Explain this!

[easyrider]

I think I'll grab a Sapphire X1900XT. My Radeon 9700 Pro was by them and it was excellent. A few questions though:

1) Are the prices of the current cards likely to fall over the next few months?

2) Will ATI and Nvidia wait for DX10 now, or could they release another set of cards before next November?

3) When the DX10 cards come out, won't there be a mass exodus? Doesn't that mean that selling off the X1900XT will be very hard?

4) Was upgrading from the 7800GTX to the X1900XT at a net cost of £100 worth it? To be fair, a relative offered to pay the £100 but still, it could have gone elsewhere

At least with 12 fans in your system the noise of the x1900 won't bother you

 

[gary996]

looking at your spec, do you have anything left to upgrade ? !!!

Yes... got to get me a chilli1 have been in touch with the man going to be ordering soon.. real soon

 

[Gerard]

Wonder what the cost would be of an "uber" card.

 

[Darkwave]

I think I'll grab a Sapphire X1900XT. My Radeon 9700 Pro was by them and it was excellent.

You won't regret it. Sapphire, at least in my opinion, are the best ATi partner to buy graphics boards from. The quality of both the product and the customer service is always great.

A few questions though:

1) Are the prices of the current cards likely to fall over the next few months?

I think we'll only see a few price drops between now and Q4 2006, then we may see the next gen cards which will cause this gen to drop in price dramatically.

2) Will ATI and Nvidia wait for DX10 now, or could they release another set of cards before next November?

As far as I am aware, the G80 was meant to come out this summer but has been delayed due to not being taped out. I have not heard anything about R500 coming out any time before the end of this year, so it could be then to catch Christmas and be early for Vista which has been delayed until Q1 2007.

3) When the DX10 cards come out, won't there be a mass exodus? Doesn't that mean that selling off the X1900XT will be very hard?

Nope, because people like me who always go for the second-best or last-gen hardware will always want to buy your stuff cheaper than retail prices. Don't ask me though, because I plan to go DirectX 10 when it's available (and I just ordered an X1800XT if it makes you feel a bit better about timing.)

4) Was upgrading from the 7800GTX to the X1900XT at a net cost of £100 worth it? To be fair, a relative offered to pay the £100 but still, it could have gone elsewhere

Were I in your position, I would've kept the 7800GTX. If you get enough in return for selling your 7800GTX though, the X1900XT will be worth it.

 

[locutus12]

all these people moaning about having to spend money on new cards when "dx10 is around the corner" theres a thing called common sense... .

dont want to spend a ton but whant your games to play? simple, go buy a 512mb X1800XT second hand, £200 to £220. job done till early next year by which time DX10 will be in swing and you can go get what ever card you like.

already got an X1800XT or a 7800GTX ? live with it! its not like your the slowest kid on the block...

graphics cards are more expensive these days, but idiots keep paying the prices and as long as there are people prepaired to pay top wack for cards 5 minutes after they are released, were all screwed. so do as i do, make a resolution to your self, heres mine...

"from october 05 i will never spend more than £240 on a graphics card in 12 months. i will always try to buy second hand"

 

[Monstermunch]

all these people moaning about having to spend money on new cards when "dx10 is around the corner" theres a thing called common sense... .

dont want to spend a ton but whant your games to play? simple, go buy a 512mb X1800XT second hand, £200 to £220. job done till early next year by which time DX10 will be in swing and you can go get what ever card you like.

already got an X1800XT or a 7800GTX ? live with it! its not like your the slowest kid on the block...

graphics cards are more expensive these days, but idiots keep paying the prices and as long as there are people prepaired to pay top wack for cards 5 minutes after they are released, were all screwed. so do as i do, make a resolution to your self, heres mine...

"from october 05 i will never spend more than £240 on a graphics card in 12 months. i will always try to buy second hand"

I totally agree with all of that, most peoples limitations and expectations of gfx cards @ £400 is unreasonable.

I am currently still running the rig in my sig and I can run FEAR, COD2 and any game I chose to in fact!

But I still run a plain CRT monitor so I can change the res in games to get them to run in a playable manner. I have no doubt that when I upgrade, which will be soon, I will see a large increase in performance.

For all those people who have 20" widescreens or over and run games in 1600x1050 then what do you expect. To be able to run the current games at that resolution you will need to always have the most up to date technology and not to be to harsh but you should have thought of that when buying your new monitor!

 

[Tommy B]

You won't regret it. Sapphire, at least in my opinion, are the best ATi partner to buy graphics boards from. The quality of both the product and the customer service is always great.


I think we'll only see a few price drops between now and Q4 2006, then we may see the next gen cards which will cause this gen to drop in price dramatically.


As far as I am aware, the G80 was meant to come out this summer but has been delayed due to not being taped out. I have not heard anything about R500 coming out any time before the end of this year, so it could be then to catch Christmas and be early for Vista which has been delayed until Q1 2007.


Nope, because people like me who always go for the second-best or last-gen hardware will always want to buy your stuff cheaper than retail prices. Don't ask me though, because I plan to go DirectX 10 when it's available (and I just ordered an X1800XT if it makes you feel a bit better about timing.)


Were I in your position, I would've kept the 7800GTX. If you get enough in return for selling your 7800GTX though, the X1900XT will be worth it.

Thanks for answering my questions. Really helpful. I'll get a Sapphire one then, but I'll probably upgrade again before xmas. Graphics sorted, now for the ram and cpu

 

[macachia]

*wrong thread, oopsie

 

[georges]

haha. What I mean is that when I first got the 9700 Pro, I remember watching that Animusic Tech Demo and just thinking "Mother of God this makes Toy Story look like something from the stone age."

My GTX demolished FEAR completely, but it struggled with COD2. If I turned AA or AF on, the frame rate plummeted. When I spent £350 I was just expecting to be blown away again, and the 9700 Pro was no where near as expensive!

COD2 is an xbox port.. dx9 is horrendous, even makes your ping higher online and feels laggy even at 70fps :/

Don't blame your pc. It's badly optimised for pc.

 

[v-zero]

COD2 isn't an xbox port. It was designed for PC and then the shaders were recompiled for the unified R500 architechture that M$ nicked off of all us enthusiasts - I really hate M$ for that, r520 was a quick fill-in part for the r500... Such a shame.

COD2 runs pretty shoddily on the 360, and my 7900gt (yes, modded) runs it at higher res and better AA/AF smoothly enough for me. I don't drop below 25fps, even in heavy firefights with smoke etc... And in single player games that is usually fine... I can run FEAR and Oblivion and Tomb Raider just fine at 1600x1200, and I only paid £230 including a new cooler - there's no need to buy the highest end products if you have some skill and experience...

I do believe that games are being poorly optimized for graphics hardware these days, and that is an annoying situation.