Graphics card quandary!

[cHodAX]

I am on the verge of building my new PC in the next month but I read something today that may put my plans on hold, apparently there is not going to be an Nvidia G80 refresh this autumn but they are moving straight to the G90 series instead. I was planning on buying an 8800 GTS but I really don't want to be paying £250 for a card that will be totally obsolete in 6 months time. Nvida are really taking the piss now, the G90 series are being released at least 6 months before they should be. All those poor bastards paying £400 for the 8800 Ultra etc are going to be left with cards that are anywhere from 30%-50% slower than the G90 top end cards, that is a hefty premium to pay for a card that won't be even as fast as the mid-range G90 parts come this time next year.

Discuss!

 

[Civ]

there is no such things a buying something future proof
in the current electronics marcket

 

[Ballard]

In my opinion the best buying strategy for video cards has always been to buy the best card of its generation when it becomes cheap. I would never buy a 8800 GTS for that reason, its a mainstream card which invariably means a shorter shelf life.

For my main gaming PC i have only ever bought 4 cards so far (each one could play all the games out there for at a minimum 1-2 generations of Video cards). In the same time frame I have owned literally 50+ other cards and each one has had a much shorter usable life.

Matrox millenia (S3 virge era)
G2
9800pro
1950XTX

I am not seeing any compeling reason to upgrade in the near future as I know I can run everything well for at least the next 1-2 years.

In short, in my opinion at the moment the best buys are the 79XX and 1950 family, when the 8800GTX (and possibly the as yet unreleased 2900XTX) become cheaper they will be the next set of 'best buys'

p.s. Civ is also very much right but that doesnt mean you have to buy dumb.

 

[Twist]

I was planning on buying an 8800 GTS but I really don't want to be paying £250 for a card that will be totally obsolete in 6 months time

Saying it'll be obsolete is a little melodramatic as it's unlikely to have problems running pretty much anything for a couple of years yet.

In the PC world there's always something new coming but I kinda agree with Ballard - unless you want to pay a huge premium for the latest bling then 1 step down from the newest tends to offer the best "bang for your buck" - although I'd be tempted by an 8800GTS @ £250 (currently running everything fine with a 7800GTX)

 

[Thornbeard]

You could always build your new pc and use an 8500GT or 8600GT for around £50-80 .

 

[Gamah]

Take the money you would have spent and blow it on casinos hookers and drink.

 

[Jupiter]

Take the money you would have spent and blow it on casinos hookers and drink.

see how messed up gamahs mind is, in priority drink, hookers & casinos because u can always blame the last 2 on the 1st.... that bit of advice comes from old age

 

[Gamah]

see how messed up gamahs mind is, in priority drink, hookers & casinos because u can always blame the last 2 on the 1st.... that bit of advice comes from old age

Ahh my young mind is poor

:worthy:king Jupitur!

 

[thergador]

the thing is with system hardware is that its never going to be top spec for longer than 3 to 6 months at the longest and what you pay £2500 will be worth £1250 after that time too so what you have got to do when buying is think about a few thing

What do i want to update (sometime there no need to update it all)
When can i afford to do another upgrade(this might affect point 1)
What the best Product in my price range and is that going to get me the most improvement % for the cash
what coming out soon or by the time i will do my next upgrade


that just a few things that i look at and did look at when i was deciding on the parts for the new system i have just ordered the part's for

 

[Chronictank]

If you are planning on running windows Vista i recommend a Ati HD2900, if you are keeping XP until your next gfx card upgrade go with the Nvidia 8800 GTS 640Mb version.

The Ati has a greater potential to be a better card and is more future proof than the GTS, but the drivers are very immature so you are taking a risk in that respect. As a result the Ati atm has AA issues in some games, sometimes reaches near GTX performance, occasionally beating it. But in some games it drops below the GTS but things are improving. If you have a big monitor and run at say 1680 x 1050 or higher the difference with AA applied is pretty negligble so personally i dont use more than 2x, without AA the 2900 is faster than the GTX in some cases (fastest card available), and on the par or faster than the GTS 95% the time.
It also is marginally noisier (previous fixed with cat 7.6), and uses more power (16w more than a GTX, 60w more than a GTS 640Mb OC)

another thing to note is that Ati release drivers every month, Nvidia do it once in a blue moon which is why the vista issues are still around even tho the card has been out for a long time

 

[thergador]

btw overclockers.co.uk now have the hd2900xt 1024mb cards in run at £340 each which but them in the same ball park as the 88ultra but with better figures coming back in now and the drivers still need work that the cards i have just gone for