Sorry OP, but I heavily disagree with you on nearly all your points, although I will give you a slight nod or two. Sorry if this post gets a little novel-ish.
First disappointment of the year was the 8800GT, now it's the HD3870. Performs slower than the 8800GT which performs slower than the 8800GTX. LOL at AMD trying to push UVD and DX10.1.
Is it just me or is the entire video card industry sucking? The HD3870 and 8800GT are examples of year old technology being shoved down the consumers throats and then marketed as being the next-generation thing. Maybe the two companies got smart and decided it wasn't worth it to compete performance wise and met in secret to collude and make crappy video cards.
LOL at trying to fit 4 of them in crossfire, what are they smoking?
From my perspective, the only reason why you are disappointed is because you own a card faster than an 8800GT/3870. The vast majority of gamers do not. I think the UVD push isn't a bad idea. It's a tangible benefit to those that do video. However, you're right that pushing DX10.1 at this time is a joke.
However, I don't think the video card industry is sucking. As I said, the vast majority of gamers do not own anything faster than an 8800GT/3870, so they will be benefiting massively from these new and powerful options. So many gamers are getting excited about there being real performance cards for affordable prices again. I would go so far as to say that this will have a positive impact on the future of PC gaming.
straight-line depreciation
purchase price of asset = $700
estimated salvage value at end of life = $200
estimated useful life of asset = 24 months
($700 - $200) / 24 = $20.83 monthly depreciation of your 8800GTX if you bought it brand new in November 2006.
today is november 14th 2007, approx. 12 months since first purchase. 12 * $20.83 = $250 depreciated to date. current book value of 8800gtx = $450
quick look on ebay, the last 6 GTX's sold for ~$414
so in conclusion my purchase made 1 year ago is still worth more than your 8800GT which you probably paid $300 for because it's sold out everywhere AND I still get more performance than you.... pwnd
would you like me to calculate double-declining rate depreciation for you as well?
Even if your calculations are true, I don't see how you can justify coming off as elitist in this post. You are getting more performance than a guy with an 8800GT because you spent more money. A lot more money. The guy with the 8800GT is using almost half the power as you and getting 90% of the performance, at 50-60% of the price.
The fact that you purchased your faster card a year ago doesn't say anything about what the person you are comparing to had that year ago as well. Myself, a little after the time you got your card, I got an X1950pro for $140. You got more performance than me, but I was able to enjoy virtually anything on high detail maxed at my monitor's res, while spending almost 25% of what you did.
as for the GTS/GTX owners, if you had bought it when it first came out last november 06', you would have enjoyed a years worth of TOP OF THE LINE gaming even by todays standards, AND going by todays conservative resell value you would only have depreciated about ~$200.
so for the folks mobbing the retail stores this christmas for a crap HD3870 for $200, know that you made a bad investment for not picking up the GTS/GTX last november. lastly, we all have ATI/NVidia to blame.
Another thing that I see is peoples standards have come down. last years tech for half the price of high-end and it's like the 2nd coming of christ here. a lot of you guys are saying it wasn't meant to replace the high-end and that its just a mid-class card. well according to every news site including anandtech the HD3870/8800GT was meant to cannibalize their ENTIRE PRODUCT LINEUP and you would be dumb to purchase anything other that today.
so what do I consider a good standard? I want to see this years tech ( at least 50% faster than last years high-end) for same price of HD3870/ 8800GT. if that happens, then i'd be burrowing myself into thier nuts in a heartbeat.
If the folks bought something like a 2600XT/8600GTS to hold off for that year, then sure, that might not have been the best investment, but that's not what everyone did. I know I made a perfectly good investment for the wait.
Last year's tech, only tweaked and die shrunk, using half the power of last year's tech, and being half the price. You're definitely doing some downplaying, there. My standards are also no lower. I still aim to have top performance at a moderate price.
The difference between us here seems to be that I see this as a "next gen" mainstream card that has launched before the enthusiast cards that will eventually make their way here as well, but you do not. While you have a valid gripe that they are not here now (which they kind of should be, according to history), I don't see how you can use that fact to claim that these new cards are the new "high end". Even the price range proves otherwise.
The upcoming high end gen of cards will never be priced in the $200-250 range. That is just not possible. These next gen midrange cards fall in line with how standard improvements have always been made. Typically the next gen midrange is around the same performance as last gen's high end. Not 50% faster. You'll have your 50% faster soon enough.
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