Retail X700 Pro Roundup

by Derek Wilson on 12/13/2004 12:05 AM EST
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  • Gaia Hunter - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link

    @11:

    Dont forget most 6800 vanillas can easly be softmoded with rivatuner:

    -All will get the 6th vertex unit;
    -Good chance of getting the additionall 4 pixel pipes too.

    I was able to go to 16,6. That gave me a 25% boost in 3dmark03 and 33% bost in 3dmark05.~

    Also consider 6800 LE (around $250). Most can get 12 pipes and 5 vertex. If u get lucky u can get to 16,6.

    While u cant always do this, consider that nvidia is implementing a new way to mask the Pipilines! think about that :)
  • Questar - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link

    >>Mid range and PCIe dont mix right now. who would get mid range card if they were dishing out big bucks to get a PCIe setup??

    Me. Assuming 3Ghz is midrange.
  • Alphafox78 - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link

    Mid range and PCIe dont mix right now. who would get mid range card if they were dishing out big bucks to get a PCIe setup?? AGP still has 98% market share, but I guess the 2% high end stuff is worth forgetting agp over.
  • DerekWilson - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link

    #18

    the wildcat is a professional card, not a consumer level card. the wildcat realizm 200 competes with the quadro, not the geforce.
  • nurazlanshah - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    im just wondering, why dont people just use 3dlabs wildcat realizm 200 if they really want the best computer and if they have the money? i would do that.

    http://www.3dlabs.com/products/product.asp?prod=29...
  • skunkbuster - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    #16, i think they do that in order to eliminate the cpu as being a bottleneck
  • alexlck - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    nice review but there is something that i don't understand.

    When people is looking for a mid-range video card, they are usually having a medicore setup. so what's the point to test a mid-range card with a
    $1,000+ CPU?

    can you please retest those cards with 3Ghz/3000+ cpu?

    Which, i think, will give some more realistic results.
  • ShadowVlican - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    i can confirm #12 statement about the "2004 Performance" cause i see that too.. stoopid ad :/

    too bad ati... better bring out the new X800s now and lower the price too :D cause ur X700Pro can't touch the 6600gt :P
  • DerekWilson - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    Thanks Pete. Corrected the typo.
  • Pete - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    Hey Derek, slight typo in the Doom 3 benches. I think you mwant to say AA rather than aniso in the first sentence, as HQ mode in D3 uses 8xAF by default.

    Sorry, I can't get as excited about this article as the last simply b/c the cards are uninspiring. Better luck next SKU, ATI.
  • cosmotic - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    Your text ad thing turns "Unreal Tournoment" into a link thats the same color as the table header background so it looks like "2004 Performance". Why do some Anand articles use pretty graphs and some use these relitively harder to read tables?
  • MAValpha - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    I dunno. I have one of these cards (Retail Built-By-ATI 256MB Radeon X700 Pro), and I didn't even try to push it too far. I set it up to run at XT speeds, and it does it with no problems. Performance at these settings isn't anything to sneeze at either, since it more or less matches my 6800 vanilla (within 5%, off the top of my head). Remember that preliminary benchmarks position the 6800 vanilla almost on par with the 6600GT, also.
    Granted, the two PCs are different, but they are both fairly close to top-of-the-line. One is a Prescott-775 running at 3.8 on i915P, the other is an AXP running 2.4 on NF2 Ultra. While they are understandably different processors, games turn in comparable framerates on both. Everything else is the same in both rigs, right down to the RAM and hard drives.
  • nserra - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    "For those out there who are die-hard ATI fans and absolutely need to have an X700 Pro solution, we can recommend that you simply head out and find the cheapest X700 Pro available."

    I do a better one, buy the basic X700, only 25Mhz lower clock and 150Mhz memory, and over clock it. And save 50$.

    One thing must be pointed out, if X700 Pro is worst over 6600GT, "regular" X700 is better over "regular" 6600.

    #9 My point answer your question or doubt?
  • ChineseDemocracyGNR - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    What I'd like to see is the $149 non-PRO non-XT X700, which is also non-existant.
  • skunkbuster - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    can anyone tell me why ati's open GL drivers continue to suck? when are they ever going to catch up to nvidia in this regard?
  • stelleg151 - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    I assume that the ATI cards should be considered identical to the Powercolor cards because of same look?
  • bloc - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    Bang for the buck especially in the mid range.

    If ati priced the x700 accordingly and had some cards to sell, I'd consider it. Cripes I'm waiting for the 9800 pro to come down to $150 US to the 6600 GT's $200. I'd then go for the 9800 pro.
  • overclockingoodness - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    All I have to say is that NVIDIA's 6600 solutions are to get for mid-range setups.
  • DerekWilson - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    The icon should be fixed -- I'm not sure what happened there :-)
  • slurmsmackenzie - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    did anyone else stop reading after the head to head with the 6600GT?.... i just assumed everything else was just superfluous details.
  • Pete84 - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    Ah, poor ATI . . .

    Really though, this is the market segment that typically is the bulk of sales, and if ATI can't keep up with nVidia on this one, it will be interesting to see if the new x800 XL and Co can offset the $200 segment.
  • Pandaren - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    uh, why is the article icon a Dell Inspiron 700m???

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