Best time to buy?

[zCypher]

When would be the best time to buy a video card? Just curious. Would right now be a BAD time?

 

[Dragon365]

There never seems to be a good time to buy a card. At any one time, there may be some good deals, but there will always be something better at that price very soon. If you do want to buy a graphics card now, get the last of the radeon 8500s before they disappear, since they are even faster than the new 9000s

 

[zCypher]

How are the drivers for that ATi? In the past I recall there being not so great drivers for ATi. Is this over with now? Also, what kind of performance should I expect on a Tbird 1.333 system? How would this ATi handle new games? I'm sure it would handle RTCW, Q3, WC3 and games like that just fine - but what about when UT 2003 comes out, and Doom 3? Any ideas? thanks.

 

[Harvey]

The best time to buy is when you need one. The best one to buy is the one that meets your needs at the best price at the time. Technology is always advancing, so the hardware you buy, today, will always do less than the hardware you can buy, tomorrow, and even if you get a great deal, the price you pay, today, will eventually be higher than the price you would pay for the same hardware, later. For example, less than a year ago, I paid $80 cash for my LiteOn 24X CDRW when the very first 32X units were coming out. It was a great deal at the time, even though I can get the same piece for half that, now, and I could probably find a 48X unit for that $80.

Basic rules:

1. For business purchases, if having the hardware pays for itself in a reasonable amount of time, buy it.

2. For your personal pleasure, do the best you can when you need it to complete your system.

3. Anything beyond that is personal indulgence. Buy it if it feels good and you can afford it.

 

[ai42]

Now is defintely not the time. Radeon 9700s will hit very very soon and will blow everything else out of the water. To scale things existing video cards will be forced down in price. Once the NV30 hits you might see an additional price break, which is only a few months off. Also depends how much you looking to spend, top of the line graphics costs a pretty penny, but with this new stuff in the pipeline it will force a lot of good stuff cheaper.

Link to a little writeup I did from info from QuakeCon on the 9700 and NV30.

 

[zCypher]

Oh yeah that's not all... I've been thinking about LCDs (see my post in one of the GH threads) lately. This sort of leads to this thread. I have an old video card, but it can handle 1280x1024x32 and up no problem. Should I not worry about the video card if I want to get an LCD?

 

[ai42]

Oh yeah that's not all... I've been thinking about LCDs (see my post in one of the GH threads) lately. This sort of leads to this thread. I have an old video card, but it can handle 1280x1024x32 and up no problem. Should I not worry about the video card if I want to get an LCD?

Depends what kind of flat pannel your getting, majority of TFTs are normal SVGA analog connection so you don't have to worry. But almost all higher end video cards have the DVI connectors which are exclusive to DVI TFTs. As far as being a bad time to buy I would say no there arn't any new technologies that will push the price down yet. But they are overall pretty pricey.

 

[zCypher]

Ok cool. I was also thinking about Plasmas, but I looked into that and it seems they are all between $5-20k? That's quite a hefty price! Now if one of them for $5k was extremely good, I might actually consider that - but how do I know if it's at all worth it?