madgravity34 Posted April 7, 2006 Posted April 7, 2006 Image quality not so different and temps are much better with the 7900gtx's. Also, if you guys thing ATI's cooler is bad I have seen plenty of posts over at Xtremesystems and Ocforums where guys have installed the new VF9 zalman cooler and they get higher load temps than the stock cooler! The only aftermarket HSF that can really lower the heat are the accelero x2's but those fill your case with hot air. I am going with the 7900gtx because it clocks higher with lower temps so I can still keep pushing my dual-core CPU to its limits. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmay119 Posted April 7, 2006 Posted April 7, 2006 I'm indecisive at the moment about which card to go with, I think I'm just going to go with ATi because of the availability of it right now. Although, 7900GTX's seem to come in and out of newegg all the time, when it comes time to buy, I might be lucky enough to snag one of those instead. Decisions, decisions.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted April 7, 2006 Posted April 7, 2006 I'm indecisive at the moment about which card to go with, I think I'm just going to go with ATi because of the availability of it right now. Although, 7900GTX's seem to come in and out of newegg all the time, when it comes time to buy, I might be lucky enough to snag one of those instead. Decisions, decisions.... As long as you just look for the standard version of it, it shouldn't be too hard to find. Apparently some overclock VERY well, I didn't know mine wasn't standard until I got a couple PM's in the last few days inquiring. Either way though, you should be able to overclock it fairly well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoetuS Posted April 7, 2006 Posted April 7, 2006 Something else to consider is Power consumption & noise. Check out this review It looks like the ATi cards are way more power hungry than the nvidia cards. Hotter & louder too.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted April 7, 2006 Posted April 7, 2006 Thing twice.... C/P: Moving up to the highest end of the market, ATI’s Radeon X1900 XTX takes the performance crown in our testing with Oblivion in single-card configurations. Regardless of the test with threw at the X1900 XTX it came out on top, with the Radeon X1900 XT typically finishing a close second. UPDATE 4/6/06: In dual-card testing, we initially reported that NVIDIA's GeForce SLI solution delivered better performance than CrossFire, however ATI's Terry Makedon informed us that Oblvivion can be forced to run the X1900 XTX and X1800 XT cards in CrossFire mode by renaming the oblivion.exe executable to "AFR-FriendlyD3D.exe". After making this change, we saw a dramatic boost in performance and now the Radeon cards scale appropriately, with the X1900 XTX CrossFire outrunning the GeForce 7900 GTX SLI in all tests except our indoors area. All isn't perfect with this workarond however, as occasionally we'd notice flashing textures on the screen regardless of which area of the game we were testing. The textures would flash randomly: during one run in the foliage section everything may go perfectly, and then the next may be filled with flashing textures, so we'd still definitely give NVIDIA the nod when it comes to multi-GPU compatibility with Oblivion. We sent ATI a video demonstrating the problem and other info on the issue, so hopefully it can be resolved in a future Catalyst release. FiringSquad http://firingsquad.com/hardware/oblivion_h...nce/default.asp System Setup AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe (CrossFire Xpress 3200) MSI K8N Diamond (nForce4 SLI X16) 2GB OCZ DDR400 SDRAM ATI Radeon X1900 XTX ATI Radeon X1900 XT ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB All-In-Wonder X1900 Catalyst 6.3 NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256MB Driver version ForceWare 84.25 250GB Maxtor Hard Drive Maxline III SATA Hard Drive w/16MB Cache Windows XP Professional SP1 DirectX 9.0c Benchmarks Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmay119 Posted April 7, 2006 Posted April 7, 2006 Well, just to recap. I've now made my decision. And wen't and purchased a 7900GT from a local shop (really good deal, $300 + tax). So far I've played a little Doom 3 with it and it's an extrodinary card for the money. I'm very happy with my purchase, and also the fact that I saved about $200+ over getting an X1900XTX or a 7900GTX. If I feel like it, I might in the near future buy a second one and do the SLI mod to my Ultra-D... So far I'm very happy with the decision however. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted April 9, 2006 Posted April 9, 2006 like since the x1900 has a sh*tty resale value i cant sell the x1900xt i can get for 325 bucks on ebay for more than say 430 dollars.. im on a tight budget paying 325 for the card, selling on ebay for 430, and then having to shell out another 100 is way over my budget.. do any of u think that in time xfire will match or exceed sli performance? 7900gtx imo isnt worth it rite now.. just wait till they dump out the 8000 series cards in like the next 3 months... im still confused. ati is known for better image quality, but nv has higher performance rate... im leaning on a crossfire x1900 card for 350, then waiting till x1900xt prices drop to xfire them. ok? would any of u still recommend selling them on fleabay? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wevsspot Posted April 10, 2006 Posted April 10, 2006 A little follow up on the X1900XT. I had a chance to play around with mine over the weekend. It's clocked at 650/1500 with a slight bump in gpu and memory voltages. Idling in 2D mode at 43C and runs 75C after three hours of FEAR (using the Accelero X2). But even at 75C card is rock stable at current clocks and voltages. Using a CAT 6.3 driver pack borrowed from the European market that includes the old style control panel. Using ATI Tool v14 beta for overclocking. Inside case temperature increased 2 degrees, NF4 chipset temperature increased 1 degree, no effect on cpu temperatures. I've got a mod in mind for the Accelero. I've just ordered one of the Vantec Cool Blue 2 Fan Card Slot coolers. I'm going to remove the stock fan and plastic casing from the Accelero exposing the the cooling fins and heat pipes. Then I'm gonna use the Vantec to handle the air flow duties. I'll keep everyone posted. In my mind this accomplishes a few things; 1. air flow would be directed down through the cooling fins instead of sideways and across them. 2. the Vantec slot cooler pushes more air than the stock Accelero fan. 3. The Vantec slot cooler should be just about long enough to blow air across the entire card surface. 4. Instead of hot air directly back down onto the board, it will be dispersed in many different directions giving other intake and exhaust fans the opportunity to pick the air up into their streams. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wevsspot Posted April 17, 2006 Posted April 17, 2006 Just an update after a weekend's worth of work. Pulled the X1900XT and AcceleroX2 from the case. Removed the AcceleroX2 and proceeded to pull the stock plastic shroud and stock fan from the X2. Reinstalled just the heatsink. Placed Vantec Spectrum PCI slot cooler directly below the XT. Set my fan speed at medium (sucker is loud at full speed). Idle temps down to 41-43C. Load temps down to 73C after a couple of hours of FEAR. So the mod. is slightly effective, but I don't think it's worth all the trouble. One benefit though is my NF4 chipset temp is back down to 39-40C at idle and 44C at load. Case temps. also decreased 1 degree. Still no change on CPU temp. I haven't tried new o/c settings yet, waiting for AS5 to cure, plus still getting random corruption on graphics occasionally, mostly during boot. But I'm pretty sure that's a driver issue. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital-Ghost1 Posted October 12, 2006 Posted October 12, 2006 Great performance and bang for the buck...but this monster sucks power..so make sure your PSU is up to it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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