should I wait?

[Dorkenstein]

Should I wait until next year to buy my new computer parts? Or will they be cheap enough right after x-mas?

I was planning on going for a core 2 duo system and I was wondering if nvidia cards work best with those or is ATI fine? Thanks.

 

[BenchZowner]

It would be wiser to hold up a little bit ( if you can ofcourse ), because right between January & February, we'll be seeing some new stuff like:

a) New motherboards, with the Intel i965P chipset ( like the great looking Asus "Commando" ), the DFI motherboards with nVIDIA ( 680i ) & ATi ( RD600 ) chipsets
b) ATi's new graphics cards ( R600 )
c) And nVIDIA's mainstream GeForce 8xxx series cards ( launch ~ March 2007 )

And you could benefit from some price drops on current hardware by then.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Cool, which looks to be the better chipset, 680i or RD600? It's probably a tie at this point but I was just curious.

 

[Slugbait]

From what I hear, prices won't drop much after Christmas...if at all. April-June is my timeframe for building a new machine.

 

[BenchZowner]

Can't tell for sure...or more precisely, it depends on what you're looking for.

If you're bothered in jumping on the SLI bandwagon, you're only choice is the 680i [ you can have SLI on i975X & RD600 with "modded drivers", but only possible with the GeForce 7xxx series, 8xxx series isn't supported ]
If you're going for CrossFire, you've got two "pure" choices...the RD600 & the i975X.
The i975X seems to perform better ( clock per clock ) [ overall ] than RD600.

On a single VGA scenario, we got:
in 2D ( Applications, etc ) : i975X > i965P => 680i > RD600
in 3D : i975X => RD600 > i965P > 680i

[ average of various tests ]

Things may change though, especially with the new motherboards coming and new BIOS revisions.
[ performance tweaking-wise on the DFI ICFX3200 { RD600 Chipset } & the DFI 680i motherboards feature a lot of tweaking options in BIOS, and can clock our RAM better, such "equalizing" the performance ]

 

[WackyDan]

The other benefit is the lower cost of Vista if you buy it with hardware.... so waiting could be well worth it. I'd also add, that though Vista was released to large companies, the lack of Vista drivers for legacy hardware will be a royal pain.... even for some newer hardware. You are better off waiting if you have Vista in your sites..... Call it Feb-March timeframe.

 

[TBSN]

Originally posted by: BenchZowner

On a single VGA scenario, we got:
in 2D ( Applications, etc ) : i975X > i965P => 680i > RD600
in 3D : i975X => RD600 > i965P > 680i

[ average of various tests ]

I've never heard of results as broad as this. I'd be interested in seeing those tests, because I am still deciding on a chipset for my build! For instance, why are all the chipsets better than 680i for single-card 3d graphics? Do you mean value-wise?

 

[moosey]

are the new nvidia cards going to be lesser performing/cheaper versions of the 8800GTS/GTX?

 

[BenchZowner]

Originally posted by: TBSN

Originally posted by: BenchZowner

On a single VGA scenario, we got:
in 2D ( Applications, etc ) : i975X > i965P => 680i > RD600
in 3D : i975X => RD600 > i965P > 680i

[ average of various tests ]

I've never heard of results as broad as this. I'd be interested in seeing those tests, because I am still deciding on a chipset for my build! For instance, why are all the chipsets better than 680i for single-card 3d graphics? Do you mean value-wise?

Preliminary tests.
Will do a article/review in 2 weeks or so on my new website.

[ the differences ain't that notable though 🙂 ]

 

[BenchZowner]

Originally posted by: moosey
are the new nvidia cards going to be lesser performing/cheaper versions of the 8800GTS/GTX?

nVIDIA's mainstream cards ( lower than 8800GTX/8800GTS ) [ the 7600 series equivalents ] should be released this March ( 2007 ).
There's a possibility of a refresh on the high end line aswell.