X700 Pro

[chug4u]

I have A Dell 8400 3.0Ghz 3gigs of VS Corsair PC4200 and an X300SE Vid card. I've been waiting to Upgrade the Vid card since I bought this machine. X800 too expensive I thought about X600 then heard X700 was coming out. Well its out now:) What is the Major difference between the Pro's and the XT's and is it worth it to wait till the XT is out for the 700?  I get between 89-25fps with this card.

Of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there, eighty are nothing but targets, nine are real fighters...We are lucky to have them, they make the battle... Ah but ONE, one of them is a Warrior, he will bring the others back. -Hericletus- c 500BC

[Nilsen]

Originally posted by chug4u
I get between 89-25fps with this card.

with the X300SE?

[chug4u]

yes when I added the 2 gigs on Ram The frame rates shot up from 55 high to 89 and 16 being the low to 25. Ram does make a difference.

[Nilsen]

Yeah it does. Your framerates are ok i think, but more is always better What resolution are you running at?

[chug4u]

1024x768 Still no answer on the difference between the XT and The Pro?

[ChasR]

ATi doesn't say what the difference is.  Anandtech has an article on the x700XT.  Anandtech shows the x700 Pro on their vpu chart but without vpu and mem speed numbers.  The Pro and the XT are identical as far as pixel pipes, texture pipes, vertex pipes, so my guess is the Pro is going to be running slower vpu and memory clocks.

[ALF]

AH is so CPU bound at this time, once you get past a 9600XT its all academic.  WIth new details and stuff being added...maybe it wont always be that way...but theres been MANY a person that goes from a 9600 to a Geforce 6800 GT pro blue ribon super duper exteme and sees NADA difference in frame rates.  Course you can run with FSAA cranked

[eagl]

I agree with Alf.  You might not see much of an increase in framerates with a better card but you may be able to run at a higher resolution and turn on FSAA so it will look nicer even if the framerate is about the same.

[chug4u]

After looking at the AnandTech charts It looks like the 6600 GT would be the Best bet for them money right now. It was like one point difference in some cat. from the X800pro. 19pts ahead of x700xt. 6600GT comes with a games bundle and X700pro is just OEM right now.  I'm looking in the <$250 range. I wonder if I should wait till christmas to see if more models come out with more perks.

[ALF]

If you can wait...its always advisable to do so.  Sure if you cant play the games you want at an acceptable framerate, then upgrade now...but if you arnt at that critical stage now...waiting a few months may either save you $100 or let you get the next card up for the same $$$.

Typically from a purely economic outlook, its almost never good to buy the top card, but rather buy the card one notch below the top card at a little more than ½ the price.  By xmas you may be able to get a Grforce 6800 ultra for what youd pay for a vanilla 6800 right now:aok