Get a new card now or wait?

[SilentAssassin]

My current card is a Radeon 8500 128MB. I'm going to want to play HL2 and I know my current card just won't be good enough for it. Should I get the Radeon 9800 Pro XT in a month or is there going to be something better out soon? If the next line of card's from ati(Radeon 10000 or whatever they will call it) are going to be out soon then I can wait. Does anyone even know when their next cards are going to be out? So what do you guys think? New card now or wait?

 

[Bateluer]

To my knowledge, the R420 will not be out until well into 2004. I am getting a 9800 XT in about a month and a half or so. Unless you want to see how the NV38 does, buying an XT is a fairly safe thing. 🙂

 

[BudAshes]

Well since the preformance increase doesnt seem that incredibly and they are 500 dollars id say youd be better off getting a 9800 non pro which is about half that price and saving the money until the next latest and greatest comes out.

 

[xSauronx]

the 9600 XT looks intersting, nvidia will have a replacement for th e5600 ultra out before long

im waiting to see what the release of these two do to prices on current cards...i need to replace the gf3 i have as well

 

[Theslowone]

I would wait the month, see what the difference in prices are then and go from there. I don't think the xt is worth the extra money for the little bit of performance increase, 9800np or pro might be a better selection for now(as said earlier).

 

[McArra]

I'll wait till next generation or buy a mainstream ATI now and change in 8months or so to next gen. As we have seen in Anand's review there are games that demand much more than todays most powerfull cards can give, and the XT line isn't that much better.

 

[cockeyed]

I would say to get a 9800np for $250, while/if you can. It seems to me, that the 9800np is disappearing from the shelves. Anytime I see BB have a sale on something like this, it is because they are unloading old stock for something newer. To spend an extra $250 for a little more performance makes no sense to me. The only way I would do that is, if I had deep pockets and wanted bragging rights.