X1800GTO vs 7600GT

ƒ

ƒatal

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Alright, now my systems done.

Now my friend since got his system fried, so he's getting a complete new setup. So he's wondering, which card is best? The nVidia GeForce 7600GT 256MB PCI-E, or the ATI Sapphire Radeon X1800GTO 256MB PCI-E?

I've also helped him research benchmarks and reviews - and they both beat each other in various benchmarks. He's mostly interested in most of the games I play, plus a few more;

F.E.A.R
Battlefield 2
Quake 4
Counter-Strike: Source
Day of Defeat: Source
Guild Wars
Call of Duty 2
World of Warcraft
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Now he knows either card will smoke Guild Wars, Q4 and BF2. But he's wondering about the rest.

He wants the BEST IMAGE QUALITY with awesome FPS too, I've noticed ATI have the best image quality, but in games like Q4, the 7600GT has something like 20+FPS on the X1800GTO. But the X1800GTO also beats the 7600GT in other reviews.

Currently, he's leaning towards the X1800GTO because of it's great image quality and ability of high AA/AF without massive loss of performance, unlike the competing 7600GT, which nVidia totally lack the ability to have.

He was also planning, that he would unlock them to whatever possible, and then Overclock them. Therefore if he got the X1800GTO, he'd want to Unlock it to an X1800XL, or higher if he could. Then OC it a bit more, maybe with a higher voltage.

Many thanks!

Cheers,
Josh
 
why don't you tell your friend to cough up $30 more dollars and get a 1800xt 256mb version...
 
I was scoring over 9,000 in 3d mark 05 with my x1800gto overclocked.

Dont know how that translates for you but is just a thought if you need the $30 for something else.
 
Well, I'm from the UK, so no $$$, all £££. But, the price difference between the GTO and XT in England is £45, which is $83...

And he can't make that sorta sacrifice, as he's already added a bit more £££ to his current budget to get the latest CrossFire motherboard, the RD580 chipset.

So basically, it is still outta the X1800GTO and 7600GT. He's also going to unlock the GTO to an XL, and OC it. But if he got the 7600GT, he'd OC that too. But he's leaning towards the X1800GTO. Because he can get another GTO for christmas, then he can CrossFire them without the dongle, because the RD580 Chipset CrossFire motherboard doesn't require a dongle for 2x X1800GTO's.

Cheers!
Josh
 
ƒatal said:
Well, I'm from the UK, so no $$$, all £££. But, the price difference between the GTO and XT in England is £45, which is $83...
Click to expand...

I know there's always someone telling you to spend more, more, more! when you come to an enthusiast's board, but check out here:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_X1800_Series_705.html

The difference between the two cards is only 25 quid (and the XT is damn cheap) and what's 25 notes for a card that probably has a 6 month longer usable life given its somewhat better performance?
 
He bought a crossfire motherboard!
Why would he then buy 7600gt?
 
it's either get a 7600gt midrange, or spend another 60-80 bucks and get an x1800xt. i'm pretty sure image quality is very similar (i have a 7800gt).
 
I would suggest ditching the CF board since the budget is tight and spend that money on a better video card now. No point in having the board now if you can’t take advantage of it now. By the time he is ready for CF he can sell whatever he has and be able to buy the same board for less then he will pay today.

Also from what I have seen the thought of adding a second card later to keep up with the times is far from cost effective. Selling the old card and just buying a better one seems to be a much better option for people on a budget.

On a side note I thought it was only the x1600 cards that could be paired in crossfire? I thought the other ATI cards required a CF edition card? Or was that all because of the dongle? Either way when you add up the cost of the 2 X1800GTO cards I am sure they will cost more then a single card that easily outperforms the two of them.
 
why not the 7800GT eh? lol the 7600GT is a good card a friend of mine has it and loves it.
 
yea iv noticed. been recomended by all the americans on this site (Im Canadian) to get an "X1800XT because there so cheap right now!". no they arnt! NCIX is still charging $550. ATIC has em for $570! and ATI is BASED in Canada, youd think if anyone was gonna get a discount it would be us. no, no, just the States seem to get the uber nice prices on X1800XTs.

anywho 7600GT vs X1800GTO. the X1800GTO is a few bucks more as i recall, and it does perform a little better, and it performs way better on paper. 256 bit bus on X1800GTO compared to 128 on 7600GT. lots of little things like that should make the X1800GTO outperform the 7600GT by a mile... but it doesnt.

I havnt seen any overclocking done on the X1800GTO, but I would asume it scales better then the 7600GT. I have seen some ocing benchies on the 7600GT, and while the core can go pretty high, its restricted by the number of pipes it has, so it wont oc very well. the only constriction to ocing the X1800GTO is its cooler. its ok, but not the best, is has lowered the RPM compaired to the X1800XL. so that the cooler is quieter but also less effective. you might look into putting on an aftermarket cooler. the arctic cooling solutions are my favorite, usually only $30, (sorry i have no idea what the the exchange rates are for europian currencies) are quite, and are pretty effective.

so the X1800GTO would be pretty sweet. and if like you said the X1800XT is $80 bucks more, i would say X1800GTO w/ aftermarket cooler could get you pretty close to those performance levels, saving you $50.
 
He bought a crossfire motherboard! Why would he then buy 7600gt?
Click to expand...

I agree with sbin. The 7600GT may be a better card but you just said
And he can't make that sorta sacrifice, as he's already added a bit more £££ to his current budget to get the latest CrossFire motherboard, the RD580 chipset.
Click to expand...

He should've bought a non CF board if he wanted to use nvidia..but then again if he did save money on the mobo he could've bought a 7900GT or X1800XT. Since he already bought the CF mobo, he might as well get an ati card to make the board "worth it"..even though I really don't see how CF or SLi is worth it for people on a budget. To me having two vid cards is only necessary if you are running high resolutions w/ the higher end cards and you want the highest benchmarks..other than that you would be better off w/ one good card and then selling it later on (rather than buying a 2nd older card and running it in SLi or CF) If he could sell his mobo and get a better single card I would do that..but if not then I dont know what he should do. You could get the X1800GTO and another X1800GTO later on but the X1800XT will last longer. So there is no possible way he could save up more (sell some old parts or somethin!) and get an X1800XT?
 
ok this is kinda off topic but counter strike source? c'mon..that game is pathetic and way to old. People don't care about that game, they care about FEAR, BF2, and basically games that take advantage of the high end card you crave. That game doesn't even have good graphics compared to even battlefield 1942, let alone bf2.. I myself purchased an x1800xt open box for 199 US. It works great for everthing. You don't need more than 30fps in any game in my opinion and either of those cards will do that. playing CS:S with either of these cards will be like playing Super Mario Bros. on a PS2.
 
Just2stoned said:
ok this is kinda off topic but counter strike source? c'mon..that game is pathetic and way to old. People don't care about that game, they care about FEAR, BF2, and basically games that take advantage of the high end card you crave. That game doesn't even have good graphics compared to even battlefield 1942, let alone bf2.. I myself purchased an x1800xt open box for 199 US. It works great for everthing. You don't need more than 30fps in any game in my opinion and either of those cards will do that. playing CS:S with either of these cards will be like playing Super Mario Bros. on a PS2.
Click to expand...

WOW. dammmnnn. dude people still play CS 1.6! hell soem internet cafes still have CS 1.5!!!!! thats like 5 years old!

and dude the source engine is still being used as a comparison method on several review sites, it may be a little old but its far from out dated. it has absolutly killer HDR, and has plenty of polygons. they just released HL2: episode one, look at the faces man! you cant argue with that. its just too bad that it cant quiet fully exploit SM3.0, it was just a tiny bit too soon.

and "people still play source". LOL. have you never heard of CAL? CPL? some teams are still making thousands of dollars from CPL. Ksharp had an interview and said he was making $40 grand a year tax free playing CS 1.6 at CPL! sounds like a good career to me.

no no. you got it backwards. source is the best MMO FPS game out there. waaay more stratigy then anything, at least if you take it to a high enough level.
 
Very true. At release, the 7600GT and X1800GTO were close in price. But now, the 7600GT prices have dropped so far below what you can get an X1800GTO for, it's not much of a competition. Unless you are getting an X1800GTO that you know will unlock to X1800XL, the price different really favors the 7600GT.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
yea iv noticed. been recomended by all the americans on this site (Im Canadian) to get an "X1800XT because there so cheap right now!". no they arnt! NCIX is still charging $550. ATIC has em for $570! and ATI is BASED in Canada, youd think if anyone was gonna get a discount it would be us. no, no, just the States seem to get the uber nice prices on X1800XTs.

anywho 7600GT vs X1800GTO. the X1800GTO is a few bucks more as i recall, and it does perform a little better, and it performs way better on paper. 256 bit bus on X1800GTO compared to 128 on 7600GT. lots of little things like that should make the X1800GTO outperform the 7600GT by a mile... but it doesnt.

I havnt seen any overclocking done on the X1800GTO, but I would asume it scales better then the 7600GT. I have seen some ocing benchies on the 7600GT, and while the core can go pretty high, its restricted by the number of pipes it has, so it wont oc very well. the only constriction to ocing the X1800GTO is its cooler. its ok, but not the best, is has lowered the RPM compaired to the X1800XL. so that the cooler is quieter but also less effective. you might look into putting on an aftermarket cooler. the arctic cooling solutions are my favorite, usually only $30, (sorry i have no idea what the the exchange rates are for europian currencies) are quite, and are pretty effective.

so the X1800GTO would be pretty sweet. and if like you said the X1800XT is $80 bucks more, i would say X1800GTO w/ aftermarket cooler could get you pretty close to those performance levels, saving you $50.
Click to expand...

Umm. X1800 XT is $350 CAD on ncix. It hasn't been $550 for a long time...
 
MrWizard6600 said:
I havnt seen any overclocking done on the X1800GTO, but I would asume it scales better then the 7600GT. I have seen some ocing benchies on the 7600GT, and while the core can go pretty high, its restricted by the number of pipes it has, so it wont oc very well. the only constriction to ocing the X1800GTO is its cooler. its ok, but not the best, is has lowered the RPM compaired to the X1800XL. so that the cooler is quieter but also less effective. you might look into putting on an aftermarket cooler. the arctic cooling solutions are my favorite, usually only $30, (sorry i have no idea what the the exchange rates are for europian currencies) are quite, and are pretty effective.
Click to expand...

The Nvidia GPUs scale nicely, coupled with the fact they run about half as cool as a X1800GTO - there is far more OC potential on the 7600GT.

Other factors to consider would have to be ATI's poor driver support, horrible control panel, power consumption and noise to keep the bloo*y thing cool! Not to mention the fact that the card is huge, it probably wouldn't even fit in my case.

The ATI will win out on image quality and using high levels of AA at high resolutions.

Here in the UK the cards are around the same price £115, so price isn't really a factor.
 
spicey said:
there is far more OC potential on the 7600GT.

Other factors to consider would have to be ATI's poor driver support,
Click to expand...


*cough* BS

For the money the 7600GT is a better deal, but I really doubt an overclocked one would beat an overclocked GTO.

What is your complaint with ATi drivers ? They are updated more frequently than others.
 
Stereophile said:
*cough* BS

For the money the 7600GT is a better deal, but I really doubt an overclocked one would beat an overclocked GTO.

What is your complaint with ATi drivers ? They are updated more frequently than others.
Click to expand...

You got a cold? , you have a nasty cough!

I doubt it, unless you use a 3rd party cooler then the ATi is gonna to reach searing temperatures, this will hamper OCing.

Quote from Hardocp test on the 7600GT there is no doubting the OC potential :-

"We aggressively tested the overclocks to find the highest stable frequencies in all our games. Surprisingly we ended up with some very high overclocks. We managed to take the core up to 640 MHz, a 60 MHz overclock. Even though the memory was over the technical spec we found we could push it even further, up to 750 MHz (1.5 GHz)."

I wasn't talking about the frequency of the driver updates but the quality of the updates. The last ATi card I had I struggled to find a driver that wouldn't flake out in most games. Maybe things have improved since, but it put me off ATi in any case.
 
I'd go with the x1800 gto /w the xpress 3200 chipset. You can always add another x1800 gto to thie mix. And all this is moot if you plan on not staying with current generation tech. To give you an instance in WoW even in Stranglethorn Vale @ 4x adaptive AA, Temporal AA, 16x HQAF i average 40 to 60 fps, but sometimes in flight it will dip below 30 for a few seconds thats @ 1920 x 1200 on a dell 2405 fpw. If you question this i can make a video :):)
 
Just because the 7600GT is faster in ID/Opengl games doesn't mean you won't enjoy them on the ATI card. I tried Quake 4 for the first time last night on my new GTO, and it ran butter smooth at 1280x1024, all settings maxed + 4xAA + 4xAF.

Plus, it's a single slot cooler, unlike the XT series cards.

EDIT: oh, and the Sapphire version of the GTO is harder to unlock than the other brands....might want to take that into consideration. There's a massive thread at xtremesystems.org about GTO overclocking and unlocking/voltmodding.
 
spicey said:
You got a cold? , you have a nasty cough!

I doubt it, unless you use a 3rd party cooler then the ATi is gonna to reach searing temperatures, this will hamper OCing.

Quote from Hardocp test on the 7600GT there is no doubting the OC potential :-

"We aggressively tested the overclocks to find the highest stable frequencies in all our games. Surprisingly we ended up with some very high overclocks. We managed to take the core up to 640 MHz, a 60 MHz overclock. Even though the memory was over the technical spec we found we could push it even further, up to 750 MHz (1.5 GHz)."

I wasn't talking about the frequency of the driver updates but the quality of the updates. The last ATi card I had I struggled to find a driver that wouldn't flake out in most games. Maybe things have improved since, but it put me off ATi in any case.
Click to expand...


Please. A 60 mhz core overclock is supposed to be impressive ?
You don't think a GTO could do at least that much ? My XL does a 100 mhz oc.
You're spouting nonsense. "far more oc potential on the 7600GT" my ass :rolleyes:
Let me guess your last ATi card was an 8500 ?
Or are you just parroting the common internet meme that ATI's drivers suck ? LOL

^plonk
 
Stereophile said:
Please. A 60 mhz core overclock is supposed to be impressive ?
You don't think a GTO could do at least that much ? My XL does a 100 mhz oc.
You're spouting nonsense. "far more oc potential on the 7600GT" my ass :rolleyes:
Let me guess your last ATi card was an 8500 ?
Or are you just parroting the common internet meme that ATI's drivers suck ? LOL

^plonk
Click to expand...

Very constructive critisism!

Why are you laughing at your own writing, even when there is nothing funny about it?
 
spicey said:
Very constructive critisism!

Why are you laughing at your own writing, even when there is nothing funny about it?
Click to expand...


GTO is a better card period. You can overclock better than the 7600GT and most likely unlock pipes for more performance... Not to mention AA and HDR at the same time.

Nvidia drivers and ATI drivers are about even.. They both work great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814161004


Pros: Unlockable to 16 pipes. 6 Phase PCB (6 black squares on the plastic circuitboard) means voltage levels can go above other GTO's. I found it running stable at 1.45V!! Other cards, EVEN x1800XL cards hard lock at 1.275!
 
nooh said:
do you lose your warranty if you unlocked the extra pipes?
Click to expand...
Yes, it involves flashing the Bios. Just don't get a HIS from Monarch, mine is a POS GB_PIPE_SELECT 0x12BB4 and only five mosfets. Card runs damn hot. If I didn't dislike NVIDIA for buying out ULi, I would've gone the NF4/7600GT way instead.
 
Actually the cardfs uptill now i have bought have already been factory overclocked.

All my cards have been XFX ones and after reading reviews on these cards the overall best thing about buying one of these cards is that your covered from the overclock because they already gave you a overclocked card and you are always paying more for them , so for that they cover you.

My last 6600gt were working good so i thought but then i put one in my sons new PC i built and it started acting funny with games .

Anyway all the time i was thinking that i have took the overclock too high cos it was Pentium 930d and i overclocked it using two different company ram and overclocked it from 3.00ghz to 4.15ghz.

This just with normal ram and i was wrong it wasnt them after i found out it was the overclocked GPU i bought .

I went in to scan and they changed it straight away. I dont mind overclocking the CPU but the GPU i would rather by that overclocked at least a little so your covered. I have changed 3 GPUs from a possible of 5 systems in the past 6 months. I have not been very lucky with GPUs.

Another very important thing i have learnt about this industry that never get attatch to the maker of the product.

If the product is good then say it and if the product is bad then say it.
 
Benchmarks between these two cards (across the board) are inconsistent to me. One site will show the 1800 being the leader, and then others the 7600.
 
I vote X1800XT. if that's too far out (price wise), the X1800GTO would come second. Good card. Has the possibilities of flashing to 16 pipes. the guy who mentioned that he got 9000 on 3dmark 05 with his GTO? Wow, that's amazing. 7600GT scores 6680 for the eVGA 7600GT CO stock. If you unlock and you've got problems, you would lose warantee from the manufacturer. Your call
 
Well after a week, my 7600GT is playing up. BSOD NV_DISP errors. There appears to be an issue with overheating. At stock levels, idle is 70 degrees, at load it goes up to about 100 degrees. Does anyone know what sort of temps I should be getting?

Perhaps I should haven gone for a ATi X1800GTO after all! :rolleyes:

I've bought a Zalman VF-700 CU and some Arctic Silver 5, hopefully this will sort it out.
 
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