Return my $200 9800 Pro and wait for next generation?

Medellon

Senior member
Feb 13, 2000
812
2
81
I jumped on the $200 9800 Pro CompUsa deal but I guess I'm having buyer's remorse. I've been hearing a lot about the next generation cards and I'm wondering if I should return my 9800 and wait for the new cards. The 9700 Pro has been out for about 18 months and it is still competitive with today's best, will the 9800 be as lucky? Also, will $200 buy me the same or better performance from a next generation card? What would you do?
 

Alptraum

Golden Member
Sep 18, 2002
1,078
0
0
Who knows, lol. You might as well keep it since its a godo card and you already have it. Its pretty much impossible to say what $200 will by you in a few months at this point.
 

mboy

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2001
3,309
0
0
$200 will get you a next gen card after the next gen comes out after that. You will be looking atleast 12months away from getting something for 200 that will smoke your current 9800 Pro.
My 9800 pro should be delivered by time I get home tonight. Can't wait.
 

beatle

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2001
5,661
5
81
Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that the "next big thing" will also carry a "next big pricetag" and will be out of many sane people's reach for several months until the lure of the "next big thing after that" gets close.
 

Jayavarman

Member
Nov 21, 2003
115
0
0
Originally posted by: Bucksnort
next gen 200.00? lol try 450.00

Exactly my thoughts. if you want to wait til you can spend justt 200 bux on nex gen card, you will wait 12-15 months. And by then you will be in the same dilema as you are now because the next better card is just around the corner again. Don't you know this by now? I ordered my $212 9800 pro form Newegg on Wed, I will receive it Monday. This is going to be a long weekend.

 

Mustanggt

Diamond Member
Dec 11, 1999
3,278
0
71
I have had a Radeon 8500 for 2 years I paid $200 for it, it has served me well and going in kids system, I got in on the 9800 pro deal also at Comp and I plan on keeping the 9800Pro for 2 years im sure it will play anything coming out in the next 2 years no problem just might have to run it at lower Quality near the end of second year, keep it and NEVER pay full price for a video card :D
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
well yes $200 will probably buy you somthing better a year down the line but thats the case with most tech. Theres always gonna be somthing better sooner or later. So jus keep the 9800 PRO its great!
 

RollWave

Diamond Member
May 20, 2003
4,201
3
81
200 will buy you something better IF you drop money on a new MOBO with PCI-X otherwise you're going to be bottom feeding with some low end card and wish you had the 9800 pro :)
 

Excelsior

Lifer
May 30, 2002
19,047
18
81
Originally posted by: Mustanggt
I have had a Radeon 8500 for 2 years I paid $200 for it, it has served me well and going in kids system, I got in on the 9800 pro deal also at Comp and I plan on keeping the 9800Pro for 2 years im sure it will play anything coming out in the next 2 years no problem just might have to run it at lower Quality near the end of second year, keep it and NEVER pay full price for a video card :D

 

elkinm

Platinum Member
Jun 9, 2001
2,146
0
71
Keep it.

Remember when the old 9500 Pro was $200 when 9700 Pro was the new king.
Until somewhat recetly the the 9600 XT was the best $200 card wich can still be smoked by a 9500 Pro esperialy when overclocked.

As eveyone said, it will be some time untill the next generation budget card beats the 9800 Pro or the top cards will be only $200 espetialy wince this is a deal with a nice rebate involved.
 

mikevine69

Junior Member
Feb 28, 2004
4
0
0
9800 pro is da best bang for your buck, unless you want to wait over a year untill next gen prices come down
 

edmundoab

Diamond Member
Apr 21, 2003
3,223
0
0
www.facebook.com
its a good deal you got from CompUSA,

should keep the card dude.

When the new generation comes out. Its going to be a price that burns the pocket real bad.
After all its going to take a while before games would fully utilize the current 9800 pro that you are having.
 

PCTweaker5

Banned
Jun 5, 2003
2,810
0
0
Originally posted by: elkinm
Keep it.

Remember when the old 9500 Pro was $200 when 9700 Pro was the new king.
Until somewhat recetly the the 9600 XT was the best $200 card wich can still be smoked by a 9500 Pro esperialy when overclocked.

As eveyone said, it will be some time untill the next generation budget card beats the 9800 Pro or the top cards will be only $200 espetialy wince this is a deal with a nice rebate involved.

Dude *especially* doesnt even have an R! What were you thinking? Scooby Doo syndrome or what? lol
 

tenoc

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2002
1,270
0
0
surely by now you have realized that $200 won't buy even half of a next-gen card!

the 9800 pro will be excellent for a couple of years.
 
Feb 28, 2004
72
0
0
I've been having a similar dilemma, I'm really tempted by a 9800 pro. The way I've been thinking, when you look at the benches of something fairly next-gen like Far Cry running in max detail (which is really how the developers want people to play it), the FPS really aren't that high. Current top end hardware can only manage averages of ~40 - ~50 FPS with all the eye candy on (without AA/AF). So if games coming out pretty soon are gonna make top end cards work hard it makes me wonder how long I'll be able to enjoy playing games at their max gfx settings on current hardware. After all if you spend a load of money on a decent card you want to be able to turn everything up. Not such a problem if you upgrade every six months but most people have to think a bit farther ahead than that.

There was a comment made by one of the Splinter Cell programmers in a post on beyond3d who said they're currently thinking of skipping the shader 2.0 model all together for their next gen stuff and writing for model 3.0 instead, with backwards compatability in model 1.1. If this is typical of games in development then this doesn't look good for the longevity of current high end cards, even if they are a good buy right now.
 

BenSkywalker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,140
67
91
I've been having a similar dilemma, I'm really tempted by a 9800 pro. The way I've been thinking, when you look at the benches of something fairly next-gen like Far Cry running in max detail (which is really how the developers want people to play it), the FPS really aren't that high. Current top end hardware can only manage averages of ~40 - ~50 FPS with all the eye candy on (without AA/AF).

One of the big performance hits is running PS 2.0 shaders in Far Cry and as an owner of a R9800Pro I'll tell you it isn't worth the performance difference- not even close. FarCry on a R9800Pro looks better with all settings on low then pretty much any game out with all details cranked. From what we have seen of HL2 it is going to be much the same, PS2.0 offers a very slight visual benefit for a steep performance hit. Shader performance is what is killing most of the upcoming games we have seen, and oddly enough Halo seems to show the largest difference between 1.0 and 2.0 level shaders and takes only a slight(~10%) performance hit(even then, the visual differences aren't *huge*, though they are easily noticeable).