Radeon X600 or Gforce 6800 for Civ 4? Will I notice a difference?

[gocanes]

I am in the process of buying a new pc. Being price conscious, I am debating between getting the 256MB ATI X600 PCI express or the 256 Nvidia GeForce 6800 PCI express.

I know the 6800 is a much better card, but will I see a difference in game play on Civ IV? I do not play first person games, so this is pretty much it for me powerwise for graphics. Is it worth the extra $180 to get the GeForce 6800??

The only other game I foresee getting in the near future is Star Wars Empire at War.

Thanks for your opinions.

 

[H0K135]

Absolutely. It seems that no ATI card works properly with Civ4.

Nvidia cards are generally better for gaming anyways.

 

[insydr]

Lemme guess, you're getting a Dell right? I had the same choice to make when I got mine (see sig), and hands down the Nvidia is the way to go. The saying "you get what you pay for" usually hold true with computer hardware.

You should do some research if you want to be sure, but the one factor that decided it for me was that the ATI X600 used "hypermemory" or something like that to achieve 256MB. What this means is that the card itself ONLY has 32MB of video memory on it, and the card uses your system memory to fake the rest. The Nvidia has 256MB directly on the card. I'm no hardware expert, but that hypermemory thing sounds pretty shady to me.

 

[daelon]

Get the 6800. It supports pixel shader 3.0. Who knows, maybe Civ5 will come out requiring it and all the people with x600/x800 cards will be up a creek again.

 

[Comraddict]

6800 no doubts there mate. It is way faster.
ATi is big hypocrite. First they didn't support SM 3.0 and said it is not big deal; now finally when their cards support it (x600 is not one of them) they say only they have done it right.

 

[gocanes]

Well, I had ordered the system with the X600 and the learned that the card was not a true 256mb card. After a lot of talking to reps and pretty telling Dell I would cancel my system, they offered to send me the GeForce 6800 for FREE!!! It comes next week. Can't wait to play Civ 4 with the new system and the new video card!! Hope it works!

 

[gocanes]

Lemme guess, you're getting a Dell right? I had the same choice to make when I got mine (see sig), and hands down the Nvidia is the way to go. The saying "you get what you pay for" usually hold true with computer hardware.

You should do some research if you want to be sure, but the one factor that decided it for me was that the ATI X600 used "hypermemory" or something like that to achieve 256MB. What this means is that the card itself ONLY has 32MB of video memory on it, and the card uses your system memory to fake the rest. The Nvidia has 256MB directly on the card. I'm no hardware expert, but that hypermemory thing sounds pretty shady to me.

Thanks for this tip. Just to clarify your statement, the X300 by ATI has 32MB on board and then goes up to 128MB by using sys ram. The X600 has 128mb on board and use the sys ram for the additional 128 to get up to 256. According to ATI, the card only taps into the sys ram if it needs to, otherwise it feeds off of what is on the board.

 

[Gselwizzle]

Well, I had ordered the system with the X600 and the learned that the card was not a true 256mb card. After a lot of talking to reps and pretty telling Dell I would cancel my system, they offered to send me the GeForce 6800 for FREE!!! It comes next week. Can't wait to play Civ 4 with the new system and the new video card!! Hope it works!

I brought the same computer yesterday. I chose the Geforce 6800 over the X600 as i heard its alot better. did u get the 9150 dell model?

I cant wait until i get mine! your well lucky to get the 6800 for free!!! im jealous

 

[gocanes]

I brought the same computer yesterday. I chose the Geforce 6800 over the X600 as i heard its alot better. did u get the 9150 dell model?

I cant wait until i get mine! your well lucky to get the 6800 for free!!! im jealous

I got the XPS 400 which is exactly the same as the 9150, just they changed the name like two weeks ago. I think the 9150 still exists in small business and educational sales. It should be arriving today, with the X600 and then the Geforce 6800 should be here by Friday or Monday. I am looking forward to playing the game finally!!

 

[Old Dood]

I got the XPS 400 which is exactly the same as the 9150, just they changed the name like two weeks ago. I think the 9150 still exists in small business and educational sales. It should be arriving today, with the X600 and then the Geforce 6800 should be here by Friday or Monday. I am looking forward to playing the game finally!!

Just Be aware that the Video Cards Dell puts in their systems are OEM. That 6800 is a Vanilla 6800. I got a X600 with my Dim 5100. I gave it to a friend of mine and bought a retail video card.

However the X600 works great in my friend's system (Dim 9100) with Civ4.

 

[bluegnu]

You might want to heed some of the people who are having severe problems getting the game to work with a 6800 first!

 

[New World Order]

Comraddict, your sig. ROCKS!

 

[gocanes]

You might want to heed some of the people who are having severe problems getting the game to work with a 6800 first!

I got the system today and immediately removed the X600 and put in the Geforce 6800. Installed updated drivers and then installed Civ IV. As of now, worked fine. No issues to report. Game play was smooth, sound was clear and not choppy, and start up and exit went well. As I progress in the game, I'll give you updates if I encounter any problems.

 

[Comraddict]

I have 6800 Ultra, runs great with 0 issues.

 

[Azazell]

However the X600 works great in my friend's system (Dim 9100) -- what`s that , this ---> "Dim 9100" ?????

 

[gocanes]

However the X600 works great in my friend's system (Dim 9100) -- what`s that , this ---> "Dim 9100" ?????

He is referring to his Dell Dimension 9100 series computer. Dimension is one of Dell's consumer desktop lines.

 

[insydr]

You might want to heed some of the people who are having severe problems getting the game to work with a 6800 first!

My setup worked quite literally "out of the box." I turned it on, let it download some windows updates, and installed Civ. Didn't even bother to get the driver updates.

 

[Bast]

So is ANYONE having problems with Nvidia 6800?

I'll be getting this too.