Between an ATI X1600 XT and an nVidia 7800 GS, which is better?

Question

I currently have an AGP-based motherboard and I'm planning on upgrading my ATI 9700 Pro to one of those two cards. (I won't upgrade my PC to PCI-E until Windows Vista is released and stable drivers have been finalized. I don't want a repeat of what happened when I first got WinXP Pro...) Anyway, I'm kind of stuck. According to WikiPedia, the X1600 XT has a core clock of 590Mhz and memory clocked at 1380 Mhz 128-bit GDDR3. It has 12 pixel pipelines and a max fillrate of 7080M Texels/sec. The 7800 GS, however, has a core clocked in at 375 Mhz and memory clocked at 1200 Mhz 256-bit GDDR3. It has 16 pixel pipelines and a max fillrate of 6000M Texels/sec. That makes me a bit confused on which of the two are better cards. The ATI is clocked faster but only has 12 pipes but higher fillrate. The nVidia is clocked slower and has 16 pipes but lower fillrate. One has 128-bit memory, the other 256-bit. Both have 256 MB GDDR3. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Also, the 1600 XT is 234.99 at Best Buy, and the 7800 GS is 259.99 on Newegg.com.

Forgot to mention, for some odd reason, the overclocked 7800 GS by BFG on Newegg.com is priced at 239.99. So, that put its $5 USD more than the X1600 XT. The core is bumped up to 400 Mhz(25 more) and memory to 1250 Mhz (up from 1200).

HardwareZone.com reviewed an MSI 7800 GS. It got a 4.5. However, they stated that the 7800 GS had poor antialiasing performance because it had something called 6 R.O.P...

Answer 1

Well fillrate is determined by clock speed and pixel pipelines (Clock speed x # of pipelines), so that should simplify having to compare clock speed, pipelines, and fillrate, just look at the fillrate. The other big factor is memory bandwidth, which is determined by the speed of the memory and the memory interface (128-bit or 256-bit). So to sum it up, the X1600XT has a higer fillrate, but the 7800GS has a much higher memory bandwidth, so while it is close, I would favor the 7800GS.

Now as for price, both of these cards are available for under $150, but those are the PCIE versions, the AGP versions are a bit more. Here is the best deal on the 7800GS:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143046&ATT=14-143-046&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r
This is the OC edition, which will close the gap on fillrate.

Answer 2

first of all, i built a computer ~2 weeks ago and my x1600xt cost only ~$115 for a sapphire brand. you don't need to get an ati brand. sapphire is ati's number 1 reseller. the card is really good. also, 7800gs is better than x1600xt. it is just like a 7800gt but just clocked down a little in order to sell cheaper. ther is no point of waiting till vista come out then upgrading to pci-e. the video cards for pci-e is about the same as agp and up to twice as fast, so you will only benefit. also vista is coming out soon, so mine as well get ready. so overall, my opinion is to go for 7800gs since you do not have pci-e, but it would be better to get a pci-e.

Answer 3

and that i p.c. to advise the latter. I truly have a x1600 XT and prefer it to loss of life, extraordinarily in view that i'm enjoying at 1600x1200 with each and all of the performace specifications maxed out. the two card would be overkill for a game like Sims 2. i might circulate with a monotonous card till you particularly choose the processing skill.

Answer 4

Although I prefer the ATI cards, you will probably get a better deal out of the nVidia card. More pipelines and RAM will help out more then the clock speed in my opinion.

Answer 5

The X1600XT is a decent card if you plan to game at 1024x768 but if you plan to play at a higher resolution the 7800gs is faster.
Personally i'd recommend picking up a 7600gt in agp form off of www.newegg.com if you can catch one in stock.

Answer 6

They're rough equivalents, as seen here: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=1856&cid=3&pg=1 That article compares them at quite a few games, later in the article, starting here: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=1856&cid=3&pg=6

By the way, both can be had for less than $150 on newegg.

Answer 7

ATI Graphics ,is verry good coz you can go to the ATI .website to check for update drivers every 2 months

Answer 8

ATI X1600 XT be sure..!