Sager 9860 benchmarks ATI vs NVIDIA - Page 3

Adam,

Could you please tell me how you overclocked the 6800 in your initial review of it?
I've checked the video properties tab trying to find how/where you overclocked it and I don't see any way to get to that tab with the overclocking settings.

Thanks!

P.S. --> I'm one of those "lucky" people with an 84XX s/n, is there going to be any kind of date where it's "too late" to send it in to get this thermal pad thingy? I am not intending to upgrade the 6800 until the NEXT generation of cards comes out (whenever that is), and I would hate to be unable to do that when the time comes, and yet I do NOT want to spend $445 to get a thermal pad put in (since I don't honestly care about the x800 part of the upgrade).

Thanks again...

Vex

Search for coolbits to unlock the overclocking tab.

Adam, Was my eyes decieving me. or did you use the X800 in a 9860 without the Thermal Pad/Plate?
If it is, then it seems majority of pre 85xxxxxx owners wil be able to use it without sending it in for the **UPGRADE** ?

LOL and on the Topic of the age old ATI vs Nvidia even older AMD vs Intel debate:

Use what you like, and what you think is BEST! As trying to convince sumone else is not going to work :S
Me personally, I have owned some of the following in the past 2 years:

Duron 1.3 + Ti4200 (Worked Great)
Pentium 4 2.4 + Mx440 (Worked Great)
Pentium 4 2.4 HT + Radeon 9700 (Worked Great)
Pentium 4 2.8 HT + Radeon 9700 256MB (Yes you did get 256MB = Worked Great)
AMD Athlon Xp 2800+ Radeon 9800Pro ( Yep U guessed it worked Great)
Athlon 2800 64 + 9800Pro 256MB = ..........................................great bla bla
Athlon 3200 64 + X800XT PE 256MB ( Take a Guess )
Intel Pentium 4 560 775 3.4 + X800XT PE 256MB = Worked Great to!
And lastly

Sager 9860/Hypersonic 9860 , P4 3.4 + Nvidia 6800GO 256 MB = WORKED the best

SO what I am trying to say is that I have used the hardware from both sides extensively, and from what I can say out of personal experience is that USE what you want to use and not what others tell you to use,. Make up your own mind as I love bot ATI + Nvidia and sofar both worked/is working great for me.

Also before you purchase/upgrade, checkout a couple of review sites and consider the performance=cost factor, only then will you be able to get the brand which is best for you.

And finally ask yourself:

*Do you want it?
*Do you Need it?
or
*Do you want it AND Need it?

Cheerz
KW

finally somebody with sense

I run eq2 on balanced at native res 1600x1050 I could push it a step up but balanced is enough of everything for me and I dont have to constantly change it when I enter city zones or crowded dungeons..

The 6800's had a stutter issue with the game.. also the game has a major memory leak. As far as I can tell though..the stutter issue seems to come from pairing a new 6800 with an old chipset.. my husband upgraded to amd64 with a nforce3 250 motherboard..and his stutter issue was gone.. The 9860 doesn't have a stutter issue with the new chipset.. hope that helps heh..

Well it did not really help me. I wanted to be able to run it higher than balanced. My uncle runs his with the x700 on "very high quality" the one right below "extreme quality". He is however running 2GB of ram and a lower resolution. Alas, maybe I should have got the Alienware with the 1440x900 resolution.

I did say it would go higher..and you must remember im running native res not the lower res you were doing..

The 1440x900 was native on my last laptop. I was wanting to be able to run a higher setting at native. Alienware offers the 7700 with 1440x900 screen, maybe I should have went that route instead of the 1680x1050. I guess I will se when it arrives, if it ever does.

I never said/implied that the 6800Go was competing with a card that came out 12 months ago (MR9700), I should've place more emphasis on the word "exact", I said that the "current" 6800Go and the MR X800 are not the "exact" same generation - they're separated by 2 and a half months of development/finishing time and ATI has always had the advantage that the 6800Go was released first enabling them to respond with a faster card.

The MR X800 was clocked higher (400/400[800]MHz) for the purposes of all the early benchmarks - which appears to be pretty near to it's performance ceiling and faster than Sager's stock speed.

Like I said the 6800Go revision 2 with GDDR3 memory (and likely higher GPU and memory clocks - closer to those of the MR X800), which is sounding like being available only a month later than the MR X800, will be more directly comparable.

I apologise, apparently I was wrong, it just seemed to me like you desired/believed the MR X800 to be in every way a 6800Go killer (ie. less heat, far better gaming benchmarks and overall performance) - at this juncture I want to acknowledge that the MR X800 is (in every way) a "faster" card than the current 6800Go - it's just "not faster by very much".

I agree with this comment (generally) gaming can happen under Linux and it can happen quite well - but until Linux attracts much more native support/interest from game developers it's still only a niche market by comparison to the Windows gaming market.

To sum up my thoughts; this is my point -

ATI MR X800 is faster than the current NVidia 6800Go - but only by 9% on average, which translates to only 2-6fps difference on average in most games.

The 6800Go incorporates Pixel Shaders 3.0 and true 32-Bit architecture, what does this mean to most of us - buckleys, but hey.

The 6800Go has Linux support and probably better performance/support for 3D workstation apps, once again this means buckleys to most of us, but still it's a point.

Having said all that if I was to buy a 9860 today - off course I'd get the MR X800 because it's faster, if I didn't mind waiting I'd wait for the 6800Go revision 2 with GDDR3. Having already bought a 9860 and enjoyed it for a couple of months I'm content to wait for the next 6800Go or even a later card before I upgrade the GPU - thanks to Adam's benchmarks I can see that my current 6800Go is still very fast!

Again, it will go higher..that is the setting I chose to play in... look in Adam's review they tested it.. I just happen to be lazy and im sorry a high end desktop can't run that came on highest..everything else fall somewhere in the middle.. I chose balanced because I get a little of everything, I get nativ 1600x1050 I get shadows, i get flickering lights.. and when I hit NQ I dont have to adjust my settings..outside of the city you can play higher..i am just one of those lazy people that wants to set it and forget it..

Does overclocking void the warranty?

Usually it will void the warranty. I'm not sure how Sager does it though. It is hard to tell if you overclock it though so really no worries. Just remember to set it back if you have to return it.

Running EQ2 in High settings, I typically get 30+FPS unless in a crowded city zone.. if in balaned I can maintain 30+ throughout. Someone asked about the extreme quality setting.. I wouldn't worry about that setting for a few years, it's insane right now and nothing available to the general public (AFAIK) could run it at an acceptable Framerate.

Waiting for DDR3 6800

I had ordered an Alienware two days ago with the 6800, but cancelled because of the back order and the new vid card coming out. I will be ordering a Sager either directly or from one of the good retailers. I can get the 3.8 and the newer card as well. Also, I will get the 80 sata raid 0 over the 7200's. Thanks to all for the great forum and the invaluable advice.

www.battlefieldae.com

About this GDDR3 stuff, I remember when I first say the GDDR3 stuff on Tom's awhile back on like a fx5700. It didn't offer any better performance and was actually slightly worse but not noticably. Is there any reason why the 6800go would be any different? Pardon my ignorance.

I would like to know that, I make a presumption that Nvidia, has learned and will only put out the DDR3 if it is going to trump the ATI card. Any advanced word on this?

OUCH!

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2268&p=3
There has not been a follow up on this yet?

I am the same type just want to set it and forget it. But, I took the time to set mine up using a custom config to get the most out of mine. One setting I have not figured out is the the one that influences the glyphs showing up on erudite, I currently can't see them but can see them on dwarfs, wood elfs and barbs. My desktop runs a 9700pro. I am still on the fence for a 9860 to see what the new 6800 with DDR3 has to offer.

My only issue with having a RAID 0 setup vs just one 7200 HD is the power consumption issue. How much more does having 2 hd vs just 1 effect battery life? Wouldn't be interested in a marginal speed increase of having 2hds in a RAID 0 config if it eats up 20mins+ of battery life.