Advise(help me choose one of these) on a new Graphics card please!

CyberGhost

K guys, I think it's time for an upgrade, I'm not planning to upgrade the whole system, only the GPU,

here are my system specs

Dell 8250
3.06GHz@533MHz
1GB RDRam
Radeon9700
425W Dell PSU

I was thinking of the following:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X800_Series.html
(Plus I'm going to get an Arctic Cooling cooler for it)


HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X800 XL ICEQII TURBO - already has an arctic cooler so no hassle installing it, I 've read couple of reviews of HIS, they say, they are pretty good.

Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 XL - Many reviews say they are good, but I don't know how the card itself looks, in some pictures, chipsets have heatsinks on them, and getting them off to install Arctic cooler is a PITA

Asus AX800XT - Don't really know anything about this one or Asus cards, but it's an XT with a compatitive price

PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 XL - erm... I don't know, not really a big fan of Powercolor, plus their X800 XL is really "XL" the damn thing is so long

K.O.Kiki

Y'know, even though I myself am getting a HIS X800, for what you're looking at, it might be better to save a bit more & get a 6800GT.

I'm not knocking your choice, but it's just that nVidia's cards support features like Shader Model (SM) 3.0 (Radeons are 1.5, I think) & Far Cry's HDR.
So, seeing as you're going for high-end, go for those instead--the prices will be dropping shortly, seeing as the 7800GTX is just out :cool:

They are available in AGP (may be cheaper than the PCIe cards I'm thinking of too), so... I say a 6800GT card.

CyberGhost

OK, after reading couple of reviews I've narrowed it down to
Asus AX800XT or HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X800 XL ICEQII TURBO

now the question is: will my cpu/memory handle this cards, what I mean is that is there going to be much difference in FPS between this XL and XT?

Kiki, I didn't say what I'm looking at/for I want to play CS and COD and ATI handles them better

K.O.Kiki

Fair enuff, we all love to CS

The XT seems to be more powerful (and expensive!), but the XL's got the advantage on noise (quoted @ <20dB). Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the XT's on its way out...

It really depends on budget & other choices.

IMHO tho, I'd go with the XL. Cool, quiet, with proprierty OC'ing software & UV-sensitive cooler, it'll do what you need. Also, check over here@Anand. The XL keeps up with an X850 Pro!!

That said, I've got an x800xt PE here at work :cool: LAN'ing CSS is so fun!

CyberGhost

ok you've convinced me Kiki lol

I'm going with HIS X800XL

I don't think my system will be able to "hold up" to XT PE anyway(the Asus card is XT PE) so it will be a waste of money. But....... maybe it will??? OMG what do I do? what do I do?

Nukem

Have an x800xl PCI-E and its a powercolor and its fine. Runs everything fine.
Spanner + works = 6800gt? cheaper and x800xl are near the same speed!

K.O.Kiki

Nukem wrote:

Have an x800xl PCI-E and its a powercolor and its fine. Runs everything fine.
Spanner + works = 6800gt? cheaper and x800xl are near the same speed!

I was arguing purely on SM3.0 & HDR; just something to keep in mind.

CyberGhost wrote:

I don't think my system will be able to "hold up" to XT PE anyway(the Asus card is XT PE) so it will be a waste of money. But....... maybe it will??? OMG what do I do? what do I do?

CyberGhost, I stay stick to the XL; while the XT PE is a high-grade premium card, they were apparently difficult-to-impossible to find, so I'd be a little wary if you want to return it (or something). Also, it's quite noisy & probably more than you need; save the €uros for another day. Unless you're a super-[H]@rdcore-gamer who is ph3ared by Fatal1ty... (sorry, went a bit far there, but that's my point) You can use the money to upgrade something else.
Or buy yourself 2 week's worth of ice-cream!!

CyberGhost

K guys, that's it I'm going with XL, Kiki has convinced me, Thank you for your help!