more vid card questions

First, let me thank all of you who have answered my questions here in the hard and software forum. I hope I haven't been a pain.

I have been looking into buying a video card for my AGP slot. I was interested in the x850 pro which is listed by Tom's Hardware as the best value for ~$140.00.

Then, I went shopping and found a VisonTec x1300 XGE (Extreme Gaming Edition) on sale for $140.00. This particular model is factory overclocked to 600mhz on the processor and has 512 mb of RAM. It does Shader 3, and it has some great big heatsinks and a big fan on it. It has a 128 bit interface.

Basically, all of the numbers that I can find or understand on the x1300 XGE are equal to or greater than those of the x850 pro. The only number I can't find on the x1300 XGE is the number of pipelines. I know that one of the big deals with the x850 pro is the ability to unlock four extra pipes for a total of 16.

This overclocked version of the x1300 doesn't appear on any of the Tom's Hardware VGA charts.

I bought the x1300, but I haven't opened the box yet. Can anyone advise whether this is a good deal? Is the x1300 XGE better than the x850 pro? Is it a generation past the x850?

My main purpose for buying this card would be to upgrade my integrated graphics. Assuming the rest of my system is ok, is this a decent card for MTW2?

This must have been a tough question. 17 views and no replies!

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Originally Posted by gunslinger

This must have been a tough question. 17 views and no replies!

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Sorry 'bout that. All the boys are out playing polo agian.

Is there a chance you can save a few more bucks and get either an Nvidia 7600 or 7800 AGP card? The two are close in cost and performance and will do much better for you than either of the choices you mentioned.

I'm going to dig into the 850 vs. 1300 thing. I have a few thoughts but I don't want to pass you bum info without checking first.

I agree with Beirut; the 7600GT is the best choice for an AGP card at the moment, both value and performance wise. Assuming you don't have some kind of problem with Nvidia, this is the way to go.

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Originally Posted by gunslinger

Basically, all of the numbers that I can find or understand on the x1300 XGE are equal to or greater than those of the x850 pro. The only number I can't find on the x1300 XGE is the number of pipelines. I know that one of the big deals with the x850 pro is the ability to unlock four extra pipes for a total of 16.

This overclocked version of the x1300 doesn't appear on any of the Tom's Hardware VGA charts.

I bought the x1300, but I haven't opened the box yet. Can anyone advise whether this is a good deal? Is the x1300 XGE better than the x850 pro? Is it a generation past the x850?

My main purpose for buying this card would be to upgrade my integrated graphics. Assuming the rest of my system is ok, is this a decent card for MTW2?

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X850Pro is far away better card then X1300. X1300 is newer generation, but X850Pro is peak of the previous.

7600GT is best for AGP. 7800GS is slightly faster but cost much much more and it's not worth.

~ rank of AGP cards. Not 100% accurate, but mostly is.:book:

GeForce 7800GS
GeForce 7600GT
• Radeon X850XT PE
• Radeon X800XT PE
• Radeon X850XT
• Radeon X800XT
GeForce 6800 Ultra
GeForce 6800GT
GeForce 7600GS
• Radeon X800Pro
GeForce 6800
• Radeon X1600Pro
• Radeon X800GT
GeForce 6600GT
GeForce 6800LE
• Radeon X1300Pro
GeForce 6600
• Radeon 9800XT
• Radeon 9800Pro
• Radeon 9700Pro
• Radeon 9800
• Radeon 9700

Thank you for that info. Just as an update, I went ahead and plugged that x1300 xge in to my machine, and bought a new power supply to run it. It will run the gold demo, but not to the point where you can actually play it. With all the settings at low, no anti-aliasing or anything, it still gets jerky, especially when I try to move the camera around. And that's just on the agincourt battle. I've heard from others that Againcourt is about the easiest battle on the demo as far as hardware is concerned. I'm pretty sure the rest of my system is ok with 2.8 ghz HT processor and 512 RAM (I know another 512 wouldn't be a bad idea, but upgrading from my integrated graphics was the priority).

So, as a warning to others, the VisionTek ATI Radeon x1300 xge is NOT a good card for MTW2 even though it has 512mb of RAM and is overclocked to 600mhz.

Since I bought it at Best Buy, I'm pretty sure I can just yank it out of there and return it. After all, the salesman there told me it would run any game, and it turns out he was wrong!

I've been browsing for the 7600 and 7800 for AGP, but they seem pretty hard to come by.

Don't buy 7800GS! It is not woth. 7600GT is the best.
Because in Serbia it's impossible to buy Leadtek 7600GT AGP (I can buy it in Croatia) I will buy 7600GS (MSI model probably or Gigabyte, others manufactrers' of 7600GS are not good).

That x850Pro, especially if you can find one that's unlockable to the full 16 pipes, is potentially a faster card for the money than the "next-best" thing, which is the GeForce 7600GT. But for someone not able to make the effort, or not wanting to take a chance, the 7600GT is certainly very close, much more widely available, and can be more often found at a better price.

As the Duke said, the 7800GS isn't worth the money (unless you can convince someone to give you one gratis!) - the performance difference between it and a 7600GT is virtually nil, while the price differential is usually quite large! :smash:

Well, technically the fastest AGP card you can buy is the Gainward 7800 GS+, which is essentially a 7900 GT. But that's pretty expensive, and might be hard to find.

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Originally Posted by DukeofSerbia

Don't buy 7800GS! It is not woth. 7600GT is the best.

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Poor 7800GS. Everyone hates it for some reason. :embarassed:

I have a BFG 7800GS and it works very well. Looks good, tastes good, I'm very happy with it. Has enough juice to run all my stuff at high settings. (Runs quietly too.) The 7800GS got very good performance reviews.

It does cost more then the 7600GT.

Tom's Hardware has an interesting tool to play with here: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html
It should give you some idea of relative standings among the various graphics setups.

Hmmm. That graph shows the 7600GT coming in way behind the 7800GS and almost all of the x800 types.

The vanilla 7800 GS wasn't tested, they only used the 7800GS+, which, as I said, is essentially a 7900GT.

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Originally Posted by Beirut

Poor 7800GS. Everyone hates it for some reason. :embarassed:

I have a BFG 7800GS and it works very well. Looks good, tastes good, I'm very happy with it. Has enough juice to run all my stuff at high settings. (Runs quietly too.) The 7800GS got very good performance reviews.

It does cost more then the 7600GT.

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Nobody said that 7800GS is not fast. But it cost too much money. :thumbsdown: Card is overpriced because of the high cost of production.


gunslinger

x8xx series is faster than 7600GT in games where are ATI preferred like HL. 7600GT is overall faster and better because of the newest technology.:book:

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Originally Posted by DukeofSerbia

x8xx series is faster than 7600GT in games where are ATI preferred like HL. 7600GT is overall faster and better because of the newest technology.:book:

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So, what brand does M2TW prefer?

As a general rule, Nvidia cards do better with OpenGL, and ATI cards do better with DirectX. Or is it the other way around? I can't remember.

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Originally Posted by gunslinger

So, what brand does M2TW prefer?

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In RTW and BI nVidia was preferred.

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Originally Posted by Big King Sanctaphrax

As a general rule, Nvidia cards do better with OpenGL, and ATI cards do better with DirectX. Or is it the other way around? I can't remember.

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It is true that nVidia cards are better in OpenGL and that is because of drivers. This is mostly past. ATI drastically increased performances in OpenGL last several months. In some OpenGL games like Q4 now ATI is faster.
In DirectX depend from publishers. Some publishers have contracts with ATI and much more with nVidia.

Today my mind is torturing me with a maybe simple question:
If I look at benchmarks, my 6600GT shows for example 20 fps and a 7950GT shows 60 or 80 so I think it's 3-4 times as fast as the one I have.
Today though I ran some tests with Medieval 2 in metropolitan city with shader Model 2 and high quality textures, everything else maxed or high, resolution 1280*1024 and got a smashing 1fps or lower.
Now my mind keeps telling me that logically, if a 7950 is 3-4 times as fast, it will give me 3-4 fps or lower and that is not really what I would want to spend 250EUR for.
Is that right or can anyone ease my tortured mind and tell me that it's not true and that that card will run the game on maximum settings in a big city fight just fine.
For reference, big city is important because on the grassland map my 6600GT doesn't make any problems if only few units are present.

No it won't.

Maybe, it has 4 times the power to do whatever it does. Now, the lag in your card happens because your card can't keep up and this way will need to put things on queue. On the 7950 GT, that problem won't be there, as it has a bigger base speed to start with.. Hmm.. I don't know if I put this right.. But be sure it won't be 4. ~;)

I've said it before and i'll say it again. The 7600gt rocks.~:smoking: If you can find it then get it. It plays the MTW2 demo like a beast and games that support shader model 3 and HDR lighting look beautiful. At least a gigabyte of RAM will make a big difference as well and its relatviely inexpensive.

how much more powerful is a geforce 7900 SLI than one Radeon x700 pro?

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Originally Posted by PwnageBot2000

how much more powerful is a geforce 7900 SLI than one Radeon x700 pro?

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See in the other thread you opened, I commented on that.:bow: