Should I wait for the Fudo?

[orwell84]

I am building my first real gaming rig. It has been on hold because I am waiting fot the release of the Fudo. I have nothing against nV cards and no real experience with them (not counting an FX5200). The reason I am waiting is because I am often told that ATI has better AA and higher AA setting with nV have too much of a performance penalty. AA is probably my favorite effect. I know there are some new features for AA on the 7800GTX.

I am wondering if it is worth the wait. My current system is hanging in, but I don't want to wait months to build the new one. My budget is enough for the 7800GTX. I'm not an e-bay wheeler dealer so whatever I buy I will have for awhile.

I would appreciate a little feedback. Is there really a difference in AA quality? Will the Fudo reallly be much better? Any idea on price/availability.

By the way, here are the other specs:

Cooler Master Cavalier case
Enermax Whisper 2 535 watt power supply
MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum mobo
AMD 4000 San Diego CPU
Seagate 160 GB 7200 SATA HD
1G PC 3200 RAM

Any comments on the system are also welcome.

Many thanks!

 

[rbV5]

Don't base your buying decisions on hardware or software that is not yet available.

If you are ready now, build it now. When r520 hits the shelves, there will be other hardware waiting in the wings as well...what do you do then?

One thing is for certain, building a rig with the current highend parts is not a value decision anyway. It will offer a somewhat poor bang for buck, and something faster/cheaper likely will be available soon after you finish your build.

What display will you be using?

 

[dguy6789]

The Geforce 7800GTX will get you the best AA performance possible, if that is what you are after, then go for it. The R520 MAY be faster, but then again, it MAY not be faster and your wait was for nothing.

Waiting to buy something because something else is around the corner is not smart at all when it comes to computers. There is ALWAYS going to be something faster, cheaper, and cooler around the corner, so just suck it up and buy what you want.

 

[jasonja]

The R520 MAY be faster, but then again, it MAY not be faster and your wait was for nothing.

Unless of course you don't consider cheaper prices "nothing". No doubt that 520 will bring pricing competition back in play.

 

[Bona Fide]

Originally posted by: jasonja

The R520 MAY be faster, but then again, it MAY not be faster and your wait was for nothing.

Unless of course you don't consider cheaper prices "nothing". No doubt that 520 will bring pricing competition back in play.

I seem to want to differ on that. I think the R520 will be outrageously priced at the outset, and THEN they'll eventually lower prices once they realize no one's paying $600 for a graphics card.

 

[Killrose]

I think they changed the name to Fubar

 

[orwell84]

My prediction would be that the Fudo would not be significantly better than the 7800GTX. A little faster in this game, a little slower in that. I guess I am just hung up on the typical argument about AA. I have no real facts to base it on. Just things I've heard.

If I buy now and I find out a month from now that I could have saved $100 by waiting, I really wouldn't feel bad. I think the 7800GTX is quite competitive for what it is. If the Fudo turns out to be a little better, faster cheaper...no biggie. I would kick myslef if the Fudo turned out to be much better, competitively priced and I had blown my vid card budget on the 7800GTX.

BTW, I play mostly flight sims; 1 uses Open GL, the other Direct X

I have a 19" Crt monitor with a max 1600x1200 res, but I might upgrade that too.

Thanks again.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide

Originally posted by: jasonja

The R520 MAY be faster, but then again, it MAY not be faster and your wait was for nothing.

Unless of course you don't consider cheaper prices "nothing". No doubt that 520 will bring pricing competition back in play.

I seem to want to differ on that. I think the R520 will be outrageously priced at the outset, and THEN they'll eventually lower prices once they realize no one's paying $600 for a graphics card.

This is likely if they only launch a highend part at first (which seems to be the trend these days). Of course, if ATI puts out something that performs better than the 7800GTX, but costs the same or less, that could shift all the prices down a bit.

But if you're even thinking about the 7800GTX, it's not like you really care about saving a few bucks (if you did, you'd buy the 7800GT, or a GF6800GT/U). And I don't think it is likely to drop significantly in price in the short term. If you have to have something now, and it has to be the fastest thing on the market -- well, the 7800GTX is it. But you're never going to get a really good deal on the fastest card available.

 

[orwell84]

I usually am very price conscious. I was planning on buying something like the x850xt as prices were starting to become somewhat sane on this card. But at this point, the 7800gtx is not significantly more, but I would say performance is significantly better.

Usually I wouldn't consider spending this much on a GPU, but at this time, CPU's and other components seem more reasonabley priced.

This is also my first real build. Also, flight sims are quite demanding, but new ones don't come out that often or old ones tend to get redone. This means that a decent system tends to last for awhile with flight sims. So I am trying to build the best one I can afford.

So at this point, with the 7800GTX, the entire system comes to about $1350 US. This seems reasonable for a somewhat high end system and the amount of entertainment I get from it.


So should I take the plung and get the 7800GTX?

 

[Wreckage]

Just pick up a SLI motherboard. That way you can always drop in another 7800GTX later. In the computer world always buy when you are ready, that way you can enjoy it as soon as possible. There will ALWAYS be something better next week, next month, next year.

There are already rumors of a 7800ultra.

 

[orwell84]

Yeah, I know what they always say about waiting. Something better is already around the corner. The new ATI lineup was supposed to be right around the corner. And as much as I have heard about better quality AA and as much as I have enjoyed my 9800 pro, it's hard to get over how disappointing the x800 series release was. I was prepared to pay MSRP for one of these cards at the time, but it seems like it took so long to even find one at MSRP.

The 7800 series is already out there ..often well below MSRP...

Hmm.....

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: orwell84
Yeah, I know what they always say about waiting. Something better is already around the corner. The new ATI lineup was supposed to be right around the corner. And as much as I have heard about better quality AA and as much as I have enjoyed my 9800 pro, it's hard to get over how disappointing the x800 series release was. I was prepared to pay MSRP for one of these cards at the time, but it seems like it took so long to even find one at MSRP.

The 7800 series is already out there ..often well below MSRP...

Hmm.....

No one but ATI knows when their next chip is coming out. Might be this year, might be next.

 

[munchow2]

In short, don't think too much about future technologies or future-proofing since no one here can forsee the future for you. All you can do to do justice to yourself is buy what you think is worthwhile at the time of purchase.

Have you considered a x2 core and a 7800GT instead?

 

[n7]

No use waiting for ATi, since they keep pushing back their release.

Really, the 7800GT would be a great value, or the GTX if you have the extra cash.

Even if ATi does do better with AA & AF, it's not that huge of a difference.

I've used both nVidia & ATi cards, & both companies make excellent graphics cards.
Just get what you can, & if you really want to switch later, you can always sell your 7800xx & grab an X950 or whatever.

 

[jasonja]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide

Originally posted by: jasonja

The R520 MAY be faster, but then again, it MAY not be faster and your wait was for nothing.

Unless of course you don't consider cheaper prices "nothing". No doubt that 520 will bring pricing competition back in play.

I seem to want to differ on that. I think the R520 will be outrageously priced at the outset, and THEN they'll eventually lower prices once they realize no one's paying $600 for a graphics card.

It's been talked about on ASIC design websites that the 7800 ASIC is HUGE in size due to using 11 nanometer and is very expensive. ATI's chip is going to be smaller and they are obviously maximizing yields with this delay for cost reasons. I think they will be able to challenge nVidia price-wise

 

[orwell84]

BTW, when is the supposed release date of the R520?

Munchow2, I am also considering the 7800GT. I will do a little more research and see how it does in the games I play.

I'm not really interested in dual core processors at this point. One flight sim I play actually supports dual core, but benches I've seen show no real performance gain. Maybe in the furture. At least I can upgrade w/o changing the mobo.

Well, I guess it is between the 7800GT and GTX at this point, since R520 seems a long way off. Thanks everyone for all the help and suggestions.

 

[hans030390]

just get a 7800gt or gtx and be happy.

 

[munchow2]

Originally posted by: orwell84
BTW, when is the supposed release date of the R520?

Munchow2, I am also considering the 7800GT. I will do a little more research and see how it does in the games I play.

I'm not really interested in dual core processors at this point. One flight sim I play actually supports dual core, but benches I've seen show no real performance gain. Maybe in the furture. At least I can upgrade w/o changing the mobo.

Well, I guess it is between the 7800GT and GTX at this point, since R520 seems a long way off. Thanks everyone for all the help and suggestions.

You won't see any practical value in x2 for gaming purposes but from what I can see, it gives smoother operation than single core AMD. Single core AMD doesn't multi-task well, which I do often and I have both an A64 3200+ and intel 2.8HT. Although I personally prefer dual core and would buy it if I had the money, which I don't, it depends on how you will use your computer. If all you do is turn on the computer and play a game then single core AMD is your best choice. If not and you do a bunch of other stuff on your computer then x2 is a better choice IMHO.

R520 has had release dates from february -> may -> july -> september. It is supposed to come out in September and while I don't doubt it will be a great product, I could care less personally, since my computer won't be able to use it to its fullest ppotential anyway. I need to OC my comp to use this x850xt pe.

Go for the GT and since you will want to wait a few weeks before you buy anyway to let prices drop, keep an eye out for any hints as to the release date for the r520 at that time.