16 pipe cards -- good fps for how long?

[WhipperSnapper]

Would anyone care to speculate on the useful life of a 6800 GT or an x800xl? The Radeon 9800 Pros are still playing new games, though not amazingly well. Can we expect that today's 16 pipe cards will be as useful four years from now as the 9800 Pro is today?

If you were to build a new computer today with the intention of not upgrading the video card until you were ready to build a completely new rig in five years, do you think it would be possible to get by on with one of today's 16 pipe cards?

 

[stelleg151]

5 earth years = 1 bagillion years in video card years.

Honestly though, its hard to say. Probably you will be ABLE to play games in 5 years at very low settings, but I wouldnt bet my life on it.

 

[M0RPH]

Your question is flawed really. You shouldn't be generalizing about the performance of a video card based on how many pipes it has. Come October you will see 16-pipe cards that beat the 24-pipe 7800 cards (at the very least I think we can agree the X1800XT will beat a 7800GT). So you really should have asked what is the life expectancy of the X800/6800 series cards.

 

[coomar]

it depends on how well it will run games like unreal tournament 3 since it seems everyone is using that engine

i'm curious to see how the fantasy fps runs on my computer

 

[Munky]

In five years, no matter what video card you buy, it will be ancient technology by that time. The 9800p is not even 3 years old, and already it's a low-midrange card. Say you could SLI 2 of them together, that would be basically as good as a x800xl. In 2 years, even the x800xl will be a low-midrange card. So, basically if you want to keep a card for 5 years that's still able to run future games, then you'll need nothing less than dual 7800gtx in SLI.

But even then, while you could have the power to run the games, you might not have the required features. For example, the oldest card than can technically "run" BF2 is a radeon 8500, and that's not even 4 years old. The geforce4 is slightly newer, and it cant even run the game at all because it doesnt support the required shader model. I'd say the maximum usable life time of a gaming video card is about 3 years. After that, it's just about worthless.

 

[Turtle 1]

I think that the next generation of cards G80 and R600 will last a long time . Sure cards will get faster by how much is the real question . Things cann't keep progressing as they have in the past. These cards will be really good for a long time. and there other other factors coming into the video scene now that will help the GPU'S. PPU should be a great benefit and WGF 2.0 will help as unified Arch should be a great improvement.

To ans your question . Todays 16 & 24 pipe cards will not have a long life at all.
Save your money and buy into the next generation G80 or R600 these GPU'S should be good performers for at least 3 years if not more.

 

[Rage187]

If you want a video card that will last you 5 years, buy a console.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Turtle 1
I think that the next generation of cards G80 and R600 will last a long time . Sure cards will get faster by how much is the real question . Things cann't keep progressing as they have in the past. These cards will be really good for a long time. and there other other factors coming into the video scene now that will help the GPU'S. PPU should be a great benefit and WGF 2.0 will help as unified Arch should be a great improvement.

To ans your question . Todays 16 & 24 pipe cards will not have a long life at all.
Save your money and buy into the next generation G80 or R600 these GPU'S should be good performers for at least 3 years if not more.

I disagree. Both CPU's and GPU's have come to a screaching crawl by comparison to the previous years, but that doesn't mean that this will continue. My prediction is that a lot of people have figured out that the current microchip technology is reaching the end of it's useful lifetime, and they are working on developing something new. Obviously, this is a non-trivial task, but imagine the financial rewards for the person(s) that can patent that new tech. I don't this is a question of if it will happen, but when, and who...

Either way, in 5 years any video card(s) you buy today will be crap.

 

[ddogg]

Originally posted by: Rage187
If you want a video card that will last you 5 years, buy a console.

:thumbsup:

 

[ddogg]

Originally posted by: Turtle 1
To ans your question . Todays 16 & 24 pipe cards will not have a long life at all.
Save your money and buy into the next generation G80 or R600 these GPU'S should be good performers for at least 3 years if not more.

i dont think we can say G80 or R600 will be future proof for a longer time than the current cards. games will just get more demanding!!

 

[Turtle 1]

The unified Arch. of the R600 is new very new and it does what your saying and its got a Patient The current cards are going no ware R520 R580 and G70 are going to be fastest deappearing products ever. G70 is got better life than the R520 just because it is currently available. From ATI in the next 12 months this is what you will be seeing.

R520 Soon
R580 1st or second quarter 2006
R600 3rd or 4th quarter of 2006.

To little to late than they pile it on . Only the R600 is future proof . Both the R520 and R580 will play in Vista but not 100% . So my opion is their a bad buy. Vista nov. 2006