Anand says don't buy an expensive video card before April/May.

[Eug]

Wow

I would strongly recommend against buying an expensive video card before April/May.

It's another crunch week (or a crunch two weeks) before Spring Break, so I'll be strapped for time again. It's frustrating but I just need to make it through May and then I'm home free

I should probably be paying attention to class but I just thought I'd drop off this teaser

comments

 

[UlricT]

anyone have any idea whether the improvements will be due sto PCI-E? Teasers really get to me... esp. since i'm not in the know of what goes on behind the scenes . Looks like i'm sticking to my 1.3Ghz Williamette for some time more. No sense upgrading till everything has settled down.

 

[Nebor]

Everything will never settle down. There's always something new around the corner.

 

[jdogg707]

yup, I won't be upgrading my system again until the Fall refresh video cards come out, hopefully the kins will be worked out of the new technology a little bit by then and I can get a more stable product....but then again, who knows what interesting turns of events this year will bring us!

 

[BenSkywalker]

Everything will never settle down. There's always something new around the corner.

In the vid card market there is a 'major' release every year and a half to two years give or take. If you were looking to buy a new high end board in June of 2K2 and Anand dropped that line it would have been extremely sound advice as the R9700Pro came out and simply dominated everything before it. Same with September of '99 prior to the launch of the GeForce DDR(those two were more memorable then the GeForce3 which wasn't as drastic a leap). Since the launch of the R9700Pro we have had fairly minor improvements here and there, there isn't anything on the market that honestly warrants an upgrade from it. The NV40/R420 should offer a fairly significant leap in performance(mainly) and features(not as big of a leap) over anything currently available.

After the launch of the NV40/R420 there will yet again be another board around the corner, but it will simply be a newer revision of those parts with minor tweaks, not new cores that will blow them out of the water. Buying a new high end graphics card now would be akin to buying a new high end processor now if you knew that Intel had a 4.5GHZ part ready to ship in a couple of months along with AMD and their A64 4500+. Despite knowing all of this I just dropped $300 on a R9800Pro, it sucks being impatient some time(not yet actually, but it will suck when I see the benches for the new parts ).

 

[RollWave]

i wont buy a card until XGI makes functional drivers! hehehe

 

[UlricT]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Everything will never settle down. There's always something new around the corner.

I'm not talking about just video cards. From what I have read, this year is going to see an unusually high influx of new tech. compared to last year. PCI-E, BTX, LGA775/socket939, DDR-II, R42x/NV40, FDB raptors are just some things that come to my mind right now. ALl these should settle down by the end of the year...

 

[GRIFFIN1]

BITBOYS

For legal reasons, that is all I can say right now.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: GRIFFIN1
BITBOYS

For legal reasons, that is all I can say right now.

 

[shiftomnimega]

Teasers...

 

[WackyDan]

You can wait and hold your breath till you are blue in the face. That's the way technology is.....

If you already have a 9700 class ATI.... I would wait until fall.

 

[MichaelD]

Wow, this is an exciting time to be a PC Hardware Enthusiast!

I certainly hope that when the Socket 939 NF3-250 boards come out, they aren't DDR II!! That crap is $500 a stick, currently.

Like it's predecessors, it too will drop in price, eventually.

I'm glad I bought my 9800NP (running within 5% of Pro speed right now) when I did...it absolutely blows away the Ti4200 I had and will do me well far into the next round of super-duper-expensive-big-mutha videocards.

I also hope that the next round of motherboards retains the standard AGP slot. I'm as anxious for PCI-Express as the rest of you, but I don't want to lose the functionality of my current expansion cards, nor do I want to be excluded from upgrading to the next platform.

It was a huge jump for all of us once AGP/PCI locked boards came out. I think PCI-E will have the same impact. :beer: Bring it on!

 

[cowdog]

Oh great. Another hint. This industry teaser stuff is bonkers. It is like saying to a college student, "wait until fall semester to take organic chemistry." And then nothing. The student waits until fall. The student takes the class, and, low and behold, it is still organic chemistry. The only thing that happened is that the prof read an extra 10 pseudo-relevant papers in the interim, the syllabus changed 0.5%, the student waited a semester, and tuition went up 15%.

 

[JBT]

hope these cards pwn

 

[Tab]

What does AnAnd have to say on the current LCDs? Will the still be the same in 1 month? How about 2 or 3 months?

 

[MadRat]

Expect the new 64-bit Videocards from ATI in April or May. And they'll start with AGP, so don't worry about needing PCI-Ex just yet.

 

[Pariah]

What's a 64 bit video card? Isn't it just a driver issue for 64 bit compatibility, or do they have to make hardware changes as well?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Pariah
What's a 64 bit video card? Isn't it just a driver issue for 64 bit compatibility, or do they have to make hardware changes as well?

Just driver changes, the card itself couldn't care less how many bits the computer processes with.

 

[BenSkywalker]

What's a 64 bit video card?

A POS budget offering that is only good for 2D applications- the cheapest FX5200 boards as an example. I don't think that that should have actually said a 64bit vid card, the R9700 and up and the FX5900 and up are 256bit boards.

 

[sd]

IMHO, don't buy an expensive card now or later.

 

[First]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
A POS

Indeed.

 

[mastertech01]

Originally posted by: sd
IMHO, don't buy an expensive card now or later.

Well actually you should ALWAYS buy an expensive video card...... when they are no longer expensive.. Its a blast to test drive the ones people are throwing out the door after they run 3DMARK a couple hundred times for a fraction of retail.

 

[Pocatello]

I never buy a videocard that is over $250.

 

[Boonesmi]

Originally posted by: Pocatello
I never buy a videocard that is over $250.

gezz thats still over my budget

the most ill ever spend is between $100 and $150

the last 3 cards ive owned

kyro2
gf3 ti200
radeon 9600 pro

all were bought for between $75 and $120 (the 9600 pro was bought just a couple months ago for $90, and its plenty of card for anything i need)

 

[apoppin]

April/May . . . sounds good . . . after upgrading the rest of my rig, I have to wait . . . . or skip a few meals.

In the meantime, my trusty Radeon 8500 is working fine for the old games I never completed . . . I wasn't at all impressed with the 9600xt; however, I did find the 9800Pro Impressive . . . just not enough games (I like) that really need it . . .

I just may spring for a top-of-the-line GPU offering since it's been awhile (3 or 4 years) since I spent over $150 on a videocard . . . it'll fit in well with my new P4 system (o/c'd nicely to 3.4Ghz) . . . I can wait . . .



And I ain't worried about PCI-E; AGP will be around for at least another year . . .