Geforce3 is now out and about

[XGamer]

Just to keep everyone posted(whoever cares), the Geforce3 is offically out now in Japan selling for $580. And if you have hookups, possible be out here to *snicker*. My friend just got one for free, but only because he knows someone who works at a certain place. Its nice, but its not worth $600, I can tell you that. :Q

 

[Coki]

Nvidia is turning greedy. No video card is worth that much money.

For $600 you will be able to buy a PS2 and XBox and a few games to go with them.

Remember that $600 is for the video card alone. People also have to buy cpu,ram, games, etc.

 

[ErikaeanLogic]

heeeeeeeeere we go again. . .

 

[jor888]

Price will go down if no one buys it. They always starts it high because there will always be some idiots who will rush out to buy them at that price LOL.

 

[BFG10K]

I posted the same thing two days ago.

 

[Coki]

I know they start out high but this is rediculous. $600.

I can't believe they have the balls to put that tag out.

 

[MigraineMan]

Some ideas on the high cost:

Initial demand will come from the gaming development community, who can write these cards off as a business expense and not feel the financial pain. There are always early adopters with cash in hand, but mostly professionals will get this card over the next few months.

Research, development, and production costs are higher for the GF3 than previous development efforts. Since the GF3 chipset is expected to have a healthy life cycle, they will skim the market with the initial release, then lower the price to penetrate the market further. Starting out with a lower price means losing money. How can you piss off a market with a high price for a card that offers little current benefit? nVidia and the various vendors know what they are doing, and the market is fickle. People pissed off by the price now will still buy the card when it makes sense to do so.

Clearly the GF3 offers few advantages for current games over GF2 cards (except faster 32bit color at high resolutions), so nVidia must not be banking on short term gains. nVidia's GF3 investment will pay off 12-18 mos. from now when the GF3-specific games start hitting the market, at which point the price will be more affordable and they'll start flying off the shelves when Doom 3, etc. see the light of day.

Finally, given that the GF3 technologies might result in future games that only work on the GF3 seems to indicate that nVidia has established its own playground with high barriers to entry by its competitors. When you have your own place to play, and everyone wants to be there, you can charge whatever you want. nVidia is just being smart.

Doesn't piss me off it is so expensive. It just helps me to save that cash for things that I REALLY need right now...

 

[Innoka]

$500 isn't all that much. Aren't you old enough to remember what Intel used to price their processors for? Now for $500 you're getting a revolutionary graphics processor and 64mb of very fast ram. Considering what the Ultra costs, it's a fair buy.

 

[MigraineMan]

Apparently, some vendors think the card is too expensive. Creative isn't shipping a GF3 card (right now anyway)!

From Glide Underground:


<< Mainboard &amp; graphics board manufacturer Abit as well as Creative Labs decided not to launch a GeForce 3-based board at this time. It seems that the market segment the GeForce 3 targets with its price is getting too narrow for them - considering they even have to share it with other manufacturers. Rumours also say that Abit is afraid that nVidia could not meet the demand because the xChips use the same manufacturing process... >>

 

[Pocatello]

There are rumors that Creative will be selling voodoo 4.

 

[UKtaxman]

<< Finally, given that the GF3 technologies might result in future games that only work on the GF3 seems to indicate that nVidia has established its own playground with high barriers to entry by its competitors. When you have your own place to play, and everyone wants to be there, you can charge whatever you want. nVidia is just being smart. >>


I think you'll find that this is the same mistake that 3dfx made. I believe you'll find that 3dfx hoped to create a proprietory platform(glide),er obviously this went tits up.
Besides which, the GF3 is a Directx8 compliant architecture, therefore anyone else can create similarly compatible hardware.

 

[dolphins]

I'm relatively new to the forums so i dont want to overstep my bounds. But why is there such a constant gripe about the price of this freaking video card i mean really folks hercules is online now selling it for about 540 bucks meanwhile they have the prophet 2 ultra for 500 bucks linkified geez folks get a grip its only 40 more bucks for the next generation card as compared to something thats been out in one form or another for about a year now. Do any of you remember when the first vcr came out and you had to pay 2k for it, i mean come on its starting out at 540 which is just slightly higher than the previous generation card, 6 months from now its 2/3 the price and everyone will have one. Or is it that its cool to gripe about it because its the in thing to do.

 

[Compellor]

<< Apparently, some vendors think the card is too expensive. Creative isn't shipping a GF3 card (right now anyway)! >>



Creative labs already announced that they are getting out of the graphics card business.



<< There are rumors that Creative will be selling voodoo 4. >>



LOL!

 

[Truro]

&quot;selling it for about 540 bucks meanwhile they have the prophet 2 ultra for 500 bucks linkified geez folks get a grip its only 40 more bucks&quot;

So I'm supposed to feel lucky it's only $540?

 

[MigraineMan]

You can get a Creative 2 Ultra for around $410 now a days. And the price of the Ultra should change once the GF3 hits the shelves, which hasn't happened yet. So, the price leap to the GF3 is definitely steep, and if anything, will help push more GF2 card sales. nVidia is still releasing new versions of its GF2 MX chipset, so they are not just banking on early sales of the GF3 to generate revenue.

If anything, their high GF3 price helps them avoid cannabilizing the sales of their still healthy line of GF2 cards. Why drop GF2 prices alot to sell a GF3 card that is only interesting to a small market niche? Also, until ATI gets its next chipset out, which is also supposed to rock, nVidia will keep the next GF3 card price higher, along with the GF2 Ultra, while pricing its cards that compete with ATI's Radeon more competitively. Now that 3dfx is dead, you can expect higher prices in general for next-gen video cards, and those prices will stay high for longer periods. GF3 right now has no competition.

 

[MSNY]

I agree with all thats been said here. The initial release is for those developers and those who think it's pocket change. That's fine really as there is no need presently for this card. In the past I've been sucked in by all the hype of a new card but the price this time has soured me for an upgrade. I was really planning on the GF3, it's disapointing.

What I find interesting is that for somewhere around 600 buks or so you could build a kick butt Athlon 1.2ghz system with your current GF card. I may go that route now and spend 200 or 300 at most later on for a GF3. And by that time the refresh will be here and the tech will change and be even better. Think about it, your current card will support EVERYTHING now and in the near future.

So maybe there is a silver lining for those who planned on this card like me ? (a la another upgrade path)

 

[Jumpem]

It is an expensive card, but I am going to get one very soon. I'll keep it for at least a year and a half, so it's not as if I'm going to buy every new card that comes out. I'm actually going to splurge a bit on my new system.

1.33GHz Thunderbird
Asus A7M266
256MB Corsair PC2100
45GB IBM Deskstar
Pioneer 16x DVD
Plextor 16/10/40
SB Live MP3+
Geforce 3
HP Deskjet 935c
APC BackUPS Pro 500

 

[XGamer]

Jump, for $500, you could buy 2 geforce2 ultra's when they drop after the g3 comes out. A g2 ultra will be just as fast in everything current to date. G3 is ahead of its time, if you think its really gonna help you and have lots of money to toss, well..thats yer bis. but im telling you, you will regret it heh. for $500, your only gonna keep it for a year and a half? So yer gonna be spending $1000 every 3 years just for video cards? amazing. Also, remember that Nvidia is releasing a new video card in the FALL. Expect a good $150-200 cut off the Geforce3. Ive had my $150 Tnt2 ultra for like 4 years(or however long they have been out). I have been happy with it up untill recently, with all the new games comming out like Tribes2.

 

[Compellor]

<< Jump, for $500, you could buy 2 geforce2 ultra's when they drop after the g3 comes out. >>


I wouldn't bet on that. The Ultra will still be selling at 300+ for awhile. NVIDIA aren't stupid; that's why they came out with the MX version of the GeForce 2--to cater to the low-end market.


<< G3 is ahead of its time, if you think its really gonna help you and have lots of money to toss, well..thats yer bis. but im telling you, you will regret it heh. >>


Well, if you consider that a GeForce 2 Ultra will be considered extinct 6 months to a year from now, a GeForce 3 for someone building a new system today wouldn't be that bad of an investment. Granted, the price is fairly steep, but if you got the cash to spend, I say go for it. You're forgetting that the GeForce 3 is programmable, and may be around longer than the average 6 month cycle. We'll see.

 

[audreymi]

In my humble opinion, I highly doubt that Tom or Anand would be beaten to the hardware punch by a friend in Japan. The rumours I hear are that the silicon is not ready and that prototype systems are done on older technology just so the X-box people can begin to play with beta silicon to deal with schedule issues. Why put in 57 million transistors in a box in a low cost box if you need attach a HDTV or expensive monitor to appreciate it.

 

[XGamer]

<< Jump, for $500, you could buy 2 geforce2 ultra's when they drop after the g3 comes out. >>


<<I wouldn't bet on that. The Ultra will still be selling at 300+ for awhile. NVIDIA aren't stupid; that's why they came out with the MX version of the GeForce 2--to cater to the low-end market.>>

Compeller, $300x2 is $600, which is the price of a Geforce3. That is still 2 Geforce2 Ultra's for the Price of a Geforce3 correct? The LOWEST Geforce3 is supposed to be the Hercules, at like $560 or so. And also, I can personaly tell you, the Geforce2 Ultra's should be lower than that. $250 is a good estimate, maybe even less for some. Even before the Geforce3 was announced, I dont know if you were aware of this but, the cheapest G2 ultra is and was $330, the leadtek G2 ultra $340(These are OEM prices of course). So if they were to stay above $300, that would mean they are barly gonna drop at all...Which is impossible to believe. And Im sure the G3's will drop a bit, after a month or so of being released, which will cause G2 Ultras to drop. In my educated opinion.

 

[Compellor]

<< Compeller, $300x2 is $600, which is the price of a Geforce3 >>



Wrong. I seen it was retailing for $549 at GameStop:

Hercules 3D Prophet 3

Still way expensive, but not $600. Also, this is a Hercules video card. The bare bones VisionTek GeForce 3 video cards will probably be selling in the $500-$520 range--maybe even lower.



<< I dont know if you were aware of this but, the cheapest G2 ultra is and was $320, the leadtek G2 ultra $340. >>



The cheapest I've seen was $345. They will drop in price some more, but not to the $250 range after the GeForce 3 is released. Maybe in 3 months.

 

[Jumpem]

Compeller and XGamer, my current box is a couple years old. It's a P2-450 with a SB AWE64 and a TNT1 card. I'm going to go all out and make up for my subpar current box. Plus, I should be getting close to finishing my CS degree by the time it needs a major overhaul again.

If I were to get a GF2 Ultra the best price for a retail card I've seen is the Elsa for $379. I've found the new Elsa 920 and Hercules Prophet III both available for $574. Thats a $200 difference, but I just want to get the best card available and not have to worry about it for a while.

 

[Compellor]

Jumpem:

Yeah, I hear ya. Sometimes It's better to spend more money for something that will last awhile. Go for it and enjoy.

 

[Punamo]

I'm so pissed off too, but not because Nvidia came out with a $600 video card. I'm pissed off because they couldn't figure out how to make the 2D quality to even compete with Matrox.

I either get a good 2D card (Matrox G450) with sucky 3D or a good 3D card with subpar 2D.

I'm so pissed off! :|