Limp along with an 8800 waiting for fermi?

[Xarick]

My 19" monitor died a few days out of warranty. Nice. So I decided to jump up in size to a 24". But now my res is 1920x1080 and my 8800gts 320 is not happy. So I am wondering if I should just limp along with this card until fermi is released or jump on a 5850?

 

[bryanW1995]

I would snag a 5850. remember that 8800gtx and gts cards actually went UP in price after 2900xt was released. not saying that will happen here, but it is certainly a possibility.

 

[zerocool84]

Wait for Fermi then you'll wait for the ATI 5xxx refresh, then you'll wait for the Fermi refresh, then you'll wait and wait and wait. Buy what you want right now and be happy with the games you play right now.

 

[pm]

I was in the same position back a couple of weeks ago. You could - if your motherboard supports it - SLI another 8800GTS. They aren't too expensive on Ebay.

I ended up buying a 5770 and it's faster, cooler and quieter than my 8800 - but it also has the grey stripe problem (see the thread in the forum) so I haven't been absolutely thrilled with it.

I don't know... Fermi is likely to take a while to ramp up and it's likely to be expensive. It's always been my policy in life with computers to get what I need now rather than wait for something that's coming out later... if we had a solid launch date and pricing it might be different but right now, I personally wouldn't (and didn't) wait.

 

[Tempered81]

I would get a 5850, overclock it to 1000/1250 or 1050/1300, enjoy it for a few weeks. Read Fermi reviews and decide if you want a 470 or 480 for the price, put your 5850 up for sale in the FS/FT or Fleabay. Best of both worlds, with more choices.

 

[Udgnim]

limp along and wait for Fermi

I would be willing to lower res in games.

 

[nenforcer]

You've got probably less than a month away from Fermi reviews / specs / prices. I would really not do anything for about one month, save up a little extra, and then your decision will be much easier.

No matter what you buy at any time it will be outdated sooner rather than later. When its this close I would wait just a while longer, however.

 

[Leyawiin]

I'd hang on a bit longer. I try to give myself the most options I can before ponying up $200 to over $300 for a new video card. I don't buy video cards that often. Now if I were in your situation last October, hell yes, get the ATI card. Five months vs. one month to wait for the competition makes it definitely worthwhile. But this close, you'll survive the wait.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Wait for Fermi then you'll wait for the ATI 5xxx refresh, then you'll wait for the Fermi refresh, then you'll wait and wait and wait. Buy what you want right now and be happy with the games you play right now.

^this

 

[Apocalypse23]

Speaking of Fermi, I'm already contemplating if I should bite the bullet and buy an Asus 5970, there are some available at my store ETA Feb 15th, also newegg.com is showing an ETA of Feb15th for some 5970s...I'm in a bit of a puzzle....I just spent 460CAD on a 5870 2 weeks ago, and now I'm already thinking of getting the next best card, in my situation I would wait to see how the GTX480 performs because I'm not in a video card rush anyway, plus there need to be more DX11 games out to actually give the hardware a huge run for the money...

 

[severus]

I can add some perspective. I had an 8800gt on an Athlon 3800X2 with a 19" lcd at 1440 X 900. It's basically a backup PC, but on a very large desk. I bought a 24" at 1920 x 1080 (or something like that ) and the 8800gt and 3800x2 just weren't cutting it. Rather than waiting for a whole new release, I snagged an x2 550 and unlocked the other two cores, then I bought a gtx 260 216. What a huge difference. Bad Company 2 was barely playable on the old setup (mostly due to the processor not even being overclocked), but now I can play it comfortably though I do not know the FPS I'm getting, I'd say it's at least double. I wouldn't wait. If you have a microcenter in your area, go buy a GTX 260 (it should be around $150) or a 4870 (should be around $130).

 

[NoQuarter]

Honestly I think the Fermi cards are gonna be hard enough to get a hold of that even when they finally come out in a month or so you'll still have to wait another month to get one. So I'd just grab a 5850 now and play some games. I still think it's strange there's not even a hint of release yet too.. makes me think April is more likely than March now..

 

[Keysplayr]

Everybody seems to have all these predetermined assumptions with no data available and passing off as factual (to an extent).
The proper response to the OP's question is:
If you absolutely need a card right now, get one. If you don't need one right this second, then wait.
The OP will be able to see the so called limited availability and High prices of Fermi for himself, or the opposite.
/thread.

 

[Lonyo]

There's a point at which waiting starts to make sense.
3 weeks until reviews, waiting pretty much makes sense when you're not in an emergency to buy a replacement.

Since your card still works, you can hold on for 3 weeks, but Fermi will only make sense if the rest of your system can back it up.
e.g. no point in getting a Fermi to go with a socket 939 X2, so it depends what else you have.
If you're on an older CPU, then getting a 5850 now would make sense, since you're going to be more CPU limited and you can enjoy performance now. If you want to wait and see how pricing shakes out, you have 3 weeks left.

 

[NoQuarter]

Everybody seems to have all these predetermined assumptions with no data available and passing off as factual (to an extent).
The proper response to the OP's question is:
If you absolutely need a card right now, get one. If you don't need one right this second, then wait.
The OP will be able to see the so called limited availability and High prices of Fermi for himself, or the opposite.
/thread.

Who said anything was fact.. these are just easy predictions. It's a huge die on a problematic 40nm process with 6 months of engineering problems history and still no pre-release hard data. Nvidia itself hasn't actually given a firm release date, the predetermined assumption is actually on us assuming March will finally see it released because the same industry reports that make us think March will be the release are the ones that suggest high price/low avail.

Based on your position the only assumption we can actually make is that Fermi has an unknown release date, unknown price, and unknown availability, so might as well buy a 5850 in that case.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I'm willing to guess that Fermi will be expensive and hard to find for a while after it launches. I'd probably get a 5850 now and enjoy gaming on it. When Fermi becomes easy to find then who knows, maybe AMD's refresh will be right around the corner.

I guess it depends on how well you can get by with your current card. If you can live with lowering details and resolution to keep things playable, than wait. If the 8800 just isn't doing it for you any longer and you can't live with lowered details/res/performance than I'd buy now.

 

[Keysplayr]

Who said anything was fact.. these are just easy predictions. It's a huge die on a problematic 40nm process with 6 months of engineering problems history and still no pre-release hard data. Nvidia itself hasn't actually given a firm release date, the predetermined assumption is actually on us assuming March will finally see it released because the same industry reports that make us think March will be the release are the ones that suggest high price/low avail.

Based on your position the only assumption we can actually make is that Fermi has an unknown release date, unknown price, and unknown availability, so might as well buy a 5850 in that case.

And none of this has to do with the OP's question. Should he buy now, or wait. I think this was answered.

 

[Ualdayan]

My 19" monitor died a few days out of warranty. Nice. So I decided to jump up in size to a 24". But now my res is 1920x1080 and my 8800gts 320 is not happy. So I am wondering if I should just limp along with this card until fermi is released or jump on a 5850?

I know how you feel - I was in a similar position a couple of months ago. I too had a 8800GTS 320MB; I couldn't find any 5850s in stock at the time, so I ended up getting a 5870 (after bing cashback it was MSRP price, which was pretty good in December). Now I'm kind of glad I went for the top end model rather than the 5850.

 

[TecHNooB]

I wouldn't call it limping

 

[Xarick]

I didnt realize the 5850s were still insanely priced. Yargh. What is the deal.

 

[Lonyo]

I didnt realize the 5850s were still insanely priced. Yargh. What is the deal.

The deal is that NV are late to the party.
HD5850 pricing might change if necessary when NV release Fermi, so waiting for Fermi might result in better HD5xxx prices, but it's not guaranteed.

 

[MarcVenice]

At 1920x1080 he's pretty much screwed with 320MB ram.

Tune down your resolution and limp by, or buy a new videocard and be a happy camper. There's been so many people before you who had the same dilemma, but in the end people who simply bought a new videocard and enjoyed it right now, seemed to be happier then those who waited.

You don't even have to buy ATI, you could buy a GTX 260 and see a huge improvement, and at 1920x1080 it's still pretty damn fast. If you wait for the GTX 470 / 480, you could be waiting 2 months or more, for a card that's most likely to be $300 or more. But right now, there's good value in the HD 5850 that can be enjoyed right now (if it's on sale somewhere).

 

[SlowSpyder]

I didnt realize the 5850s were still insanely priced. Yargh. What is the deal.

I continue to hear this from people, but completely disagree. The 5850 is faster than the GTX285 and significantly cheaper. It also offers DX11 support and a bunch of other unique features. While the 5850 isn't inexpensive, I wouldn't say it's 'insanely priced' either.

Looking around, the cheapest GTX285 I can find is $345, and it's a special order, not in stock I guess. Newegg has them for $375 AR. The 5850 is $300 on Newegg... I know I'd like to pay the original MSRP of $259 for one, but even at it's current $300 price point, when you look around at the rest of the market the 5850 is still a relative bargain.

 

[zerocool84]

I continue to hear this from people, but completely disagree. The 5850 is faster than the GTX285 and significantly cheaper. It also offers DX11 support and a bunch of other unique features. While the 5850 isn't inexpensive, I wouldn't say it's 'insanely priced' either.

Looking around, the cheapest GTX285 I can find is $345, and it's a special order, not in stock I guess. Newegg has them for $375 AR. The 5850 is $300 on Newegg... I know I'd like to pay the original MSRP of $259 for one, but even at it's current $300 price point, when you look around at the rest of the market the 5850 is still a relative bargain.

Yea I don't know why people keep saying it's overpriced. When's the last time a card a top of the line product line had that price at launch? Every top of the line card that beats it's competition always releases for a hell of a lot more expensive. I'm not an ATI fanboy at all as this is my first card from them but I can't remember last time something that performed this good was so cheap at launch.

 

[nemesismk2]

My 19" monitor died a few days out of warranty. Nice. So I decided to jump up in size to a 24". But now my res is 1920x1080 and my 8800gts 320 is not happy. So I am wondering if I should just limp along with this card until fermi is released or jump on a 5850?

Use a lower resolution until Fermi has been released.