7950GT vs. 7900GT

[THEpiGUY]

It's up to you. Either wait until DX10 rolls around, buy what I'd assume would be a pretty expensive card (unless they come out with lower-end DX10 cards, but why bother with those), buy Windows Vista to support it, probably totaling somewhere between $400-600; or you could get a powerful card now. DX10 sounds like it's going to blow away any older cards, so the X1900XT may become way outdated with the DX10 release. It's pretty much $250 now that works great with present games but has a possibility of not performing up to expectations in future games, or ~$500 later and assurance that it will play nearly every game on the market. If you're not planning on spending somewhere from 400 to 600 dollars, I'd upgrade now.

According to digg.com, "DirectX 10 is Vista-only." So yeah, you will also have to get Vista.

You should probably get a powerful card now. I can't guarantee how long it will last, but that's really a lot of money for Vista and a DX10 card. I'm not even sure if it's going to live up to all of the hype, but I am sure it's going to be better. I'm just not sure what the margin will be. I'm sorry, but I can't really help too much whether you should wait or upgrade now.

EDIT: Actually, what I would do, wait. You can still get a DX10 card and still run it in DX9 mode under Windows XP. You can get Vista later. Wait a few months for DX10, running the card DX9 on Windows XP, and when you get the money, you can get Vista and download the DX10 drivers. Hopefully that solved this dilemma.

 

[V8SplashMan]

Yeah I have the Radeon X1900XT 512MB and all I can say is the card is built tough, and it's heavy.

If you buy it make sure you have an extreme computer setup to support it because I can tell you right now it's going to need alot of room, and the mobo should have two PCI Express 16x slots.

Ive done reseach for weeks now, and ALOT of motherboards say they have a PCI Express 16x slot but the the card still wont fit because they generally ALWAYS place it by the mouse/keyboard/sound connection area, and when you try install the card it just bumps into things, and does'nt fit properly because obviously the manufactuer thinks the person is installing a single slot graphics card.

If you want to get this card, you need a motherboard that supports two PCI express 16x slots so you can place the card in the 2nd slot, which is normally located further down on the motherboard in a place where the card doesnt have obsticles to get through.

 

[alvino]

I've heard that 512MB memory doesn't perform much better than the 256MB version of a same card. The memory speed is much more important than the size of the memory (unless size is <128MB, e.g. A good memory clock on 32MB of memory won't get you very far ). And both the 7950GT and the X1900XT have great memory speeds. The X1900XT's memory speed is a little better than the 7950GT's, but don't really take that into consideration because it's not much at all. Just consider them equal in the field of memory.

Depends on the game. If you use a lot of eye-candy effects like Anti-Aliasing or Anisotropic Filtering, having more video memory certainly helps.

Of course, I would also recommend the X1900 XT 256MB. Being the owner of the 512MB version, I can tell you from first-hand experience that the performance is GREAT. I can throw literally any game at that card and it won't fail me. The 256MB version is very much worth the money, and the performance should be very nice.

 

[alvino]

A 24" panel running in the 2560's is enough to justify the card, no?

The first question I believe now is that should I wait for DX10's release? My current card, as a workstation card, supports extremely high resolutions, but gaming will be quite skimpy.

Dude, I hate you.

You're getting the 2407FPW?!

I'm gonna raid your house.

 

[G9]

Dude, I hate you.

You're getting the 2407FPW?!

I'm gonna raid your house.

I need it for all the Photoshop, and stuff like that.

I think I'm going to wait on the card.

 

[Spec]

If you are looking for the best for the money, as i say, Cheap is not quality, but quality is not cheap.

 

[allenn812]

I would DEFINATLY wait for direct x10 cards. Because not only does direct x10 makes the graphics better, it also increases performance alot too. Right now, i think youd be crazy to by a high end card.

 

[alvino]

Well NVIDIA's G80 (8800 series) isn't going to debut until November or December of 2006, while ATI's R600 won't launch until December 2006 or January 2007. There are rumors that ATI has delayed the launch till' early 2007, but it's unconfirmed and there has been no official statement made by ATI yet.