Upgrade now or wait for dx10 cards

[brikis98]

I'm getting myself a big widescreen monitor in a little while and my current vid card (x800 xl) is already having issues running games at moderate - high resolutions (e.g. oblivion chugs in outdoor areas at 1280x1024)... i use my computer for a bit of everything - games (mostly fps such as FEAR, HL2, oblivion), music, DVDs, programming, graphics, etc - so i need a pretty decent video card to keep up at the high resolutions that I will be using.

so the question is... do i upgrade now to something like an x1900xtx or do i wait for the dx 10 cards to come out (and when exactly will that happen anyway)?

i'm sure no one can know for sure until those cards do come out, but what do i stand to lose if i upgrade now and don't get a dx 10 card for a while? are they going to be initially too expensive anyway? are there any windows vista issues to consider?

 

[Bobthelost]

Vista = Irrelevant. DX 10 would be nicer to have than DX9, but DX9 will do.

DX 10 For gaming = Possible problem, you won't be albe to play games with full eyecandy running as soon as the DX10 games turn up. However for at least a year, probably closer to two the games will be written to be XP compatible. After that you'd need a DX card to run them at all.

I don't think anyone knows (or they are NDA'd up the wazoo) when they are due out, but the scuttlebut is relatively soon (next few months).

 

[Pabster]

What do you stand to lose? Not much, just the card you buy now depreciating rapidly as DX10 cards come out. Same as it always is

X800XL is a bit weak, esp for higher resolutions.

 

[Link]

Many people have asked the same question again and again. You can use the "search" function to find the answer to the very question.
The consensus is "get a DX9 card now if you can't wait for the 2nd generation of DX10 cards."

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

DX10 cards (G80/R600) will be expensive when they come out, whenever that is (maybe Oct/Nov for G80, Dec/Jan for R600), probably weighing in around $500.

You can go near-top end current generation for $250. The biggest depreciation on video cards occurs in the 1st 6 months, so if you buy a 1900xx/7900xx today for $250+, you should still be able to sell it for at least $150+ in 6 months when G80/R600 are fully available. EVGA's setup program may work well assuming G80 is released within 3 months and there's decent availability (I think their program time limit is 3 months).

DX10 itself is not really a big factor over the next year or so, except maybe for Crysis. What's more important are the performance gains from the next generation, which are unknown.

 

[brikis98]

thx for the replies...

i guess here's the more relevant issue: when will games start to have dx10 effects? having the vid card out there is one thing, but how long before programmers start putting dx10-specific eye candy into their games?

 

[tuteja1986]

G80 = November late or early december
R600 = late December or Mid Jan

Don't expect both card to even come out in October , if they did then it would end up as paper launch or a launch with few thousands and then 1 month of non drought, the same way the 7800GTX 512MB were released.

 

[Noubourne]

You won't see games really taking advantage of DX10 till late 2007/early 2008.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
You won't see games really taking advantage of DX10 till late 2007/early 2008.

well, if that's true, then i think it's time for an upgrade

 

[Kyanzes]

I wouldn't worry about DX10 games coming out in huge numbers within the span of a year. The only thing I'm not sure about is the DX9 performance of the new cards. I've recently upgraded on video front so it would hit me hard should the DX10 cards obliterate the current top of the line cards.

 

[m21s]

If you plan to upgrade to Vista, that will take advantage of DX10 with it's features. So it wont be a total waste if we dont see games for a year or so.
Just a thought.

 

[Noubourne]

Originally posted by: m21s
If you plan to upgrade to Vista, that will take advantage of DX10 with it's features. So it wont be a total waste if we dont see games for a year or so.
Just a thought.

Vista won't have even one single feature that today's DX9 cards can't handle. Not one.

If you have a DX8 card or onboard graphics, you should have some concern that you won't be able to see Vista's eye-candy. But nobody who's dropped over $200 on a video card in the last year or so won't be able to run every piece of Vista eye-candy.

It's DX10 gaming that will be the upgrade, but only once games start supporting it. Games won't be gung ho to support it until their customers are ready with DX10 cards, so it's going to be 2nd and 3rd gen DX10 cards that are the ones to upgrade to. And those will be sold in late 2007/2008 with the first games that fully support DX10 paths.

Any game coming out between that time will have DX9 paths written so the vast majority of the video card install base can see all their pretty stuffs. Even HL2, cutting edge game that it was, still ran fine on DX8 cards. It makes way more sense to upgrade for a game than it does to upgrade for Vista.

 

[m21s]

Originally posted by: Noubourne

Originally posted by: m21s
If you plan to upgrade to Vista, that will take advantage of DX10 with it's features. So it wont be a total waste if we dont see games for a year or so.
Just a thought.

Vista won't have even one single feature that today's DX9 cards can't handle. Not one.

Can someone verify that?

I thought I remember reading that Vista will take advantage of visuals because of DX10.

Could someone clerify.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

It's a tough call to make. My view on some arguments above:

1) "DX10 cards will be useless because DX10 games won't be out for atleast another year or so. And you will need Vista for it."
True, but we are also talking next-generation GPUs here. Those DX10 cards will work just fine on XP, running DX9 games much faster than any of today's cards. 5800->6800->7800 were all pretty big leaps. So were 9800->X800->X1800. G80/R600 will most likely bring similar leaps in performance.

2) DX10 cards will be expensive, retailing $500+
All flagship cards do. But don't ATi/nVidia launch like 3-6 different cards for every generation, at different price points? $300 3 months from now will likely buy you what $500 buys you today. (This might be very optimistic speculation so you can disregard this).

I say that because you don't sound like someone who upgrades a GPU very often (like the people who go from 7800->7900 or X1800->X1900). You've been getting pretty good (read 'long') use out of that X800XL. You seem like a person I'd recommend waiting for a next-big-change.

If you can handle a little under-performance in your gaming for a few more months, might be worth it. If you can't, feel free to pick up an 512MB X1900XT (~$320) before they disappear from the shelves (after the X1950XTX arrives). That card will be selling for $400+ and is a marginal improvement over the X1900XTX (better cooler, few percentage points improvement).

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: brikis98
thx for the replies...

i guess here's the more relevant issue: when will games start to have dx10 effects? having the vid card out there is one thing, but how long before programmers start putting dx10-specific eye candy into their games?

Longer than DX9 imo. DX10 is Vista only, the installed base of Vista will take years to catch upto WinXP and its DX9 feature set.

 

[Link]

One important factor to remember if going with a DX10 cards. Assuming one will get a high end card, it will required its own PSU.

 

[aka1nas]

Yeah, G80 and R600 are going to be high-end SKUs. At the very least I would think to wait until later in 2007 when there are mid-range Dx10 cards available before making any decision. Especially since they are saying that power consumption will be so high on the next gen cards.

 

[TecHNooB]

Update now~