this year...

[flexy]

just want to re-cap how this year is one of the worst and most disappointing
ever since i started to build computers. It was also one of the most annoying.

* ATI and NVidia with their stupid paper launches.

* High end ATI cards paper-launched (X800XT/PE)....but obviously only ten or so available worldwide which resulted in extreme price gauging for the FEW cards
$800 - $900 dollar for some *mediocre* graphic card ? Remember the time when a high-end card cost $350 ?

* repeated, wash, rinse, repeat chipset "refresh" by ATI with their unability to come up with anything supporting SM3.0 - but "releasing" about 900 other cards still BASICALLY a refresh of 9700. This is so stupid - i could live with it, but a refresh-card for $800 ???? No thanks

* NFORCE 4 - the name alone makes me kranky.

Announced early this year with "will be released October". Comes October, November. We hear stories about hardware bugs/flaws. Now its mid december.
Price gauging AGAIN at its BEST. Retail price for certain boards are $190....same board is offered on pre-order for $315...etc....etc.....

Status, December, 11th, 2004, nearing the end of this year:

STILL no *reasonable* amounts of either Geforce 6800 GT pci-express and/or X850XT or X800XT pci-ex at a NORMAL price .....STILL no real availability of these cards and Nforce 4/ ATI RS200 chipset and VIA kt890.

All this **** has been paper launched a LONG time ago.....and i remember that early this year *this* year looked like a great builder year, with people being excited over the new standards (Socket 939, pci-ex, BTX)....and i have to say that all of this excitement merely turned into frustration, originated from ATI & Nvidia


my $0.2

edit: WTH did i write "cranky" with "k" ?

 

[DrCool]

AMEN, brother!

sometimes I'm not sure whether I should cry or laugh when I read many of the posts on anandtech nowadays.. wow, how the times have changed..

we used to have meaningfull debates, and solid conversations.. but now, 99% of the posts are "i'm to f*ing lazy to do any research myself, so DO IT FOR ME, and DO IT NOW!"

these crazy n00bies, are wasting money on 'MUST HAVE' 6800 nVidia $500 video cards.. when a $150 card will play any game avalible today.. I understand there will always be those individuals that have to have the latest and greatest, but $500 for a video card??

Prices for all the high end gear has gotten way outta hand, $900 FX 55 processors, $400 400GB Segate Hard Drives, and $350 nForce 4 motherboards..

All the hype around the nForce4 has really made me sick, as the nForce 3 is really just now coming into it's own.. the 1st revision of anything is always beta (lets see how many guinea pigs we can sign on, to do our testing for us), you'd think people would learn by now...

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

We got scammed bitches!

Not to be too cynical, if there is such a thing as being too cynical, I really believe that the hardware makers did a little number here creating phantom shortages to some degree, hype, deprive, hype some more, deprive some more, and then wham! here comes the stuff in a crazed rush right before Xmas, leaving many people in a position where they are forced to buy no matter what the price. What a coincidence, huh? Isn't this exactly what's happening?

Many retailers make 30-40% of an entire year's profits on Xmas, so I'm not surprised at this squeeze move. If you can sell stuff at MSRP+50% or +100%, your profits are going to be astronomical. And it's not just one or two retailers or just ATI or nVidia engaging in this. They're all doing it, retailers and manufacturers together, and that alone smacks of some serious winking and nodding.

Eh, what can I say, people are cattle.

 

[biostud]

the good thing though was the pricedrop on 9800 pro's early this year, and the relatively cheap a64 solutions. So for mid end budgets I think it's been a good year.

 

[SkyBum]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo

Eh, what can I say, people are cattle.

Eh......Mooooo.....what else do you want me to say.....I bought what I wanted, maybe I got ripped off, maybe not, but I bought what I wanted...... how can you argue with that?

 

[drag]

Best to wait till after Xmas to buy your stuff.

For isntance I am looking at buying a HD monitor so I can do the big screen thing with video games and videos from my computer. If I buy now I would be nuts, prices are expected to drop 30 to 40% by february. And there will probably be sales after that to get rid of old inventory for the spring.

I figure it would be the same for all electronics. vid cards, memory, cpu's, etc etc.

Then maybe i'd upgrade to AMD64 machine. Or if I save up enough a dual opteron, which is what I realy want.

 

[Mem]

It`s all relative,2005 will be a good year .

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Originally posted by: biostud
the good thing though was the pricedrop on 9800 pro's early this year, and the relatively cheap a64 solutions. So for mid end budgets I think it's been a good year.

i agree. mid boxes were it.