The point of ATi's/nVidia's new video cards?

[frozentundra123456]

Actually they seem to be two separate issues to me. It is always good to have new hardware to push the envelope and bring down prices on existing hardware, but I would rather have better games on the existing hardware than improved hardware to run more console ports.

I must admit that I too am very disappointed in the recent lack of PC games (either exclusive PC titles or titles developed primarily for the PC). The other thing that disappoints me is that so many of the new titles coming out for the PC are MMOs. I have nothing against MMOs if that is what someone want to play, but I refuse to play a game that does not have a single player campaign.

Surprisingly, the few games coming out that are being developed mainly or exclusively for the PC [Starcraft II, Diablo 3, The Old Republic (why oh why did they have to make it an MMO ???)] probably will not have cutting edge graphics.

 

[PingSpike]

At this point I'd pay more for hardware that worked with my older games. All the current cards have plenty of oompfh for me, but they have driver issues with some of my really old games.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

I also don't understand the reason of buying a new graphics cards when there are no games to take advantage of it. I want PC exclusives!

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
I also don't understand the reason of buying a new graphics cards when there are no games to take advantage of it. I want PC exclusives!

Exactly:thumbsup:

 

[zebrax2]

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
I also don't understand the reason of buying a new graphics cards when there are no games to take advantage of it. I want PC exclusives!

Well exclusives are not necessary just bring in decent ports

 

[Kakkoii]

Originally posted by: zebrax2

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
I also don't understand the reason of buying a new graphics cards when there are no games to take advantage of it. I want PC exclusives!

Well exclusives are not necessary just bring in decent ports

Dirt 2 ftw.

 

[BFG10K]

Originally posted by: happy medium

Then sli another gtx 285.

Shit for the price of the gtx285 you can almost get 2 4890's. Sorry forgot no crossfire option either.

I don?t like SLI or CF.

Oh never mind you have a $1,200 monitor with a motherboard and cpu that was discontinued a year and a half ago.

This makes zero difference given my bottleneck is squarely with the GTX285.

Not to bust your bubble, but most people who have or can afford a monitor like that usually leave themselves an upgrade path or simply buy new hardware to sli/crossfire. If you add another 285 to your system and all games except Crysis will run at your desired settings.

Um, my upgrade path is exactly where I want it to be, namely a solid no-frills uATX motherboard with a fast dual-core processor which I can upgrade every 2-3 years while I continually buy the best single GPU solution for my needs.

I?m not interested in CF/SLI because it has too many drawbacks and is unsatisfactory for my needs.

If you like aa/af so much why not go for a 4890 they seem to perform better then a gtx285 with it enabled?

This is simply untrue. The 4890 is cheaper but it?s also usually around 80%-90% the performance of a GTX285, plus it has inferior AF, no super-sampling, and doesn?t support automatic driver profiles.

Again, my system is exactly where I want it to be, including the 30? display.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
I'm waiting to jump ship from ATI. I'd rather not pay full price for something equal to what I have now (except that it works).

It's more likely that I'll just stop gaming.

I'm ready to jump ship to whomever makes the fastest card... Help! I'm a video card whore!!!

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
I'm waiting to jump ship from ATI. I'd rather not pay full price for something equal to what I have now (except that it works).

It's more likely that I'll just stop gaming.

I'm ready to jump ship to whomever makes the fastest card... Help! I'm a video card whore!!!

Well, ATI is making some killer hardware, but when about half of the games I want to play don't work properly, it doesn't really matter how good the hardware is.

 

[Sylvanas]

Until every one of my games can be played at 1920x1200 4xAA Max settings 60FPS constant then there will always be room for an upgrade. I say bring on the next gen cards .

 

[lavaheadache]

I Really do wanna jump on a new Radeon but i hate to say this: I really don't wanna give up my ability to run Physx content! I could give a snot about folding performance and other mumbo jumbo. PLEASE AMD..... Get Physx support !!!!!

 

[imported_Shaq]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Until every one of my games can be played at 1920x1200 4xAA Max settings 60FPS constant then there will always be room for an upgrade. I say bring on the next gen cards .

:thumbsup:

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: bryanW1995

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
I'm waiting to jump ship from ATI. I'd rather not pay full price for something equal to what I have now (except that it works).

It's more likely that I'll just stop gaming.

I'm ready to jump ship to whomever makes the fastest card... Help! I'm a video card whore!!!

Well, ATI is making some killer hardware, but when about half of the games I want to play don't work properly, it doesn't really matter how good the hardware is.

What games do you play? Which "half" don't work properly with ati cards?

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

"We will never need more than (insert x mb/gb/mhz/ghz/cores/etc here)!!!!!!oneoneone11111!!1!1!"

Look, fact of the matter is we will find a way to use and harness newer technology. We always have, and always will. So, what happens when we render scenes 100% lifelike? We move to physics and get objects to react like they would in real life. What then? Maybe compute the answer to life, the universe, and everything while playing Crysis 2406 at some ungodly rez with graphics all the way up.

Point is simply that there will always be innovation and advances which will be taken advantage of.

People have been saying "why do we need faster cpu's?" or "why do we need more memory?" or "why do we need larger HD's?" or any number of other examples. We find a use for it.

Would you try to run Crysis, or hell WoW even, on a Voodoo 2? Of course not. How about on a Geforce 6 series? Unlikely. Crysis came out almost 2 years ago, and we have just recently hit a point where we could run it at 1080p resolution with most/all settings turned on. What happens when the next Crysis hits? Sorry, but your stance of "what's the point" is pretty short sighted of you.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Rezist
I know this has probably been done to death in the past, but right now it applies even more so. Why are we so excited for new video cards when we really have nothing to use them for except benchmarks? PC gaming has really declined in the last couple of years due to the consoles and now more then ever the PC is the one getting shafted with the port.

What games are you playing in which your unhappy with the performance and are willing to shell out the money to upgrade?

I'd like a single card with the performance of my current 4870 1GB cards in Crossfire, or at least something close to the performance of my current setup. I'd love for my computer to be more green in that regard without having to give up performance.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I am really looking forward to an upgrade... 512MB and 1920x1200 with AA certanly struggles. I could get a 4890 and probably be ok, but seeing as a lot more horsepower is right around the corner I think it certainly makes sense to wait. If nothing else cards like the 4890, 4870, GTX285, GTX275, GTX260 should see some healthy price drops.

The funny thing is, I bought 200 shares of AMD stock figuring that it's go up when they launch their new cards, should be easy money. On that small investment I'm already up $200.... when I sell in the near future that will probably pay for my upgrade.

 

[Elvis2]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
I bought a 4870 512MB when I had a 22" monitor, and it was perfect, everything ran smooth as butter with 4xAA. I had no plans on upgrading my monitor as I was happy with what I had, but then I suddenly ran into some extra money from a bonus at work that I knew nothing about. I was at Best Buy and they had the 26" monitor in my sig on clearance for very near half it's original price.... now I could use more than 512MB of video memory and don't see any reason to buy a 4890/GTX285 when faster parts are right around the corner. Not to mention I should have all I need when DX11 games show up.

A lot of us are just techy geeks, it's a hobby. We want newer faster parts just because they exist. When you look at the monney a person spends on a hobby, it often doesn't make practical sense. Why do I need a bigger turbo charger on my car when it already does the speed limit and is fast in the quarter mile? Why do we want a bigger TV when a 27" would suffice? Why do I need a new bowling ball if the one I have works perfectly? Etc. etc.

You nailed it. There's no rhyme or reason here. We do it 'cause we want to. Plain and simple.
Just this past weekend I spent $500.00+ on a new core system. It's not even bleeding edge tech. It's been four years since I've upgraded. Hell, all I play is the HL2 series, Counter Strike and a six year old Nascar sim. My old Opty 165 @ 2.7, a gig of OCZ PC3700 gold, a couple of Raptors, an OCZ 600 p/s, a 260 GTX, and an X-fi did the job just fine...until I loaded Farcry2 and it stumbled in a fire fight. I can't have that. At all!

This what I've ordered:
I'm going with an E5200 Dual Core $65.00
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P mb $114.00 after rebate.
GSkill 4gb (2x2gb) 8800CL5D-4GBPI ram $69.99
Corsair 750TX p/s $89.00 after rebate.
Asus EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GD5 Radeon HD 4870 1 GB video card $134.00 after rebate.
Swiftech GTZ waterblock and 1/2 id tubing, misc. clamps, etc. $92.00 shipped.
I plan on adding a second 4870 and another 4gig kit of Gskill When I get Windos7.
I plan on o/c'g that thing to 4gig+. It's cheap and I can always go Quad core later on.

 

[Insomniator]

I can definitely see how graphics and physics have a lonnngggg way to go before hitting any kind of wall. The problem is I don't see anything pushing the boundary right now that would require new cards. Ramping up resolution and AA/AF isn't the kind of quality increase i'm looking for. If we go by that logic then fine, just keep buying hardware until you can run Crysis maxed at 50000x50000 resolution. Then get a bigger monitor and try to run crysis maxed out at 1 million x 1 million... who cares.

Sure res and AA/AF help make the game look good, but that doesn't change the fact that there is plenty more detail, lighting, physics etc... that still need to be replicated to make graphics *really* improve. I guess its the chicken or the egg. When Crysis came out nothing at all could run it well and people bitched. Now the 5870x2 is gonna come out and there will be nothing to actually push it... and people will still bitch.

These new cards will hopefully push the prices down for all levels of performance but really I don't think we are gonna see any huge improvements in quality until the next gen of consoles comes out.

But damn... whatever it takes to run cry engine 2... get it done... nao...

edit

wait are these shots from crysis that is out now?! I played that game on high and it didn't look nearly as good as that...

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

fixed link: http://www.incrysis.com/index....k=view&id=826&Itemid=1

Those are screen shots done in the Sandbox editor but with enough power you could mod Crysis to look like that. There is a discussion about it here: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...AR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
Well, ATI is making some killer hardware, but when about half of the games I want to play don't work properly, it doesn't really matter how good the hardware is.

What games do you play? Which "half" don't work properly with ati cards?[/quote]

Since getting my 4870x2 I have had problems with the following games.

World of Warcraft
Neverwinter Nights
Battlefield 2
Saints Row 2
Crysis
GTA San Andreas

World of Warcraft was giving me about 1 fps. It finally got fixed, then broken, then fixed again. Neverwinter Nights can't display shiny water with ATI cards. Battlefield 2 displays horrible blotches all over the ground. Saints Row 2 stutters horribly when Crossfire is engaged. Crysis bombs in fullscreen DirectX mode. GTA San Andreas crashes after a few minutes of play.

My friends with the same systems but with NVIDIA cards don't have these issues. Often, installing the new Catalyst drivers will fix some problems and cause some more.

I guess you're right. It isn't "half". It's more like 80%.

Maybe I'm not holding my tongue right when I hit "install", because they work for my buddies who all have NVIDIA cards. Since I didn't have these issues with my 7800, I'm tempted to blame the ATI card for at least some of it.

 

[bryanW1995]

do any of your friends have a gtx 295? If not, how many of your problems are crossfire related? Do any of your friends have a 4890? Many many people refuse to use dual card solutions because they are typically less reliable and often have some issues.

Maybe a better statement would be that dual card ATI solutions don't work well (or in the past did not work well) with the games that you mentioned. This is old news. Maybe next time you'll do a little more research and buy a very fast single gpu solution.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
do any of your friends have a gtx 295? If not, how many of your problems are crossfire related? Do any of your friends have a 4890? Many many people refuse to use dual card solutions because they are typically less reliable and often have some issues.

Maybe a better statement would be that dual card ATI solutions don't work well (or in the past did not work well) with the games that you mentioned. This is old news. Maybe next time you'll do a little more research and buy a very fast single gpu solution.

One friend has a 285. None have an ATI card.

I fail to see how it being old news makes it okay for it to still be broken all these months later. It's poor QC and/or poor management.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Or user error.

 

[Obsoleet]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
do any of your friends have a gtx 295? If not, how many of your problems are crossfire related? Do any of your friends have a 4890? Many many people refuse to use dual card solutions because they are typically less reliable and often have some issues.

Maybe a better statement would be that dual card ATI solutions don't work well (or in the past did not work well) with the games that you mentioned. This is old news. Maybe next time you'll do a little more research and buy a very fast single gpu solution.

One friend has a 285. None have an ATI card.

I fail to see how it being old news makes it okay for it to still be broken all these months later. It's poor QC and/or poor management.

Just say no to Crossfire and SLI.
You brought your troubles on yourself by wasting your money and time with hodgepodge gimmicks. Just buy a single fast GPU and be done with it.

If you can't get it done with a single 4890 then deal with the problems multiGPU solutions bring without complaints. While many people are happy with SLI and Xfire (I was one of the earliest adopters in ~04 with SLI 6800GTs on launch day)... ATI isn't your problem.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
do any of your friends have a gtx 295? If not, how many of your problems are crossfire related? Do any of your friends have a 4890? Many many people refuse to use dual card solutions because they are typically less reliable and often have some issues.

Maybe a better statement would be that dual card ATI solutions don't work well (or in the past did not work well) with the games that you mentioned. This is old news. Maybe next time you'll do a little more research and buy a very fast single gpu solution.

One friend has a 285. None have an ATI card.

I fail to see how it being old news makes it okay for it to still be broken all these months later. It's poor QC and/or poor management.

A better way to phrase that would have been "those games were broken when you tried to play them". Often the cutting edge of technology involves some hassles/issues, crossfire AND sli often take longer to get "right" than plain old vanilla single cards. That was part of many nvidia fan's criticism of amd's stated intention for the past 2 gens of making their high end card a dual gpu solution. You SHOULD HAVE expected to have issues when you opted for crossfire. Again, I strongly believe that your issues are not with amd cards in general but with the crossfire implementation in particular. If in the next gen amd has the fastest single card solution then you would probably be fine using one of their cards. However, it does seem pretty likely that nvidia will take over again (albeit possibly in q1 2010 or late q4 2009), so you will probably be better served going with the green team.

Or, you could just get a gtx 395 and bitch about all the stuff that doesn't work on it for 6 months.