R600 is now on sale for we.pcinlife.com

quadnad said:
Have you even read a [H] hardware evaluation?

[H]'s real world focus on their benchmarks are the only reliable source of performance information on the interweb. Any canned benchmark can claim a high score, but is that going to translate into a better experience? Will I be able to run with a higher resolution than my current card? More AA? More AF? Higher IQ? How's the noise? How much heat does it output? How much power does it require?

If you don't understand what a real world difference is, you should probably stop visiting [H] altogether.
Click to expand...

QFT truth. Some people are just not smart enough to see the forest for the trees. If you don't like what we do, there are a hundred other cookie cutter sites out there for the information you are looking for. Just remember when you get it home and start cranking Res, AA, and AF, and think to yourself, maybe those H guys are not so crazy after all. ;)
 
The R600 needs to be one hell of a card if ATI/AMD wants to compete with nvidia. It's coming out way to late in the game though. Nvidia should have a refresh ready to roll by the time it comes out(if ever...).

I couldn't care less about this generation however, I wont be buying a new video card for a very long time. :(
 
Sharky974 said:
BTW, I dont think it matters if ATI is late anymore.

Certainly hasn't hurt them in any tangible way being almost six months late here. I guess they can be late indefinitly now and it not have any real effect. Nvidia has become really punchless. It's almost like they settle for second best now, and everybody just waits for the ATI card to come out.
Click to expand...

You need to take a look around you ATI being "Late" has cost them ridiculous amounts of money already look around at all the proud owners of 8800's and just stop and think how many of them would own an R600 if they where around. instead there where no R600's to buy so people had no choice if they wanted true high end graphics and DX10 ATI was not an option for the last 5 months and still is not. There has been no high end competition whatsoever ATI just rolled over and handed it to Nvidia for the past 5 months and if you think that it hasnt cost ATI dearly you need your head checked. you should look at every G80 sold and think that couldve been a sale for ATI instead if they had a product on the shelves to compete.

Ill tell you what if the R600 dont spank the shit out of the G80 in performance or price its going to be a long time before ATI can recoup from this one.
 
Clearly, R600 will have to be considerably faster than the 8800 GTX to take any users away from NVIDIA. Assuming the late May launch for R600 is accurate, that gives NVIDIA 6 weeks to address their driver issues. Of course, you could bet real money they've been addressing those issues, albeit internally, since G80 came out. Without R600 to compete for G80 customers, NVIDIA's Vista driver quality is a non-issue. There is nothing remotely competitive to the GeForce 8800 GTX, so there are no shoulders for disillusioned 8800 owners to cry on. Instead, they cry in our forums, and other forums all over the place, as is their right to do. I believe that NVIDIA is holding out on new Vista drivers until they have more products to pack into the driver package.

ATI not answering NVIDIA's G80 has already hurt ATI, and it also hurts gamers by keeping prices high and drivers crappy.

By the time R600 comes out, there may be very little left to gripe about with the GeForce 8 series of video cards. By the time it comes out, it may already be the loser, even if it's slightly faster (and cheaper) than the 8800 GTX, because it's not just the GTX that it has to contend with. As Kyle said, the 8800 Ultra is coming. That is a big dark cloud hanging over R600.

Then there's the power and cooling issue. Cooling better not be an issue with a 24 watt fan...There is no reason that a COOLING FAN should user more power than all of my hard drives combined.
 
I'm going to buy two of these babies and run them in X-fire.

Watches e-penis GROW
 
pfunkman said:
Either way no matter how good the R600 is it will sell like shit because everyone that had the cash already spent it on the G80
Click to expand...

Once you own a top of the line component, you will never again have to pay more than $200 to own another one. There is something called ebay. There are online forums for the sale of real items. If R600 owns, will G80 lose all it's value overnight? Probably not. If R600 blows, will G80 lose all it's value overnight? Definitely not. Either way, if you own a G80 and have a functioning brain, you're completely covered. For example, I'm probably going to be getting myself a nice GTX in a month, once the new releases drive down the price. How much will I still have to pay for it - $500, or $450 even? Try <$150. I own a GTS. You're thinking, surely I was ripped off on that, right? Not even, I paid <$200 because I was upgrading from a 7900 GTO that was purchased in October. And the latter was famous as the $400 card that went for $250 for a month before going out of stock. So I have been winner from the beginning.

Every single time I upgrade, all of my old parts go straight to ebay. I make back at least 50% of what I spend. This is how I can afford to be an enthusiast with a typical consumer's budget (or less). All it takes is one initial heavy investment to actually build your first rig. From then on, it's a cakewalk as anyone who isn't in debt can afford to drop $150 every few months, and that's all it takes to stay on the cutting edge.

There has never been a better time than now to be an enthusiast. It has never been more affordable. I am able to do this despite working at a grocery store and earning $10/hr. If I can do it, anyone can. Why the hell is anyone still using socket 478? AGP? Athlons? These things boggle my mind...
 
Al Shades said:
From what I gather we are both equally uninformed at this point. Unless you are able to post R600's official specs?
Click to expand...

The fact that neither of you are posting the specs doesn't mean that your knowledge is therefore equal. If you think you have more information than Kyle, post it. He's not under the same obligation to prove his bona fides, because everyone knows who he is, what he does, what his site does, and nobody knows you.

get it?
 
5150Joker said:
DailyTech has just posted info. on the R600, apparently it will have 320 stream processors coupled to a 512 bit bus. Even if this thing eats a lot of power, it's specs should be enough to warrant that since it seems this thing will be a monster: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6903
Click to expand...

Although that clearly can't be taken as plain fact (nobody ever seems to list sources anymore...), if it's anything close to what they're talking about it'll be a fucking beast..

Here's hoping!
 
|CR|Constantine said:
....that the R600 smells like a total failure without the benefit of testing, is a bit over the top.
Click to expand...



Why are you embellishing his comments ? And blowing what he said even further out of proportion ? Kyle did not say it would be a TOTAL failure,he said he "Smelled a failure,but hoped he was wrong,but said we would see,come the following months via sales figures"

Your embellishments are the only thing over the top...well that and the potential power requirements,as well as the fact its soo damn late... :)
 
The one thing I have always been, is never too proud to admit when I am dead wrong. I got on Kyle for making statements about a card he has not even touched saying that it was unethical to do so. I was horribly wrong.

After reading the news hitting the wire late into the night I have met my punishment.

I will humbly get down on my knees and gargle Kyle balls for a period that is acceptable to him. I just hope the guy waxes.

Word on the street is the card Gibbo has been testing is the XT version of the R600 which WILL BE THE FUCKING FLAGSHIP. Yes the card that is almost seven months late will be competitive with Nvidia's now 6 month old offering. Even though it may have better drivers, even though it may keep the crown of better IQ, and even show off porn in HD to make you sick, it still has the same FPS as a 6 month old Nvidia card.

For the first time in 6 years I will not be purchasing ATi's latest flagship on launch day.

Kyle I'm sure heard the same news earlier and I fully agree with his comments. Being a fan is never wrong when the company you promote has great products, but even though the R600 is a great card the deployment was God awful.

Reminds me of that episode of the Cosby's when Cliff explains to his daughters finance that he is a steak being served on a trash can lid, when he meets him for the first time.The same is true about the R600, it might kick the crap out of the 8800GTX in features but neck and neck ain't going to cut it six months later.

Tunsinia is going to be interesting. Here AMD will show off items they will not be selling for several months. From Barcelona to the REAL 2950XTX.

I hope the media boils them alive.

So Kyle in the imortal words of Ms. Chokesondick from South Park...present them.
 
*Sigh* This R600 deal has really been a pain in the ass for me. The only reasons I don't have a GTX right now are that at the time it first launched I didn't have the cash, and Ati was supposed to launch by end 2006. Figuring competition is always good I decided to wait, under the assumption my x1900xt 256mb would carry me through December quite nicely.

Then it got pushed to January. Ok one month I can deal with, especially if the rumors pan out and it spanks the 8800gtx. Then it's March. Ok, this is getting annoying. Oh well, March is right around the corner, I can at least put the rest of my new rig together right?

This was going to be my first attempt at top of the line, and trying to make th transition from a bang for buck mobo/proc/ram/gpu upgrade every 9 months to a simple CPU upgrade in 2 years.

Bottom line is I'm sitting on a dfi rd600, xeon 3060 oc'ed to 3.7Ghz, 4gbs Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500, 2 striped 150 raptors, 2x500gb maxtors, a physx card, an x-fi fatal1ty and still there, like my computer's the damned Alammo is my Davy Crockett x1900xt, which is really starting to get my goat now that my Westy LVM-37W3 has arrived and nothing recent I play can do 60 FPS at a native 1920*1080 res.

This was set up by March 12th. Release gets pushed to fucking May. I am seriously getting pissed here, and the only thing stopping me from reselling my rd600 is the fact that I've boxed myself into a corner as far as the mobo is concerned. Given my other new hardware, I need a mobo capable of 2 dual slot GPUs, + 2 free pci slots.
Since this is meant to be top of the line I must have dual top of the line GPUs. (I know unnecessary, waste of money blabla, hey, this was my first and probably last monster rig, it's been a dream for a few years now, and I finally scraped together enough to cash to pull it off once, and I'm banking on future proofing. Lay off me ;P).

Only boards supporting SLIed 8800GTXs and having two free pci ports, and 8 sata ports (yes, I use all of them) are reference 680i boards that scare me with their inconsistency. (reports of Evga's frying high end ram the occasional "my board hates every other component" story etc.) So like a fool I figure May... it's not so bad... I'll just really hit the xbox 360 hard.

Meanwhile, I've put off going through Oblivion since a month after launch because I wanted to wait and be able to experience it in full 1920*1080 everything maxed texture pack modded glory at a decent framerate. Nwn 2 shadows at anything above low setting gut my x1900xt and leave it lying bleeding and broken on the side of the road. (18 fps anyone? at ANY res). And S.T.A.L.K.E.R at 1280*1024 with decent settings occasionally dips below the minimum 30fps.

NOW, after all this, I learn that for some inconceivable reason ATI is supposedly only launching the 512MB GDDR3 HD 2900 XT in May. The XTX is on hold, and the 65nm is a few months around the corner. Oh, and btw, the 2900xt will only be on par or slightly better than nvidia's flagship, and they (Nvidia) have a refresh waiting in the wings for the r600 launch...

Well, I'm pissed enough to pour all that frustration into this long diatribe listing my ordeal thus far.

Is ATI to blame? I'd like to say somewhat, but honestly, the only thing keeping me waiting are the criteria I set for myself. So everyone reading this, you probably have at one point or another chided someone for waiting for the supposed announced holy hardware grail instead of pursuing an existing upgrade at the time it's needed.

Read my sad sob story and feel justified, go on, someone deserves some joy from this pain in the ass upgrade. It's not looking like I'll be that recipient anytime soon.
 
Brother, I don't know how you roll, but I don't let guys touch my balls. If you are ever in Dallas, we can buy each other a beer maybe, but if touch my package, I will hit you in the face. Deal? ;)

Seriously, I stand by what I say here and if I am wrong, I will eat crow publicly. And though I do my own share of screwing up, I generally do not get the big picture wrong.
 
Al Shades said:
Once you own a top of the line component, you will never again have to pay more than $200 to own another one. There is something called ebay. There are online forums for the sale of real items. If R600 owns, will G80 lose all it's value overnight? Probably not. If R600 blows, will G80 lose all it's value overnight? Definitely not. Either way, if you own a G80 and have a functioning brain, you're completely covered. For example, I'm probably going to be getting myself a nice GTX in a month, once the new releases drive down the price. How much will I still have to pay for it - $500, or $450 even? Try <$150. I own a GTS. You're thinking, surely I was ripped off on that, right? Not even, I paid <$200 because I was upgrading from a 7900 GTO that was purchased in October. And the latter was famous as the $400 card that went for $250 for a month before going out of stock. So I have been winner from the beginning.
Click to expand...

Tell that to the people trying to sell off thier 7950GX2's for 8800's:rolleyes: if the R600 is a superior video card expect your 8800GTS to be worth far less than what you paid. on top of that with the refreshes coming and the eventual price drops if you wait too long your card will be worth shit compared to what you paid. The only way to get a decent amount out of an old video card is to sell it fast before a new generation of cards. You can pull off what your saying but its entirely about timing and who the fuck wants to go through hell selling thier video cards and buying new ones every 3 months just to stay at the bleeding edge? Your average gamer wants to upgrade at most one time every generation you forget you guys that upgrade your video cards every few months are a small group.

Al Shades said:
There has never been a better time than now to be an enthusiast. It has never been more affordable. I am able to do this despite working at a grocery store and earning $10/hr. If I can do it, anyone can. Why the hell is anyone still using socket 478? AGP? Athlons? These things boggle my mind...
Click to expand...

Big whoop you make $10/hr and can afford these things but you forget not everyone lives in the same small boxed in world you do. Some people have house payments, car payments, kids etc. so no if you can do it that dont mean everyone can thats just stupid and shows your small minded views for what they really are.
 
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/12/markets/amd/index.htm?section=money_markets

This is getting my attention far more then the luckyish handful who are testing AMDati's latest.Read between the lines even a little and think for a moment or three about that article.There sales are down and out,and now they have re evaluated there estimates,yet again,and seen that the 3rd and 4th quarter will be worse then it is now or at best the same ? :eek: What does that say about AMDati's predictions for R600 sales,not to mention cpu sales ?
 
pushing new products out the front door means advertising which is (or can be) a costly affair. There are new CPUs from AMD and new GPUs from ATI rolling out. and on top of this, if they can´t become the clear winner through benchmark performance over Intel and Nvidia, they might try the approach via your wallet meaning cheaper prices from the get-go.
That would lead to a quite unsatisfying prospect for shareholders, at least for the next few quarters.
 
Just a question, if the fan is max @ 24W wouldn't they have included that into their power requirments, aka making the card 250-24? putting the card itself - the fan at 226w?
 
Manny Calavera said:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/12/markets/amd/index.htm?section=money_markets

This is getting my attention far more then the luckyish handful who are testing AMDati's latest.Read between the lines even a little and think for a moment or three about that article.There sales are down and out,and now they have re evaluated there estimates,yet again,and seen that the 3rd and 4th quarter will be worse then it is now or at best the same ? :eek: What does that say about AMDati's predictions for R600 sales,not to mention cpu sales ?
Click to expand...



Did you see the date?

January 12 2007: 12:08 PM EST
Click to expand...
 
constantine, the guy who has the current R600 has the 512m version orr, the "non-1gb" version, you can still love ATI :p
 
The problem is the current rumor maintains that the only thing getting launched in may as far as high end r600 IS that 512mb 2900xt. And waiting longer for a 1gb or a 65nm version just twists the knife in the wound
 
Suicide King said:
just twists the knife in the wound
Click to expand...

Jeez..you're a little tense about this launch huh?

Guys, nobody is really sure what the final drivers/hardware will produce in real-world situations. A 512-bit memory bus will most definitely produce something much more significant outside of 3dMark.

Lets wait to judge performance until the release information comes out and we aren't relying on some forum poster who A. hasn't posted pictures of the card and B. doesn't know how to bench it.
 
Heh, yeah, I am tense, that big post about the ordeal on the thread page before this kind of explains where I'm at on the launch, but again, I've got only myself to blame for holding out this long. ATI doesn't owe me anything for waiting on their product, it's just going to be a big personal disapointment if they only launch a 512mb 2900xt with slightly superior performance to a 8800gtx in some situations. After a several month long wait, it's admittedly dissapointing, but then again, serves me right for not just buying a gtx I guess.

I just need to hold out for the tunisia press weekend and hopefully finally get the skinny from AMD itself instead of dumpster diving fudzilla and the inquirer every couple of hours...
 
Tetrahedron said:
its just another feature the 8800 doesnt have... pure pwnage!
Click to expand...

Its obvious neither of you has ever opened a server say, a SUN machine before, the black holder is for screwing or attaching the card to a security holder on the other side of the case. Sometimes OEMS even enclose their cards into foam and seal that "tunnel" with a coule of fans so the cooling is well done. See for instance ITANIUM 1 machines.
 
Okay I'd like to get a few answers on some questions in regards to the r600.

Can you give me Fact answers and then Rumored answers if need be?

1. Which card is launching first as the HD 2900 XT is it the top of the line card?

2. Does this have 1GB or 512MB, not necessarily the card in this thread, but what is supposed to coming? Are both models shipping right off the bat in regards to memory size?

3. Is this GDDR3 or GDDR4?

4. Is the GDDR4 rumored for the 65nm shrink, or a few weeks after the GDDR3 version like I had previously heard rumors of?

5. Is this GDDR4 model reserved for 1GB?

Thanks for any help or any info you guys have.
 
Schmiggy_JK23 said:
Okay I'd like to get a few answers on some questions in regards to the r600.

Can you give me Fact answers and then Rumored answers if need be?

1. Which card is launching first as the HD 2900 XT is it the top of the line card?

2. Does this have 1GB or 512MB, not necessarily the card in this thread, but what is supposed to coming?

3. Is this GDDR3 or GDDR4?

4. Is the GDDR4 rumored for the 65nm shrink, or a few weeks after the GDDR3 version like I had previously mentioned.

5. Is this GDDR4 model reserved for 1GB?

Thanks for any help or any info you guys have.
Click to expand...

1. It's the XT and no, it's not the top of the line. That would be the XTX, which should only differ from the XT, in amount of memory, memory type (GDDR4) and probably clock frequencies.

2. The XT has 512 MB

3. GDDR3

4. No one knows for sure, but apparently there will be a 80 nm XTX with GDDR4 first, although very limited in quantity. The 65 nm comes later.

5. What do you mean ? If there's going to be a model with more or less than 1 GB of GDDR4 ? I have no idea, but who knows. GDDR4 will be used more and more in graphics video RAM, so I can assume there will be more cards with GDDR4 eventually.
 
in the last question I meant to ask if GDDR4 was reserved for the XTX/1GB, which it sounds like it is.

Thanks for the answers. So basically if we want the high end 2900 we need to wait a bit, and wait a bit longer for the 65nm die shrink and power savings.
 
|CR|Constantine said:
The one thing I have always been, is never too proud to admit when I am dead wrong. I got on Kyle for making statements about a card he has not even touched saying that it was unethical to do so. I was horribly wrong.

After reading the news hitting the wire late into the night I have met my punishment.

I will humbly get down on my knees and gargle Kyle balls for a period that is acceptable to him. I just hope the guy waxes.

Word on the street is the card Gibbo has been testing is the XT version of the R600 which WILL BE THE FUCKING FLAGSHIP. Yes the card that is almost seven months late will be competitive with Nvidia's now 6 month old offering. Even though it may have better drivers, even though it may keep the crown of better IQ, and even show off porn in HD to make you sick, it still has the same FPS as a 6 month old Nvidia card.

For the first time in 6 years I will not be purchasing ATi's latest flagship on launch day.

Kyle I'm sure heard the same news earlier and I fully agree with his comments. Being a fan is never wrong when the company you promote has great products, but even though the R600 is a great card the deployment was God awful.

Reminds me of that episode of the Cosby's when Cliff explains to his daughters finance that he is a steak being served on a trash can lid, when he meets him for the first time.The same is true about the R600, it might kick the crap out of the 8800GTX in features but neck and neck ain't going to cut it six months later.

Tunsinia is going to be interesting. Here AMD will show off items they will not be selling for several months. From Barcelona to the REAL 2950XTX.

I hope the media boils them alive.

So Kyle in the imortal words of Ms. Chokesondick from South Park...present them.
Click to expand...

You're apology was worse than the offence. :eek: :p
 
ok ati if your reading this, let me pose a question. Why cant you lose the s-vid connector? In its spot, there should be the power connector where we insert the plug to the supplied powerbrick. Lets do something innovative and correct for once.

#1 Give it its own nuclear powerplant.
#2 This would give uninterrupted and adequate power needed that you specify.(no guess work involved)
#3 See above.
 
Is Crysis out yet? No? Then what do I need a HD2900XT for?

I'll wait for Crysis, and hopefully the HD2900 XTX will be out, 65nm and 1GB ddr4 @ $500ish.
 
NIVO said:
ok ati if your reading this, let me pose a question. Why cant you lose the s-vid connector? In its spot, there should be the power connector where we insert the plug to the supplied powerbrick. Lets do something innovative and correct for once.

#1 Give it its own nuclear powerplant.
#2 This would give uninterrupted and adequate power needed that you specify.(no guess work involved)
#3 See above.
Click to expand...
This is common sense actually. Didn't 3dfx resort to using external PSUs or planned on doing this? I can't think of a better solution for power-hungry video subsystems of today, and I'm not only talking about ATI. I can't understand why manufacturers won't implement this. Instead, everytime consumers acquire a new generation video card they are faced with the likely prospect of upgrading their PSU, increasing the total cost of purchase not to mention the possibility of underestimating complete system power requirements (as you stated).
 
APOLLO said:
This is common sense actually. Didn't 3dfx resort to using external PSUs or planned on doing this? I can't think of a better solution for power-hungry video subsystems of today, and I'm not only talking about ATI. I can't understand why manufacturers won't implement this. Instead, everytime consumers acquire a new generation video card they are faced with the likely prospect of upgrading their PSU, increasing the total cost of purchase not to mention the possibility of underestimating complete system power requirements (as you stated).
Click to expand...

Its pretty simple...with video cards now gargantuan in size it is not very consumer friendly to double that size for a PSU just for the card. And who wants to add another component in to the mix that can fail.

The way i see it is if the consumer dont do the appropriate research before investing (And at these prices it is an investment ) his hard earned cash in to something when they realize thier PSU cant handle it they should only have themselves to blame. unfortunately most of the time it dont work that way.
 
JustinSane said:
What the hell is that black handle on the end of it for?
Click to expand...

New feature. When you get pwned (or bored) at LAN parties, you snatch it out of the case and beat the guy that fragged you with it. You can even play it in multiplayer if both of you have one... :D. LOL
 
Suicide King said:
Read my sad sob story and feel justified, go on, someone deserves some joy from this pain in the ass upgrade. It's not looking like I'll be that recipient anytime soon.
Click to expand...

Your pain is self-inflicted.

For starters, rather foolish to assume that something would come out of the pipe and "blow away" the 8 series, given the tremendous technological leap that it represented over its predecessor. Have you not seen the stellar performance benchmarks for the 8800 GTX? All electronics manufacturers work with the same limitations. That means they will be roughly competitive. If one company comes out with a product that represents a huge leap over the previous generation of hardware (as Nvidia did with the 8 series), the chances of it's rival releasing something that is leaps and bounds ahead of that are very small. The 8 series was one of the biggest technological "leap forwards" that this market has ever seen.

I will cut to the point. Let me show you how you could turn your situation around and be gaming happily at max res within a week or two.

First, go sell your x1900xt on ebay for $130-150. Now buy this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130072
$560-$30 Rebate -$130 = $400

So you'll be getting a GTX for the price of a GTX. That would be enough to make most people happy. If and when R600 comes out, and you decide to get one, you can always throw your GTX on ebay and make back 75% or more of the purchase price. If the R600 pricing ends up under-cutting the GTX, then you will have made back near 100% of your investment for the GTX. Worst case scenario, you will pay $100 out of your pocket to upgrade from the GTX to the next big thing. That increases your total investment to $500, which is probably less than you had intended to pay anyways.

Now, go get yourself a GTX. You aren't buying a car. Your investment is not going to lose half it's value as soon as you open the box. :p

pfunkman said:
Tell that to the people trying to sell off thier 7950GX2's for 8800's:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Huh? The 7950GX2 represents the top-of-the-line 7 series card. It is actually faster than the 8800 GTS. That makes it the second best consumer GPU one can have. And the selling prices on ebay fully reflect that:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NVIDIA-GEFORCE-...ryZ40161QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

pfunkman said:
if the R600 is a superior video card expect your 8800GTS to be worth far less than what you paid. on top of that with the refreshes coming and the eventual price drops if you wait too long your card will be worth shit compared to what you paid.
Click to expand...

Not so. I keep tabs on ebay weekly. I've seen how the prices change over time. I purchased a 7900 GTO last october for $250, right before the 8 series came out. I sold it in Febuary for the exact same price to upgrade to the 8800 GTS. That was after the 8 series had been widely released and their performance advantages over the last generation were well known. In fact, if I still had my 7900 GTO, I could sell it for $215 today.
http://cgi.ebay.com/eVGA-7900GTO-51...ryZ40161QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That means the market value of the card depreciated by only 14 percent over half a year, even DESPITE the introduction of an entire new generation of hardware in that time!

There's no way to beat that, are you kidding me? My point is that all you have to do is make one, solid (and relatively high-priced) investment, as I did with the 7900 GTO, and from that point on you are set. It is easier than ever to break into the top ranks of this hobby with a mainstream budget - and to stay there.

pfunkman said:
Big whoop you make $10/hr and can afford these things but you forget not everyone lives in the same small boxed in world you do. Some people have house payments, car payments, kids etc. so no if you can do it that dont mean everyone can thats just stupid and shows your small minded views for what they really are.
Click to expand...

That is why I said that anyone who isn't in debt can easily afford to do this. I do not speak for those who are loaded down with monthly payments, nor would I want to. That, too, is a personal decision and they are simply reaping the consequences of what they have sown. What I am saying is this: If you can afford to drop ~$1.5k JUST ONCE, and $150 every 3 months thereafter, you too can be on the cutting edge of every new hardware development. It is not brain surgery. You wait for the thing to come out, you read the reviews. If it's an fx5800, you sit tight and wait for the other guy. If it's an 8800GTX, you buy, buy, buy and then you sell, sell, sell when you don't want it anymore, knowing there will be strong demand for such a flagship card for years to come.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
In the same world that says that a high-end 7 series SLI config will beat an 8800 GTS and be roughly on par with the GTX. The 7950GX2 offers roughly the same performance as a 7900GT SLI config. All of this is documented and well known to anyone who has followed the headlines over the past 6 mnths or so .

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35618
On Leadtek 8800 GTS, 3Dmark03 is some 5000 faster than on ATI card but almost 5000 slower than the 7950 GX2 card as the two G71 chips really do well in this one. Gefoce 8800 GTX is also some 5000 faster than the GTS.
Click to expand...

8800 GTX > 7950GX2 > 8800 GTS > 7900 GTX
 
Here is my two cents.

First, AMD in its annual 10-K SEC filling acknowledged that the R600 delay is a bad thing. The delay was not good for business but unless you are an AMD shareholder, who gives a damn?

Second, I have not seen any data that suggests that the HD2900 XT will not significantly outperform the 8800 GTX. The fact of the matter is that DX10 is a wildcard in this equation and until you have DX10 applications to test with there is no telling which card will perform better.

Third, I think it is best to compare graphics cards based on what they do and not what they "score." What does the 3Dmark score even mean?

You need to think about what game you want to be able to play, what resolution you want, and what features you want. For example, I know that I want to play Crysis, UT3, TF2, and Bioshock at my monitor's native resolution of 1680 x 1050 with 4x aa and 8x af. I know from experience that, subjectively, all games look very very good at those settings. Further, I want a solid 50+ fps. To this day, I do not know if there will be a single graphics card capable of doing this when the first DX10 games are released. Once you find a card that will run your preferred settings, it is a question of which GPU maker is offering more bang/buck.

There are a lot of factors that could tip the scales. The HD2900 cards might underwhelm in 3dmark, but what if it handles antialiasing better? What if the 3dmark scores are close, but when you crank up the AA the ATI cards take a lot less of a performance hit? Or vice versa? That would radically change my opinion of things. If one card does 2X aa playable and another does 4xaa playable (in the latest killer app) the former has been handily beaten in my opinion. How many 3dmark points does that translate into? Catch my drift?

The most useful information, in my opinion, will come when we get some benchmarks for Oblivion, Supreme Commander, ect.
 
Al Shades said:
In the same world that says that a high-end 7 series SLI config will beat an 8800 GTS and be roughly on par with the GTX. The 7950GX2 offers roughly the same performance as a 7900GT SLI config. All of this is documented and well known to anyone who has followed the headlines over the past 6 mnths or so .

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35618


8800 GTX > 7950GX2 > 8800 GTS > 7900 GTX
Click to expand...

Your basing that on an inquirer article, and asserting it as absolutely true. :rolleyes:

Oh and the GTS beats the 7950GX2 in 3dM06, 05 and several of the game benchmarks, in that article you quoted.

Well played.
 
Isnt the R600 a DX 10.1 card

and the 8800GTX just a DX 10 card?

R600 has SM 4.1 and 8800GTX SM4.0 ??


wouldnt this make the R600 more advanced?
 
Al Shades said:
In the same world that says that a high-end 7 series SLI config will beat an 8800 GTS and be roughly on par with the GTX. The 7950GX2 offers roughly the same performance as a 7900GT SLI config. All of this is documented and well known to anyone who has followed the headlines over the past 6 mnths or so .

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35618


8800 GTX > 7950GX2 > 8800 GTS > 7900 GTX
Click to expand...

Posted by Fuad
" Thursday 09 November 2006, 09:08 "

A bunch of inquirer benchmarks, and not just inquirer benchmarks...but inquirer benchmarks from november of 06 is your basis for that? ok chief. Might want to check some number that aren't 8 months old next time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top