Is it worth spending money on a graphics card before directx 11

[Tip3r]

I'm going to be changing my graphics card (7900GT). I was planning on getting a GTS 250 or 4850. I can't afford to change my graphics card every time there's a new generation. I wouldn't mind spending more to get a better card but I keep on thinking that it wont be worth it because it wont support directx 11. I got my 7900 GT in the summer of 2006 and directx 10 compatible cards were released soon afterwards (I felt like a total dumbass. I hadn't given the issue the slightest amount of thought). This wasn't an issue because most games worked fine on directx9. Will it be the same with Directx 11? I'm fine if the games run, and look decent.

anyway, should I spend more on a better card, or should I just get one of the ones I mentioned? I'd like to be able to run games on it for like 1.5 years or so..

also, games like crysis worked fine on my 7900gt when I had xp but I could barely get it to run when I upgraded to vista. Will I have that problem if I upgrade to windows 7? I mean I'm kind of looking forward to it.

 

[Scali]

Games will run, but you'll be missing out.
If you can wait, wait
A new generation of videocards often means that new cards deliver more performance, and older cards are dropped in price.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Current DX10 cards should work fine with games that support DX11 for the next few years. If you really need a performance improvement now, then any of those two cards would be a nice step up and relatively cheap option to do so.

For the most part, in my experience, the gaming performance between Windows 7 (RC) and Vista is the same.

 

[Tip3r]

the problem about waiting is that I usually can't afford to buy the new generation when their first released, so I'll have to wait even more. I can't wait that long
Thanks for the advice, I guess I'll get a GTS250 or 4850 then

 

[DaveSimmons]

Look in the Hot Deals forum and check deal sites, there have been amazing deals on 4850s for under $100 and 4870s under $125 every few days.

 

[Dkcode]

DX11 cards should bring big performance improvements. This is what is important, the DX11 feature set is just a bonus. It is likely most enthusiasts will ditch GT300/58xx series for refreshes when DX11 actually matters to everyone else.

AMD are good value. If you don't get much money to drop on hardware often, then i would wait to see what the DX11 AMD stuff turns out like. Not for the fact it supports DX11, more to do with the hope it will be a hell of a lot faster.

Pricing should be the same as 4850/4870 when they first came out.

 

[TheMeanestGuest]

I recently had a similar conundrum. When I built a new budget PC for myself last September I had really wanted to put a 4850 in it, but could not justify the over $200 CAD price at the time to myself, and I saw the 4670 had just come out and was about $90 so I went with one of those. It was great, until I got my new monitor.

While it still works fine in a couple games I play it really wasn't performing at a level that was acceptable to me. I had the whole DX11 arguement with myself and I hemmed and hawed about it but I finally decided we're not going to be seeing any real DX11 games for awhile and by that time I'll probably be considering upgrading anyways. I decided to go with an XFX 1GB 4850 (I was initially going to get the 512 version since the difference isn't very great, but the 1 gb was only $7 more)

So yeah, I'm quite happy with it. I guess it's really up to you though. This post was largely pointless.

 

[Scali]

If there's one lesson that the GeForce 8800 taught us, it's that a new generation of videocards doesn't necessarily need a new version of DX to perform better.
The GeForce 8800 completely slaughtered everything on the market in DX9 games. It wasn't pretty for those who had just splashed out a lot of money on a DX9 card (the face of my brother with his Radeon X1900XTX512 when he saw the performance of my 8800GTS320, which cost about half what he paid: priceless ).

 

[Blazer7]

That's true but I don't think that next gen cards will have the same impact. Not with so few DX10 titles out there.

 

[faxon]

i was going to spend $300 on a 4850x2 2GB back when they cost about that. then i realized that if i were to bank $200 of it and get my friend's used 9800GTX, i could use that $200 in october with another $200 and get a DX11 card not long after the release date reviews come in telling me what's good and whats not. of course, now im sort of wishing i had spent a bit more, cause i got a 1920x1200 monitor since then, but it still plays crysis at medium graphics with textures and physics set on high lol, and it looks fucking amazing either way

 

[Wreckage]

The only thing to look forward to with the new cards is higher performance. I doubt there will be any real DX11 games this year, or even next year. You might see some patched games or some such thing.

So if you find a good deal on a card now there is no reason not to jump.

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
The only thing to look forward to with the new cards is higher performance. I doubt there will be any real DX11 games this year, or even next year. You might see some patched games or some such thing.

So if you find a good deal on a card now there is no reason not to jump.

QFT

There 're not many titles out there that a 4xxx/GTX 2xx (or two) can't take care off and this won't change any time soon.

 

[geokilla]

In my opinion, if you need to upgrade, upgrade now. There won't be many Directx 11 titles coming out in a while, and even if there are lots, how many will you actually play?

 

[Schmide]

If you constantly wait a few months for a few percentage points of more performance, you loose.

Get a good value card for a moderate amount of money.

 

[BFG10K]

I upgraded from a GTX260+ to a GTX285 and I saw a nice 30% performance gain, so it was definitely worth it. I'm still on XP with a E6850 (some would consider it ?slow?, but that?s clearly nonsense).

Originally posted by: Scali

If there's one lesson that the GeForce 8800 taught us, it's that a new generation of videocards doesn't necessarily need a new version of DX to perform better.

I agree completely. With my setup I see the same (or greater) performance gains that other reviewers see on their Vista + DX10 + i7 setups.

 

[Scali]

Originally posted by: Blazer7
That's true but I don't think that next gen cards will have the same impact. Not with so few DX10 titles out there.

Well that's my point.
GeForce 8800 didn't NEED DX10 titles. It gave the same performance boost in DX9 titles.

I don't expect DX11 in itself to make much of a difference, because it's even more similar to DX10 than DX10 was to DX9. So if DX11 hardware is going to give a performance boost, it will likely give the same boost in DX9 and DX10 aswell.

Ofcourse it is a gamble, because there are also examples of newer generation cards, which didn't really do much for performance. The GeForce3 wasn't really faster than the GeForce2 Ultra, and the Radeon 9700 wasn't really faster than the GeForce4 Ti4600.
But as I say, even if the newer hardware isn't that much faster, it may still bring the prices of the old hardware down.

 

[Kakkoii]

Depends if Nvidia/ATI's next gen specs rumors turn out to be true, especially in Nvidia's case. So I'm personally waiting until those come out, if their not as much of an uber performance increase as the rumored specs have shown, then you'll have the option to go with the super cheap last gen clearance cards that still have tons of performance.

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: Scali

Originally posted by: Blazer7
That's true but I don't think that next gen cards will have the same impact. Not with so few DX10 titles out there.

Well that's my point.
GeForce 8800 didn't NEED DX10 titles. It gave the same performance boost in DX9 titles.

I don't expect DX11 in itself to make much of a difference, because it's even more similar to DX10 than DX10 was to DX9. So if DX11 hardware is going to give a performance boost, it will likely give the same boost in DX9 and DX10 aswell.

Ofcourse it is a gamble, because there are also examples of newer generation cards, which didn't really do much for performance. The GeForce3 wasn't really faster than the GeForce2 Ultra, and the Radeon 9700 wasn't really faster than the GeForce4 Ti4600.
But as I say, even if the newer hardware isn't that much faster, it may still bring the prices of the old hardware down.

I may be mistaken but I seem to remember the Radeon 9700 Pro was way faster than everything else when it came out.

 

[Scali]

Originally posted by: Barfo
I may be mistaken but I seem to remember the Radeon 9700 Pro was way faster than everything else when it came out.

Depends on the situation.
GeForce4 was great in legacy games with simple or no pixelshading and mostly fixedfunction, and when AA/AF weren't used.
So the Radeon 9700 wasn't necessarily earth-shattering in every way, like the 8800 was.
As you can see in these tests:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...y/radeon9500-9700.html

The GeForce4 Ti4600 could hold its own in things like multitexturing fillrate, highpoly fixed T&L scenes and such..

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: Scali

Originally posted by: Blazer7
That's true but I don't think that next gen cards will have the same impact. Not with so few DX10 titles out there.

Well that's my point.
GeForce 8800 didn't NEED DX10 titles. It gave the same performance boost in DX9 titles.

I don't expect DX11 in itself to make much of a difference, because it's even more similar to DX10 than DX10 was to DX9. So if DX11 hardware is going to give a performance boost, it will likely give the same boost in DX9 and DX10 aswell.

Ofcourse it is a gamble, because there are also examples of newer generation cards, which didn't really do much for performance. The GeForce3 wasn't really faster than the GeForce2 Ultra, and the Radeon 9700 wasn't really faster than the GeForce4 Ti4600.
But as I say, even if the newer hardware isn't that much faster, it may still bring the prices of the old hardware down.

I don't expect DX11 parts to have that much of an impact because of 2 reasons.

The first one is that current video cards are quite up to the task for the vast majority of titles out there and this won't change any time soon. The second one is what you said about DX11 parts driving the price of older hw down. This is something natural and undoubtedly bound to happen.

It only makes sense that the vast majority of people won't have much of a problem going for a way cheaper 4890/GTX 285 and saving the extra cash.

I don't disagree that next gen DX11 chips may offer a substantial performance increase on top of existing hw but right now it doesn't seem that that extra power can make a difference for the average joe. Being faster and making an impact are two different things.

 

[Scali]

Originally posted by: Blazer7
The first one is that current video cards are quite up to the task for the vast majority of titles out there and this won't change any time soon.

The same argument went for the DX9 cards prior to the 8800 aswell.
If you had a Radeon X1900XTX512 or something like that, there was nothing you couldn't do. In fact, my brother still uses that card in a secondary system, and you can actually play Crysis on it reasonably well

Before 8800 hit, people just didn't know what they were missing.
Just like we can't really say what our current DX10 hardware will look like in a few months, when the next generation has arrived.

 

[biostud]

once dx11 titles hit the shelves, 2nd gen dx11 cards will be available

 

[Scali]

Originally posted by: biostud
once dx11 titles hit the shelves, 2nd gen dx11 cards will be available

But who cares about DX11 titles if the 1st gen DX11 cards are much faster in DX9 and DX10 aswell? Like my 8800 example...

 

[machineheadg2rr]

The reason to upgrade to the next gen line has more to do with performance than dx11 in the beginning. Rumored specs on ati's new line has them going from 1 tereflop to 2, which is pertty big. Although I'm sure dx11 will be a nice boost, there won't be many titles that use it for a while, and those titles may not even be a game you like. However, you will still have the huge raw performance gain to tide you over till they do release more dx11 games.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have a 9600gt, and just ordered a 19x12 monitor. If this card cannot handle my new resolution to my liking, I may have to upgrade earlier than I would like. You can get a 4890 for $150, and this card will play any game at 19x12 on high outside of crysis , depending on your settings. Later on I can sell it or get another and CF them. At 19x12, the current gen cards are plenty. It all depends on how many future games try to bring machines to their knees the way Crysis did.

Does anyone know if ati is going to continue to price drop the 4890? Or is this as low as we are gonna see them go? I can't really imagine the point in going any lower, they are well below their NV competition at every price point.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: machineheadg2rr
The reason to upgrade to the next gen line has more to do with performance than dx11 in the beginning. Rumored specs on ati's new line has them going from 1 tereflop to 2, which is pertty big. Although I'm sure dx11 will be a nice boost, there won't be many titles that use it for a while, and those titles may not even be a game you like. However, you will still have the huge raw performance gain to tide you over till they do release more dx11 games.

From the mouth of a newb...

Right on target here. The next gen cards will support DX11, sure, that's nice - but more importantly they will push today's DX9/10 games much faster than the current crop of 48x0/GTX cards.

And even if you cannot afford one of the new cards today's champs will drop in price rapidly once the new gen is available (today's top end will slot down into mid-range territory & pricing).

If you do end up getting one of the current generation cards - I would say for longevity you'd be best off with one that supports DX10.1 because it will support more of the DX11 features that way. Since nVidia is rumored to be releasing a 40nm/10.1 refresh of their GT200 cards you should be able to choose from either camp shortly.