Just like many here, I purchased a 7800GTX for over $600 dollars when it came out. The excuse back then was "There are no games out now or in the inmediate future that will stress out this Video card" or "You will be able to play all the games now and in the next year with with max resolution and all the visual on high and it won't break a sweat!" Or "This video card is a waste of money since there are no games that can take advantage of it" "Is Overkill" Well the only games that could really play at max settings were Far Cry and Doom3. Soon after F.E.A.R came out and I was left a little cheated as I had to lower the settings a lot to get to 30FPS. Now Oblivion comes out and... Well you get the picture. I wanted it to last more than a year at max settings and over 40 FPS. CPU is a 3200Venice at 2500MHz on a DFI NF4 Ultra modded to SLI and 2 Gigs of Ram.
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What happened to "Go ahead and buy that 7800GTX for futureproofing!"
- Thread starter eat2na
- Start date
Just buy an X1900XTX CrossFire rig...There are no games out now or in the inmediate future that will stress out that Video card and You will be able to play all the games now and in the next year with with max resolution and all the visual on high and it won't break a sweat!
*snicker*
*snicker*
The_Dark_Abyss
Limp Gawd
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nobi125 said:
What about quad sli?
This is why the upgrade train is stupid. When I was younger I would gladly upgrade to the latest and greatest, I traded in my Voodoo 2 SLI for a Voodoo 3 simply because the V3 was newer.
Now I only upgrade when I see a 100% increase in FPS or more.
Now I only upgrade when I see a 100% increase in FPS or more.
Yup, hardware isn't supposed to be the greatest forever...
Although I'm kind of confused about what you said about F.E.A.R. Considering I'm able to get 40 FPS with max settings on my X850XT PE, you should be able to crank up it up all the way on your 7800GTX... that is, unless you have it at an insanely high resolution.
Although I'm kind of confused about what you said about F.E.A.R. Considering I'm able to get 40 FPS with max settings on my X850XT PE, you should be able to crank up it up all the way on your 7800GTX... that is, unless you have it at an insanely high resolution.
nobi125 said:
I know, but the way things were going just 7 months ago you would think it would be money well spent because it will last you for awhile at max settings with just one card. My 9800 lasted me three years before I saw a major hit after I bought Far Cry.
PWMK2 said:
I haven't play F.E.A.R in awhile so I could be wrong. I was expecting to be OK at max settings at 1280x1024 on Oblivion. But when there is a lot of shadows, grass and trees and I am fighting enemies it takes a big hit.
My intention is not to complain about this. I am just making an observation on how fast things are moving now comparing it to just one or two years ago.
Asian Dub Foundation
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dual (or quad) gpu is the only thing future proof nowadays
The_Dark_Abyss
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eat2na said:
Not really. I doubt games coming in 2007 or even 2008 would ditch DX9 completely. Even DX10 games that come out in the next couple of years will most likely be DX9 compatible.
It will take longer than a year for DX10 games to become firmly established and for it to become "necessary" to own DX10 cards.
Its sad that the same people that make the games aren't the same people that make the video cards. I am sure each knows what the other are capable of but both don't make decisions as a whole. It sucks but what can we do, ........nothing. All that I know is that both industries proved to you is don't buy the latest and greatest, for the fact that you spent over $600 for the best and I spent $335 for better. Even though this is the first time I gave an actual sum of money to the video card industry, I don't plan on giving it to them often at all. Will be far and few between for the fact none of them are worth it.
acidicbase
n00b
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i remeber when i got 9700 pro the day it came out, damn that CARD lasted LONG
Borgschulze
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I know more than a few people still use a 9700 Pro and it plays near every game still.acidicbase said:
Sure you might have to drop to 1024x768 to play the new games, but it runs half decent.
My 7800GTX plays the games I want really well. Not 85fps min when arty is raining down but for the most part I'm really really pleased. My previous card was a Ti 4600 that I pre-ordered and just so luckily when it died I got this card soon after.
Now comes in the benefit of SLI. You can get another card (even different manufacturer) and run games in SLI for a nice boost in performance.
So here's my upgrade path:
1. Dell 2407 (when its announced)
2. DFI Expert mobo
3. Opteron 165 or 170 or 180 (what ever seems to be best buy for overclocking when I'm ready to bite)
4. Nvidia DX10 Flagship GPU (maybe even one of those dual cards used in the quad sli setup)
Now comes in the benefit of SLI. You can get another card (even different manufacturer) and run games in SLI for a nice boost in performance.
So here's my upgrade path:
1. Dell 2407 (when its announced)
2. DFI Expert mobo
3. Opteron 165 or 170 or 180 (what ever seems to be best buy for overclocking when I'm ready to bite)
4. Nvidia DX10 Flagship GPU (maybe even one of those dual cards used in the quad sli setup)
Circuitbreaker8
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im pretty much set with my rig....just need to tweak a few things here and there
texuspete00
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The pace is just getting nuts.. But that's what makes it interesting. Games aren't looking worse, your sliders just can't all be set to high at hgh res like set it and forget it. If you just forget about it and have fun, you are still having a great experience I'm sure. Which seems to be what the OP is doing.
Emission
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Dang, why can't a nice Pentium III 850 System with 512MB of RAM and a GF FX 5900 Last you out a good 10 or so years? lol . The second a product hits the shelf, the industry is quick to replace it with something new. It's all a game within the economy, the prices fluctuating and all. Like, getting a card when it comes out blows a hole in your wallet, but waiting even just a little bit after, the price drops a considerable amount. Just goes to show the speed of the industry. The funny thing is, it makes you wonder what you should buy, and when .
. The second a product hits the shelf, the industry is quick to replace it with something new. It's all a game within the economy, the prices fluctuating and all. Like, getting a card when it comes out blows a hole in your wallet, but waiting even just a little bit after, the price drops a considerable amount. Just goes to show the speed of the industry. The funny thing is, it makes you wonder what you should buy, and when .I don't have a problem with needing a new card every year to play games on high, I just have a problem with them being so expensive if we are going to be needing a new one every year.
$500 for a flagship card every year isn't myself and I'd assume most others.
$500 for a flagship card every year isn't myself and I'd assume most others.
eat2na said:
You apparently have not been a computer gamer long. There never has, and never will be, a video card that will play all games released within a year of it's release at max settings, always over 40fps.
Although that could depend on the resolution- you might be able to play your Oblivion at "max settings" 640X480 on a 7800 GTX.
Rollo said:
Hmmm I think we could argue that a Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 2 SLI were capable, but I agree with you for the most part. The GeForce DDR(R.I.P.) was also a very fast card and mine overclocked like a champ(I think from 125 to 150 mhz stable IIRC not sure)
Videocards are typically the quickest-aging computer components. In the last year, I've owned 2 graphics cards, and this year I will probably be purchasing a new one to match up with my new Conroe setup. Staying ahead of the tech curve isn't easy, and with videocards, it's almost impossible.
FadedSpark
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just thought id chime in and mention i play oblivion on high detail with reduced distance... so something is wrong with your setup if you cant play that comfortably... (6800NU, 512MB of ram, 3000+ @ 2200mhz)eat2na said:
Emission
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Bona Fide said:
On top of that, staying ahead with a good card and not needing to buy 2 every year gets more confusing, I mean, competition is good but not when im buying cards left and right more than once a year
.
Emission
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Rollo said:Heh- I had forgotten my beloved Voodoo1 and the dawn of 3d gaming. Had three or four sets of V2-SLI as well, but that's technically two cards.
Gotta love the "original" Voodoo PCI SLI
. I had a Voodoo 5 5500, was the dawn of intense 3d gaming . Remember when the Voodoo 6 came out? 4 GPU's on one card, everyone was like , till they found out that it was just the same VSA-100's, 4 slapped on 1 card. She was a beast though, I must admit.I think you have to look at the gaming picture more broadly, that is, how many new games the card CAN run maxxed out at insane resolutions, not just how many it CANT. Oblivion, and to a smaller extent FEAR are the only games I know of where the 7800gtx cannot fully pull its weight. Now throw in the fact that Bethesda aren't exactly wizards of engine optimization, as evidenced in Morrowind, and you just gotta realize that on the whole things are as those people you listened to predicted.
Emission said:Gotta love the "original" Voodoo PCI SLI
Well.....I don't remember when the V5-6000 "came out", because it never did. I do remember everyone wanting one while they were being developed, and a few people getting engineering samples from ex-3dfx employees when they folded.
I did like my V5 though, it was a nice card with very good image quality.
Rollo said:
You might be right. Is kind of pathetic actually. I purchased that card when it came out then mostly what I did for like 3 months was tweak and OC my system to see how fast would it go at the different array of bechmarks. But when it came to gaming it felt kind of boring, like I just wanted to go outside, you know like I needed a break. So I took a long break and now I mostly play around 30-45 min per day. Wasted money since It was not used for gaming, only to surf the web for all this time.
I got really good at maximazing my FPS though. Well what can you expect, next month I turn 40. At least my daughter used it to play the Sims2 all that time At least Oblivion kind of got me interested again. eat2na said:You might be right. Is kind of pathetic actually. I purchased that card when it came out then mostly what I did for like 3 months was tweak and OC my system to see how fast would it go at the different array of bechmarks. But when it came to gaming it felt kind of boring, like I just wanted to go outside, you know like I needed a break. So I took a long break and now I mostly play less than 1 hour per week. Wasted money since It was not used for gaming, only to surf the web for all this time.
im bored of gaming aswell...i started reading books again and realised how stupid i have been lately
anyways back on topic...well its the price we pay for progress
I am so damn glad I waited through the 7 series cards. My 6800GT still plays all my games @ 1280x1024 with all settings high or highest with enough AA and AF to make things look nice. Even Oblivion looks good and runs good @ 1280x1024 everything high w/ HDR. Of course I have tweaked it for performance and whatnot but it never gets unplayable. Besides after 15-20 hours of Oblivion I was bored anyways and went back to the old reliable CS:Source and Guild Wars. When Vista comes out and all the new DX 10 cards comes is the time to buy. I believe that people who upgraded from 6800's to 7800's and then to 7900's wasted their money. The only people need that kind of power for gaming are the ones with the super high res widescreen lcds.
Well the problem is you are expecting your card to run every thing at max at the highest resolution. You can get by fine these days with a $150-200 card every year or even two.
Take a look at the 6600gt, I can play 800x600 max distance or HDR, highest water detail, but no shadows. That's pretty damn good for a year old mid-range card on the latest and most demanding game. Sure it takes some tweaking, overclocking and testing to get it to where you want it to be, but there is no reason you NEED the latest and greatest card to play the newest games.
You can get a great gaming system on a budget these days, but if you want the best, you'd better expect to pay for it.
Take a look at the 6600gt, I can play 800x600 max distance or HDR, highest water detail, but no shadows. That's pretty damn good for a year old mid-range card on the latest and most demanding game. Sure it takes some tweaking, overclocking and testing to get it to where you want it to be, but there is no reason you NEED the latest and greatest card to play the newest games.
You can get a great gaming system on a budget these days, but if you want the best, you'd better expect to pay for it.