Should I stick with my 7800GT and wait until the next gen comes out or jump on one of the 7900GTO deals?

[bcoupland]

Well, as many of us with year old cards are pondering, should we go for this great deal or wait for possibly much higher performance. Personally, I plan to stick with XP for a while, so i'm not even sure that waiting for a higher performance DX10 card would be worth it. Also, I have a Zalman NB47J on my Asus A8N-E so only single slot cards will fit. I would have to put the noisy-ass stock Asus hs/fan back on and since i'm a silence nut, that wouldn't really be an option. Also, I'm relatively happy with the performance of my EVGA 7800GT (Although I haven't tried Oblivion yet, it doesn't really interest me.).

Pros:
Awesome deal
Blazingly fast card that is essentially a 7900GTX in sheep's clothing
a great DX9 card for those who don't plan on upgrading to Vista
Amazingly silent

Cons:
Feature set (As in, I don't gain anything)
No HDR+AA
Reasonably satisfied with 7800GT
Could buy an 8800 series card or ATi equivalent in a few months
Possibly need different motherboard to keep the rig silent with a dual slot card

Also, I'm thinking that I could hold out for another year and a half and get a Core2 (Quadro hopefully if they're reasonably priced by then), 2GB of DDR2, and a video card (best performance for ~300 at the time).

Current system specs are:

3000+ Venice oc'ed to 2.4 on stock Vcore with Thermalright XP-90 (Nexus 92mm fan @5v)
EVGA 7800GT (445/1070, tested for a week at 490/1200 fine)
2GB Corsair VS (4x512)
Asus A8N-E rev. 2.0
Seasonic S12 430

Please help me decide. Thanks.

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: bcoupland
Well, as many of us with year old cards are pondering, should we go for this great deal or wait for possibly much higher performance. Personally, I plan to stick with XP for a while, so i'm not even sure that waiting for a higher performance DX10 card would be worth it. Also, I have a Zalman NB47J on my Asus A8N-E so only single slot cards will fit. I would have to put the noisy-ass stock Asus hs/fan back on and since i'm a silence nut, that wouldn't really be an option. Also, I'm relatively happy with the performance of my EVGA 7800GT (Although I haven't tried Oblivion yet, it doesn't really interest me.).

Pros:
Awesome deal
Blazingly fast card that is essentially a 7900GTX in sheep's clothing
a great DX9 card for those who don't plan on upgrading to Vista
Amazingly silent

Cons:
Feature set (As in, I don't gain anything)
No HDR+AA
Reasonably satisfied with 7800GT
Could buy an 8800 series card or ATi equivalent in a few months
Possibly need different motherboard to keep the rig silent with a dual slot card

Also, I'm thinking that I could hold out for another year and a half and get a Core2 (Quadro hopefully if they're reasonably priced by then), 2GB of DDR2, and a video card (best performance for ~300 at the time).

Current system specs are:

3000+ Venice oc'ed to 2.4 on stock Vcore with Thermalright XP-90 (Nexus 92mm fan @5v)
EVGA 7800GT (445/1070, tested for a week at 490/1200 fine)
2GB Corsair VS (4x512)
Asus A8N-E rev. 2.0
Seasonic S12 430

Please help me decide. Thanks.

With that card, I would just wait. It's extremely powerful compared to more than half the cards on the market today and can still pretty much max out any game.

 

[Matt2]

EVGA 7900GTO + Step-Up = best of both worlds.

You get to have a killer card now for an amazing price, then you get G80 for around $350-$400 when it comes out.

 

[n7]

Go for it

You know you want too...


Heck i am getting one to likely replace my X1900XT

 

[mikeford]

Vista, HD and HDCP and HDMI, will do a shake out of present day cards just like PCIe did to AGP, and AGP did to PCI.

I don't think you should EVER buy a video card that doesn't fullfill some immediate need, things just change too fast to prebuy anything, the deals will ALWAYS get better.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: n7
Go for it

You know you want too...


Heck i am getting one to likely replace my X1900XT

why? performance will be more or less the same, no?

 

[Zebo]

Not a huge upgrade. Go look at some 7900GS (same as 7800GT) vs. 7900GTX benchmarks

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug

Originally posted by: n7
Go for it

You know you want too...


Heck i am getting one to likely replace my X1900XT

why? performance will be more or less the same, no?

Likely a bit less on average.


Why?

My card seems to dislike dual displays.
Has flickering issues during bios/bootup about 50% of the time when both monitors are on.
Previously had flickering issues in Windows, but with newer drivers, it seems okay.
These issues are not uncommon with X1900s, so RMAing might very well get me one with the same problems.

CCC is a RAM whore, & i could not use ATT instead even if i wanted, as it doesn't seem to have an option for using a secondary display in portrait mode.
I also hate ATT anyway.

Card doesn't OC at all w/o locking up or artifacting, regardless of app/voltage used (Overdrive, ATi Tool, ATT, X1900 Overclocker or whatever it's called) which ruins my fun.

Also, i simply cannot get the X1900XT to work with a secondary card to power my third & fourth displays.
Not with PCI 7000, PCI-e 6600GT, or PCI-e X1300 Pro regardless of bios settings, versions, drivers, lack of drivers, etc.

Simply put, it's been a f*ck of a lot of hassle.
Partially because i expect a lot more from it that a normal user, so most of my complaints aren't valid for most people.
But for myself, they are valid.

And since i can get a 7900 GTO for cheap, i might as well see if it works a bit better for me.


That's why.

 

[Zebo]

CCC is a RAM whore,

LOL You forgot stepup though evga and noise

 

[hans007]

well , a 7900gto is probably a good amount faster. and the g80 cards will probably be super expensive and run flaming hot.

i think it would be an ok upgrade especially since you can probably still get $170 for that 7800gt on ebay or something. i mean the tiger direct price is only $230 after rebate + shipping.

i think HD, hdcp, hdmi are pretty pointless anyway. no one is going to use blue ray / hd-dvd in the near future and the odds of you buying HD enabled drmd content online just to watch on your pc in the next... 2 years or so (or the lifetime of the card anyway) is pretty miniscule.

i'd say get it if you are a a gamer.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: Matt2
EVGA 7900GTO + Step-Up = best of both worlds.

You get to have a killer card now for an amazing price, then you get G80 for around $350-$400 when it comes out.

:thumbsup:

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Zebo

CCC is a RAM whore,

LOL You forgot stepup though evga and noise

Noise isn't an issue as i have an Accelero X2.
But if i was running stock, yes.

 

[lopri]

I saw a Blue-Ray drive the other day. It looks just like a plane beige/black DVD-ROM drive except that it was $750. One has got to be very ignorant to buy it right now.