Originally posted by: Gstanfor
First up the R580 appears to be a competent recovery from the doldrums for ATi. thats good for competition, now perhaps the can finally rid the market of r4xx derivatives (unless they still have warhouse upon warehouse full of dies like they did with r2xx).
Secondly, the 512mb 7800GTX is not unavailable, as I and other posters have shown in other threads, it is highly priced granted, but the price will fall with competition.
If you want it removed from comparisons, then I'm afraid you'll also have to accept people going back in time and removing 850PE radeons from the reviews of those times too, since the very reasons you cite for the 7800 512's removal apply perfectly to that product also. Given the way the fanATics loved to wave the 850PE around in forum threads regarding performance at that time I doubt you will be accepting my proposal...
The X1800XT was far from a slump, they needed no recovery. Its faster than a 256MB GTX most of the time, and has better IQ to boot. Its currently about $40 moer than a GTX, which makes it very comparable, and a solid choice, if not the better choice.
I didnt say the 512MB GTX was unavailable, I said "virtually unavailable" and "hardly available", both of which are true. Sure you can get one, right now, for $999. I have not seen any instock for anywhere close to the $650 MSRP since the first few days it came out. You dont know if the price will fall because of competition. If there are still next to zero cards available, the prices wont fall much, if at all. If lots of places had them in stock, the price wouldnt be so high.
I never said I wanted it removed, I said *if* you remove it. Looking at it realistically, someone looking at reviews to make a buying decision, really has doesnt have the option to get the 512MB GTX. If they do find one, it wont be anywhere near the price of the XT or XTX. As I said, its $999 right now, at the only place I know of that it is in stock, at ZZF. Perhaps eBay has a lower price, I didnt look. All other stores Ive check, newegg, tigerdirect, monarchpc, etc. all show zero stock. Dell shows a 6+ week estimation. The X850XT/PE was not even close to the 512MB price, or availability. It was in stock, and easily available. Perhaps you mean the X800XT/PE. And I said back then the same thing as I am saying now. The buyer doesnt really have the choice to get one, unless they jump thru hoops, and pay well over MSRP. Although the X800XT/PE price was not $999, and the X800XT/PE was actually available in a retail store (very, very short supply), whole the 512MB GTX never was. So please, dont make so many assumptions.
edit, as you can see, I am not the only one who thinks this way. From FS:
NVIDIA?s not going to sit around and watch though. Their refresh for the GeForce 7800 GTX is right around the corner, and it?s rumored that NVIDIA?s going to be integrating more shaders into their next part as well. But until they can get their availability issues resolved with GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB, ATI?s Radeon X1800 XT and X1900 XT/XTX cards are essentially competing with the GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB. And in this battle, ATI?s the clear winner.
AT used only SLI 512MB's, not helping consumers at all. If they used SLI'd 256MB GTX, or even GT's, they would serve their readers much better.