The eternal, unsolvable question - Revisited - again...

[Netvyper]

yeh yeh...
Graphics Cards; Top end ones.
Do I buy one, do I wait?

There are a few considerations...

1) Availability - Nvidia has a card out, its a good card, and I could buy one today, and have it by the middle of next week. The ATI Counter is still in progress, and I've not seen any information about it... Just how far away it is? Release of Vista far away, or March far away, or further?

2) Performance/Architechture - I REALLY like what nvidia has done with the programmable pipeline things. Its a case of 'well why didnt we do this before?' In current generation games, it performs really well. Has anyone actually tested this under vista yet, with a DX10 Techdemo or something? or even DX9 games on Vista - with this card?
Will ATI come up with something to beat it? Will Nvidia have a Counter ready by then?

3) Bugs/Driver Revisions/Progress - This is I believe one of the key elements of any GFX card purchase. Its the balance to 2). Being a brand new architechture, are there limitations to it, that will cripple it in the future? I cant think of a good example now... but for £400 i'd like something that will last, and will make progress on the driver/performance front, is nvidia confident they can do this?
If ATI adopts a similar architechture, are they going to have learned some lessons from Nvidia, and be able offer a much more stable platform?

yep, its 99.9% Speculation, and thats what I encourage... all i need is someone to blame, whether i purchase a card now, or not.
Thanks

 

[Tute]

It's hard to say how good or bad R600 will be, or won't be.

If you are going to move on a new card, it may well be worth waiting now, as R600 is close, and will force either a price war or a refresh, both good things for the end user!

If you really must buy now, then both the GTS and GTX are at amazing prices. If you have £400, then the GTX is the best choice, by far.

 

[Netvyper]

well...
I dont *HAVE* to buy now, but I could.

As you'll see in my Sig, i've only got a 6800GT running this lot, and its a bit aged, I start dropping frames & picking up Artifacts in NFS:Carbon, BF2 isnt as nippy as i'd like. And EVE-Online struggles once i've got 3 clients running...

I'd like a new card, but I dont want to be kicking myself in a months time because i was impatient... Hence i need someone else to blame

 

[Big.Wayne]

I'd like a new card, but I dont want to be kicking myself in a months time because i was impatient... Hence i need someone else to blame

I doubt anything gonna change in a month. Hard to say really as we are being told that the new ATI card will be released in March, could be sooner, could be later, thats how it goes. On top of that we don't know if the card will be a G80 killer.

Everyone has different opinions on this, some people insist on having the best hardware in their rig no matter what the cost, then as soon as something better comes out they sell they existing card and buy the new one. Others prefere a card that while being 'slightly' dated offers very good bang-for-buck.

Its your money, invest it wisely!