Best Pci express card for Gaming/Price performance

[ajb]

I'm thinking of getting an ATI x800xl pci-express with my new Core 2 duo
system E6700 (Asus P5b Deluxe). The reason is that I loved the AGP x800xl
version for Callof Duty2, Road to Hill 30, Fear and others. Is this card
going to match the performance of my previous system--P4C800 dlx with 3.2E
prescott. Thanks. AJ

 

[Phil]

I built a Core 2 Duo system last month, and went from a x800xl AGP to a
x800xl PCI-E. I'll let the following benchmarks speak for themselves:

P5P800 / P4 630 @ 3.6GHz / 1GB PC3200 / ATI x800xl AGP
3DMark06: 1768
3DMark05: 4924
3DMark03: 10382
3DMark2001 / SE: 20510
PCMark05: 4211

P5W DH Deluxe / E6600 @ 3GHz / 2GB PC6400 / ATI x800xl PCI-E
3DMark06: 1933
3DMark05: 5902
3DMark03: 13053
3DMark2001 / SE: 34876
PCMark05: 7074

While not a dramatic improvement, the x800xl pci-e was easily worth the $130
CDN I paid for it. I'm waiting for the dx10 cards before going all out on
the video upgrade.

-phil

 

[Frodo]

Fry's Electronics is selling ATI X800XLs 256MB PCI-E for $99.90.
Now if you want an X800XL that's a good overclocker.
Find an X800XL with the dual DVI outputs, a theater Rage chip and the extra
power connection.
I just bought a used (they claimed new) X800XL off EBay for $91.00 plus
shipping.
My X800XL came with the R480 chip (which is on the faster X800 series),
normally the X800XLs come with the R430 chip.
And the Samsung memory is rated for 600MHz.
It turn out to be a great overclocker, stock it is 400MHz GPU and memory
500MHz.
Overclocking with stock cooling got me 500MHz GPU and 580MHz memory.
Then I installed an ATI Silencer 5 Rev. 2 ($19.99 on sale)
Now my GPU is 525MHz and the memory is 600MHz.

There also should be a price drop on ATI cards in the next month or 2.

 

[Bill]

I built a Core 2 Duo system last month, and went from a x800xl AGP to a
x800xl PCI-E. I'll let the following benchmarks speak for themselves:

P5P800 / P4 630 @ 3.6GHz / 1GB PC3200 / ATI x800xl AGP
3DMark06: 1768
3DMark05: 4924
3DMark03: 10382
3DMark2001 / SE: 20510
PCMark05: 4211

P5W DH Deluxe / E6600 @ 3GHz / 2GB PC6400 / ATI x800xl PCI-E
3DMark06: 1933
3DMark05: 5902
3DMark03: 13053
3DMark2001 / SE: 34876
PCMark05: 7074

While not a dramatic improvement, the x800xl pci-e was easily worth the $130
CDN I paid for it. I'm waiting for the dx10 cards before going all out on
the video upgrade.

-phil

<snip>

I love it when people actually do stuff like this and then post to the
newsgroups what their results were. Thankyou.

Bill

 

[Clas Mehus]

I built a Core 2 Duo system last month, and went from a x800xl AGP to a
x800xl PCI-E. I'll let the following benchmarks speak for themselves:

P5P800 / P4 630 @ 3.6GHz / 1GB PC3200 / ATI x800xl AGP
3DMark06: 1768
3DMark05: 4924
3DMark03: 10382
3DMark2001 / SE: 20510
PCMark05: 4211

P5W DH Deluxe / E6600 @ 3GHz / 2GB PC6400 / ATI x800xl PCI-E
3DMark06: 1933
3DMark05: 5902
3DMark03: 13053
3DMark2001 / SE: 34876
PCMark05: 7074

While not a dramatic improvement, the x800xl pci-e was easily worth the $130
CDN I paid for it. I'm waiting for the dx10 cards before going all out on
the video upgrade.

3DMark01-05 will not be much dependent on the CPU, while 06 gives an
edge with a better CPU. E.g. for 3DMark05 I guess you could have
tested with a P4 3.0 og and a 3.6 and basicly got about the same
result. Also, the X800XL ain't that good of a performer anymore, so it
becomes a limit before the CPU here.

 

[Clas Mehus]

I'm thinking of getting an ATI x800xl pci-express with my new Core 2 duo
system E6700 (Asus P5b Deluxe). The reason is that I loved the AGP x800xl
version for Callof Duty2, Road to Hill 30, Fear and others. Is this card
going to match the performance of my previous system--P4C800 dlx with 3.2E
prescott. Thanks. AJ

The X800-series does not have suppoert for shader model 3.0 and not
full support for Avivo. Thus, for todays games the
performance/price-ratio compared to other ATI GPUs ain't bad, but one
other thing to look at that might not be that much more expensive is a
7600GT -- but that can also depend on what deal you find on a X800.
With e.g. the release of the 7900GS, the 7600GT-boards should see a
pricedrop.