What Happens If Fermi Turns Out To Be Awesome?

[DefRef]

I don't know when this forum turned into a rather militant ATI fanboy club, but thread after thread regurgitates various ATI-backed shill sites prophecies of doom and failure and speculates whether nVidia will go out of business if Fermi doesn't come out with 200% of the 5xxx series performance at 50% the price. The vast majority seem invested in Fermi flopping, being loud, hot, short-supplied, and just another GeForce 5800.

But what if Fermi does kick ass? Not just 10-20% faster for $100 more, but leapfrogs ATI's best by a substantial margin. What will the reaction be? "Yay! nVidia is stepping up and competition is good!" or "Is that the best they can do? They're months late and ATI is going to be releasing the 6xxx in few months, so this won't last. Fail!"? Are people here so eager to see nVidia faceplant that they won't be able to be objective about whatever gets revealed on Friday? It sure seems that way.

I hope Fermi turns out well, but I'm frankly doing fine with my ancient 8800GT SLI setup which runs just about everything I throw at it well enough, so if it sucks, it won't matter much to me. I can wait until a cool game comes along that demands an upgrade and then see who's best. It's nice not having to worry about dropping a chunk of change whenever the new hotness comes out. I've done the gottahaveit! upgrade thing way too many times, so it'll take something darn impressive to make me get my wallet out.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Great. Competition is a good thing.

But I personally think the 5% estimate is accurate with the exception of certain specialized tessellation benches.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

It probably won't. But if it does, then AMD drops prices to compete, hopefully NVidia does the same in turn, and we have a return to competition, and everybody benefits.

 

[Avalon]

I'd be ecstatic. No one likes to see a dud.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Nothing much. ATI never planned on competing with it with single gpu cards. Nvidia are 6 months late. If needed (say Fermi is actually available en masse) they just drop prices 50$ across the board. It's not like anything bad can happen.

 

[thilanliyan]

I hope it's great so that prices come down.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

I'd be ecstatic. No one likes to see a dud.

Well the FX5800 ultra was hilarious. Imagine how annoying having a guy with that card next to you at lan must have been.

 

[Apocalypse23]

I hope it's great so that prices come down.

This, there's nothing better than tri crossfiring 5850s or 5870s even with all expensive Fermi around...

I'd like to get my hands on a GTX480, but not at $600 a piece...plus the 5870s still compete with an OC, we need to see how well the GTX 4xx series overclock too...

Maybe Lucid Hydra technology maturing will play a role in upgrading to new-gen video cards frequently...think about using a 5870+gtx470 on one machine, then you have something spectacular to look at...

 

[Dark4ng3l]

This, there's nothing better than tri crossfiring 5850s or 5870s even with all expensive Fermi around...

I'd like to get my hands on a GTX480, but not at $600 a piece...plus the 5870s still compete with an OC, we need to see how well the GTX 4xx series overclock too...

Maybe Lucid Hydra technology maturing will play a role in upgrading to new-gen video cards frequently...think about using a 5870+gtx470 on one machine, then you have something spectacular to look at...

Yeah the only point to Lucid Hydra that I can see is that when you upgrade you can just used your old card to help boost your new card a bit (IE you use yout 4850 with your 470) but those motherboards are still way too expensive for about 30-35% scaling. I seriously can't see myself buying that thing unless it comes way down in price.

 

[SunnyD]

I hope it is awesome. Then I'll be able to get a second 5870 for dirt fucking cheap for some crossfire goodness.

 

[happy medium]

What happends?

We all win.

Make sure you check the for sale/trade forums for real good 58xx card deals.
I know I will.
Most enthusiast want the fastest thing out there and will sell there ATi cards.

 

[ronnn]

It certainly will be awesome. Hard for myself to go high range these days - as the new games are not that much more awesome as most are console ports or as the new term goes - developed for cross platform. Still fun, but a low mid range part does just fine on my monitor.

 

[MJinZ]

I really don't care. I have 2x 5870s and no PC games worth playing.

I'll be running Diablo 3 and Star Craft 2 in a year maxed out running 6000x1200 or whatever doing 1000FPS, which we all known Intel IGP can run maxed out doing 100FPS, but whatever.

PC Gaming is a sad shitstate.

 

[happy medium]

I really don't care. I have 2x 5870s and no PC games worth playing.

I'll be running Diablo 3 and Star Craft 2 in a year maxed out running 6000x1200 or whatever doing 1000FPS, which we all known Intel IGP can run maxed out doing 100FPS, but whatever.

PC Gaming is a sad shitstate.

+1
This is exactly why I haven't upgraded yet.

 

[Barfo]

I hope it's great so that prices come down.

Seconded.

 

[Hauk]

+1
This is exactly why I haven't upgraded yet.

+2 but damn it, I've wanted a kick ass setup for months now. Going flagship multi-gpu is massive overkill. days to decide..

 

[Seero]

This, there's nothing better than tri crossfiring 5850s or 5870s even with all expensive Fermi around...

I'd like to get my hands on a GTX480, but not at $600 a piece...plus the 5870s still compete with an OC, we need to see how well the GTX 4xx series overclock too...

Maybe Lucid Hydra technology maturing will play a role in upgrading to new-gen video cards frequently...think about using a 5870+gtx470 on one machine, then you have something spectacular to look at...

I thought about that until nvidia disable physX on dual play

 

[SlowSpyder]

Then AMD drops prices and Nvidia makes the wait worthwhile.

I'd hardly say this forum is an AMD fan club, but Nvidia has certainly given the appearance of stumbling a bit lately... between nearly 6 months worth of delays and drivers melting GPU's they're going to earn some negative posts. When AMD released the 2900XT it's not like many posts were all that kind to AMD here either.

 

[cbn]

I think it will be a strong chip.

 

[manimal]

I really don't care. I have 2x 5870s and no PC games worth playing.

I'll be running Diablo 3 and Star Craft 2 in a year maxed out running 6000x1200 or whatever doing 1000FPS, which we all known Intel IGP can run maxed out doing 100FPS, but whatever.

PC Gaming is a sad shitstate.

Have you played BFBC2 or metro?

There are lots of titles installed on my pc that challenge it...

 

[JSt0rm]

if they are the best they are the best. Look how fast everyone turned around to intel darlings after the p4.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

This forum turned into an "ATI fanboy club" because ATI has had the best products out for a while, its obvious really

Back in 2006 when the 8800 launched everyone recommended it as well, was the forum a Nvidia fanboy site then?

So yeah, of course people will flock to whatever company offers the best products, duh... But everything points to fermi being disappointing at best

 

[faxon]

i own 3 5870s. if fermi rocks im not going to be affected one way or another. my next logical upgrade path will be a CPU upgrade in a year or so, and when i do i plan to get a motherboard which will support all 3. around the same time, my secondary comp (where my 3rd 5870 is now) will be due for a GPU upgrade if possible, so i will probably consider looking at an nvidia card around then. what im really looking forward to for myself is fermi's successor

 

[slayernine]

I think people smell failure and they are usually right for the most part. No final specs or results for the new series have been posted so everything is still speculation.

However if I was a betting man I know where I would put my money.

 

[Gikaseixas]

i think that it will do well while power consumption will suck for sure.