^ I sure hope you're right about that. Although this is the ATI forum, what would you guys say is a good amount of power for a 6800 gt/ultra?
Power as in PSU power? Iv run mine on a 500w Xtra Connect PSU (28A on the 12v) and was previously on a 650w el-cheapo psu (25A on the 12v, which now resides in my second rig).
Yeah, should be no problem man, i think 18A on the 12v is kinda the acceptable minimum (although I have seen them running on even less). manvsmonsters Great news about the card, glad its sorted your Sims 2 problems out. Let us know how she does in a few other games and benchies and if you've tried to get that little beast to Ultra speeds.
Thats the main reason why I like ATI cards better. I had a 6800 before this card, and a 9800pro before the 6800. I liked the speed jump from the 9800 to the 6800, but the image quality didnt seem quite as good. And I do a full windows install everytime I change brands. Dont know...personal preference I guess. But thats the very reason why I purchased a $400 video card. I'm like you in that I really observe and take notice of detail...on everything in game. Yes, it has 16 pipes. Just different way of rendering.
Digital Vibrance is there for a reason, use it if things arent looking vibrant enough, makes a world of difference. EDIT: also since the game shouldnt be that taxing try hitting High Quality mode in the nvidia drivers. With these two combined, I prefer my 6800GT image quality over my X800XT PE, although the difference is negligable to my eye in most cases.
the digital vibrance setting should be in the "color" tab in display properties Marv.. also I was curious, what kind of difference did you see in FPS? have you tested with any other games? reason being that you guys are all up into the quality, whereas myself, am all up into the performance. I hate playing games that drop down to 40-50.. drives me insane.
oops! I also should have kept my eyes open.. how bout I just call you MAN.. on account of my lazyness heheh best way would be to just download and install a proggy called FRAPS.. tiny little proggy and it will always display your FPS on top corner of your screen when it's running.
To put ur mind at ease, and to be fair i dont own The Sims 2 and its probably not at the top of either ATI or Nvidia's list of games to optimise for, I have done extensive side by side image quality tests between my 6800GT and X800XT PE (should be identical image quality to your X800XL) on the following games: - Battlefield 2: slight edge to Nvidia on shadow quality (shadows having smooth edges rather then blocky edges) although there are issues with ATI and their drivers in BF2. As far as performance both run the game extremely well. - Half-Life 2: both cards look damn near identical here, a smidge of Digital Vibrance can go a long way on certain levels, on others it can occasionally detract from the realism. This was one of the games where the X800 lacked consistency in framerates vs the 6800 (on my 865PE board) although that is no longer an issue. Depending on the settings, level and drivers used, the 6800 can occasionally exhibit shimmering on certain textures but that can be recitified via settings. - Doom 3: depending on settings both cards can exhibit a moire effect on the games repetitive flooring textures at times. Again quite setting dependent and again a smidge of digital vibrance can go a long way. Performance is excellent on both cards. - LOTR: Battle for Middle-Earth: probably the most similar to The Sims graphically with the option to zoom from very high above the battlefield down to individual units. Texture quality to my eye is indistinguishable between cards although to eliminate certain banding effects on ATI cards full trilinear filtering must be forced, the same with the 6800 in High Quality mode. Digital Vibrance is very noticeable in this game and for me makes the difference (espesh when the Balrog is summoned). Framerate cap is at 30fps so performance on either card is meeting requirements quite easily. - Ground Control 2: once full trilinear filtering is forced for the X800 they look identical to my eyes, been a long time since iv played this though so things may have changed. Without full trilinear you can see banding effects at the edge of the screen from certain angles. - Halo: with full trilinear enabled on ATI cards (to remove banding effects), and the fact that ATI cards have the proper "Predator style" stealth effect, I prefer the quality on the X800 overall. Although this effect can be enabled for Nvidia cards too. It is easier, however, to enable full trilinear on the X800 via ATI Tray Tools then it is to run Halo from 3D Analyse everytime. A real shame because Halo looks so much more colourful using a splash of Digital Vibrance. - Star Wars: Battlefront: looks identical on both, adjust DV to personal preference of course. Gorgeous looking game whatever its played on imo. - Star Wars: Republic Commando: again, looks identical on both bar any playing with Digital Vibrance settings, performance is again top notch on either card. - World of Warcraft: exhibits shimmering if not set to High Quality mode on the 6800, performance is excellent on both cards and Digital Vibrance does make things look even more gorgeous at times. At other times it seems slightly over the top. - Guild Wars: gorgeous on both cards, nuff said. Performance is excellent also. As far as general differences iv noticed, the X800 has a slight edge in antialising depending on the angle viewed at, but at other times there is no difference. However, using gamma adjusted antialiasing via nHancer on the 6800 seems to make the difference non-existant. The X800 uses gamma adjusted antialiasing by default in the drivers which may explain the slight differences. Digital Vibrance can make a hell of a difference in the right game, or can simply serve to make colurs too bright and less realistic. A setting that can be adjusted to suit the situation and personal taste. Nice to be in a position to test both cards side by side, the hardest choice is deciding which to use myself. A lot of the time you simply cannot tell the difference. Again, while I dont have The Sims 2 to compare, I hope this alleviates any worries you may have over image quality differences between the two.
