R600vsG80 Benchmark Comparisons From Any Game Welcome!

[Xion X2]

Which card is the best GTX or 2900XT ?
İ will buy Asus 2900Xt or Sparkle 8800 GTX ...
Asus 2900Xt is 420 dolar + kdv
i must buying which Card Graphic on your opinion? which card is better for using 3years? I want playing the games with FULL details
No card is going to last you for 3 years. At least not without having to turn down all graphical effects.

For all-out performance, you can't beat the GTX. 2900XT has some neat gadgets like the tesselator and additional AA modes which I find very appealing. But it doesn't perform as well as GTX w/ AA enabled on current titles.

In my experience(and personal opinion), however, ATI cards are more reliable and are built under stricter quality control. I also prefer their drivers to Nvidia's, although Nvidia has made good progress on that front since I had my 8800GTXs.

[BlobdusaColoXus]

No card is going to last you for 3 years.

I duno... 6600GT lasted me 3 years. :)

Light videogaming only.

[Redeemed]

I duno... 6600GT lasted me 3 years. :)

Light videogaming only.

On this forum, and others like it- you're the exception.

[fivefeet8]

2900XT has some neat gadgets like the tesselator and additional AA modes which I find very appealing.

Nvidia's cards have more AA modes than most realize. ;) They've supported pure and hybrid Super Sampling AA modes for quite a while now.

[Xion X2]

Nvidia's cards have more AA modes than most realize. ;) They've supported pure and hybrid Super Sampling AA modes for quite a while now.
ATI has better AA modes, IMO. A lot of reviews have slammed the tent AA, but I really, really like it. I can set 4xAA Narrow Tent on several games, and I get the IQ equivalent of almost 16xAA that I had w/ SLI GTXs at performance that is very acceptable for a single card. Jaggies are no longer an issue with this card--at all.

And the edge-detect is really slick as well. I can't quite run that on Oblivion w/ the 12x sample paired with Adaptive AA, but if you're not running Adaptive it does a super job of cleaning up rough edges while not blurring the scene slightly such as tent AA does.

Anyway, that's my $.02.

[fivefeet8]

ATI has better AA modes, IMO. A lot of reviews have slammed the tent AA, but I really, really like it. I can set 4xAA Narrow Tent on several games, and I get the IQ equivalent of almost 16xAA that I had w/ SLI GTXs at performance that is very acceptable for a single card. Jaggies are no longer an issue with this card--at all.

Slight blurring of the scene is something I've never prefered. Nvidia has had it's Quincunx(2xAA) and 4x9tap(4xAA) modes for their older cards for quite a while. Quincunx blurred the scene a lot, but offered edge anti aliasing rivalling 4xAA at 2xAA performance. 4x9tap performed similar to 4xAA and had better edge anti-aliasing, but also had a slight blur to the scene. Both of which I didn't use much of. Some seem to like them though.


And the edge-detect is really slick as well. I can't quite run that on Oblivion w/ the 12x sample paired with Adaptive AA, but if you're not running Adaptive it does a super job of cleaning up rough edges while not blurring the scene slightly such as tent AA does.


Nvidia's Hybrid Supersampling and Pure Super sampling AA modes also do amazing edge anti-aliasing without any type of blurring. They also have the ability to AA alpha textures without the need for any type of TSAA. They also have a side affect simulating extra levels of AF onto a given scene. I can run Oblivion with 8xS without much effort and because it's using a bit of Super sampling, the alpha texture leaves get AA without me enabling TSAA. Of course I can also enabled Transparency MSAA with it as well to clean it up even more with only a small hit to performance. ;)

If you want the best edge anti-aliasing available on consumer level cards, then nothing beats Nvidia's hybrid 32xS AA mode and 64xS(SLI only) AA mode. Of course you're going to have to sacrifice a ton of performance on modern games.

[XMAN52373]

In my experience(and personal opinion), however, ATI cards are more reliable and are built under stricter quality control. I also prefer their drivers to Nvidia's, although Nvidia has made good progress on that front since I had my 8800GTXs.

Glad you said opinion as I have a **** load of old Nvidia hardware sitting on my shelf that still works. Riva128 to my currrent 8800GTS's. SLI works for me. All of them were tormented with being OC'd and still work today just as they did back when I first bought them.

[Ihatefanboys]

Glad you said opinion as I have a **** load of old Nvidia hardware sitting on my shelf that still works. Riva128 to my currrent 8800GTS's. SLI works for me. All of them were tormented with being OC'd and still work today just as they did back when I first bought them.


I have owned both ATI and NV cards. Never had either one to go out on me ever.

[Xion X2]

Slight blurring of the scene is something I've never prefered.

I don't "prefer" blurring either, but to me it's not nearly as bad as the reviews said it was. And it's worth it to me because it does such a super job of filtering out all the rough edges from the scene at no extra cost to performance. 4xAA Narrow Tent runs just as good as 4xAA standard. Everything has such a soft, smooth look to it w/ Narrow Tent.

But it's clearly a matter of taste as many don't seem to care for it.

Nvidia's Hybrid Supersampling and Pure Super sampling AA modes also do amazing edge anti-aliasing without any type of blurring. They also have the ability to AA alpha textures without the need for any type of TSAA. They also have a side affect simulating extra levels of AF onto a given scene.

Are these settings incorporated into the control panel? Because I never saw them when I had mine.

[Xion X2]

Glad you said opinion as I have a **** load of old Nvidia hardware sitting on my shelf that still works.

I wish I had been so lucky. Over half the Nvidia cards I've owned have been defective--beginning with a 7900GTX (my first ever Nvidia card) that arrived DOA. The second 7900GTX had the infamous memory issue where it would pause/lock up in some games for up to a minute and then resume play.

Later on, I purchased two 8800GTXs on launch day that both had the bad resistors and caused the card to refuse to switch from 2D to 3D clocks when gaming. Returned those, bought a single watercooled 8800GTX that suddenly died for no reason two months later.

SLI works for me.
You're misunderstanding my situation. SLI worked great for me for games that scaled well with it. It was 680i that I and so many others had trouble with for the first few months the chipset was out. And it was the two 8800GTXs I purchased on launch day that had the bad resistors which were published on VRZone that also were the cause of my problem. Not user error.

I do realize that many have good luck w/ Nvidia. My best bud has an 8800GTX which, to my knowledge, has been flawless for him for several months now. But I've had terrible luck w/ the company, unfortunately.

[XMAN52373]

You're misunderstanding my situation. SLI worked great for me for games that scaled well with it. It was 680i that I and so many others had trouble with for the first few months the chipset was out. And it was the two 8800GTXs I purchased on launch day that had the bad resistors which were published on VRZone that also were the cause of my problem. Not user error.

I do realize that many have good luck w/ Nvidia. My best bud has an 8800GTX which, to my knowledge, has been flawless for him for several months now. But I've had terrible luck w/ the company, unfortunately.

Ah, One of the early jumper. I understand the bad taste in your mouth now. It would be nice if more testing went into the chips/boards/chipsets. Or better yet, if AIBs would do better QC before shipping stock. What brands have you bought in the past for Nvidia. I know of BFG and eVGA off hand, any others?

[Xion X2]

It would be nice if more testing went into the chips/boards/chipsets. Or better yet, if AIBs would do better QC before shipping stock.

That would be nice, wouldn't it? It appears these companies are satisfied turning me into a beta tester. Well screw that, and screw being an early adopter.

What brands have you bought in the past for Nvidia. I know of BFG and eVGA off hand, any others?

XFX 7900GTX (DOA)
BFG 7900GTX
MSI 7950GX2
BFG 8800GTX (2, both w/ bad resistors)
BFG 8800GTX Watercooled (died after 2 months)
BFG 8800GTX (worked fine for 2 months)
eVGA 8800GTX (worked fine for 2 months)

One big roller-coaster ride. I'm on my 4th ATI card and all have been perfect.

[Ihatefanboys]

My best bud has an 8800GTX which, to my knowledge, has been flawless for him for several months now.


;)

[fivefeet8]

I don't "prefer" blurring either, but to me it's not nearly as bad as the reviews said it was. And it's worth it to me because it does such a super job of filtering out all the rough edges from the scene at no extra cost to performance. 4xAA Narrow Tent runs just as good as 4xAA standard. Everything has such a soft, smooth look to it w/ Narrow Tent.

But it's clearly a matter of taste as many don't seem to care for it.

From what I've seen, it's not as bad when you use Narrow Tent. The wide tent modes definately blur it noticeably. Any filter that blurs(a lot or a little) will give a bit better edge anti-aliasing. If you've ever seen Nvidia's old 4x9tap mode, it also had similar advantages and disadvantages to the R600's tent filters.


Are these settings incorporated into the control panel? Because I never saw them when I had mine.

And I thought you were a power user. :p There are a lot of AA modes for Nvidia cards that can't be enabled in the CP. 3rd party tools like Nhancer and Rivatuner allow you to enable a lot more modes. The CP for G8x cards don't have options for any of the Hybrid and Full Super sampling modes.

Here is an incomplete list of AA modes in Nvidia cards. Some modes are outdated and may not be available on G8x anymore.

Standard Multisampling Modes:
2xAA
4xRGMS AA
4xOGMS AA
8xRGMS AA

CSAA Modes:
8xCSAA
16xCSAA
16xQ CSAA

Old Blur filter modes:
Quincunx (2xAA + blur)
4x9tap (4xAA + blur)

Hybrid Supersampling + Multisampling Modes:
4xS (2x1 SSAA + 2x MSAA)
8xS (2x1 SSAA + 4x MSAA)
16xS (2x2 SSAA + 4x MSAA)
32xS (2x2 SSAA + 8x MSAA)
64xS (2x4 SSAA + 8x MSAA) :: SLI only

Pure Super Sampling Modes:
2xSSAA (2x1)
4xSSAA (2x2)
16xSSAA (4x4)

[Xion X2]

Well, I knew about the 3rd party tools like NHancer, but it caused a few conflicts with the driver when I used it with mine. Certain games would crash or blue-screen on occasion when I tried to enforce some settings. I remember that it caused a problem w/ World of Warcraft in particular.

Personally, I'd rather the extra options be a part of the graphics panel, like the Catalyst, without having to use a 3rd party utility to enable them. Narrow Tent, Wide Tent, Edge Detect.. they're all right there and all compatible. No need to worry about driver conflicts.

But that's just me.

[fivefeet8]

Well, I knew about the 3rd party tools like NHancer, but it caused a few conflicts with the driver when I used it with mine. Certain games would crash or blue-screen on occasion when I tried to enforce some settings. I remember that it caused a problem w/ World of Warcraft in particular.

I've used Nhancer since my Geforce 6800 ultra without any issues. You just have bad luck. :p Plus there are other tools which can do the same thing. Using 3rd party tools to enable them doesn't mean they are any less useful then if they were part of the CP.


Personally, I'd rather the extra options be a part of the graphics panel, like the Catalyst, without having to use a 3rd party utility to enable them. Narrow Tent, Wide Tent, Edge Detect.. they're all right there and all compatible. No need to worry about driver conflicts.

I actually use Nhancer and 3rd party tools more than the CP. They have far more options and features for the power user. For instance, not only does Nhancer enable the use of the Hybrid/Pure supersampling AA modes, it also enables the use of more AF modes(16xAF is still the limit though) and it saves all the game profiles you've created and can re-institute them even after a driver change. 3rd party tools like Rivatuner and Nhancer are also much more resource friendly and load faster than the CP as well.

[Blacklash]

These are a few AA quality shots from around Skingrad in the game "Oblivion". 8x coverage AA, Transparency Supersample AA, and 16x AF. I am putting them up to show edge quality from Nv AA. 8x isn't the highest or best, 16x is and I just used the settings I normally play with. I will also add I am another fellow that uses nHancer without issues.

http://m1.freeshare.us/166fs173518_th.jpg (http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?166fs173518.jpg)http://m1.freeshare.us/166fs173910_th.jpg (http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?166fs173910.jpg)http://m1.freeshare.us/166fs174037_th.jpg (http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?166fs174037.jpg)http://m1.freeshare.us/166fs17415_th.jpg (http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?166fs17415.jpg)

http://m1.freeshare.us/166fs174332_th.jpg (http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?166fs174332.jpg)http://m1.freeshare.us/166fs174427_th.jpg (http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?166fs174427.jpg)http://m1.freeshare.us/166fs174790_th.jpg (http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?166fs174790.jpg)http://m1.freeshare.us/166fs175348_th.jpg (http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?166fs175348.jpg)

Make sure to click the image again after it loads so it goes full size, otherwise they will have jaggies all over the place. These are only @ 75% save quality in order to reduce their size.

[XMAN52373]

That would be nice, wouldn't it? It appears these companies are satisfied turning me into a beta tester. Well screw that, and screw being an early adopter.



XFX 7900GTX (DOA)
BFG 7900GTX
MSI 7950GX2
BFG 8800GTX (2, both w/ bad resistors)
BFG 8800GTX Watercooled (died after 2 months)
BFG 8800GTX (worked fine for 2 months)
eVGA 8800GTX (worked fine for 2 months)

One big roller-coaster ride. I'm on my 4th ATI card and all have been perfect.

I have to agree with 5feet, you have very bad luck when it comes to Nvidia based stuff. I've had good luck no matter who I choose for my video. Although I have had friends who had nothing but issues with ATI..

[ChrisRay]

Nhancer shouldnt cause driver problems.. all it does is modify registry values for things like AA allows easy configuring of profiles. The only way Nhancer could have possibly busted your driver was if you just deleted all your profiles...

[Xion X2]

Whatever, guys. Personally, I don't believe in luck. All I know is what I said. It seemed that I had a few more BSODs w/ NHancer than I did when just using the standard Control Panel. But this was back around 2-3 months after the launch of G80 when lots of people were still getting BSODs in games on early drivers.

NHancer may not have caused any direct driver conflict, but it's very possible that it caused another conflict w/ Windows or something else that I had installed. These are common, everyday things that can happen when running 3rd party utilities.

Maybe I should take my 2900XT out of my signature so that the vultures won't circle quite so often. It seems I can't say a single thing without someone following behind me going--

NUIH huhhhh!!!!!!1

:p

Well, have fun. I think I've had enough of this game. Big Brother apparently doesn't like my presence here, and it's no longer worth my time/effort.

[Xion X2]

I have to agree with 5feet, you have very bad luck when it comes to Nvidia based stuff. I've had good luck no matter who I choose for my video. Although I have had friends who had nothing but issues with ATI..
No such thing as luck. Has to do with being a consistent early adopter of a company that puts out products without enough QC testing.

[sammy sung]

No such thing as luck. Has to do with being a consistent early adopter of a company that puts out products without enough QC testing.

Agree 100% Xion,ive had just as much issues with the g80/680i as you (im on my third mobo and third GTX now) .This was the first time ever for me i could afford to be a early adopter,got my first GTX+mobo late november and had 4 solid months of one issue after the other .The first asus board was doa,the next the memory controller was shot and the board delivered subpar performance and stability. But now 4-5 months later everything works perfectly.Its only bad luck to a certain extent,i belive being a early adopter and less good,not thorugh enough testing being the main culprit.

I will never do that again,i havent had problems with nvidia gear before but i also never bought them fresh off the factory line before either.

[JohnDio]

I have my XFX 8800GTX and my EVGA N680i SLI for almost 10 months and never had any issue with them. To be fair though,my XFX isn't a good overclocking card and my limit is at 630/1010. At 650/1000 i get a hard-lock in some games,although my temperature with those clocks in full load was around 70 Celcius,which is a normal temperature. That was the only time i got a BSOD. After lowering my overclock to 630/1010 i'm 100% stable. So yeah,i was an early adopter and didn't have any issue. And i highly recommend the third party programs like Nhancer. Personally i'm using Rivatuner v2.1 and i'm really happy with it ;)

[fivefeet8]

NHancer may not have caused any direct driver conflict, but it's very possible that it caused another conflict w/ Windows or something else that I had installed. These are common, everyday things that can happen when running 3rd party utilities.

They are also everyday things that can happen when running any application which deals with video cards. Control Panels from either IHV's can and do also have issues with their own video cards. There have been many a time when something was buggy on the CP itself(setting AA/AF, creating profiles, ect..ect..), but was fine using 3rd party tools.

Having more options is always better than having less. 3rd party tools enable the user to do things that they can't with the lone CP from either camp. Most power users would agree that 3rd party tools like Nhancer, Rivatuner, and ATitool are great pieces of software that can enhance the use of their video cards. And they also do it without the resource requirements of the CPs.

Even anandtech seems to think so. ;)
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3019

[Eliminator]

XFX 7900GTX (DOA)
BFG 7900GTX
MSI 7950GX2
BFG 8800GTX (2, both w/ bad resistors)
BFG 8800GTX Watercooled (died after 2 months)
BFG 8800GTX (worked fine for 2 months)
eVGA 8800GTX (worked fine for 2 months)

wow and i thought i was the only one with bad luck

Radeon 9500 Pro (no issues)
ASUS 6800GT (nforce3/6800 stuttering bug)
Sapphire X1800XL (artifacts/freezing from day 1)
Sapphire X1800XL (freezing from day 1)
eVGA 7800GTX (no issues)
eVGA 7900GTX (worked for 2-3 months)
eVGA 7900GTX (artifacting since day 1)
eVGA 7900GTX (artifacting since day 1)
eVGA 7950GX2 (no issues)
eVGA 8800GTX (no issues so far)