Final Words
From our initial inspection of the Radeon X700 Pro vs. the Geforce 6600 GT, it is very clear that the only available members of the X700 family don't pack the punch that they need to surpass the value offered by NVIDIA. Looking at this fact, it seems clear why ATI would need to push out a lower cost version of its higher end parts in the new 110nm X800 lineup.For those out there who are die-hard ATI fans and absolutely need to have an X700 Pro solution, we can recommend that you simply head out and find the cheapest X700 Pro available. That suggestion makes it hard for us to recommend the HIS solution, as it will almost certainly cost more than the other three cards that we reviewed today (especially if looking at the TURBO/VIVO options).
At this point, it won't be enough for ATI to simply replace the non-existent X700 XT with their new X800 solution. To remain competitive with NVIDIA in the $200 mid-range space, they will need to bring out the X700 XT and push its price down. It's hard to believe that vendors would sell the XT at the same price point as the Pro considering the performance advantages the former would have. As a competitor to the 6600GT, the X700 XT is a better part in many ways (cost and availability are not among them). But its little brother is just not up to the challenge.
We want to see temperature data available from the full line of ATI parts. We understand that keeping the automatic overclocking value-add as part of their high end product lines is a priority, but all we want to do is check the temperature of our GPUs. Diagnostics have been available on motherboards for years now; NVIDIA has a temperature gauge in their driver for all 6 series parts, so it's time that ATI caught up with the industry.
A built-in manual overclocking tool would be nice as well. Getting a legal department to sign off on such a thing is a tough sell, and we understand that. But making it hard to get to, voiding warranty or restrictive otherwise seems to work for other companies.
In the end, we really liked the solution from HIS, but not attached to the X700 Pro. They make excellent enthusiast cards, and we'll take this opportunity to recommend one of their X800 based solutions to anyone who like the features that they saw in this round up.
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Gaia Hunter - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
@11:Dont forget most 6800 vanillas can easly be softmoded with rivatuner:
-All will get the 6th vertex unit;
-Good chance of getting the additionall 4 pixel pipes too.
I was able to go to 16,6. That gave me a 25% boost in 3dmark03 and 33% bost in 3dmark05.~
Also consider 6800 LE (around $250). Most can get 12 pipes and 5 vertex. If u get lucky u can get to 16,6.
While u cant always do this, consider that nvidia is implementing a new way to mask the Pipilines! think about that :)
Questar - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
>>Mid range and PCIe dont mix right now. who would get mid range card if they were dishing out big bucks to get a PCIe setup??Me. Assuming 3Ghz is midrange.
Alphafox78 - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
Mid range and PCIe dont mix right now. who would get mid range card if they were dishing out big bucks to get a PCIe setup?? AGP still has 98% market share, but I guess the 2% high end stuff is worth forgetting agp over.DerekWilson - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link
#18the wildcat is a professional card, not a consumer level card. the wildcat realizm 200 competes with the quadro, not the geforce.
nurazlanshah - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
im just wondering, why dont people just use 3dlabs wildcat realizm 200 if they really want the best computer and if they have the money? i would do that.http://www.3dlabs.com/products/product.asp?prod=29...
skunkbuster - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
#16, i think they do that in order to eliminate the cpu as being a bottleneckalexlck - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
nice review but there is something that i don't understand.When people is looking for a mid-range video card, they are usually having a medicore setup. so what's the point to test a mid-range card with a
$1,000+ CPU?
can you please retest those cards with 3Ghz/3000+ cpu?
Which, i think, will give some more realistic results.
ShadowVlican - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
i can confirm #12 statement about the "2004 Performance" cause i see that too.. stoopid ad :/too bad ati... better bring out the new X800s now and lower the price too :D cause ur X700Pro can't touch the 6600gt :P
DerekWilson - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
Thanks Pete. Corrected the typo.Pete - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link
Hey Derek, slight typo in the Doom 3 benches. I think you mwant to say AA rather than aniso in the first sentence, as HQ mode in D3 uses 8xAF by default.Sorry, I can't get as excited about this article as the last simply b/c the cards are uninspiring. Better luck next SKU, ATI.