What's with the high cost of the x1900xt 512mb?

[panfist]

So with the release of the 8800GT, this whole question is completely and utterly obsolete. I hope AMD's new shit will be able to compete with this beast.

 

[AVP]

The reason they are so expensive is because they are so hard to find now. If you want to upgrade, look at the 8800gt coming in a few days or the ATI 3870 coming in two weeksish.

 

[aka1nas]

The X1900s need a Master Card to Crossfire with anyway, and AFAIK those never really dropped below $400 while they were still in the channel.

 

[panfist]

I don't understand how the market bears such a ridiculous price for the 512mb version of this card. With the amount of power it sucks up and the heat it generates, it's just not a smart solution anymore. No one in their right mind would pay $300 for this when better single card solutions that consume less power are available. I should sell my 512MB card and buy a shiny new better one.

 

[alcoholbob]

Well the 2900Pro just came out, for the longest time the only thing you really had was this card at this price point.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: panfist
I don't understand how the market bears such a ridiculous price for the 512mb version of this card. With the amount of power it sucks up and the heat it generates, it's just not a smart solution anymore. No one in their right mind would pay $300 for this when better single card solutions that consume less power are available. I should sell my 512MB card and buy a shiny new better one.

The X1900 in particular hasn't been a current model for nearly a year now, if you are seeing any new ones for sale still they are simply the few the vendor has left over and they didn't bother to price-drop them to get rid of them.

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: panfist
I don't understand how the market bears such a ridiculous price for the 512mb version of this card. With the amount of power it sucks up and the heat it generates, it's just not a smart solution anymore. No one in their right mind would pay $300 for this when better single card solutions that consume less power are available. I should sell my 512MB card and buy a shiny new better one.

It doesn't draw that much power and isn't that hot. It runs at 45C idle in my rig with a Thermaltake TMG-AT1.

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
The X1900s need a Master Card to Crossfire with anyway, and AFAIK those never really dropped below $400 while they were still in the channel.

Yah, Crossfire Master Card required, and those were all 512MB so OP wouldn't be a better position if he'd originally got the 256MB XT card.

x1900 Master Card was released in fairly limited numbers. Limited numbers, being EOL, and in demand by XT card owners, all mean vendor prices are rising, not falling.

 

[bigsnyder]

The X1900 will crossfire WITHOUT a master card. ATI enabled software crossfire support a
few driver revisions ago due to lack of availability of the master card version.

 

[panfist]

REALLY? Can you link some info regarding this? That would be AWESOME!

 

[apoppin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATI_CrossFire

with ATI's release of "CrossFire Xpress 3200" motherboard chipset, the 'master' card is no longer required for every "CrossFire Ready" card (with the exception of the Radeon X1900 series). With the CrossFire Xpress 3200, two normal cards can be run in a Crossfire setup. This move is viewed as an overall improvement in market strategy due to the fact that Crossfire Master cards are expensive, in very high demand, and largely unavailable at the retail level.

crossfire with x1950 series

 

[aka1nas]

Does the OP even have a Crossfire supporting chipset?

 

[bigsnyder]

Here are some links. I will add more as I find them:

X1900XTX and X1900GT setup
X1900XT and X1900XTX

 

[panfist]

So first I thought you need a master card, then I thought you need a special motherboard they started making after they discontinued the master cards....now I guess CrossFire is software supported since catalyst 6.11?

So I'm still a little confused regarding what's compatible and what's not. The latest two links say that crossfire support can be accomplished totally in software? If I can find any other x1900XT / XTX, or x1950XT / XTX,what kind of motherboard would I need? A special ATI CrossFire enabled motherboard, or a more general 2x 16xPCIe board?

I have a 512mb x1900xt right now. It seems like the best way to spend $200 would be on a CrossFire setup. Anything less wouldn't give me any better framerates, and anything more and I'd be better off buying a high end current gen video card.

As of right now I've been an x1900 owner for a long time, I adopted pretty early and got a 512mb card for $280. One of the indicators that I made a good decision was that there wasn't a sensible upgrade option for a long time...I had a very good price/performance ratio, and right now it's still competitive but I want an upgrade. I feel like I'm stuck because I'm not going to get a significant improvement in framerate without coughing out extra unnecessary cash in the form of an early adopter tax.

I was also wondering if I actually spent ~$200 on a CrossFire setup now, if I could upgrade that in the future...for example two hd2900xt or whatever 3xxx is coming out soon.

 

[JBT]

Sell current x1900xt for ~$150 ( I just did) buy 8800GT or HD3870XT for $250 save the the rest because honetly all the things you have to worry about with dual cards are not worth the trouble and a 8800GT/HD3870XT is proably almost as good as crossfired 1900xts anyways.

 

[taltamir]

xfire and sli are only good if you are buying top of the line cards (250$+ each minimum) to play the latest games NOW at max everythings at good FPS....

It is actually completely useless for upgrading older machines like AMD and nVidia claim...

the older cards cannot compete with new cards. So upgrading from single card to double card a year later is not worth it. You are much better off getting a new single card. nvidia comes out with the 8800GT in 4 hours... AMD comes out with their equivalent to it in 2 weeks... Get one of those two cards instead of your current... or get two of them for the an sli/xfire solution (but only for running games with now, not for future proofing)

 

[panfist]

Viva la 8800GT?