Next Generation - When?

[stuartb]

Soon I'm building a new computer, but just need advice on the video card. Since the NV20 is coming out soon (Anyone know what month? I'm fuzzy on this) and is supposed to offer great improvements, I can't decide if I should wait and hold off with a GF2 MX, possibly GTS since they're getting so cheap, or Radeon. They would be paired with a 1GHz Tbird...or should I just wait for the new DDR boards to come out? Any comments appreciated

 

[stuartb]

^bump^

 

[lifeguard1999]

The NV20 will be announced at the end of February. I expect availability to be at the end of March with a cost of $500. A couple of months later (May/June) it will fall to $400. I am just guessing, but an Ultra will probably cost $300, a Pro $200, and a GTS $100-$150 depending on the features. An MX will probably cost $70-$100.

The Radeon2 probably will be anounced late spring and arrive around June. From xbitlabs.com:



<< R200. This 0.15 micron chip belongs to the next generation after Radeon. The chip will have 4 rendering pipelines and will work at 300MHz. It will support Dual Display and T&amp;L. the first samples should be available in February 2001, while the mass production starts only in June 2001. >>



The real problem that I see is that to justify the prices of these cards, some serious software needs to be released. Running Quake 3 at 1600x1200x32 @ ever higher fps is worthless. The games need to look more realistic to justify the cost.

As for a system to build, wait until the DDR motherboards come out and pair it with a Thunderbird. DDR/Rambus with a P3 makes no sense due to bandwidth constraints on the CPU. The P4 is too expensive compared to Thunderbird.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Expect it about 4-6 weeks after the anouncement(asuming no delay)