Should Anand refuse to review 8800ULTRA?

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: terentenet
What do you call a paper launch? Limited availability or NO availability? Because I have the opportunity to buy 2 Ultras'. All that's holding me back is the water cooling setup. If the 8800 Ultra maintains the same layout as the GTX so I can fit the EK blocks and the performance increase over GTX will make the Ultra worthy, I will take the plunge on 2 of those.

Holy! you have a lot of money to burn...
Can I have those 2 8800 GTX when you're done with them? :Q

 

[terentenet]

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: terentenet
What do you call a paper launch? Limited availability or NO availability? Because I have the opportunity to buy 2 Ultras'. All that's holding me back is the water cooling setup. If the 8800 Ultra maintains the same layout as the GTX so I can fit the EK blocks and the performance increase over GTX will make the Ultra worthy, I will take the plunge on 2 of those.

Holy! you have a lot of money to burn...
Can I have those 2 8800 GTX when you're done with them? :Q

Nah, I don't have lots of money to burn, I'm just childish, stupid and I like new toys.

 

[Wreckage]

Well the R600 is not due in stores until May 14. So I guess Anandtech should not post anything about it until then...:roll:

 

[SexyK]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Well the R600 is not due in stores until May 14. So I guess Anandtech should not post anything about it until then...:roll:

Yeah and they definitely shouldn't have ever reviewed the x1800 since it was replaced so quickly by the x1900. And they definitely shouldn't review R600 based on that one event... won't fool us twice with a late release and quick refresh devaluing all purchases immediately. :roll:

 

[Cookie Monster]

Isnt this launching on May15th with reviews on 1st?

 

[Ackmed]

If AT (or any hardware site) knows for a fact that it will be in very limited supply, then I dont want to see it reviewed. Or any card that they know such info about. I dont want to see another 7800GTX 512MB, or X800XT/PE debacle again. While I doubt any hardware site would take such a stance, it would be nice. I also doubt NV/ATi or anyone else would tell reviewers such information.

There have been many instances in the past with various hardware, where it was reviewed, and then either launched with no avail, or very limited only to drive the price up several hundred dollars, if you could find one. Which is not good for anyone.

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Well the R600 is not due in stores until May 14. So I guess Anandtech should not post anything about it until then...:roll:

Is that for fact? There is a difference between having reviews come out, with a date set later for a hardware launch. Then there is launching a card, knowing full well that there would be not near enough cards to meet demand, for even a week. Putting a card out just to "win" benchmarks. Both ATi and NV have been guilty of this, and its not good for anyone.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
If AT (or any hardware site) knows for a fact that it will be in very limited supply, then I dont want to see it reviewed. Or any card that they know such info about. I dont want to see another 7800GTX 512MB, or X800XT/PE debacle again. While I doubt any hardware site would take such a stance, it would be nice. I also doubt NV/ATi or anyone else would tell reviewers such information.

There have been many instances in the past with various hardware, where it was reviewed, and then either launched with no avail, or very limited only to drive the price up several hundred dollars, if you could find one. Which is not good for anyone.

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Well the R600 is not due in stores until May 14. So I guess Anandtech should not post anything about it until then...:roll:

Is that for fact? There is a difference between having reviews come out, with a date set later for a hardware launch. Then there is launching a card, knowing full well that there would be not near enough cards to meet demand, for even a week. Putting a card out just to "win" benchmarks. Both ATi and NV have been guilty of this, and its not good for anyone.

Well the OP seemed dead set against a paper launch so I was just trying to follow that mind set.

As for the R600 release date...... No idea. The last rumor I heard was May 14th with reviews coming maybe 2 weeks prior to that.

However, I have seen nothing but made up dates for at least a year now.

 

[SolMiester]

At least its not a Ferrari motorcar, you have to put your name down on a list to buy one and it too is for bragging rights.

 

[dreddfunk]

If you seriously launch a card that is only meant for reviewers and one to two thousand people in order to spoil a competitor's launch, I would hope that any respectable hardware review site would refuse to recommend the card to their readers, simply based upon the very, very shady nature of such a practice.

Still, I don't see why any site should refuse to review the performance of the cards--as long as they are very, very clear about what they know concerning availability.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Creig
Just because it might be high-priced/low-volume is no reason not to review it. It is what it is. Some people will find the price of no consequence and buy two. Most other people will read the review for its technological merits and go out to purchase something a bit less expensive.

I'm looking forward to reading a review on it to see just how far Nvidia can push the G80 with (I'm fairly certain) binned cores and whether or not it will bring significant gains to framerates over a standard or manufacturer OC'ed GTX.

i agree,

i wont even buy a 8800GTX so it really makes no difference how much more expensive the ultra will be.

as i have a thirst for technology and pushing the limits....this is something i wanna see, i wanna see how far 600+ milion transistors can go.

 

[sisq0kidd]

Originally posted by: SolMiester
At least its not a Ferrari motorcar, you have to put your name down on a list to buy one and it too is for bragging rights.

Exactly, so no one should review the Ferrari. In fact, I don't even want to see any on TV for that matter. Top Gear should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[nitromullet]

Where's the OP getting the quantity of 100 for the 8800 Ultra ? Fudzilla...? The Inq...?

Also, the 7800GTX 512MB wasn't quite as rare as some of you are making it out to be. There were certainly more than 100 made. Yes, it was difficult to get hold of in retail, but I know someone who had two of them in an OEM build from ibuypower.com. There were even a few people on AT that had one (didn't lopri have two?). They were also pretty common on ebay, just expensive... My point is that you could have gotten hold of one had you wanted to badly enough.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
Where's the OP getting the quantity of 100 for the 8800 Ultra ? Fudzilla...? The Inq...?

Also, the 7800GTX 512MB wasn't quite as rare as some of you are making it out to be. There were certainly more than 100 made. Yes, it was difficult to get hold of in retail, but I know someone who had two of them in an OEM build from ibuypower.com. There were even a few people on AT that had one (didn't lopri have two?). They were also pretty common on ebay, just expensive... My point is that you could have gotten hold of one had you wanted to badly enough.

Thats quite true, and people who wanted to have one, DID get one. Some even got two. The only people who whined about it was the ones who wanted it, but had no money at the price it was going for.

Im kind of skeptical about the $999 price tag/limited quantities, but it does sound awfully similiar to the 7800GTX 512mb.

However if you have the money, why not? theoretically the ultra should give you a 30% boost in performance which could result in even higher levels of AA (the hybrid modes too) and res. I bet some extreme enthusiasts will buy not just one, but two at launch.

 

[CrystalBay]

Sure Buy it If you have the cabbage..,

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: terentenet
What do you call a paper launch? Limited availability or NO availability? Because I have the opportunity to buy 2 Ultras'. All that's holding me back is the water cooling setup. If the 8800 Ultra maintains the same layout as the GTX so I can fit the EK blocks and the performance increase over GTX will make the Ultra worthy, I will take the plunge on 2 of those.

Nice bang/buck. For $2000 you've made your PC run Oblivion amazingly, but I could build another 2 PCs that can run it well.

I'm fairly skeptical of the ultra-ultra-high-end cards anyway. They seem to exists solely so the manufacturer can say they have the current performance crown, and are so thin on the ground and high in price that only the most determined purchasing power will get them.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

Originally posted by: Creig
Just because it might be high-priced/low-volume is no reason not to review it. It is what it is. Some people will find the price of no consequence and buy two. Most other people will read the review for its technological merits and go out to purchase something a bit less expensive.

I'm looking forward to reading a review on it to see just how far Nvidia can push the G80 with (I'm fairly certain) binned cores and whether or not it will bring significant gains to framerates over a standard or manufacturer OC'ed GTX.

i agree,

i wont even buy a 8800GTX so it really makes no difference how much more expensive the ultra will be.

as i have a thirst for technology and pushing the limits....this is something i wanna see, i wanna see how far 600+ milion transistors can go.

Except that reviewers keep on using the card, to compare to newer cards. Even though you cant find it, and on the off chance you can, its priced well over the MSRP. And make no mention of it in the review. This happened a lot with the 7800GTX 512MB. There was initial avail, for a week or so. Then it was very, very hard to find, and was well over the MSRP price. Yet you still saw them in newer reviews when a new card came out. Thats what I dont like. Same thing happened with the X800XT/PE. Reviewers still used it, when you couldnt find one.

 

[nitromullet]

I see your point Ackmed... If availability of a card completely dries up, review sites should probably not continue to compare newer parts to these types of cards for comparative purposes between ATI/NVIDIA... On the other hand, it was kind of interesting to see how well a 7900GT performed against the much more expensive 7800GTX 512MB last year.

 

[Pugnate]

Good points Ackmed.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

At least the 7800GTX 512 gave you a nice "Auto-Notify - e-mail me when this item is in stock" page to look at.

I don't think I even saw that for the 6800 Ultra Extreme.