What is the main difference between the 5900 and the 5900 XT there are pretty close in price. What is the disadvantage if I go with the 5900XT instead of the full blown 5900? I want Nvidia so please don't suggest ATI. Thank you

5900xt has 700mhz memory and the regular 5900 has faster 850-900mhz memory. So basically the 5900 is a cripple version of the 5900 ultra and the 5900xt is even more handicap. You might want to read this article before you buy
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1863

Well my question is I know in the 5950 the sopposedly corrected a few shader problems did those also get corrected in the newer 5900XT or are those problems still in the whole 5900 line and would I be better off with a 5700Ultra that has those corrections already.

Go with a Radeon card

Much better value at the moment

Or wait 3 months for Nvidias newest product line to come out

I'm not sure why you're against ATi, but they have the better DX9 implementation right now. The next GPU line might fix that, but we don't know yet. ATi has sucked in the past, but right now, they've got their act together.

Right now? ATI has been kicking Nvidia's arse since the 9700 came out. The way Nvidia has been acting I highly doubt they'll be able to recover in the nextgen. The 5950 is a couple of FPS faster than the 9800XT but the 9800 is still more feature rich than the 5950.

I just ordered an XT, its faster then the 5950 from what I read

"I'm not sure why you're against ATi, but they have the better DX9 implementation right now."

This is the ONE THING that is making me possibly lean to ATI... I am in the market now & the next 2-3 months or so for a new system I am building to be able to play Doom III @ VERY high speeds & smoothness, AntiAliasing & what-not turned up @ high resolutions of display & 32-bit color, etc.

I also am into a driving game called "Street Legal" & its upgrade "Street Legal Racing: REDLINE" & the update needs DirectX 9.0... it's the one thing leading me to ATI vs. NVidia.

NVidia is my fav. right now, because it has always shown to be a better performer around IDSoftware based games & I have had nothing but success using their video hardware since GeForce III & Ti4600 units...

(IDSoftware is my favorite game maker, & I lean to their games and any hardware that runs their work better!)

* So... I am sort of caught up in a conundrum here! ATI or NVidia... the new racing game "Street Legal Racing: REDLINE" I mention is what is "trapping" me here into possibly going ATI for the first time ever (ATI 9800XT probably since it is their top-of-the-line product afaik now).

APK

P.S.=> Personally, things are changing SO fast, that I just don't know what to make of this... I think I am going to "hold-off", until Doom III itself actually does release, & that way I can just save ca$h until then & see if still more video cards release... which will happen most likely I'd wager! apk

Another thing I've heard, and don't know if it's true or not, is that nVidia had their version of DX9, but MS didn't go with that, and nVidia based the GFFX's on their own DX9 version, not MS's. Thus the reason the GFFX's are showing such poor DX9 performance. I haven't done enough reading to really know if this is true or not, but it's at least an intresting theory.

Alec if u want ti turn up AA and FSAA get ATi - i swear - u have seen what i have said before.

Do you really trust NVIDIA with their "optimizations" - weith their complete hardware lack of pixel shader - which were NOT fixed in the 5950 as that would of involved a NEW core on the chip.


dont do it man! trust me! dont do it!

ATi at the moment is the better card - NVIDIA is cutting quality for a few more FPS and even then ATI in 99% of tests once AA and FSAA are turned on @ 2x and above the 9800PRO and up are leaving nvidia in the dust!

Ok, I have to admit it:

I went out & got an ATI 9800XT today... your guys' logic was too much to overcome ("NVidiot-Fanboy" or not, which I am due to success w/ the GeForce III & GeForce IV Ti4600 in the past 5++ years now or so).

I needed that DirectX 9.0 support for the next release of a game I am into, "STREET LEGAL: REDLINE"... no two ways around it, has DirectX 9.0 display API utilizing architecture, & ATI is the way there right now!

(So, laff it up... you guys ended up right for me too!)



* Anyhow, this one WILL cut it for both "Doom III" (OpenGL API) & "STREET LEGAL:Redline" (DirectX 9.0) gaming here... Gaming is NOT my only motivation either: I need to test my own software on ATI's latest driver builds. I pull alot of strange tricks in my display interfaces that had problems on older buggy (ATI had their hassles this way in the past) ati drivers on their older series vidcards... this will be the test for my own work as well on ATI display units.

APK

P.S.=> Thanks for making me think over my decisions on how & WHY to spend on a certain card vs. another, so my "hard-earned coins/deadpresidents" go farther in the long-term... apk