now that Core 2 Duo is here...

[jharcnc]

forgive me if this has been covered off and its one of my first posts (<5) so be nice ;-)

what's next on the graphics card horizon - DX10, yes, but how long will we have to wait? what's in the pipeline? I'm anxious to build a new system and I'm leaning towards the following....what would you guys do?

e6600 Core 2 Duo
Asus P5W-DH
OCZ DDR2 Platinum EL PC2-8000 (2x1gb)
WD Raptor 150mb

soooo...what do I put in in terms of video?

thanks

JH

 

[Markfw]

You might get a better response from the video forum.

 

[jharcnc]

thanks - can I move it?

 

[Ika]

Nope - mods have to do it for you.

G80 is supposed to be around the corner, but no one really knows... by year's end, though, we SHOULD have both G80 and R600.

 

[kmrivers]

For the love of anandtech don't buy a Raptor. Please.

 

[Kwint Sommer]

Seriously, for the price you could buy two 150GB 7200RPM Hard Drives and run them in Raid yielding faster times than one 10000RPM.

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: Kwint Sommer
Seriously, for the price you could buy two 150GB 7200RPM Hard Drives and run them in Raid yielding faster times than one 10000RPM.

Um, don't think so, but that still doesn't mean OP should buy a raptor.

 

[jharcnc]

actually, I currently have two Seagate 120gb 9200.8 in Raid 0 and I have no complaints...curiosity of course (and the reviews) lead me to envision a Raptor exceeding the current performance (I also have a third Seagate 200gb in an external Vantec enclosure that I back things up to every few weeks)...this config is working well for for me and if you don't think the Raptor would do any better than maybe I'll just go for some newer Seagates again

it sounds like one of those polarizing topics...

 

[yacoub]

Now that I've finally given in and picked up a 7900GT, they are free to announce newer, better, and cheaper GPUs.

 

[nycdude]

I read in MaxPC that none of current generation GPU's are DirectX 10 compatible, so you will have to upgrade your hardware to get DX10 support.

I guess it goes back to the OP question. haha

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: jharcnc
actually, I currently have two Seagate 120gb 9200.8 in Raid 0 and I have no complaints...curiosity of course (and the reviews) lead me to envision a Raptor exceeding the current performance (I also have a third Seagate 200gb in an external Vantec enclosure that I back things up to every few weeks)...this config is working well for for me and if you don't think the Raptor would do any better than maybe I'll just go for some newer Seagates again

it sounds like one of those polarizing topics...

It's definately a polarizing issue, as you can see by all the threads on the subject here. I think basically what it comes down to is that the Raptor is the fastest non-SCSI drive you can get, inarguably, but the speed increase over a 7200rpm drive is not worth the extra $$$ you spend for it. I think that's the issue - some people have enough money to spend where the purchase has value for them, most of the rest of us have to pinch our pennies a bit more.

I tried out RAID0 a while back, and had it for about 4 months with a pair of 80gig SATA1.5 drives, and it made NO difference in everyday applications. I think that if you're doing a huge amount of I/O then you'll notice a benefit, but FarCry sure didn't load any faster... I think you'll find the same response from a lot of other folks on these forums.

 

[coldpower27]

I would say wait a little till the Fall and see how Nvidia does with the G80 aka Geforce 8 line.

 

[harpoon84]

I'd say something like an X1900XT would be a good choice. Not overly expensive but still enough grunt to play the latest DX9 games.

You wouldn't wanna get something super expensive atm with DX10 cards around the corner.

 

[Skott]

Next on graphic card front? First up is Quad-SLI. Current beta drivers become finished drivers August 3rd. So I guess plan to see Quad-SLi offerings in August. Not sure if Direct X10 or G80 will come next. Havent seen any actual time frames other than 'Later in 2006'. They could be one and the same for all we know. Meaning when G80 comes out it'll be the first nVidia card to support Direct X10. Maybe ATI will come out with it first? Dont really know. Have to wait and see.

 

[yacoub]

Quad-SLI is cumbersome. It is really a stop-gap measure due to the recent games that can suck up as much performance as you can throw at them - something to hold over those with unlimited budgets until the next generation of GPUs comes out that puts the power of current SLI in a single chip card and the power of Quad-SLI in a dual-core or dual-chip single card solution.