6800 GT: Buy now or wait?

[beedubaya]

Here are the specs on my system

Athlon 64 3200+
1GB Kingston HyperX PC3200 RAM
ASUS K8V Deluxe mobo
Radeon X800 Pro

I want to upgrade to a 6800 GT so I can play the new Doom 3 expansion at decent settings. I can play it now, but I have to turn the settings down to 800x600, Medium, no AA/AF to get decent framerates. I am basically tired of this crap performance this X800 Pro has given me since day 1 in everything except Half Life 2, and am wanting to step up to a serious video card.

My concerns are, with the new cards right around the corner, would it be better to wait until they come, put Doom 3 off, and pick it back up either when I get one of the new generation cards or a 6800 GT at a much lower price? Or should I just go ahead and buy now> I want to go Nvidia, I have no desire to go ATI again after my experiences with this card. However, I have not heard much about Nvidia's upcomming release.

 

[gobblet]

An X800 should be running Doom3 no problem, espechily(sp) with that system. In any case Doom3 relies more on your CPU than your graphics card and your CPU is more than enough (Benchmarks have put Athlon 64's way above 3.0ghz HT P4's on D3) so I don't know what to suggest.

Small hijack, is there going to be a DX10? If so will the newest cards support it (6800 range, x850 etc)? If not it's probably best to wait.

 

[akhilles]

I too think the cpu could be the bottleneck. FX would be the best gaming chip.

 

[shadow_29]

first of all nvidia and ati have given a 6 month period as the "shelf life" of there card,this only means that they will release newer model at 6 month interval but lately that hasnt been the case,they have releases newer versions but not to displace there top offerings but match the performance of the other (x850 to match 6800).however even if they do release a newer gpu now it will not have such a great performance difference that 6800 had when it got released on the market.if you want you can go ahead and buy a geforce6800 now but my advice would be to wait as its not much better in terms of performance than a x800 pro,you'll see only a 10-20% rise in fps,this doesnt sound like enough incentive to blow almost 400$,hold on save some cash for now and wait for atleast a year before you get a new card.people are playing doom3 with geforce4ti/9600/9800pro series cards and still are unwilling to upgrade,i think your situation is better than theirs.

 

[dopefisher]

a little off topic i know, but i just got an nvidia 6600GT and i can play any game whatsoever at maximum settings, single or multiplayer, with no problems. the card cost 195$, and i got 55$ for my fx 5200 on ebay lol.

 

[tbrunt3]

Personally that is a very good card and will play any game out there now .I would like to have one myself but being married and having a house payment and other bills I will have to wait. If you can get it go for it very good card :grinthumb

 

[beedubaya]

X800 Pro, in Doom 3, is not much better than a 9800 Pro. The 6600GT rapes it.

In the expansion, its even worse....my framerate is typically 5-20 fps on 1024x768, 2x AA, High settings. Sometimes my framerate drops to nothing. Want proof? Check this out...

http://img135.exs.cx/img135/1384/nothingisworsethanx8008ph.jpg

 

[shadow_29]

5-20 fps,what?????????? that shouldnt be,even an old geforce4 ti can match that.check out some benchmarks, a radeon x800 pro averages at 60 fps in doom3 demo1 at 1024x768 at high quality and 8x af and 32-35 fps at 4xaa at 1024x68.check out the link to see the benchmarks,i think your problem is something either eating up your cpu resources or ram or possibly A defective card rather than the video card choice itself.check your system resources first,shut off any background program that not critical,how much ram do you have?run mmtest86 to find out if there is a problem with the ram itself,if the card is agp check its settings in bios.i think the problem is not with the choice of card you have, buying a geforce 6800 might not give you the boost that you expect,check your system problem might be somewhere else or a defective or undercooled card.
check your fps with aa and af set off first,your fps count should not drop to nothing this even proves further that there is something wrong with your system or card,find that first before you blow a good 400$ for a new card.

bechmark link:http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050404/geforce_6600-31.html

 

[beedubaya]

I don't think its a defective card. Here are my benchmarks, which are not too shabby.

3DMark03: 12011
3DMark05: 5174
Aquamark 3: 63,336

Half Life 2: 139.41
Far Cry Training demo
1600x1200 - 55.86
1024x768, 2xAA/4xAF - 69.28

I think the real problem is is the X800 Pro just can't handle Doom 3. The problem is Doom 3 is the game with the most eye candy today and is setting the standard for future games. This means I will not be able to run Doom 3 based games or any games based on the Doom 3 engine on decent settings. This is just plain unnacceptable for a $400 card.

 

[shadow_29]

i know that x800 is not very suited for doom3,infact nvidia sponsored the game "designed for nvidia",they even give the game free with some version of 6800 much like ati did with hl2 but that didnt go exactly as they planned....did it?.well i dont know what to tell you,every benchmark that i've seen shows the radeon x800 going neck and neck with 6600gt and delivering playable fps count(60fps on high settings)...i dont know why yours is'nt.either turn down the settings and play the game with no aa,af or go buy the 6800.personally i would advise you to wait,anyway i doubt any new game coming out in the next 6 month to a year period based on doom3 engine,beyond that you can upgrade to a better card...but its your money and eventually your decision.