Video card help

[impemonk]

As teh title says, I want to know how long the 6800NU lasts before it becomes a low end card... My friend was telling me he has the opportunity to buy an EVGA for 230 bucks at his work but was concerned about the rapid rate at which technology replaces devices. By that I mean how long before the newest video card will come out and move prices down for the 6800 and slide their position from a high end card to a low end card?

I myself have bought so many graphics cards that it boggles the mind?! I am wondering if my own investment in the 6800NU's would last me up until Age of Empires III or Empires at War comes out since I am eager to play these (and they encorporate PS 3.0).

 

[Appledrop]

well of course it depends what settings you like to play your games on - they will not do 16x12 today on games later than UT2004 i bet... but should last a while if you game at 1024

 

[thegimp03]

I have a 6800nu and run games at 1024 or 1280, everything high, and usually a bit of aa/af. It rarely gets bogged down and I'm very happy with it. If you're lucky enough to get one that unlocks and u can oc, you increase your performance a lot. Though, mine is stock and runs everything I need it to at great framerates. I play hl2, d3, far cry, ut2k4 and others and haven't had any problems with it.

 

[uOpt]

Having just bought an Ultra I am amazed how easy it is to drive it to the limit with today's games. So I'd say life will be not so long.

You might get a breathe due tot he CPU problems. CPU speed is mostly stalled and they go multi-core/multi-CPU. It will keep the game developers busy to get more out of these machines CPU-wise before they can come up with new conspiricies to wall your graphics card.

$230 is a great price for a eVGA 6800, though.

A 6800 will always be very suitable to play older games at high resolutions and quality settings, due to its high memory bandwidth.

 

[Johnbear007]

low end is a relative idea. If it does what you want it to do, it's fine period. Mine plays everything at 1280 wwith all setings jacked. SinceI only play world of warcraft right now, and will for the next year, it will carry me for at least another year since it runs that game flawlessley.