7800 now or wait?

S

seigejet

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 26, 2005
Messages
413
I can't decide! :(

What would you do, get 7800 sli now or wait and get sli of whatever comes next?
 
I will suggest to you that CrossFire is pretty much better than SLI in every respect.

SLI--------------------------------------------------CrossFire
Needs a profile for each game.-----------Does not need a profile for each (or any) game. "It just works."
Cards connected in case.------------------Cards connected outside of case.
Cards (for now) must be identical.------Any X800 or X850 card should be paired with the correct CrossFire card.
2 rendering modes.---------------------------Three rendering modes.
Needs SLI board.------------------------------Works best with ATI Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition, but can be used with some SLI boards.

For more read here.

I have no sentimental attachment to ATI or Nvidia.
I just think CrossFire is a better technology than SLI.

I am waiting to see what the R520 and CrossFire will offer.
 
seigejet said:
I can't decide! :(

What would you do, get 7800 sli now or wait and get sli of whatever comes next?
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Depends on what you have now. If you're running a GF2 or something, then upgrade now. If you have a 6x00 card, or an x800XT or better, then I'd just wait until the next gen.

 
Even if he has GF2 I would say wait. If it was few months back I would have said grab a 6800GT or Ultra because there is no sence in waiting and better is always on the horizon but Nvidia's latest has arrived and ATI's is about to come, so where near the horizon if not there already. Wait it out being that there is not even any potential demanding games slated for release until fall.
 
There's always something lurking in the shadows in the gfx card industry. Stop waiting. The 7800 is a great card, and the 7 series will be superior line of cards from Nvidia for at least a year, even if they release a higher clocked Ultra version, the GTX will still be a high end card. You might as well enjoy it. The R520 is all speculation, it could be another FX5800 for all we know, the 7800GTX is available now at a great price ($481 at Dell right?) and you know it will perform.
 
Don't listen to those stupid fan0y Crossfire vs. SLI comparisons. When it comes down to what counts, performance, they'll both be about the same. It's kind of like when comparing the 6 series' "awesome" features to the ones the X800 doesn't have. Any unbiased individual knows it really doesn't matter. Marketing and the real world often cotradict each other quite a bit, so I would take anything said about Crossfire's features with a grain of salt at this point.

We don't know when ATI's next card will come out. It could be next month or it could be in 4 months. Additionally, we also don't know when Crossfire will come out. It might be before the next card, at the same time, or after. If you're going to spend that much money on video cards you might as well wait until ATI releases its next card so you don't feel like you've wasted your money if the next ATI card smokes the 7800.
 
mentok1982 said:
I just think CrossFire is a better technology than SLI.
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It's a "better" technology on paper unless you have a link to an official review. Does anyone but ATI really know if it works as promised at this point?

Anyways I recommend going with the 7800 GTX unless you want to wait and see what happens in the coming months. The rumor mill says September for R520, but who really knows. It's always better to live in the present. :)
 
BattleMaster said:
It's a "better" technology on paper unless you have a link to an official review. Does anyone but ATI really know if it works as promised at this point?
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Nobody that can comment.

I have a feeling that Crossfire bombed or has a long way to go to get working. Why else would they respond to SLI with no numbers?
 
kick@ss said:
Nobody that can comment.

I have a feeling that Crossfire bombed or has a long way to go to get working. Why else would they respond to SLI with no numbers?
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Perhaps because they don't want Nvidia to realize what they have going on?

As for whether or not you should wait, better things are always coming. I'd just pick up what you can afford, and enjoy the performance. It's not like a 7800 or whatever comes next is going to give a bad gaming experience.

 
DamienThorn said:
Perhaps because they don't want Nvidia to realize what they have going on?

As for whether or not you should wait, better things are always coming. I'd just pick up what you can afford, and enjoy the performance. It's not like a 7800 or whatever comes next is going to give a bad gaming experience.

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That's unlikely. Falling behind in technology and seeming like a generic brand is a lot more damaging than letting NVIDIA know what you are planning (which they did by announcing it). It's not like NVIDIA could copy even if they knew even more, because of patents. Anyways, if they had a working/stable product they would have released some numbers.
 
kick@ss said:
That's unlikely. Falling behind in technology and seeming like a generic brand is a lot more damaging than letting NVIDIA know what you are planning (which they did by announcing it). It's not like NVIDIA could copy even if they knew even more, because of patents. Anyways, if they had a working/stable product they would have released some numbers.
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First, I don't know how ATI is starting to seem like a "generic brand." They, along with Intel and Nvidia are huge players in the graphics card industry. Lacking an SLI equivalent in the market at the moment hardly makes them a generic brand.

I wasn't referring to Nvidia copying their technology, but rather was referring to the fact that, should they release a demo of their technology, that Nvidia would know how well Crossfire was working, and tweak their drivers and possibly release cards at a higher clockspeed to "beat" the Crossfire benches.

Further, I don't know if they would necessarily release numbers if they weren't able to release the product - Nvidia really raised the anti by not having a paper launch, and I think that ATI really wants to show the market that they can have "real" launches, just like Nvidia and Intel.

 
DamienThorn said:
First, I don't know how ATI is starting to seem like a "generic brand." They, along with Intel and Nvidia are huge players in the graphics card industry. Lacking an SLI equivalent in the market at the moment hardly makes them a generic brand.
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See, the thing is... it doesn't matter what you or I think, as we represent a very small portion of the market. What matters is what the ignorant masses think, and to them if they see ATI lacking in this feature (even if they don't intend to buy it) they will begin to think ATI is inferior.

DamienThorn said:
I wasn't referring to Nvidia copying their technology, but rather was referring to the fact that, should they release a demo of their technology, that Nvidia would know how well Crossfire was working, and tweak their drivers and possibly release cards at a higher clockspeed to "beat" the Crossfire benches.
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Faster 7 series cards are already planned. ATI is losing more than it ever would by having NVIDIA release tweaked drivers or whatever.

DamienThorn said:
Further, I don't know if they would necessarily release numbers if they weren't able to release the product - Nvidia really raised the anti by not having a paper launch, and I think that ATI really wants to show the market that they can have "real" launches, just like Nvidia and Intel.

Click to expand...
If ATI didn't want to do paper launches they wouldn't have announced Crossfire.
 
kick@ss said:
See, the thing is... it doesn't matter what you or I think, as we represent a very small portion of the market. What matters is what the ignorant masses think, and to them if they see ATI lacking in this feature (even if they don't intend to buy it) they will begin to think ATI is inferior.
Click to expand...

The ignorant masses are going to continue picking up dell, hp, and emachines computers, as well as ones from their local business and mom and pops shops. Those computers will, largely, have Intel and ATI cards in them because of the Intel integrated graphics, and ATIs dominance in the OEM market. Most will never know what SLI is, or care.

As a note, I know that Nvidia cards are available through most OEMs, but ATI is still dominant in the area.

Faster 7 series cards are already planned. ATI is losing more than it ever would by having NVIDIA release tweaked drivers or whatever.
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Faster 7x00 cards are being planned, but Nvidia can't be certain how much faster they'll have to be to beat Crossfire. Also, they don't know how much reworking they have to do of their drivers to get enough performance out of SLI to beat the Crossfire numbers. While ATI isn't gaining market share, they're also not showing their cards to Nvidia. Whether it's a good marketing move or not is another matter entirely, I'm simply rationalizing why they wouldn't want to reveal their numbers yet.

If ATI didn't want to do paper launches they wouldn't have announced Crossfire.
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If they didn't want paper launches, then they'd've avoided saying that the technology was publically available, as opposed to in testing. As far as I know, they've only mentioned that it was in testing, and that it would be available. The current proposed retail date, if I'm not mistaken, was in late August/early September.

 
omg! mentok! you are such a PHANBOI!!! ugh, I want nothing to do with you! take me OFF your stupid 3dmark05 list right now!!! now I know why Ati cards besides hte 7800gtx score so much higher than nvidias!!!! GOSH!!!

haha j/k :)

but anyways I dont think u need to get the 7800 now if yu already have a decent system. jsut wait.
 
It's like my fifth computer, I'm just impulse buying at this point :D

I already half-heartedly placed an order - unfortunately, when I made the thread I came down with a small case of buyer's remorse lol :p I guess I'll give myself another day or so to decide and check back in here to see your opinions. TIA.
 
Buy the 7800 now, the R520 "cooks" also just with water. lol Seriously, if it will be such a killer card, ATI would be confident and have the balls to post their marketing hyped numbers and by this step alone they would make many investors happy AND they would stop people buying the GTX. Not hard to imagine that the R520 will be quite close to the GTX and if that shouldn´t be the case, just sell your GTX on eBay at the right time, and your losses shouldn´t be greater than $50 to max $100. Or keep waiting until Nvidia releases their secret weapon (if it will be necessary). lol

Good Luck with whatever you decide!
 
mentok1982 said:
Needs a profile for each game.-----------Does not need a profile for each (or any) game. "It just works."
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That's not accurate. It simply means Crossfire is active by default - there are no guarantees that the default mode gives any performance improvement at all. Also, the latest Nvidia drivers allow you to set a default SLI mode for non-profiled games.

Cards connected in case.------------------Cards connected outside of case.
Click to expand...

I think most would agree that the internal connector is a lot cleaner solution.

Cards (for now) must be identical.------Any X800 or X850 card should be paired with the correct CrossFire card.
Click to expand...

That's the case but until we see mix and matched results we don't know how such combinations will perform.

2 rendering modes.---------------------------Three rendering modes.
Click to expand...

The third rendering mode - supertiling - has no tangible advantage over SFR.

Needs SLI board.------------------------------Works best with ATI Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition, but can be used with some SLI boards.
Click to expand...

Link?

AFAIC, there really is no Crossfire/SLI comparison until Crossfire is available. Also, SLI would have probably have moved on by then and changed the playing field a bit given the rumours surrounding the Forceware 80 series enhancements.

To answer the OPs question, get the 7800 now if you need a new card. If you just want to have the fastest and will be disappointed if a card in 3 months is 10-20% faster then wait.
 
So funny to see so many people giving "Fact" on things when there are no facts available. Just rumors. All you ATI phanboys take a hint, you will not when ANY discussions when it comes to the R520 or the Crossfire, that is until the 2 are ACTUALLY released and you can back up your hollow statements with fact.

I for one will buy the fastest on the market. Don't care about brand. 2 of my other boxes are running ATI cards, and this one is running Nvidia.
 
kick@ss said:
See, the thing is... it doesn't matter what you or I think, as we represent a very small portion of the market. What matters is what the ignorant masses think, and to them if they see ATI lacking in this feature (even if they don't intend to buy it) they will begin to think ATI is inferior.
Click to expand...

The 'ignorant masses', by definition, are _ignorant_. This means they don't know about XF or SLI - these are the people that by 256MB GF4MXes instead of 128MB Radeon 9600s thinking that a 256MB card is faster than a 128MB or 64MB card.

Even through their ignorance, they are right in this case - ATI is inferior :p
 
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