opinions on ATI Radeon x850 Pro 1

[InterlinkModule]

I'm probably going to pick up ATI's Radeon x850 Pro 256 meg 8x AGP vid card tomorrow. I'm playing games like Guild Wars and Anarchy On-line which lag sometimes with my Radeon 9800 Pro (with 128 megs vram) even on my 2.4 gig P4. I also might pick up Dungeon Seige II. Opinions?

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[pmonett]

The X850 is undoubtedly a very well performing card. Additionally, ATI just released a new version of its Catalyst drivers, so stability is sure to improve even more.
The X850 is sure to be able to give high rates to all the games you play, at one condition : that the rest of your rig is up to the task of giving the card the data it needs.

In other words, do you have a CPU that is at least at 2Ghz ? Do you have DDR RAM ? Do you have two 7500 RPM HDDs at less than 9ms access time ? Is your optical reader capable of at least 8x for DVD and 52x for CD ?
If not, your card will underperform because it is being starved of data. It's like putting a Ferrari engine in a Ford Mondeo. Sure, the engine is powerful enough, but the rest of the car will not allow you to enjoy the full performance.

Pascal.

P.S. : having played the beta/demo of DS2, I can say that I'm waiting for it to show up in the bargain bin. It's fun and good, but no better than the first.

 

[addy]

I'm not being funny, but could the lag in your online games be due to your internet connection rather than your video card?

 

[paparazi]

InterlinkModule
Two issues

The lag you report is more likely your internet connection (irratic contention rate)

A P4 2.4 is going to be a bottleneck for an X850Pro, you may not notice much performance increase over the excellent 9800Pro

Note* Nvidia cards use newer technology and have more advanced instruction set basically better and more realistic visual effects with the latest up and coming games.
And I'm a X800XT user myself so it's not nepotism, a 6800GT would look better.


Martin


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[addy]

A P4 2.4 is going to be a bottleneck for an X850Pro, you may not notice much performance increase over the excellent 9800Pro

That's certainly true to a point but he will notice a significant increase in performance when using such features as Anti-ALiasing and Anisotropic filtering.

Note* Nvidia cards use newer technology and have more advanced instruction set basically better and more realistic visual effects with the latest up and coming games.
And I'm a X800XT user myself so it's not nepotism, a 6800GT would look better

Another good point - I went from a 9800Pro to a 6800GT and the difference is incredible. Games such as Half Life 2 look superb.

Plus, as you say, the more advanced instruciton set (shader model 3.0 as opposed to shader model 2.x) gives you some measure fo future proofing.

 

[InterlinkModule]

In other words, do you have a CPU that is at least at 2Ghz ? Do you have DDR RAM ? Do you have two 7500 RPM HDDs at less than 9ms access time ? Is your optical reader capable of at least 8x for DVD and 52x for CD ?
If not, your card will underperform because it is being starved of data. It's like putting a Ferrari engine in a Ford Mondeo. Sure, the engine is powerful enough, but the rest of the car will not allow you to enjoy the full performance.

I have a gig of Corsair TwinX ram (DDR400, PC3200) a 2.4 gig P4 Northwood with 800mhz FSB and HT, a 10,000 rpm SATA150 Raptor hard drive, and a top of the line CD/DVD/DVD-DL Plextor combo burner. Will this handle it? The CPU is a little on the slow side but all other components are top quality...I mean I'll still a difference in performance tho?

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[InterlinkModule]

I'm not being funny, but could the lag in your online games be due to your internet connection rather than your video card?

I'm using DSL at 1.5 meg download so I don't imagine it's the connection. By lag I mean the graphics sometimes chop up and there is a noticeable delay with stuff being rendered. But the other players I see running around are absolutely fluid...

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[InterlinkModule]

A P4 2.4 is going to be a bottleneck for an X850Pro, you may not notice much performance increase over the excellent 9800Pro

Note* Nvidia cards use newer technology and have more advanced instruction set basically better and more realistic visual effects with the latest up and coming games.
And I'm a X800XT user myself so it's not nepotism, a 6800GT would look better.

But it will still be better I think....I dunno I kinda like ATI but I will have a look at the gforce cards too

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[cdogg]

I remember back when I had a PIII 700MHz with a 32MB GeForce2 GTS card. Magazines & online reviews stated originally that a GeForce3 Ti would need a 1GHz PC or better, preferably a P4 (1.1GHz or more for the Athlon Thunderbirds).

But, benchmarks clearly showed the advantage of upgrading for me.

I think the point paparazi was making that you might not get the full potential of the card with a slower CPU. That is true. But then again, a video card always performs better the faster the CPU gets as you upgrade over the years. So at what point can you really say it's being bottlenecked?

If you got the $$, why not I suppose! You can still get a good price selling the 9800 anyway...


~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[InterlinkModule]

I remember back when I had a PIII 700MHz with a 32MB GeForce2 GTS card. Magazines & online reviews stated originally that a GeForce3 Ti would need a 1GHz PC or better, preferably a P4 (1.1GHz or more for the Athlon Thunderbirds).

But, benchmarks clearly showed the advantage of upgrading for me.

I think the point paparazi was making that you might not get the full potential of the card with a slower CPU. That is true. But then again, a video card always performs better the faster the CPU gets as you upgrade over the years. So at what point can you really say it's being bottlenecked?

If you got the $$, why not I suppose! You can still get a good price selling the 9800 anyway...

I went ahead and picked it up. It's pretty cool! Need for Speed Underground 2 runs flawlessly on max graphics and Guild Wars look good too. Haven't had a chance to try Anarchy On-line. What exactly is "anti aliasing"? I set it to 4x on Guild Wars with no noticeable difference....

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[addy]

The CPU bottleneck is not as much of a problem for newer games because the graphical features they are using are highly VPU dependant.

Any modern processor from 2.0Gz and above is enough for new games. What new games are bringing are advanced shader techniques for rendering shadows, dynamic lighting etc. and for this you need VPU power. So the difference between a 9800Pro and a 6800GT / X850 is definitely noticeable.

 

[felixc]

Anti-aliasing is a technique to reduce the jagged line effect on the object edges. It may be supported in hardware by the graphics card at different levels. Asking a card to produce a higher level of anti aliasing requires more work from the local graphics processor, and thus can reduce the frame rate. Many other 3D features also have the same constraints on the graphics chip. This is why many games offer the options to use or not these features, to accomodate the preformance levels of all the various cards in the market. If the card does not support the feature asked for a game, it may try to do the feature in software instead, which can lead to very slow refresh rates.

 

[InterlinkModule]

The CPU bottleneck is not as much of a problem for newer games because the graphical features they are using are highly VPU dependant.

Any modern processor from 2.0Gz and above is enough for new games. What new games are bringing are advanced shader techniques for rendering shadows, dynamic lighting etc. and for this you need VPU power. So the difference between a 9800Pro and a 6800GT / X850 is definitely noticeable.

I definitely notice a difference and am pleased with the purchase! I appreicate the input!

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[InterlinkModule]

Anti-aliasing is a technique to reduce the jagged line effect on the object edges. It may be supported in hardware by the graphics card at different levels. Asking a card to produce a higher level of anti aliasing requires more work from the local graphics processor, and thus can reduce the frame rate. Many other 3D features also have the same constraints on the graphics chip. This is why many games offer the options to use or not these features, to accomodate the preformance levels of all the various cards in the market. If the card does not support the feature asked for a game, it may try to do the feature in software instead, which can lead to very slow refresh rates.

ah! thanks so much for the info!

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