Is shader 3.0 really that important?

I am down to picking between 2 cards.
this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161160
and this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102505

The top one is HIS X1600XT that has the shader 3.0 and the bottom one is a Sapphire X850XT that does not have the shader 3.0. The x850xt has more pipelines (16) and a 256 bit interface, while the x1600xt has only 12 pipelines and 128 bit interface.

So how important is the SM 3.0 to have in a card? Is it that important to have to play new games that will come out?

Which one of these would be a better choice? I am leaning towards the 850xt.

The x1600 and the X850 are roughly at a level...

I have an x1600 AGP. and my friend has an x850 PCI Express, and I scored 20 lower than him on 3DMark (Probably cause im AGP)

the x1600 is the "Budget" end of the 10k series, Such as you can get an x300, or an x600, - which are the Budget end of the x800 series, (Effectivly)

Shader 3.0 will support newer games, and games that will soon be released, and probably will be coming out during the next year, at least...

You dont specify if your on AGP or PCI-e - if your on PCI-e you can get an x1600, with 256bit interface etc, if not, then your limited...

If you can afford it... go for an x1800, you get the higher pipelines, faster clock, and shader model 3.0...

I'd say at present, its not that important, but for future games, it will be..

I got PCI. All the x1600xt cards I saw on newegg only had the 128mb interface, they did have 256mg of mem tho. The x850 has got the 256 interface and 256 mem so I will most likey get it. Its in my price budget.

Ya, I would LOVE to have the x1800xt but they are double what I can afford. Any clue when they will go down or will it be a while?

thanks for the info

there about the same price for me, cause i have to buy them agp....

ps 3.0 is only faster than ps2 at certain operations, wich arent used much in games up until now, the image quality is 100% the same , ps3 is just more efficient at a few minor operations (minor so far anyway)

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/...006/page3.html

Tomshardware talking about Graphics Card Features and thats the diff between having and not having it; also I dont belive GW supports it, but yes it would be used from like 2006+ in like other game title release's...

Deviance,
thanks for the link. Its rather informative.

I still think im going to buy the x850xt.

x850xt will be faster than x1600. x1600 has 12 pixel shaders, but only 4 texture units & ROPs (like a 9600/x600), so it's not much faster than an x700 in most games right now. It has the potential to perform well in games with heavy pixel shading usage, but that's not proven yet.

X850XT has more units in every area than X1600. SM3 could help it, but I doubt it will ever make up the deficit. X850XT 16 pixel shaders, 6 vertex shaders, 16 texture units, and 16 ROPs. X1600 is 12 pixel shaders, 5 vertex shaders, 4 texture units, 4 ROPs. That's a serious difference there. X1600 can only compete somewhat because it's a very efficient chip for what it has, and it runs at a very high clock speed usually.

There are lots of good reviews out there, especially at Tech Report and Beyond3D.

I agree with swaay. I rather have my X800XL 256 Mb then a X1600 anything.

GW doesn't use SM3.0 so anything from the Radeon 9700 generation on will support all of the features of the game. Performance is a different story, though.

I'm pretty sure GW uses Pixel Shader 1.4 at most. It's a DirectX 8 engine.

Not certain but, from the water effects i get on the 7800gtx especially the water that can be seen at random arenas. id say it is either pixel shader 2 or 3, but i wouldnt like to bet on it!

Nah, it's not. I can get the same water out of a Radeon 8500, which means it's at best PS1.4.

I'd go for the Sapphire, more memory and more pipelines to shift data. Most games don't actually use the very latest tech and won't do for years really. DX9 has been out a while and many games still use DX8 for example. The graphical difference probably isn't all that noticeable.

Do you have PCI or PCIe?

Have you considered going the Nvidia route and getting a 6800 or something?