Graphics card help

[Malakian_0wnz]

Hi guys, does any body know the difference between the ati radeon x700 and the x800 series cards I have a radeon 9700 pro and im thinking of upgrading to one of them, ive found the x700pro for £157 and the x800pro for £274 so im just wondering if the performance is worth gettin the x800 pro or not.

at the moment my spec is, msi K7N2G mobo, athlon xp 2700+, Radeon 9700 pro, 1Gb ddr ram, Audigy 2ZS

If i did decide to go for a x700 or x800 would my pc be good enough for it?

Thanks.
:thumbup:

[Captain Duplo]

There's a huge difference between the X700 and X800 series.
8 pipelines against 12
and then there are clockspeeds etc.
The X700 doesn't even come close to the performance an X800 wil provide you with.

though the problem is that Ati has little to offer in this segment, you'd be better off with a vanilla 6800 or 6800LE.
these cards have a huge OC'potential, and the prices are a bit better.

But if you insist on having an Ati card, I'd go for the X800Pro, it sure will keep you satisfied for a long time.

Edit: O yeah, don't worry 'bout if your rig will be able to handle it, it'll do fine.

[Strawberry knight]

The difference is huge!

The X800pro is a better card, end of story.

The X800pro Vs X700pro:

Wins
X800pro has 256bit memory bus wide (the more the better the quality handle and speed)
X800pro has 12 pipelines over the 8 that X700pro has
X800pro has a better Memory Bandwidth …ALOT better.
X800pro has a better Fill Rate ...ALOT better.
X800pro runs on higher clock rates.
X800pro is AGP x8 while X700pro is for PCI EXPRESS ONLY! Which is why it doesn't worth to buy.

(There are more to the good stuff but that summons it)

Lose
X700pro sucks against X800pro, You don't compare the mid range against the high range cards, ergo the numbers 700/800
X700pro manufactured in a different Architecture (RV410) and in different Manufacturing Process (0.11 Micron)
X700pro is for PCI EXPRESS ONLY

Bottom line, get a X800PRO and you'll thank me :thumbup:
And yes, your PC is fine for the X800pro.
It doesn't even support PCI EXPRESS--> Take the X800pro !

P.s.
If you are going to think about GeForce 6800 Do not buy the LE version

[dan_kitty]

what is pci express?

is this just a pci graphics card?

[Malakian_0wnz]

Thanks very much guys your replies have been very helpful im gonna get me a x800pro, i just got hl2 which runs ok on my radeon 9700 pro at 1152 x 864 res but when alot of action is going on e.g. lots of exploding barrells and lots of combine trying to kill me etc it gets a bit laggy.

just need to find a spare £274.00 now

[Strawberry knight]

Originally posted by dan_kitty@Nov 19 2004, 02:04 AM
what is pci express?

is this just a pci graphics card?

I bet Sepht would be glad to explain you all there is to it :thumbup:

In smaller words, the PCI EXPRESS is a different slot then the AGP (which can be found in mainly all mother boards-new and some old once too). these are the places that you mount your graphic card on that transfers data to the mother board and vise versa (power and such are also being transferred-on some cards) the PCI EX' has his own special abilities of doing it, just like AGP slots have their own abilities.

A PCI EXPRESS is intergraded in a different motherboard that supports PCI EXPRESS (these boards do not have AGP slot) so you need a special motherboard for it.

It is a new technology, which is not been explored to its full potential.

[dan_kitty]

cool, thanks

is it possible to run both a agp card and a pci express card from one motherboard?

the reason I ask this is my friends computers agp slot is occupied by a pinacle edit card yet he wants to also use the system for half life2 (the edit card has a radeon 8500 chipset on it), the coputer itself is brand new pentium 4 3.6 ghz so the mb must be modern, would the pci slots on it support a decent gfx card?

cheers

Nope, you either have a single AGP slot solution, or a single or dual pci-express setup.

[dan_kitty]

how would HL2 run on a radeon 8500?

any ideas

ok'ish considering it is supports DirectX8.1, but don't expect all the bells and whistles and maybe even medium texture settings, dependant on this rest of your rig.