Some interesting things going on these days in the graphics industry. Very interesting...

I spent some time reading pages and pages of info and I finally have a good grasp of what's going on and what's important for gamers/upgraders. However, due to the 10,000 character limit of forum posts, I'll be doing this one on the Sheaiden site and then linking to it.

I should have the article done and up by the end of the weekend. In the mean time, NO ONE SHOULD BUY ANY VID CARDS RIGHT NOW! The next two months will change the offerings and price points considerably!

NO ONE SHOULD BUY ANY VID CARDS RIGHT NOW!
That's a pretty profound thing to say. I must admit I am most curious of your findings.

NO ONE SHOULD BUY ANY VID CARDS RIGHT NOW!
Indeed

these new cards make me wonder how long my 8800gts will last with new games.

That is a very bold statement, but with absolutely no proof of any kind I'm not about to believe you, especially with the more than affordable and more than adequate 8800 GT and HD 3870 winning the market over. At under $200 and enough power to run most games on high or very high settings, how can anyone go wrong?

Very high end video cards are definitely dropping in price, though. With the next generation coming I am a little sore for having spend $340 on my 9800 GTX. The 8800 Ultra is bound to fall in price now that the GTX series has launced.

Very high end video cards are definitely dropping in price, though. With the next generation coming I am a little sore for having spend $340 on my 9800 GTX. The 8800 Ultra is bound to fall in price now that the GTX series has launced.
That's always the way with any computer components. I bought my 8800GT about three months or so ago for $200 after MIR and now you can get the exact card for $150 after MIR.

The 4GB Corsair DDR-800 I bought at the same time that I paid $85 for is going for $65. My E6750 is about $20 cheaper as well. Worse, I can now get a 45nm Wolfdale for $15 cheaper with the same clock speed and 2MB more cache.

But I am not complaining. I am still very happy with my system and don't at all feel bad about what I paid to build it. :) I got a very solid mobo so I can upgrade whenever I want without problems. Which there is no reason to upgrade my CPU right now. Heck I haven't even found the max OC yet and I am already at 3.2GHz from stock 2.66GHz, ram at 960MHz from 800. :) Although I am pretty happy with that OC right now on air cooling and stock voltages. And it's plenty fast.

Today's processors aren't meant to be upgraded every time a new flavor comes out. The 240 mhz difference between the Q6600 and the Q9450 is barely noticeable and I doubt any users could tell one from the other.

All this talk about GPUs is getting on my nerves a bit. Nvidia already launched two very unimpressive cards. To ask people to hold out for their next run is just silly, being that we can't be sure they'll be any better than what's out now.

Hey Nvidia - stop churning out "new" video cards and actually spend some TIME on the next one. You know, so we get something that is actually better than what the last year has brought us instead of the same performance from more expensive cards.

Heartborne - You like to complain a lot, don't you? :p Just relax, dude - take it easy...


Alright, I didn't go too deep into the rabbit hole with this article like I did with R600, so it's as "tech-lite" as you can get from me. I did read a lot of details, however, so I can dive into the hole if anyone wants, but I decided it was more important to get this news out quickly rather than to hammer away at GPU design considerations. So here it is:

Summer Storm (http://www.sheaiden.com/contentman/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28:summer-storm&catid=19:other-hardware&Itemid=28)

I'll have to do a follow up on AMD's side of things later. It can wait a few weeks, though.

we sould at least suspend the recomendation of the 9800gtx = http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+106792627&name=Radeon+HD+4000+series

see here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ati-radeon-hd-4850-review-force-3d--powercolor/

At this point in time, it looks like the HD 4850 is the new best bang for your buck model out there. As we all know, I am an Nvidia user and I am familiar with their drivers and so forth, but if the benchmark linked to us by IM back! is any indication, the HD 3850 performs above the level of the 9800 GTX and is $100 cheaper.

However, not all benchmarks are created equal.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/powercolor_hd4850/8.htm

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=6

so it's not really as simple as all that. Even so, the $100 price difference more than makes up for being short of few frames.

While the GTX280 blows the HD4850 away, the simple fact remains that at $700 it's not exactly affordable. ATI was really smart here in making an affordable card using newer technology and competing in the market of those who work for a living rather than releasing a single-gpu card that is more expensive and less powerful than a dual-gpu card.

And yes, Saph, I do go on sometimes when things really irk me. I can go on a bit much because I'm both opinionated and outspoken.

OK...in the OCClub review a 'factory OCd' 9800GTX beat the stock 4850 by 10 fps, in one game...5 fps in another (Crysis, btw), at a relatively low resolution...crank up the res and the the 9800 fades fast, but the 4850 is still going and beats out the 9800 at the highest resolutions. All for about half the price...yeah.

We have a winner.

Well I for one am certainly glad to see ATI back in the game. And in a strong way at that. :cool: The tide turns once again contrary to what some *coughHeartbornecough* seemed to think that would never happen. :D

Now we start to see things to come together for AMD/ATI. AMD has been down for some time but now we are going to start seeing all the sacrifices pay off for them, and us. :cool:

Now that competition is going to be in full swing again it looks to be a very good next couple of years for us.

Ah, but the race is neck-and-neck now! At $200, the Radeon HD 4850 is indeed a great buy, but have you seen this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130350)? Also at $200, the 9800 GTX is looking better all the time! And at a proposed $230, the 9800 GTX+ will be awesome!

All of this underscores the fact that NVidia is losing ground in the area of customer confidence. By spamming the market with odd products such as the 8800 GTS 512 and 9600 GT/GSO, and bringing out the anti-climactic GTX 260/280, NVidia is hurting! They just have too many vid cards right now. Meanwhile, AMD is enjoying their decision to release far fewer variations and emphasizing CrossFire. Not that CF always solves everything (neither does SLI), but simplicity is the key here.

I'm really excited about what AMD has planned here. If the HD 4850 is already this good, what will the HD 4870 bring? And what about R700?? They can only go up from here, I suppose. If they learn how to price accordingly, they'll already be ahead of NVidia going into the holiday season.

The only thing I'm concerned about is Vantage performance. 06 is a shoe-in these days, but Vantage?...

Hmm, I smell a change in the attitude towards ATI's paradigm. "Good enough and A LOT cheaper" works well in the market we are in. Walmart seems to be doing ok with that philosophy.