Buy a 6800 ultra for 350 or wait for new GPU's?

[Cheesetogo]

At Fry's Electronics, thier selling 6800 ultra's for $350, but I don't know if I should buy one or wait for the new GPU's in the spring. I heard that the r520 is supposed to be three times as powerful as the current x800 xt, so I'm not sure if I should wait for that.

 

[Matthias99]

Are you sure that's a 6800Ultra for $350? You can't even get a 6800GT for $350 in most places. I'd double-check and make sure it's not one of those semi-crippled ASUS cards or something like that.

If you could get a 6800U for $350, that's a pretty good price. Keep in mind that there are not even any really firm details about NV50/R500, let alone release dates -- I would not expect to see either of them until this fall at the earliest.

Edit: found the card. It does, indeed, appear to be a BFG 6800U OC for $399 with a $50 rebate. link

(note: links and details are helpful)

If I was in the market for a high-end video card right now, I might seriously consider this.

 

[Cheesetogo]

here's the link, it's a bfg 6800 ultra for 350. http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4082632?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

 

[McArra]

Go for it, it's a great card!

 

[iamskew]

Get it. Hands down.

 

[Tiamat]

if you got the 350$ do it. Otherwise you will be kicking yourself in the groin (if that is even possible). Technology will always improve. Even if the next-gen cards come out, they will come out at a fat 500$ apiece with low availability. The 6800Ultra should be good enough for at least a year, probably 2 years.

 

[anthrax]

If you need a video card now..get the 6800Ultra..

The next generation of video cards aren't going to give you huge revolutionary jump in performance compared to NV40 series over NV30 series.....


As for R520 being 3 times faster than x800xt...BS BS ..They are gonna have x4 more pipelines..... RAM twice as fast....and a 512bit memory interface..... The die size of such a design makes that improbably....you will be looking at 400 million to 500 million transistors there......

 

[Hyperlite]

wow. outpost does it again. better hurry, it will be out of stock in a day.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
At Fry's Electronics, thier selling 6800 ultra's for $350, but I don't know if I should buy one or wait for the new GPU's in the spring. I heard that the r520 is supposed to be three times as powerful as the current x800 xt, so I'm not sure if I should wait for that.

I don't think so. I dont recall any case in 5 years where a new generation of cards was 3x faster on average than the previous generation. If you aren't crazy about PCIe, i'd pick up the 6800Ultra and be content with it. Considering 9800Pro's retail at about $200 right now, you can sell the 6800U for $180-200 in 1 year's time, only losing ~$150-160 in the process. If $160 per year for high-end gaming isnt worth it for you then don't buy the card. However, with that logic, you would never be able to buy top of the line cards or upgrade. And just because new generation will be released in May, doenst mean it'll reach stores in May. So do you want to keep waiting for another 6 months? If you are willing to wait, then surely you arent ready for an upgrade since slow gaming isn't bothering u yet.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Just ordered it ! :laugh: I can't wait until I get it.

 

[AlexBaroni]

HI,

It's PCIe ? I believe not.

 

[KBtn]

That card is AGP which is not bad if that is what you are looking for.

 

[doublejbass]

Anybody know how loud the BFG Ultra OC is?

 

[caz67]

GOD yes, go for it..

 

[Melchior]

Originally posted by: anthrax
If you need a video card now..get the 6800Ultra..

The next generation of video cards aren't going to give you huge revolutionary jump in performance compared to NV40 series over NV30 series.....


As for R520 being 3 times faster than x800xt...BS BS ..They are gonna have x4 more pipelines..... RAM twice as fast....and a 512bit memory interface..... The die size of such a design makes that improbably....you will be looking at 400 million to 500 million transistors there......

Good enough for atleast a year?! Good god. IF that was the case, computer graphics should be making alot of headway, but as it is, it's still quite sh*tty compared to what you make of the requirements!

Perhaps if they started doing CG quality rendering on the fly...
THen Virtual Reality.

But a 350 card last only a year? tsk tsk

And for one thing... the 9700/9800 PRo is going to last a VERY long time. So far its at around 3 years... I'm thinknig 6 will be its limit (where it reaches a g4ti 4200 state, everything will still run just not as pretty.)