Will the 9800pro drop in price by the end of the year?

[tennisflip]

Will they? Or is $199 a good price already? I was gonna order one in January for ~$300. Now midway through the year they're $100 less. Any reason to believe the price will drop even more, especially with all the new cards out?

 

[JBT]

By the end of the year I would guess in the 175 Range Because I think the 6800 and X800SE will likely sit at 250 by the end of the year esspecially once's the 6 month refresh comes out or just PCI-eXpress.

 

[tennisflip]

Originally posted by: JBT
By the end of the year I would guess in the 175 Range Because I think the 6800 and X800SE will likely sit at 250 by the end of the year esspecially once the 6 month refresh comes out.

Is the 2.4B a bottleneck for the 6800 and X800?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: tennisflip

Originally posted by: JBT
By the end of the year I would guess in the 175 Range Because I think the 6800 and X800SE will likely sit at 250 by the end of the year esspecially once the 6 month refresh comes out.

This sounds pretty reasonable to me, although getting towards the $150 range is certainly not impossible. You'll almost certainly be able to find FX5900XTs for around that price.

Is the 2.4B a bottleneck for the 6800 and X800?

Just about any processor is a 'bottleneck' for a 6800GT/X800Pro or better (the 6800NU not quite so much). Certainly if you're running at less than 1600x1200, you'd see improved framerates with a faster CPU. But, honestly, is being CPU-limited at, say, 1280x1024 with 4xAA and 16xAF and all game details at max *really* that big a problem?

 

[Megatomic]

I just got a BBA 9800Pro for $165 from the forums...

 

[tennisflip]

Good deal. I was browsing around the Newegg refurbs yesterday and found some 9800pros for around that price. Also saw an AIW 9800pro for $200. Was thinking about grabbing one but my heart is set on the Tyan 9800pro w/it's blue heatsink for $199.

 

[Lazy8s]

newegg says the refurbed cards are "barebone" and that the pic is for display purposes only, wouldn't this mean that you may not get some of the functionality/cool heat sinks on the refurb that you would get on the retail or OEM new versions?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Lazy8s
newegg says the refurbed cards are "barebone" and that the pic is for display purposes only, wouldn't this mean that you may not get some of the functionality/cool heat sinks on the refurb that you would get on the retail or OEM new versions?

They're the same cards in terms of functionality; by "barebone" they mean that they may or may not come with drivers, cables, bundled software, etc. Generally, you JUST get the card and nothing else.

Cool heatsinks -- I imagine that if it's a refurb of a particular model that has better-than-normal cooling, you'd get the same card with the better cooling. You could call them up and ask, though...

 

[MasterFlash]

I've got a TI4600 right now, and I've been sitting on the fence for several months watching the price of the 9800Pro hover around $200. Initially I was was going to grab one when HL2 came out, but now that the x800 and 6800 generation cards are out, I'm not very excited about the 9800Pro anymore. I think I'd skip over the 9800Pro at a $150'ish price by year end if I can grab a x800Pro or 6800GT for under $300. The performance difference is very large.

 

[Mik3y]

long live monty python!

 

[Chebago]

I know it is a bit different, but the 9700pros never dropped that low when the 9800pros came out...if you buy it now for ~200, and in 6 months it is ~150, isn't that 6 months of having a great card worth ~50...just a thought, let's also all start hoping that the new cards become easier to get in 6 months...because they just always seem to be coming out next week, week after week.