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8800 GT vs GTS, GTX and Ultra vs ATI Radeon 3870x2

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kabunaru

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Original poster
Jan 28, 2008
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Could somebody explain in detail the difference between 8800 GT and GTS (G92 version), GTX and Ultra? Just how comparable are they to each other and does an 8800 GT match an Ultra in some situations?

Also, how does an ATI Radeon 3870x2 compare against 8800 GT and Ultra? Isn't an ATI Radeon 3870x2 equal or better than an Ultra?
 
kabunaru said:
Could somebody explain in detail the difference between 8800 GT and GTS (G92 version), GTX and Ultra? Just how comparable are they to each other and does an 8800 GT match an Ultra in some situations?

Also, how does an ATI Radeon 3870x2 compare against 8800 GT and Ultra? Isn't an ATI Radeon 3870x2 equal or better than an Ultra?
Click to expand...

Read this.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/04/best_cards_february_2008/

I don't see why you would care since you don't any options other then the 8800 GT with the Mac.
 
Detailed table with geforce differences can be found here, performance comparison here.

The dual 3870 is better than the Ultra, yes.
 
kabunaru said:
Could somebody explain in detail the difference between 8800 GT and GTS (G92 version), GTX and Ultra? Just how comparable are they to each other and does an 8800 GT match an Ultra in some situations?

Also, how does an ATI Radeon 3870x2 compare against 8800 GT and Ultra? Isn't an ATI Radeon 3870x2 equal or better than an Ultra?
Click to expand...

One thing to consider is that some of the GTS cards have the same G92 GPU as the GT, and could conceivably be flashed to run in a New Mac Pro. The GTX, and ULTRA are G80's (older GPU's).

March 11th the Nvidia 9800x2 comes out, and I'm pretty sure that will be the dominant card on the market. I've never been impressed with ATI because they never stay on top for more than two weeks. Nvidia always has them beat.
 
Brianna said:
March 11th the Nvidia 9800x2 comes out, and I'm pretty sure that will be the dominant card on the market. I've never been impressed with ATI because they never stay on top for more than two weeks. Nvidia always has them beat.
Click to expand...

NVIDIA are having problems with it. Besides. The biggest problem is, its not really a new card (8800 the sequel). It's like the 7950GX2, two cards slapped together. Anybody that was a die hard gamer knows the card was a flop, and its looking to be a repeat. It had such poor poor driver support for these SLi cards that are slapped together.
 
I think the next NVIDIA card Apple will add is the 9800GT, they tend to stick those models, ye?

I read that the 9800x2 will give a 30% boost compared to the ultra.
 
It's funny how ATI touts a victory in a few synthetic benchmarks and games, and forgets about the vast majority of the results. The Ultra will always perform like an ultra, and can do that no matter how high the AA is turned up. The ATI cards rely on crossfire, which is inherantly iffy because no two games scale quite the same way. In addition, ATI can't work with AA.

You do want to skin the 9800GX2 most likely though. You should be able to find an ultra for a cheap price with the 9 series coming out... Or just be smart and wait 8 months for Nvidia to release an actual sequel with performance to match.
 
davewolfs said:
Read this.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/04/best_cards_february_2008/

I don't see why you would care since you don't any options other then the 8800 GT with the Mac.
Click to expand...

There's also a comparison on Anandtech of the Radeon HD 3870 X2 with the various versions of the GeForce 8800 with and without SLI mode:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3209&p=9

If ATI/AMD were to offer a Mac OS X compatible version of the 3870 X2, "peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars."
 
davewolfs said:
I don't think Apple upgrades the video cards on the Mac Pro. So why bother discussing it.
Click to expand...

True so true.

.... but if your going to use the Mac Pro as a windows box ONLY then you could use those cards. You will have to take out the nVidia (Windows) card because once you boot up into OS X with a second Apple compatible card in the MP the nVidia cards FAN will run at full tilt... quite annoying.

Apple is usually 2 or 3 cards behind historically. But the 8800GT is quite good and its the current best bang for the buck when Running games like Crysis in Bootcamp.
 
Techguy172 said:
the ATI is just two cards slapped together.
Click to expand...

It's not, its two chips on one PCB. Just like the Voodoo3DFX days.

imageviewphpzo3.jpg
 
Techguy172 said:
The Nvidias can beat the 3780 X2 the ATI is just two cards slapped together. But there not that powerful and very inefficient.
Click to expand...

Why do you say "not that powerful and very inefficient"? I've heard from one card maker that putting two CPUs on one card is much better than SLI or Crossfire mode with two cards.

BTW, I have a Radeon HD 3870 X2 and a GeForce 8800 GTX. I tried both on the Mac Pro 3.2GHz under Vista 64.

Prey at 1920x1200 High Quality (8X aniso, dynamic shadows on):
Radeon 3870 X2 (standard clocking) = 201 fps
Geforce 8800 GTX (overclocked) = 166 fps
 
barefeats said:
Why do you say "not that powerful and very inefficient"? I've heard from one card maker that putting two CPUs on one card is much better than SLI or Crossfire mode with two cards.

BTW, I have a Radeon HD 3870 X2 and a GeForce 8800 GTX. I tried both on the Mac Pro 3.2GHz under Vista 64.

Prey at 1920x1200 High Quality (8X aniso, dynamic shadows on):
Radeon 3870 X2 (standard clocking) = 201 fps
Geforce 8800 GTX (overclocked) = 166 fps
Click to expand...


can't we like ALL send emails to apple ? like... we want the god damn new high end graphic cards ?
cuz.. as much as I like mac osx... I like gaming even more..

so it's almost making me buy a pc card and stay on windows forever .. that sux..


APPLE PLEASE ? IS IT SO DAMN HARD? ? ? ? ? ? XD :confused:


we have to wait ALLONG time for a card to go mac-edition.. and until that happens, the card is like al old and stuff.. and THEN we pay like 2 times more ?
 
MartinelliMinim said:
He cares because the other cards work in bootcamp. I have a 9800 gx2 in my Mac Pro =)
Click to expand...

then what the hell do you do when you work in mac os x ?:eek::confused:


btw does the standard "powercable" for the 9800 work with mac pro ? :S PLEASE tell me so I could get one to ! :D
 
eXan said:
Yes. Can you think of a Mac that is more expandable?
Click to expand...

Nope. And that's why this is so frustrating with so few video card choices blessed by Apple. The Mac Pro is a fantastic workstation and I'll be getting one in May. But Apple seems hell bent on restricting our choices in video cards.
 
MartinelliMinim said:
He cares because the other cards work in bootcamp. I have a 9800 gx2 in my Mac Pro =)
Click to expand...

Can you post your experience with the 9800GX2 in the Mac Pro? How does your power-setup look like and how does the card behave in Mac OS (Fans etc.)??? Please let us know! ... and thanks in advance.
 
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