was tested on a refrence board and it only beat the nForce 3 250 refrence board by a little, and VIA's board was a socket 940 FX 51 with dual channel memory, where as the nForce 3 250 was only on a socket 754 3400+ with single channel mem and they were all configured the exact same there, they didnt even take advantage of the FX/nF3 250 combo (which is how the nf3 really shines) :rofl:
http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=2046&p=7

[Jason425]

ever think that nvidia payed anandtech to review favorably? I've heard similar things about toms hardware..

[gnogtr]

Exactly, you've got to take reviews like that with a grain of salt. My AMD 64 on my VIA board kills the FX-51 because I don't use ECC memory on it. That's the problem with the FX speed.