Coolness...you're getting the same card as me. With more memory and a different manufacturer, of course. And yeah, the extra memory is pretty much overkill for recent games, heh. It's only in real high resolutions that it has a real performance advantage over my card, little 256mb brother. In fact, some benchmarks even indicated it beat the 512 version in 'normal' resolutions, beats me how that's possible as they are completely identical in build apart from the extra memory. Probably random benchmarking anomalies.

You mentioned a manufacturer line-up of the x800 xl in another thread, care to link me? Wanna see where my Sapphire one ends up on that chart.

You really getting the same model?! 1337!

You went for the wiser, more...cost efficient choice indeed.

Yeh, i saw some small advantages that the 512 version had over the 256, and as you say they occur mostly at high res and high textures, but in any case the difference is negligible. I also noticed that the 256 was on top of a few tests of the 512 like you said, but again, its negligible.

I havent seen a "line-up" of the sort you mentioned. I think you got confused .

Anyway, looks like well be sharing the same graphics capability for a while, i feel weve bonded in a way like never before. Not even your sexiness makes me feel this way about you.

As for Sapphire, it was an excellent choice. I would have chosen Sapphire, if i couldnt have found a Gecube. I preferred Gecube because for a few extra bob, they throw in a top-quality fan and heatsink, which will probably make mine a bit quieter than yours. Nut as i said, regarding performance, its gonna be pretty much par.

Have you ordered?

lol, agreed. Is that an X800 XL in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?

And yeah, I ordered...should have it this week, hopefully. True on the heat sink and everything btw...I've read in a few places that the Sapphire one has a relatively noisy fan and tends to run pretty hot...ah well, won't kill me.

Nah, performance wise, it wont have an effect. Probably not even durability. Sapphire are 1337 enough as it is.

Mine should arrive tomorrow.

Mine is here already, bitch!! Sorry, got carried away. Now I need to get a pc to fit it in, haha. Some pics from my 1337 box...yeah, i'm that desperate that I photograph the box.

haha, no wonder you bought that one. There's a chick on the cover.

lol, I'm not Japanese just yet, don't fall in love with drawn women. Did I mention I got a 10-day free trial of Guild Wars with the card? Time to kick Satis' ass...with my n00b char.

Also got SC: Pandora Tomorrow. Nice stuff. Derf, let me know what's in your bundle to see if I should be jealous.

Bitch!!!

Im on-purposely going to the "dentists" today so i make sure im home when i get my card!!!

They sent me the wrong one!!!

Omfg...in which way? Wrong card alltogether, wrong version (256mb instead of 512?)?

omg, that's horrid. And people think I'm crazy because I always buy mine in a store.

Lol, youre gonna find this funny:

Its actually the third time they've give me the wrong card.

I ordered an X800XL, 512, PCI-X.

They gave me an AGP.

I sent it back.

They sent me a 256.

I drove back.

They gave me a SilenCool version.

They couldnt refund or exchange at the place, so i went home with the wrong card again.

I'll write a long letter, get a refund and in the meantime, ill find an alternative supplier (and card, maybe).

You know what's funny? I don't really feel cheesed off about it. I have this strange aura of patience, while on the other hand, an ambition to take over the world and make it work!

Good night.

You've gone insane man, that's not a way to react...the proper way is to scream and moan horribly. Besides, the 251 one might not have been that bad...I mean, I'm in serious doubt whether that's gonna help you much. When the games come out that use the chipset itself on the card is gonna be outdated anyway, right? It's just that you might spare a good 50 quid on that.

I had half a mind to keep the 256 and make them give me the difference back, until i noticed it was the SilenCool version (no Fan). So no good there.

Anyway, back at square one, these are the card im looking at at the moment:

- X850XT PE

- 6800 ULTRA

- X850XT

- X800XT PE

- X800XT

- X800XL 256

In order of preference, but these are going to be likely over my £300 budget, except for the XL and maybe 800XT.

I will also have a look at the new Ati GT's and the Nvidia 7800's.

My advice would be: x 800 xl 256mb normally speaking, and if you REALLY want to go nuts the 7800GTX. It's not an incredibly lot more expensive than Ati's current top cards and beats them soundly. In higher resolutions.

But seriously: XL for normal money, 7800GTX for big money. That's my take on it. (also, 7800GTX if you got a big PSU, I'm guessing it needs two power connections, XL doesn't need any)