Video card Question

[Eagle458]

128MB PCI-E X16 ATI RADEON X800 SE,DIM,P

That is the video card I'm getting with my new pc.

Right now I have a ATI 128 9600.

I can't seem to find much info on that x800.

So....Is this a good card?
Any thoughts.
Thanks!

[Thin_J]

The X800 is one of ATI's new series card. They're supposed to be excellent cards, though I can't find any information at all about your 128mb version.

If I remember correctly the 128mb card is only shipping to vendors like Dell for the time being, while most actual video card manufacturers are sticking with 256mb cards.

This is all straight from my head with no research, so I could be remembering completely backwards.

[Freezer-TPF-]

I'm not 100% up on ATI stuff, but usually "SE" for an ATI card means that it is a budget version, usually with fewer pipelines, slower clock, less memory and/or memory bandwidth than a non-SE version.  The X800SE looks like it will only be available as OEM to Dell, Gateway, etc and not directly to retail customers.

I'm guessing that the X800SE only has 8 pipelines and 128M, compared with the 12 pipelines and 256M on the retail X800 Pro, and possibly a slower clock and smaller memory bus.  It should work pretty well for you, but not as fast as a full X800 Pro and with less memory.  It may be close to a 9800 Pro speed-wise.

Hey just found this chart:

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTA4MTgxOTA5NXhEeE5HbnF3RzFfMV8xX2wuZ2lm

[ebane67]

Isthere anywhere i can look that has good, informative reviews and/or comparisons of graphic cards? Being on a budget, i would like to know what cards are affordable but 'decent'.  I can spend about 250 bucks.
Or can you guys give me any hints?

thanks

[ravenvii]

I recommend the 6600 GT if you're upgrading. It's $200 (a bit more for AGP), and delivers a great bang for the buck.

[disarm]

Isthere anywhere i can look that has good, informative reviews and/or comparisons of graphic cards? Being on a budget, i would like to know what cards are affordable but 'decent'.  I can spend about 250 bucks.
Or can you guys give me any hints?

i would recommend checking out the video card reviews over at Anandtech.com and Tom's Hardware...both sites put up new comparisons of cards at different price levels just about every time a new card is released.  Tom's Hardware put up a Graphics Card Buyer's Guide last week that does a good job of summarizing all the latest offerings.  Anandtech probably has something similar on their site if you look around a little

[Charlatan]

I got the ATI X800SE with my Dell purchase, after planning out a system with a 6600GT. I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the X800. Yeah, it's probably not as fast as the 6600, but it works, is snappy, and that's the bottom line.

FYI I did some 3DMark tests with my 3.2 P4, 1 GB Ram, X800SE system and got just a hair under 2900 so that's a data point on a non-optimized, non-overclocked out of the box system.

[ravenvii]

IIRC, the X800 SE is a crippled version of the X800, made only for Dell.

[PaulBot]

Isthere anywhere i can look that has good, informative reviews and/or comparisons of graphic cards? Being on a budget, i would like to know what cards are affordable but 'decent'.  I can spend about 250 bucks.
Or can you guys give me any hints?

thanks

Just did a bunch of research and wanted to spend no more than $200 for a video card. That narrowed it down to the ATI X700 and Nvidia 6600 GT. After reading various reviews, I went with the 6600 GT. Go to Newegg and search for it - they've got great deals and fast shipping.