Finally bought a new video card...

[Anusha]

Today I bought a Sapphire (ATI) X800GTO 256MB PCI-E from PC Partner (or PC House). You wouldn't believe the price of it. Only Rs.9,500.

Not only it's cheap, it overclocked well too. I installed the overclocking too included in the driver CD. There is a overclocking mode called "Performance" where the card automatically checks the safest maximum core and memory clock speeds keeping the temperature in a safe level. By this method, I could overclock the core from 400MHz to 493MHz (almost 25%) and memory from 490MHz (or 980MHz DDR) to 563MHz (or 1126MHz DDR) (almost 15%).

With those clock speeds and ATI Catalyst 6.10 driver, I can run NFS Carbon at 25-40 frames per second with all settings set to maximum (except motion blur which is not supported on this card because this card doesn't have pixel shader 3 support) and 1280x960 with 2x anti-aliasing and whatever anisotropic filtering level the game applies. It's amazing!!! I didn't expect to see this card do that well in this brand new game. Faster nVidia cards can't perform this well in NFS Carbon. Maybe it's a driver issue, who knows. For the moment, this is an unbelievably fast card.

Anyone looking for a new PCI-E card, head over to PC Partner and buy this card for Rs.9,500. The best card they have (at least the most expensive one) costs about Rs.23,000 (ATI X1600), and it's more than twice slower than this. Hahahah... Those PC Partner people don't know a thing other than doing business :D

[Novindu]

hehe wow machoo... i thnk ur lucky o dey must be mistaken:lol::lol:

[Anusha]

They were not mistaken. If you check the current prices in USA, X1600 is still expensive than the old but fast X800GTO. The price they sell the Sapphire X800GTO 256MB at newegg.com is US$86.99. I only paid Rs.800 more.

BTW, Novindu, this is PCI-E. I didn't see the AGP version at PC Partner.

[Anusha]

This card has 12 pixel pipelines. I just checked the card using a software and it seems there are hidden (deactivated) 4 pixel pipelines. Looks like I can unlock them - at least the preliminary checking was promising.

If that's true and if i get it done without damaging the card, it will become an X850XT, which is faster than a Geforce 7600GT. Wow! This was once a US$500 card :)

Wish me luck. This will also help those people who are looking to buy this card.

[Novindu]

oh is dat so??? den no use for me:(:(:( @ all:(:(

[Novindu]

This card has 12 pixel pipelines. I just checked the card using a software and it seems there are hidden (deactivated) 4 pixel pipelines. Looks like I can unlock them - at least the preliminary checking was promising.

If that's true and if i get it done without damaging the card, it will become an X850XT, which is faster than a Geforce 7600GT. Wow! This was once a US$500 card :)

Wish me luck. This will also help those people who are looking to buy this card.
ya guuud luk macho.... may god an all his servents be with u with da whole process!!;););)

[Anusha]

:D Thanks dude :D

[Novindu]

annny time bro;);)

[GTRZ]

haha nice to see you found something atlast! low cost great performer. :yes:
All the best bro! :D
looking forward for some high res NFSC screen shots...

[Michael]

haha nice to see you found something atlast! low cost great performer. :yes:
All the best bro! :D
looking forward for some high res NFSC screen shots...

ya! That's What I Want Too. I Want To See How Is The Graphics On The Game! :yes: :yes:

[Anusha]

Yippie. Successfully unlocked the remaining 4 pipelines. Now it's an X800XL. With successful overclocking, it will be similar to X850XT. That's a US$500 card couple of years ago.

P.S.
Now the card can't overclock as much as it could previously. This is the safe clocks. It might reach the previous speeds if I try it manually. But don't feel like doing that right now. However, the performance is higher than before because of 33% increase in pipelines.

[HishamZz]

and to to think bout it .. i was bout to buy da shit a few years back for bout 65k lmao.. who knwz.. it stil might b dat card available cuz dose moronz kept on importing the wrong specs of what i needed...

Zz

[nEoN_wHitE]

hey wheres da srn shots:D:D:D

[Novindu]

Yippie. Successfully unlocked the remaining 4 pipelines. Now it's an X800XL. With successful overclocking, it will be similar to X850XT. That's a US$500 card couple of years ago.

P.S.
Now the card can't overclock as much as it could previously. This is the safe clocks. It might reach the previous speeds if I try it manually. But don't feel like doing that right now. However, the performance is higher than before because of 33% increase in pipelines.
wow machooo congratzzz:lol::lol:

[HishamZz]

ado anusha.. are ya rentin out ya color card? letz like eh.. 500 bux per week.. just 2 finish of nfs carbon n itz back 2 ya ;)

Zz

[sri_lion]

They were not mistaken. If you check the current prices in USA, X1600 is still expensive than the old but fast X800GTO. The price they sell the Sapphire X800GTO 256MB at newegg.com is US$86.99. I only paid Rs.800 more.

BTW, Novindu, this is PCI-E. I didn't see the AGP version at PC Partner.


Its chepaer than X1600 because it doesnt have features like "CROSSFIRE" and AVIVO!!!!!!:yes: :yes:

But X16XX series does!!!:yes: :yes: that's I think the future of Graphic Cards.. And unlike Ge Force SLI you can enble the CROSSFIRE to any secondary CROSSFIRE featured ATI card you buy next!!!!

I would go for X16XX straight away!!!! because I dont wanna throw away my Graphics Card after couple of years when the gaming demands get high!!!

And 23k is DAMN expensive for a X1600, I checked the prices here last monday its around Rs.10,600/= when converted!!! Even the 1650 costs about 15k only... DAMN!!! Just imagine how much profit they are getting......... SUCKERS!!!!

[Anusha]

But what's point of having a 2 X1600 cards which would cost 40000 if you buy now, and still perform SLOWER than my overclocked Rs. 9500 card or about same?

X1650Pro is not good either. You need X1650XT which is about the speed of a 7600GT. And ATI offering use helluva lot of power than nVidia offering - not only in the enthusiast level, but in the midrange as well. I believe my video card uses more power than the 7600GT. So 2 X1600 cards will require quite a lot of power.

Besides, you need motherboards which have two PCI-E 16x ports to run them in Crossfire. Those motherboards aren't cheap either. And Crossfire doesn't always deliever the performance of a comparable single graphics card.

Remember, you can't play NFS Carbon well on a X1600 card unless it's a X1650Pro or XT with all the details set to max.

[Anusha]

ado anusha.. are ya rentin out ya color card? letz like eh.. 500 bux per week.. just 2 finish of nfs carbon n itz back 2 ya ;)

Zz

No way man :D
I finished it with onboard graphics that sux like hell than your 6200.:eek:

[Anusha]

hey wheres da srn shots:D:D:D

I'm not at home at the moment. I will surely post some when I get home.

Was busy benchmarking / unlocking (flashing) / benchmarking / overclocking / benchmarking yesterday night and today morning. That's why the delay.

[Anusha]

Here are some screenshots. That yellow number on the top, left hand corner is the framerate measured by FRAPS. Only one will load in elakiri, because otherwise it will take long to load. Rest of them have direct links to imageshack.us.

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1913/nfsc001lz6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Image002 (http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/2172/nfsc002ez3.jpg)
Image003 (http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/7634/nfsc003cd3.jpg)
Image004 (http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9870/nfsc004nv1.jpg)
Image005 (http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/304/nfsc006gu9.jpg)
Image006 (http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3571/nfsc007kb3.jpg)

Damn. I just noticed that some images are overlapped :(
I pasted them on one mspaint each time. did it in a hurry. you will see good screeshots tonight.

[Michael]

Holy Shit! Wow! Maara Graphics Ney! Lucky Guyz Ha! :cool: :cool: :cool:

[Novindu]

patta machooo...... ammoooooo...i wish i had some xtra mny:(:(:(

[sri_lion]

But what's point of having a 2 X1600 cards which would cost 40000 if you buy now, and still perform SLOWER than my overclocked Rs. 9500 card or about same?

X1650Pro is not good either. You need X1650XT which is about the speed of a 7600GT. And ATI offering use helluva lot of power than nVidia offering - not only in the enthusiast level, but in the midrange as well. I believe my video card uses more power than the 7600GT. So 2 X1600 cards will require quite a lot of power.

Besides, you need motherboards which have two PCI-E 16x ports to run them in Crossfire. Those motherboards aren't cheap either. And Crossfire doesn't always deliever the performance of a comparable single graphics card.

Remember, you can't play NFS Carbon well on a X1600 card unless it's a X1650Pro or XT with all the details set to max.

Well...... probably in SL its not a good idea ( i would'nt have bought it either) to buy 2 for 40k because its DAMN expensive! But sooner or later you're gonna have to upgrade your VGA so why not get a "CROSSFIRE" version?? When its costs almost same!!

Yes you need motherboards with 2 PCI-E slots that's agreed!!! But DUAL CARDS COMBINED DOES'NT DELIVER the goods????? No..... STRONGLY DISAGREE!! I've seen it... I've played on it!!! Its as smooth as silk!!!

Becuase when redering the frames the cards take turns (for example odd and even frames will be taken over by different cards) so it makes it more fatser!!!!!! :yes: :yes: and there are many other redering modes!!!!!

Only issue here is as you said the motherboard but.... PCIe slots already a regulation thing in motherboards!!!!

[Anusha]

Well...... probably in SL its not a good idea ( i would'nt have bought it either) to buy 2 for 40k because its DAMN expensive! But sooner or later you're gonna have to upgrade your VGA so why not get a "CROSSFIRE" version?? When its costs almost same!!

Yes you need motherboards with 2 PCI-E slots that's agreed!!! But DUAL CARDS COMBINED DOES'NT DELIVER the goods????? No..... STRONGLY DISAGREE!! I've seen it... I've played on it!!! Its as smooth as silk!!!

Becuase when redering the frames the cards take turns (for example odd and even frames will be taken over by different cards) so it makes it more fatser!!!!!! :yes: :yes: and there are many other redering modes!!!!!

Only issue here is as you said the motherboard but.... PCIe slots already a regulation thing in motherboards!!!!

Crossfire delivers. But not always. There are few games which are not yet supported. In fact, they perform slower than the exact single card setups. If you have bought X1900 series card, sure crossfire is very important because you wouldn't want to throw that Rs.50,000 card away when you buy a new one. But for X1600 cards, I think you should collect some more money or wait a little and buy a 7600GT card.

Anyway, my point it, why buy two X1600 cards if they TOGETHER perform slower than an X800XT? Well, you have to unlock your X800GTO card and overclock to reach that performance. But still, it's only Rs.9,500 and two X1600 cards will be US$250 even in USA (for both cards). The only, I repeat, "the only" advantage X1600 cards have over X800 series is pixel shader 3 support. But the X1600's performance is so low that PS3 support will make things worse.

X1650XT's story is different though. It's a fast card, which is on par with 7600GT. But not the best card for a HTPC because it uses a lot more power.

If you really wanna compare the video cards, here's a good place to look.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html?modelx=33&model1=556&model2=568&chart=199

Clearly, X800GTO is no match for a 7600GT, until you unlock those 4 pipelines and overclock to X800XT speeds. Then, in some case, X800GTO is faster than 7600GTs in SLI (when you use very high AA and AF levels).

Edit:
When you compare results at tomshardware, don't check the lowest settings. Check for the most demanding settings, such as 1600x1200 4X AA and 8X AF. X1600 cards are pathetic.

Edit:
Unbelievable how X800XT is as fast as a 7800GT. http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html?modelx=33&model1=556&model2=568&chart=211

And I have to agree that nVidia cards are simply untouchable in OpenGL games. :( It's a driver issue. ATI still haven't been able to get it to work.

[Anusha]

patta machooo...... ammoooooo...i wish i had some xtra mny:(:(:(

But dude, you need PCI-E slot on the motherboard.

[Anusha]

Holy Shit! Wow! Maara Graphics Ney! Lucky Guyz Ha! :cool: :cool: :cool:

Of course I'm lucky; but not because I had the money to buy this card. I was hoping to buy a more expensive card if I could find one.

Why I consider myself lucky is that my card could be unlocked and overclocked to at least halfway between X800XL and X800XT. I guess I will check how much this can overclock when I go home. I need to reach X800XT speeds :frown:

Since I will overclock only when I'm playing, I think it will be safe. Hell, I used to overclock my 9600Pro which didn't even have a fan, until it locked my PC. :D

Another reason why I think it is safe to overclock is because this card has the same GPU as X850XT which is codenamed R480. Normal X800GTOs has R430 GPU which doesn't overclock as well. So I guess even 520MHz on the GPU is still safe. But have to check whether they use the same heatsink as the X850XT on my X800GTO, otherwise mine could run hotter at those clock speeds and finally burn :(

[Novindu]

But dude, you need PCI-E slot on the motherboard.
ya bunzz dats what i said to buy all dose stuff..... with 2Gb ram including:lol::lol:

[Anusha]

ya bunzz dats what i said to buy all dose stuff..... with 2Gb ram including:lol::lol:

:lol: Even I don't still have 2GB RAM. Waiting for the prices to go down. People are speculating that prices will not go down until next year :(

[Anusha]

Here's a FAR CRY screenshot, at 1600x1200 4X AA and 16X AF and still managing 50fps!!!
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7755/farcry00021600x12004xaasm9.jpg

[Anusha]

Just found out that I can run the core at 520MHz stably. RAM overclock is lower than before for a yet unexplainable reason. But still it can run at 530MHz (x2) stably. This is now almost an X850XT. Only memory is running 10MHz lower.

The display would go blank when the core clock reaches 530MHz. This is not because the core can't handle it, but because this card does have the external power connector as the X50XT has. So it runs out of power at those clock speeds. If it had the connector, it would surely overclock further.

Anyway, i should be happy with this achievement. It's 50% more speed than the X800GTO.

[Michael]

Here's a FAR CRY screenshot, at 1600x1200 4X AA and 16X AF and still managing 50fps!!!
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7755/farcry00021600x12004xaasm9.jpg

Shit! That's Damn Graphics. :cool: :cool: :yes:

[Anusha]

Shit! That's Damn Graphics. :cool: :cool: :yes:

That's pure luck dude. I never thought I would get such a dream video card for that price. Even at stock speeds, Rs.9,500 for that card is a wonderful deal. Maybe people price their video cards by looking at the size of the package they come in. It's less than half the size of a Geforce 6600, so half the price :lol:

[Michael]

That's pure luck dude. I never thought I would get such a dream video card for that price. Even at stock speeds, Rs.9,500 for that card is a wonderful deal. Maybe people price their video cards by looking at the size of the package they come in. It's less than half the size of a Geforce 6600, so half the price :lol:

Ya Damn Lucky Man! Apita Kohenda Ochchara Honda Video Cards! :shocked: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Anusha]

Aiyo ehema kiyanna epa. Mamath mechchara davas hitiye onboard video valin.

Before that I had a 9600Pro, which was a fine card compared to friends' but still people have Geforce 6 class cards which could easily outperform it.

You know, EPSI had an amazing deal at infotel exhibition. A Core 2 Duo system for Rs.149,000. I agree that's a lot more than a typical Sri Lankan buyer would spend. Why I said that's a very good deal is because they are giving away a 20.1" LCD + Geforce 7950GX2 1GB card in that system. Those two components alone are Rs.120,000!!! You can't have the rest for Rs.29,000 when the Core 2 Duo E6400 alone costs more. That's why it's an amazing deal. People who were looking to spend around Rs.150,000 around that time and who attended Infotel would have been the happiest people in Sri Lanka those days.

[Kasunm]

wow you got lucky or wut

[dpg]

wow you got lucky or wut

u nearly gave me a heart attack! Meka parana thread ekakne! :lol: :lol: :D

[Dath]

u nearly gave me a heart attack! Meka parana thread ekakne! :lol: :lol: :D
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[GNS]

:confused:

[MCLINER]

gudd

[shanX]

wow you got lucky or wut
u got mad or wt? :lol: :lol:

ancient thread ekak ne :D

[Kasunm]

lol i know i jst had to dig it up,see the reaction he he

[shanX]

lol i know i jst had to dig it up,see the reaction he he
very nice of u :P

[Kasunm]

you know me nah always helping out others to get heart attacks