I want to buy a new video card and I am debating whether the x800 XT or the 9800 Pro XT both 256 around range at about 600-750 canadian. Should I get these for gaming and 3d visual art? or should i not waste my money and get some sort of lower card. Any suggestions?

Norman

Both are great cards. The X800xt is a newer card than the 9800xt. Therefore the X800xt is at least twice as fast as the 9800xt other cards to consider are the Nvidia 6800GT or 6800Ultra. Both cards have 256mb and 16-pixel pipelines and are fine cards too.

The X800xt comes in two models ( I think?) 'standard' and 'Platinum Edition' the platinum has 16 pixel pipelines, whereas the standard one has just 12, which is the same as the X800pro (slightly lower spec card).

What sort of games are you hoping to play?

What is your system spec (Processor, Motherboard etc)?

A high-end card will not perform any better than a good midrange or low-end card if the rest of your computer is too slow to benefit.

AMD Athlon XP2200+
Aero7 lite
512mb Crucial pc2700
Abit NF7-s V2.0
80GB Seagate SATA
120GB Seagate SATA
Geforce4 Ti4200 128mb
Benq FP767-12 17" 12ms
SB live 5.1 Digital

With your budget, I'd snag one of these in a jiffy.

B4 you criticize a bigger man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, you're a mile away, and you have his shoes.

well its an AMD Athlon 2200 XP 512 ram and sitting with 80 gigs. And a s---ty geforce fx5200. I plan to go 1gb ram soon so....

Norman

Hi, with your system, don't get those high end cards, it will just goes to waste.
You whole system is not good enough for those cards, and might as well spends money upgrading your CPU with a 6600GT video card.
The x800 XT needs quite a bit of power to run, what power supply are u using? Anyways, like someone mentioned, what kind of games u play? If you only play couple of games, for god's sake, don't spend that much on a CARD.
And i like the idea of getting more RAM, that helps a lot in games..best in duel channel, if your motherboard support that.

I am using a brand new PSU dual fan i forget blew a couple hundered on it. And 1gb ram not good for X800? or the processor? and I need it for visual Design keep in mind. and Yes I play quite a few games i want to get DOom 3 and i play World Of Warcraft

Norman

Hi, I have no idea what visual design really is, but i don't think you really need that expensive $600-$750 video card to do such thing. It's like putting wings on cars that can't fly! If your fx5200 can do visual design, i bet a 6600GT could do it FAR MUCH BETTER, and money well spend. And buying new high ends cards is for super hardcore gamers that want every bit out of the new produces. And games like WoW or EQII etc, i assume you will be playing those games at least a year or two or longer? If you getting that $700 card for games mostly. It's like throwing 1k of cash a year for a single game like WoW that needs monthly fees! Why not get a $300 range card like the 6600GT/X700pro and use that 300 bucks u saved from X800 and get urself another CPU or stick of RAM? With the video card produces pushing out like this, sooner, PCI-E will be common, and is WAY better/cheaper than a costly single card.

You play World of Warcraft too? That game is the best...playing at Kilrogg realm right now

X800 XT is very good but like what Leuk says your CPU will become a bottleneck..

Instead you should get a better CPU and a good video card(9800 Pro/6600 GT) other than having one really good video card and a crappy processor.

CS Tip #1 - Don't try to shoot with a knife

3D visual design is what is used to make games. You ever watch those movie clips on final fantasy? or the final fantasy movie itself? you need a very fast comp for it and hella good card. So thats why I've been debating if it was worth the money. But seeing you guys know your stuff Should i go 9800 pro or x700 or the 6600GT or whatever?

Norman

Put it this way, A friend of mine went out and bought a Radeon 9800xt 256mb the day they came out in the UK. He paid nearly £400 of his savings for the privelige of owning the fastest graphics card money could buy at the time. A year later, you can buy an even faster card (Nvidia 6600GT for example) for £140. His card is still good, but if he'd bought a Radeon 9600pro or something back then, he would have still been able to run games at high settings, then been able to upgrade to a 6600GT now and would ahve a faster card than the 9800xt with all the latest directx support etc and saved himself over £100 in the long-run.

If you bought an X800xt today, in 6-monts to a years time (by the time computers will be fast enough to get the most out of it), the X800xt will be slower than cards available for a third of it's current price and won't support any of the latest directx/opengl standards etc..

AMD Athlon XP2200+
Aero7 lite
512mb Crucial pc2700
Abit NF7-s V2.0
80GB Seagate SATA
120GB Seagate SATA
Geforce4 Ti4200 128mb
Benq FP767-12 17" 12ms
SB live 5.1 Digital

Also, game publishers all aim their games at the low-to-mid range machines. If they didn't, they wouldn't sell many games. A 6600GT or equivalent still sits in the 'Much Better than Reccomended spec' for all current games, what more do you need?

AMD Athlon XP2200+
Aero7 lite
512mb Crucial pc2700
Abit NF7-s V2.0
80GB Seagate SATA
120GB Seagate SATA
Geforce4 Ti4200 128mb
Benq FP767-12 17" 12ms
SB live 5.1 Digital

Ah..ic, like what Snoopy104 said...the top end cards will be replace by faster one every couple months..There is NO NEED to get the fastest..(let's not consider about bottlenecking or not for now, Who'll upgrade their whole PC every 6 months anyways!)
But if a video card can play the game, I assume it could "make" the game as well!
Also, i assume 3D visual design is not what you're doing for a living, so the best bang for your bucks would be, a normal 6800 or 6600GT, they are in the same price range in some places..But it's $1/4 more in where i live..so, if depends on how much you got to spend..
The 6600GT is bit faster and got the CineFX 3.0 etc, compare to the 9800PRO, the 6600GT is newer and more powerful, and only the reason i could think of not getting the 6600GT is, you are an ATI FANS!!

Your 2200+ is not that good for today's new video cards anyways. But is there a REAL NEED to upgrade to the fastest? Keep that in mind as well.."Best bang for your bucks" is what we all trying to tell you.
-WHO WOULD TRADE-IN THEIR 2004 CIVIC, FOR A 2005 ANYWAYS!! <-Just an example.

I have a new processor chip on its way i cant remeber my dad ordered it its 2.0GHz and above..where as the 2200+ originally is only 1.8

Norman