Kastigir wrote:
Up your video RAM to 512 and change to an nVidia card and you should be able to have full graphics settings no matter how many people on on your screen.
Besides the 512 (and pixel pipelines), this card actually out preforms the newer nvidia cards in terms of clock speeds and such (I refuse to OC a video card until I can get a liquid cooling system, especially these newer ones which run so hot they take up 2 slots in your PC for an over-sized stock cooler).
I was thinking it is maybe getting about time to switch over to a nVidia card, especially since you see so many games now saying "The way it's meant to be played" and the nVidia logo. However, as it stands right now, i've heard VERY little good things about the newer 7900 cards, and the 7800 only had like 4 more pipes (which may make more of a difference then I think) and much slower clock speeds. Since I can't afford a 512 card right now, the x1800 xt seems to be the best bang for the buck, especially for what I paid for it.
Even if I could afford a 512 card, like I said i've not heard many good things about the new 7900 cards, which means going with a much slower (in terms of clock speeds and only 4 more pipelines) 7800, if they even make a 512 version of that.
Some of the things i've heard about the 7900s is that they over-heat really easy (even without OC'ing) way below their "max" temp of like 100+ (around 50-60 and they go *poof* which is pretty much normal running temp for these newer cards it seems, even in a big case) and once they do they start artifacting like no tomorrow and have to be returned, IF you're lucky enough for it to still be under warranty, otherwise you're buying a whole new card. I've also heard really bad things about nvidia's drivers... really buggy and un-stable. In a sense, it seems that right now nVidia is basically BEHIND their hardware with their software, and have some bad flaws in the hardware too (as shown by the over-heating issue).
Like I said above, it may be getting about time to switch over to a nVidia card from a ATI, but I personally don't think the current gen of "top of the line" cards is it. Maybe when the 8xxx series comes out and drops in price down to a more reasonable price from the always high "new" price. But, like I said, right now the x1800 xt seems to be the biggest bang for the buck. Especially running at just over 200 bucks from newegg which is where I found it. That is basically just under a new "TotL" card Iin terms of models) for 200 bucks, with clock speeds just under the "TotL" cards from the same manufacturer BEFORE you OC (and like I said I wont until I can afford water-cooling) which is still higher then a "TotL" from nVidia. Just missing those 4 (8 for the 7900) pixel pipelines.
That is the way I see it, and even if you can convience me otherwise (i'm all up for a "debate" to pass the time since until this stuff comes I can't do sh*t in terms of games besides console games i've played a ton of times already) a nVidia card in the 7800 or 7900 series just isn't in my budget right now... and a 7700 or below will be such a big hit in clock speeds that even for about the same price of 200 bucks, the ATI will still likely beat it.
Edit: just removed a bit of things to make it a little bit more readable
Edited, Aug 31st 2006 at 4:01am EDT by Tomec