In 2004 I got x800 for $600, why not a Fermi for $600 6 years later

[tweakboy]

If yall remember the 2004 and 2005 seasons lol the x800 which was rare at first,,,,,, I got a ASUS AGP x800 XT PE for 600 after tax and shipping. Others got the 6800 GT or Ultra and payed the same price especially if it was PCIe ,,

Look at how much times have changed. Compare the game engine of 2004 to game engine of 2010 alah MW2 and UT3 Crysis,,,,,


I suffered with that video card for years,, had it under water too lol

FEAR would play @ 8FPS ,, oh btw with my ubber Athlon XP 3200+ lol

times have changed, let us all who are rich or have money buy a Fermi 480.

Remember 480, not the 470. The number 480 sounds better and plays better. lol,

 

[adairusmc]

Why would I buy a 480 when I have already had the superior 5970 for 4 months? Paid less than $600 for it too at the time I bought it.

 

[DefRef]

Why would I buy a 480 when I have already had the superior 5970 for 4 months? Paid less than $600 for it too at the time I bought it.

Spoken like a true ATI fanboy. No numbers - LEGIT numbers, not Charlie's ATI-funded FUD - have been released, but you are absolutely certain that you've got the superior product. Ho-kay...

I get the OP's point. Fanboys just see another opportunity to stroke their cards.

 

[dguy6789]

Being sure the 5970 will be faster than the GTX 480 is like being sure the sun will rise tomorrow morning. You'd have to be out of your mind to expect otherwise. Even the most hardcore Nvidia people on here would tell you that they didn't expect Nvidia's single GPU card to beat AMD's dual GPU card.

 

[adairusmc]

Spoken like a true ATI fanboy.

Spoken like a true mouth-breather. Dguy has it right, you would have to be high to expect that a 5970 will not destroy the 480.

 

[scooterlibby]

Tweak is my favorite poster. Always a chuckle.

 

[solofly]

You too...lol

 

[SunnyD]

My response is: You overpaid. For both.

 

[MrK6]

Spoken like a true mouth-breather. Dguy has it right, you would have to be high to expect that a 5970 will not destroy the 480.

Yup. Although that kind of rings in my point.

$600 then (2004) was actually a lot more than $600 now ($600 in 2004 is actually about $688 in 2010 money if you're looking at buying power). That said, there's a couple of factors here that come into play. For me, it's not the money spent, but what you get for it. We are extremely jaded since the "price wars" of 2008 and 2009, and probably have reset the bar as to what is suitable for "price vs. performance."

To answer the specific question at hand, if the GTX480 was worth $550+, I would definitely pay it and pick it up, especially since it'd be the fastest single GPU solution. The problem is it's not. All rumors point to the fact that it's not that fast (~10-15% faster than the 5870 at stock speeds, on average I'm guessing, could be wrong), it runs very hot and inefficient (which is a likely indication of a poor overclocker), and it doesn't offer any features I care about over the 58xx series. In contrast, I picked up two 5850's for $510 shipped two weeks ago. I now have them running at 900/1250 (24% overclock) and they absolutely slaughter any game I play. My desktop still pulls under 100W at idle (92W to be exact), and the cards are silent at idle and very quiet at load. Nothing in the information available on Fermi pointed to performance or value even close to what this setup offers. Yes, I jumped the gun, how great of a decision it was will be found out tonight .

EDIT: Looks like I made an excellent decision: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=29582426&postcount=22

 

[tviceman]

In contrast, I picked up two 5850's for $510 shipped two weeks ago. I now have them running at 900/1250 (24% overclock) and they absolutely slaughter any game I play.

Except Metro 2033 at all settings maxed out with AA, amirite???

 

[MrK6]

Except Metro 2033 at all settings maxed out with AA, amirite???

Depends, even with in-game 4x AA sure, but it looks like shit (blurs textures). I do have to turn off Advanced DoF, but no card can handle it anyway, so what's it matter? That and it doesn't add anything to IQ for its severe FPS drop.

 

[Leyawiin]

I paid $550 for my 8800 GTX in Dec 06. While I'll never pay that much for a card again it does put the $300-400 cards I would consider into perspective (given their performance vs. price).

 

[Arkaign]

My response is: You overpaid. For both.

Hah yeah. I've never spent more than $200 on a card other than $250 for a GF1 DDR waaaaaaay back in the day. Most of the cards I've bought have been in the $150 range, and they've always made me happy.

I guess if you have $ to blow, and you are bored with cars, going out, traveling, etc, then sure, $500+ video cards make sense. After all, a decent weekend getaway or cool car part can cost $500+ as well. Just depends on how serious you are about the hobby.

I'd love to HAVE a $500+ video card, but would probably end up selling it, as I don't do anything that even remotely needs that kind of power. I play BF2 once every couple of months, played Fallout3 and Oblivion, and poked around a bit with the Grid and Dirt games. All of them ran beautifully on my 9600GT, then my GTS250, and now my 5770.

 

[tweakboy]

LOL Thanks scooterlibby my brother! Thanks for your support!

 

[Nemesis 1]

If yall remember the 2004 and 2005 seasons lol the x800 which was rare at first,,,,,, I got a ASUS AGP x800 XT PE for 600 after tax and shipping. Others got the 6800 GT or Ultra and payed the same price especially if it was PCIe ,,

Look at how much times have changed. Compare the game engine of 2004 to game engine of 2010 alah MW2 and UT3 Crysis,,,,,


I suffered with that video card for years,, had it under water too lol

FEAR would play @ 8FPS ,, oh btw with my ubber Athlon XP 3200+ lol

times have changed, let us all who are rich or have money buy a Fermi 480.

Remember 480, not the 470. The number 480 sounds better and plays better. lol,

The spring the x800xtpe came out in may I recieved 20 cards. I believe I payed $299 a piece but It may have been $399. Thats for the xtpe.

 

[yacoub]

yeah he's smoking something if he paid $600.

 

[Fox5]

Yeah, the x800 xt pe whatever was not msrp at $600.

 

[RussianSensation]

Yeah, the x800 xt pe whatever was not msrp at $600.

This settles it:

"The X800 PRO occupies the same $400 price point as the GeForce 6800 GT while the $500 X800 XT Platinum Edition will duke it out with NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 Ultra." http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_x800/page27.asp

 

[1h4x4s3x]

From all your posts I've seen here, I really can't believe you were able to talk back then.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Hey I changed my order of a Sapphire 5970 (1 year warranty) to an Asus 5970 (3 year warranty), coming in a week ..just under $770 shipped..Figured I might as well get my hands on the 5970 b4 ppl start mass ordering those , after seeing poor fermi benches

 

[yottabit]

Those were the days

ORDER TIME: Sat Jul 09 2005 05:07:56 P.M. PT

ORDER CONTENT:
1 x (321326) ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition AGP 8X 256MB DDR3 Vide Card w/HDTV-Out, DVI & VIVO Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** @ $419.99

Note the date, though, I was a late adopter (my 9600XT was still doing me well)

 

[RussianSensation]

Those were the days

ORDER TIME: Sat Jul 09 2005 05:07:56 P.M. PT

ORDER CONTENT:
1 x (321326) ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition AGP 8X 256MB DDR3 Vide Card w/HDTV-Out, DVI & VIVO Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** @ $419.99

Note the date, though, I was a late adopter (my 9600XT was still doing me well)

About 5 years later, you can now get 8800GT for $45: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-118-_-Product

Shocking isn't it?

 

[yh125d]

Hey I changed my order of a Sapphire 5970 (1 year warranty) to an Asus 5970 (3 year warranty), coming in a week ..just under $770 shipped..Figured I might as well get my hands on the 5970 b4 ppl start mass ordering those , after seeing poor fermi benches

Don't fool yourself into thinking $770 for a 5970 is a good buy.


Shoulda just bought a second 5850 and kept the rest to put towards an i7 upgrade

 

[nyker96]

Spoken like a true ATI fanboy. No numbers - LEGIT numbers, not Charlie's ATI-funded FUD - have been released, but you are absolutely certain that you've got the superior product. Ho-kay...

I get the OP's point. Fanboys just see another opportunity to stroke their cards.

well if the guy said 5870 will be faster than 480 I'd say no. but 5970s, I would say near certainty. 480s cannot be about twice the performance of a 5870. But you might just be mistakenly thinking he was referring to 5870.

 

[Attic]

Well shit, if money didn't matter i'd have 2x5870's now and I would really enjoy building a rig that could house, power, and cool 2xGTX480's with a dedicated Physx solution in a third slot.

But money does matter, so I got a 5770.