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

[sd]

I know this has been beaten to death a million times, BUT...when playin games, how often do you really look around and go , "WOW the graphics look awesome?" I'm sorry, but I just don't see much of a difference with all the "bells and whistles" on while playin a game. I guess if I really looked around a lot I could see the difference, but I want smooth game play when things get hot and heavy during a frag fest.

 

[BenSkywalker]

I know this has been beaten to death a million times, BUT...when playin games, how often do you really look around and go , "WOW the graphics look awesome?"

So you are playing Far Cry and looking across an open field at a guy and he's ten pixels on your display running 800x600, he's fourty pixels on mine running 1600x1200. You are trying to sneak into an installation and come up on a corner and pop around only to get shot up by the guard standing right there. I see his shadow coming and simply wait for him to turn the corner and do the same thing to him. You are trying to sneak through the jungle and completely miss a patrol hanging out on some ledges because of the aliasing looking through the trees, I see them nice and clearly due to the increased resolution and AA smoothing out what aliasing is left. I notive improved graphics all the time.

On the subject of 64bit video cards- talking about color all of the R3x0 core ATi parts support 96bit color(FP24), all FX boards support 128bit color(FP32).

 

[JellyBaby]

April/May eh? Interesting. Bluesnews.com just had a blurb indicating Doom 3 might ship for the PC on April 15, though their source link to the piece on Gamespot.com is a dead-end.

If we get new high-end cards in April/May that means they'll become "reasonably" priced hopefully by May/June. Guess I can wait that long, Ti4400 kinda chuggin' though. Doom 3's first patch won't be out 'til then anyway.

Hey there, apoppin how goes? Been to Hawaii yet this year?

 

[sd]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

I know this has been beaten to death a million times, BUT...when playin games, how often do you really look around and go , "WOW the graphics look awesome?"

So you are playing Far Cry and looking across an open field at a guy and he's ten pixels on your display running 800x600, he's fourty pixels on mine running 1600x1200. You are trying to sneak into an installation and come up on a corner and pop around only to get shot up by the guard standing right there. I see his shadow coming and simply wait for him to turn the corner and do the same thing to him. You are trying to sneak through the jungle and completely miss a patrol hanging out on some ledges because of the aliasing looking through the trees, I see them nice and clearly due to the increased resolution and AA smoothing out what aliasing is left. I notive improved graphics all the time.

WOW, you play Far Cry at 16x12 with everything jacked up. You must have one hell of a system. I'm not talkin bout a Voodoo3 vs. a 9800XT. My point is that the latest $499 video card is not needed. you can get a 9800 Pro for around 2 bills and thats plenty to play most every game at 12x10 or 10x7 at the very least.

 

[cowdog]

I like to get a little grumpy at the pace of change and the spartan, secret-code information that is "leaked." Those are rather interesting characteristics of the industry right now, or so it seems to me. Grrrrrrr. Heh Heh.

That said, I do appreciate the information. I was actually just about to fork over for one of those nicely priced 9800Pros. But waiting a few weeks to a couple of months isn't really a big deal, and I get the benefit of more "beating a dead horse" material.

I do wonder if it is simply that the new gpus are so much improved (meaning AGP will see some action here too) or if it is really all about the new gpus in their new PCI-x home. If it is the latter, it will be one more piece of information that will help me wait out the new chips/mobos from both Intel and AMD. There is so much changing soon that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get on the next train, esp. if all the new goodies really do add up. Cost, however, will be the determining factor. But even if the new stuff is way over my price range, some very nice performing "old" stuff should be even more affordable by then. So waiting isn't so bad. Just have to jump in when I'm either ready or I've had enough, and that's that.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: JellyBaby
April/May eh? Interesting. Bluesnews.com just had a blurb indicating Doom 3 might ship for the PC on April 15, though their source link to the piece on Gamespot.com is a dead-end.

If we get new high-end cards in April/May that means they'll become "reasonably" priced hopefully by May/June. Guess I can wait that long, Ti4400 kinda chuggin' though. Doom 3's first patch won't be out 'til then anyway.

Hey there, apoppin how goes? Been to Hawaii yet this year?

Howzit JB!

No more Hawaii for me . . . for awhile, anyway. . . . I have more responsibilities (now) and am taking care of an ailing family member (for the forseeable future) . . .

Anyway, I upgraded my rig (from a 1.2Ghz Tualatin Celeron @ 1.5Ghz w/ 384MB PC133) to a P4 2.80c O/C'd to 3.4Ghz w/512MB PC3500 . . . same "old" Radeon 8500 (although I evaluated a Radeon 9600xt and a 9800pro for 3 weeks - the 9800 is impressive).

Personally I wouldn't bother with an "upgrade" to a 9600xt; and $250 for a 9800pro doesn't seem "worth" it with the new cards right around the corner (for $100 more I could have the 'latest & greatest' in June or so).

I DO notice improved graphics . . . however, the 8500 isn't so slow (yet) where the gameplay suffers. In fact, I just d/l'ed Call of Duty Demo and it runs OK at 1024x768 . . . so I CAN WAIT!

 

[Ilmater]

I'd say wait until December before buying any new video cards:

nVidia NV40 Specifications Confirmed:
Previously thought specs:
Transistors: 175M
Pipelines: 8x2

New rumored specs:
Transistors: 205M
Pipelines: full 16

That's one hell of a jump.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
I'd say wait until December before buying any new video cards:

nVidia NV40 Specifications Confirmed:
Previously thought specs:
Transistors: 175M
Pipelines: 8x2

New rumored specs:
Transistors: 205M
Pipelines: full 16

That's one hell of a jump.

Wow!

*CONFIRMED*


and . . .

*Rumored*

. . . now THAT's worth waiting 10 months for.

 

[magomago]

S3 is coming out with a new card? BWAHAHAHAHA They'll have to establish a huge base before I ever buy another card from them- my savage4 (got it for 50 new back when the TNT2s were the shizzle) was fine and I didn't ask for much- but when I found out there were no Win2k dirvers I spent months scouring the internet with no resolution >< And then i find out they drop all support...yeah, it sucked.

Either way I know it might sound insane, but my G4MX420 does a perfect job

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Ilmater
I'd say wait until December before buying any new video cards:

nVidia NV40 Specifications Confirmed:
Previously thought specs:
Transistors: 175M
Pipelines: 8x2

New rumored specs:
Transistors: 205M
Pipelines: full 16

That's one hell of a jump.

Wow!
*CONFIRMED*
and . . .
*Rumored*
. . . now THAT's worth waiting 10 months for.

Hey, confirmed is their word, rumored is mine. As you and I both know, until nVidia announces it or an nVidia exec publically confirms it (is legitimately quoted, etc.), it's a rumor. The Inq's sources "confirmed" it.

Sure, it can all be b.s., but let me point out two things:
1) nVidia's claims of increased performance do sound rather ridiculous. The only way they'd meet those goals would be with this kind of a chip.
2) How often is the Inquirer wrong? Tell me the last time they were way off the marker. They're ALWAYS very accurate in the rumors that they hear. Given their track record, calling them a worthless rumormill is just ignoring the facts.

 

[Bovinicus]

I hope this insinuates that some new cores are going to hit the streets around that time frame. That will push the prices of current video cards down. I will finally be able to balance out my system. My damned Radeon 8500 is definitely holding me back.

 

[neutralizer]

what about buying the $212 radeon 9800 pro at newegg.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: magomago
S3 is coming out with a new card? BWAHAHAHAHA They'll have to establish a huge base before I ever buy another card from them- my savage4 (got it for 50 new back when the TNT2s were the shizzle) was fine and I didn't ask for much- but when I found out there were no Win2k dirvers I spent months scouring the internet with no resolution >< And then i find out they drop all support...yeah, it sucked.

I just built a Windows XP box for my niece out of spare parts, and added an Diamond S3 card for uber-cheap. It came with a driver disc and the card works great. She loves the machine and it plays her kids' games and The Sims fine. If they release a reasonably priced mid-range card with good drivers, I would consider them.

Anyways, I dunno if I'm gonna get any gaming card any time soon. I'm still on a Celeron 1.4 (on a BX board no less) with Radeon 9100 and it suits me fine, esp. since it's hard to find time to play games these days.

I mean it would be nice to have an uber-fast card for the rare times I game, but I just can't justify a $300-500 card just for that. I went out and bought UT2003 and that didn't impress me, and UT2004 doesn't blow me away either. Maybe Doom III will give me enough of a jolt to upgrade my system...

What I would REALLY want though would be a nice upper mid-range card with dual DVI. eg. Maybe by July, something the speed of a 9800 Pro with dual DVI, for $200.

 

[txxxx]

No offence, but its kinda obvious when the 9800's and such are dropping in price rapidally. Having said that, the fact that its strong suggests this could be more than just a cycle refresh.

 

[Sideswipe001]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
I'd say wait until December before buying any new video cards:

nVidia NV40 Specifications Confirmed:
Previously thought specs:
Transistors: 175M
Pipelines: 8x2

New rumored specs:
Transistors: 205M
Pipelines: full 16

That's one hell of a jump.

I personally don't think it would be worth waiting 10 months for even if it's completely true.

10 months is forever in the video card life cycle.

Oh, and yes, I do look around when I play and go "This looks awesome."

Play Kotor with or without FSAA. Very noticeable. Not all games are FPS where you don't care to have all the bells and whistles on.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Ilmater

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Ilmater
I'd say wait until December before buying any new video cards:

nVidia NV40 Specifications Confirmed:
Previously thought specs:
Transistors: 175M
Pipelines: 8x2

New rumored specs:
Transistors: 205M
Pipelines: full 16

That's one hell of a jump.

Wow!
*CONFIRMED*
and . . .
*Rumored*
. . . now THAT's worth waiting 10 months for.

Hey, confirmed is their word, rumored is mine. As you and I both know, until nVidia announces it or an nVidia exec publically confirms it (is legitimately quoted, etc.), it's a rumor. The Inq's sources "confirmed" it.

Sure, it can all be b.s., but let me point out two things:
1) nVidia's claims of increased performance do sound rather ridiculous. The only way they'd meet those goals would be with this kind of a chip.
2) How often is the Inquirer wrong? Tell me the last time they were way off the marker. They're ALWAYS very accurate in the rumors that they hear. Given their track record, calling them a worthless rumormill is just ignoring the facts.

Spoken like a 'true believer'.

 

[apoppin]

[

Originally posted by: neutralizer
what about buying the $212 radeon 9800 pro at newegg.

if you want it NOW.

Should be cheaper in May/June after the new ati cards are out.

 

[jbond04]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
2) How often is the Inquirer wrong? Tell me the last time they were way off the marker. They're ALWAYS very accurate in the rumors that they hear. Given their track record, calling them a worthless rumormill is just ignoring the facts.

Need I say more?

 

[Davegod]

Originally posted by: jbond04

Originally posted by: Ilmater
2) How often is the Inquirer wrong? Tell me the last time they were way off the marker. They're ALWAYS very accurate in the rumors that they hear. Given their track record, calling them a worthless rumormill is just ignoring the facts.

Need I say more?

Notice the constant "say" after everything. Theyre just reporting what theyre told, and making a blatant point of refusing to say they beleive it. The way I read the initial paragraph, they're taking the piss out of it.

 

[azilaga]

Reading topics like this makes me have serious upgrade withdrawal symptoms since I've tried starting to funnel my extra money into a retirement account for me and my wife :/

 

[Anand Lal Shimpi]

NV40/R420 are April/May timeframe, not 10 months.

Take care,
Anand

 

[BFG10K]

Thanks for the tip Anand.

 

[UlricT]

thats nice to know Anand! Now all we have to fight about is whether it is NV40 or the R420 thats gonna be the better one

 

[GTaudiophile]

Come on, Boss! Drop some more hints! Who has the edge, ATi or nVidia?

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Come on, Boss! Drop some more hints! Who has the edge, ATi or nVidia?

[illegaly impersonating Anand] Neither, S3 will soon ownz all!!!![/running away]