X1800XT

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
hey nitro, just wanna ask......how do you make fear use higer res? i can only pick 10x7 and 11x8? and thats it! i didnt get 7800gt's in SLI to play 10x7!

They didnt even have 1280x1024 as a selectable res within the game upon relesae, pretty short sighted to me.

Go here; C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Monolith Productions\FEAR Open up the settings.cfg, change ScreenWidth and ScreenHeight to what you want. Save it, make it read only to make sure it doesnt change it back, and start up the game.

cheers man

yeah i know, i was annoyed when BF2 didnt have 1280x1024 on release, and i was abit annoyed about fear not even going much past 10x7.

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Originally posted by: BlacKJesuS
"Thoughs from a "nvidiot"....


yes...you are an idiot


but why compare 1800XT vs sli?

I don't know whether to :roll: or :laugh: for BlackJesus does like to attack.

I think with the sky high price of the 7800GTX 512 and falling prices of the X1800XT I think the high end market has again equalized. Quarter 1 '06 should be even more interesting.

 

[apoppin]

thanks for the "thoughts' . . . very interesting impressions .. . looks like the x1800xt has found its place in the high end just below the SLI rigs . . .

anyway be careful . . . you are losing your reputation as an nVidiot
:Q

 

[Nirach]

I feel a little better knowing that it's not just my X800 that can't handle FEAR in 1680x1050

I'd like to crossfire some 1800XT's, but I probably won't complete my crossfire rig until mid next year.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
Did the 5.12's add the fix to speed up F.E.A.R.? If not, try renaming the exe, to FEER.exe or something. See if its faster.

edit, whats load temps?

I have no idea if the 5.12's fixed anything or not, as I didn't ever install the 5.11's.

Load temps after about 15 mins of rthdribl hover at 79-80C. The kicked up a notch to it's second stage. ...a noticable whine, but not too loud. That being said, I do prefer the lower tone of the GTX stock cooler and the NV5 Silencer.

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: Zenoth
You don't need SLi to play F.E.A.R properly.

Look at my rig.

I play it @ 1024 x 768. 4x Adaptive A-A, 16x HQ A-F, and all in-game settings to their maximum, except for Soft Shadows, which I turned Off.

It looks beautiful, plays extremely smooth, never goes down below 40 f-p-s.

Adjust your resolution, and you'll play it "properly".

I guess if 10X7 is good enough for you, you don't need SLI to play FEAR "properly".

For a lot of us, 10X7 is a HUGE step back. The difference between 16X12 and 10X7 is night and day.

This is certainly true. Dual GT/GTX in SLI is simply the best setup out there. However, I've now also played Quake4 on the XT, and it runs great. In a blind test, I would have not been able to tell you which rig was SLI and which was the XT. So, in my experience, the only game that I've run into that shows a tangible benefit with dual GTX'es over a single card is FEAR. Yes, I'm sure that the frames are higher in everything else as well, but it didn't have a noticable effect on playability at equal settings. Of course that is at 1680x1050, and not on a 2405FPW. This isn't an NV vs ATI thing either, I have played with a single GTX as well, and I'm sure that a single GTX would give me the same results as the XT. It also isn't a jab at SLI, SLI is great, and it works great.

 

[Elfear]

Thanks for the mini-review nitromullet. It's nice to see an unbiased look at two companies offerings that are constantly being bickered over.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: Ackmed
Did the 5.12's add the fix to speed up F.E.A.R.? If not, try renaming the exe, to FEER.exe or something. See if its faster.

edit, whats load temps?

I have no idea if the 5.12's fixed anything or not, as I didn't ever install the 5.11's.

Load temps after about 15 mins of rthdribl hover at 79-80C. The kicked up a notch to it's second stage. ...a noticable whine, but not too loud. That being said, I do prefer the lower tone of the GTX stock cooler and the NV5 Silencer.

Thanks. Temps are not bad at all, and the hot air goes out the case.. how I like it.

Try renaming the F.E.A.R. exe and doing a bench of it, and one with the correct name to see if the frames are the same. There was a pretty large boost with the 5.11's and renaming the exe. ATi said it was because of a backwards IF statement, and I was curious if it was "fixed" in the 5.12's.

 

[nitromullet]

Will do Ackmed...

Question before I do though... I haven't messed around with the CCC before and I'm a bit fuzzy on the Overdrive thing.

This is a screenshot of my overdrive screen...

http://www.mindspring.com/~megatron/overdrive.JPG

You'll notice that the clocks for both core/mem are below the spec for this card for the current speeds. These don't change when I fire up rthdribl... Anyone know anything about this?

 

[Steelski]

I think that it sounds like the fear problem is fixable through a patch or a driver update. i remember having something similar with Doom 3 when you walk through a door and then that being fixed through a driver release.

Edit. not with a X1800XT by the way. i'm cheap

 

[Bull Dog]

Originally posted by: Elfear
Thanks for the mini-review nitromullet. It's nice to see an unbiased look at two companies offerings that are constantly being bickered over.

 

[Thorny]

Originally posted by: Elfear
Thanks for the mini-review nitromullet. It's nice to see an unbiased look at two companies offerings that are constantly being bickered over.

Ditto

 

[nitromullet]

Thanks, I appreciate all the positive comments.

A few benchmarks:

X1800XT @ 689/797:

3DMark05 9328

================

FEAR.exe

min 18
avg 35
max 83

22% below 25 FPS
51% between 25 and 40 FPS
27% above 40 FPS

=================

FEER.exe

min 20
avg 35
max 84

18% below 25 FPS
57% between 25 and 40 FPS
25% above 40 FPS

 

[Steelski]

looks like the fear.exe thing is back. oh well. this is really bizzare though, someone should ask ati about this.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Rollo
I guess if 10X7 is good enough for you, you don't need SLI to play FEAR "properly".

For a lot of us, 10X7 is a HUGE step back. The difference between 16X12 and 10X7 is night and day.

On this one i agree with you to an extent.
It does seem FEAR is insanely GPU intensive.

That being said, i am able to run it @ maxed settings @ 1280x960 on my X850XT PE...so how the heck can't the X1800XT handle 1600x1200

Oh, & thanx for the review nitromullet.

I really wish nVidia could improve their IQ, since i'd like to get a 7800GTX 256 MB as my next card.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: apoppin
thanks for the "thoughts' . . . very interesting impressions .. . looks like the x1800xt has found its place in the high end just below the SLI rigs . . .

anyway be careful . . . you are losing your reputation as an nVidiot
:Q

NITRO! You come back inside this INSTANT young man! You WILL NOT play with THOSE types of video cards! I did NOT make these sacrifices so you could throw it all away on some 16 pipe floozy from the wrong side of the border!

GO TO YOUR ROOM!

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: apoppin
thanks for the "thoughts' . . . very interesting impressions .. . looks like the x1800xt has found its place in the high end just below the SLI rigs . . .

anyway be careful . . . you are losing your reputation as an nVidiot
:Q

NITRO! You come back inside this INSTANT young man! You WILL NOT play with THOSE types of video cards! I did NOT make these sacrifices so you could throw it all away on some 16 pipe floozy from the wrong side of the border!

GO TO YOUR ROOM!

LOL!!! You know, I really think you'd like this card though. It has a bit of that coolness factor that you've talked about in regards to the 5800 Ultra.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: apoppin
thanks for the "thoughts' . . . very interesting impressions .. . looks like the x1800xt has found its place in the high end just below the SLI rigs . . .

anyway be careful . . . you are losing your reputation as an nVidiot
:Q

NITRO! You come back inside this INSTANT young man! You WILL NOT play with THOSE types of video cards! I did NOT make these sacrifices so you could throw it all away on some 16 pipe floozy from the wrong side of the border!

GO TO YOUR ROOM!

LOL!!! You know, I really think you'd like this card though. It has a bit of that coolness factor that you've talked about in regards to the 5800 Ultra.

I don't think there's any doubt I'd like that card. I don't mind a bit of noise, and I've always liked ATIs 2d a LOT.

 

[nitromullet]

I don't think there's any doubt I'd like that card. I don't mind a bit of noise, and I've always liked ATIs 2d a LOT.

Those are the only two drawbacks so far... It is a tad bit noisier than the GTX (stock, ACS3, or Silencer), and the CCC requires .NET

Honestly, I really can't tell the difference between the cards in 2D (I'm using an LCD, might be why), but the 3D IQ is really a bit better with the ATI card. The AF is definitely better, and colors overall look deeper. It isn't a drastic difference, but it's there.

It's too bad that you can't run CrossFire on an SLI mobo (or get a Mastercard) because I'd be tempted, but it's probably better for my finances that this way.

 

[apoppin]

i believe nVidia is also going to NET, nitromullet

ati just went there first. . . i believe M$ requires it eventually . . . and i think you can still use an older CP instead of the CCC . . . look for a current thread.

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

I don't think there's any doubt I'd like that card. I don't mind a bit of noise, and I've always liked ATIs 2d a LOT.

Those are the only two drawbacks so far... It is a tad bit noisier than the GTX (stock, ACS3, or Silencer), and the CCC requires .NET

Honestly, I really can't tell the difference between the cards in 2D (I'm using an LCD, might be why), but the 3D IQ is really a bit better with the ATI card. The AF is definitely better, and colors overall look deeper. It isn't a drastic difference, but it's there.

It's too bad that you can't run CrossFire on an SLI mobo (or get a Mastercard) because I'd be tempted, but it's probably better for my finances that this way.

So what you gonna do with your SLI setup? Or do you have 2 PC's or something?

 

[fierydemise]

Thanks for the minireview nitro, have fun with your 2 awesome rigs

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: apoppin
i believe nVidia is also going to NET, nitromullet

ati just went there first. . . i believe M$ requires it eventually . . . and i think you can still use an older CP instead of the CCC . . . look for a current thread.

I don't think that any of the cats with support for the X1k series can be used with the CCP and still support the X1k's. I tried out ATITraytools, but it didin't recognize my card. The CCC itself is fine, I just don't particularly like having to install .NET when I don't need it for anything else. Not that big of a deal though.

Originally posted by: 5150Joker

So what you gonna do with your SLI setup? Or do you have 2 PC's or something?

Originally posted by: fierydemise
Thanks for the minireview nitro, have fun with your 2 awesome rigs

Thanks. I only have one rig, so the KO's are going to be sold. Most likely on ebay, as you guys are too knowledgable to give me what I want for them.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: apoppin
i believe nVidia is also going to NET, nitromullet

ati just went there first. . . i believe M$ requires it eventually . . . and i think you can still use an older CP instead of the CCC . . . look for a current thread.

I don't think that any of the cats with support for the X1k series can be used with the CCP and still support the X1k's. I tried out ATITraytools, but it didin't recognize my card. The CCC itself is fine, I just don't particularly like having to install .NET when I don't need it for anything else. Not that big of a deal though.

Catalyst 5.12 with Control Panel (no CCC)
here from ATI

i haven't tried them and am not sure if they will even work with your card . . .

 

[jiffylube1024]

Nice to see some other forum regulars trying out the new generation of ATI cards, which IMO sound like they're underrated and talked down, primarily because of their late release. The only issue I'd have with the new ATI cards is the ludicrous heat they produce; although I'm running a VF700Cu on my 6800GT and if I went the ATI route I'd probably get the same cooler for it.

High Quality AF looks like a great feature, and the last I used ATI drivers (5.10, 5.11) they were very solid; I didn't see much of a difference in terms of stability and useability between the 5.1x cats and the 8x.xx Forcewares (which IMO are both excellent). But I'm not a big fan of CCC either (huge RAM usage), and I hope they make the control panel available again.

Good to see someone post a review and not have everyone post 'OMFG why did you buy an X1800XT?!?!?' (although I see a couple still did, but not the usual suspects, which is at least an improvement).

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: apoppin
i believe nVidia is also going to NET, nitromullet

ati just went there first. . . i believe M$ requires it eventually . . . and i think you can still use an older CP instead of the CCC . . . look for a current thread.

I don't think that any of the cats with support for the X1k series can be used with the CCP and still support the X1k's. I tried out ATITraytools, but it didin't recognize my card. The CCC itself is fine, I just don't particularly like having to install .NET when I don't need it for anything else. Not that big of a deal though.

Catalyst 5.12 with Control Panel (no CCC)
here from ATI

i haven't tried them and am not sure if they will even work with your card . . .

Thanks for the info. I think I'll just stick with the CCC. I have .NET installed already, and everything is working, so why bother to "fix" it now.