Regarding a certain video card.

I'm not the most experienced computer user, but I'm not completely ignorant (thanks to some great people explaining some things to me.)

The question is: I want to get a new video card, but I'm not sure which to get.
The card I'm contemplating is the ATI X800XL (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125186)
I was wondering if anyone has used this card, and a comparable NVidia card, and could tell me which they found to work better (not just for SL, but all uses)
Please try and refrain from the "NVidia/ATI is better cause they are <adjective>" argument hehe
It happens alot (in fact, in two other places I asked, that's all it became)

Let me know please! Thanks!

Whoops, there goes my answer.

The equivelent card would be a GeForce 6800GT going by price and performance (the GT may be a little bit more expensive) and performance wise they are pretty much exactly the same.

SL tends to be more processor intensive anyway so unless you're upgrading from a really pathetic video card (like a TNT2 or something) you probably wont notice a lotof difference unless you also upgrade your other hardware (CPU and RAM).

Personally, I have only owned nvidia cards for the last few years and after my last 2 purchases (the notoriously bas 5900XT and a 6800GT which hates my nforce3 motherboard) I have considered jumping camps, in fact..my next card probably wont be a nvidia one, take that how you will.

ATI cards have a long history of not getting along with SL. The newer ATI cards, especially the PCIe versions seem to have less trouble than the AGP cards. The XL800 is a great card according to what I have read but I have no personal experence.

What I can tell you is I have a Nvidia 6600GT and it runs flawlessly with SL. I also have a 6800 Ultra on another machine and it too runs flawlessly on SL. I have an ATI 9800pro that I can't run SL longer than 10 minutes before it crashes and is relagated to a dusty old machine that is rarely turned on.

couldnt resist, i jump on off ati/nvidia, they are both great, however with SL, id defintaly get a nvidia, had much less troubles with them, then my ati's.

Its just SL so odd with ati -.- i like both, and yeah SL like processor (cpu) alot more then a graphic card (gpu).

I like to think of it like this for SL : Cpu - ram - vid card - harddrive.

Dont you stick that card on a low cpu! , gamewise they are pretty much the same as their nvidia equalient , but Ati seem to bundle alot of stuff ( i never use ) with their vid cards.

Before recommending a card, what's your system?
(1) CPU
(2) MB?
(3) RAM?

If your CPU is less than 2ghz, you're better off upgrading the processor first - that may be a big bottleneck.

If you have an SLI ready motherboard, you might want to consider the benefits of SLI ready PCIe cards. (dual graphics cards)

CPU and Motherboard may go better with one graphics card over the other. For instance, generally ATI cards work well with Athlon processors.

If you have < 1 gig ram, upgrade to 1 gig at least first.

You do not indicate what platform / OS you are running. But, for what it is worth, i am running Mac OS X 1.4 with an ATI 9800 Pro Edition AGP card (256 VRAM) on a loaded Dual G5 and have a great experience with SL.

Yes, the older cards, both nVidia and ATI, had issues with SL. The new cards from both companies are much improved.

I also run a Toshiba Satellte Pro laptop with a G-Force Fx nVidia card (128 VRAM), and have never had problems with that card either.

Go ahead, pick a card. Just make sure it is the latest and greatest card you can impossbily not afford.