Anyone else think it's pointless to upgrade now?

[sandorski]

If your games are running like crap. Now is the Best time to upgrade.
If your games run ok, but you want more eye candy. Now is a Good time to upgrade.
If you just need the Best. You should already have the Top of the Line card.
If you want a card to last you for a few years. Delaying the purchase only gives you the amount of time you waited before it begins to suck.

Waiting doesn't really give you anything.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Well I went ahead and bought the 9800 GX2 in early June for about $400 after rebate plus taxes. But if I had waited till now, I would have gotten it for almost 270-299 CAD. But I did sell my old 8800Gts 640mb and collected a cool 118$US, henceforth I only paid about 300$ for my 900gx2 if you look at it that way.

From my experience, with the current cards coming out so quickly, just stick to a price point like 300-400 max and get a card, it'll last you a while. If I were to buy a card now, I'd just buy a 9800GX2. 5 months down the road, maybe get a 4870x2 for 300$.

It's just not like back in dec2006 when the 8800gts G80 cards were released. Those cards had a stagnant pricepoint for atleast over a year! So it was worth it to spend $500 plus on a card.

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: Azn
People who go from a 8800gt to a 8800gts/9800gtx, 4850 have problems. It's called addiction.

At least those people are "better" (or less addicted, maybe) than all of the people who went from a 8800gts g80 ->8800gt :Q

 

[Insomniator]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
It still amazes me how people are still running such antique cards like 6800GTs and GF 7 series cards. I'm not sure whether its sad or pathetic.

What a stupid post.

 

[Amit3945]

I have a 7900 GS and am NOT interested in benchmarking at all.
All I care about is Game performance in Crysis/Warhead and possibly FC2/TR and the New PoP
So with these requirement's is upgrading to a 4850 really like going from night to day?
Thank's

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Insomniator

Originally posted by: Bateluer
It still amazes me how people are still running such antique cards like 6800GTs and GF 7 series cards. I'm not sure whether its sad or pathetic.

What a stupid post.

only if you are running an ant . . . i mean 6800 series

 

[Apocalypse23]

I just don't believe in video card's for different price ranges, lol. Nvidia and Ati are just spoiling the market by releasing so many cards, eg: 8800gt 8800gts 8800gts 512 8800gtx 9600gt 9800gtx gtx260 gtx280 and now they even released a 9500gt :-/ . The same with ATi although not as severe to the extent of Nvidia.

There are only 2 options you guys should choose with regards to 'upgrading' as PCenthusiasts, since all of are members of anandtech, to me it is a PCEnthusiast forum. So anyways my point is that :

either upgrade for good, i.e have a nice system, and get a HIGH end but affordable vid card (300$ mark) because honestly, that's how much a good card is these days that can actually last you for a good time. eg. 9800gx2, 4870x2 (500$)--that's about the only 2 cards that come to mind for me, that will actually save you the time and hassle of upgrading in the next few months.

The other options: - if you have an old system that already has a slow cpu, and a decent vid card, there is no point in upgrading to another vid card that gives you a slight performance increase, if you go that route, you have to upgrade EVERYTHING. So just get a high end card and you are good.

High end cards: you won't complain about them for a while.
Mid to Low end cards: you will complain about upgrading very often and it won't be worth it.

So everyone just get a 9800gx2 or a 4870x2, and dont bother with SLi or Crossfire imo. Save your space, heat, and extra power consumption.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Apocalypse23

So everyone just get a 9800gx2 or a 4870x2, and dont bother with SLi or Crossfire imo. Save your space, heat, and extra power consumption.

x2 = Crossfire or SLi

they suffer from the same limitations - their only advantage is that they are crossfired or sli'd gpus on a single card

my HD4870x2 is hot as hell, very long and takes a lot of juice .. what am i saving over 2 separate 4870s?

 

[Apocalypse23]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Apocalypse23

So everyone just get a 9800gx2 or a 4870x2, and dont bother with SLi or Crossfire imo. Save your space, heat, and extra power consumption.

x2 = Crossfire or SLi

they suffer from the same limitations - their only advantage is that they are crossfired or sli'd gpus on a single card

my HD4870x2 is hot as hell, very long and takes a lot of juice .. what am i saving over 2 separate 4870s?

I understand that the 4870x2 is very hot running and long, as is the 9800gx2 if not as much as the 4870x2. However here are the advantages of having a single card dual GPU solution:

The x2 and the Gx2 both have 2 GPUs on one long card, this saves you space inside your case, and reduces the weight as opposed to having 2 seperate cards installed on a motherboard.

You can install 2 seperate cards, but they will release the same amount of heat, each card's heat will increase the temperature, but the difference here is that you have less space and room in your case with 2 cards, so less airflow possibly.

A single card gx2/X2 will ofcourse run hotter than a single GPU card since there are 2 GPUs running, etc.

The advantage of the single card gx2/X2 is that it saves you the requirement of having another PCiE slot, you only need 1 PCI-e slot, and it doesn't need to be pci-e2.0 (2.0 is only needed mostly for running 2 or more radeon single GPU cards from what I know), so you can just do with a basic motherboard.

With installing the gx2/X2, we need to know that we need a larger Case, with good airflow, and possibly may even have to consider leaving the case side panel open so the overall system temps don't go up.

I also think that reselling a single card dual GPU gx2/x2 will be more in demand, and profitable than selling a pair of SLI or crossfire cards, as the Gx2/x2 are more mobile, can fit in a single slot, give equivalent or better performance than single SLI/crossfire combos, and just give the user more flexibility. I think it's just the simplicity thats the main point. When the prices go down later for all these cards, the GX2/X2s will stand out from the single counterparts also.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Bateluer
It still amazes me how people are still running such antique cards like 6800GTs and GF 7 series cards. I'm not sure whether its sad or pathetic.

It's called money...something that isn't given to you and easy to toss around.

It all comes down to the job at hand. I still have 3 cards some ppl would call antiques then-- x1950pro, 6600gt (agp), and a 5900ultra. All in 3 kids' machines who don't play at more than 1024x768. Each one was an old hand-me-down of sorts. And, as long as those cards continue to do what the kids need them to do, I'm not gonna spend a dime on anything else.

For my own personal gaming, my x1900xtx is getting too old and I will likely grab a 4870 as soon as a new game arrives that I want to play.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Amit3945
I have a 7900 GS and am NOT interested in benchmarking at all.
All I care about is Game performance in Crysis/Warhead and possibly FC2/TR and the New PoP
So with these requirement's is upgrading to a 4850 really like going from night to day?
Thank's

at crysis? definitely...newer games too like fallout 3, far cry 2, cod4, ut3 etc. all benefit

Originally posted by: Apocalypse23
So everyone just get a 9800gx2 or a 4870x2, and dont bother with SLi or Crossfire imo. Save your space, heat, and extra power consumption.

The problem is, not everyone wants to buy a $500+ card. Some people are fine with a single GTX260 and a slight overclock or a 4870 with an overclock on it. Hell some people could run a 4850 card with no overclock and they don't have any problems. Not everyone wants to spend that much, not everyone needs that much power, not everyone benchmarks for fun.

Personally I got my 4870 because my 2900xt broke and it was a good price on the new card. Not to mention I can crank AA and AF on in some games which makes them a better experience than before.