you see what the big 3 video card companies are doing!

[andylawcc]

remember back then, when TNT2 and voodoo3 reigned. how much was TNT2 Ultra and 3500? 170 or so..

and now. The most 'budget' is a GF2 MX, which is 120, and high end, GTS 210-260; and how we really think, its ok and affordable.

what they (3dfx, ATI, nvidia) are doing, is gradually pushing up the prices for all video card, I am sure the production cost didn't go up any higher for making a Geforce than a TNT, but we just didn't care.

for example:
IF ALL sound cards were 200-250 bucks, i would a drool over a 100 bucks live value...


my point is, it does not matter how much a peripheral/component is, all matter is if the price is cheaper than we Expect.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Which is exactly what I've been thinking. Keep in mind that there are going to be people coming into this thread quoting $500-600 for Voodoo 2 SLI, which is a valid point. When I bought my current Voodoo3 2000, a 3000 was top of the line, and only $200CDN, now, the top of the line is at least $600CDN.

 

[Zorba]

I've been thinking the samething, which is why I will never buy a "highend" card.

 

[andylawcc]

but even a low end MX is 120 bucks,
low end back then is a V3 2000 or TNT2 normal is around 100.

prices been pushing up from all sector...

 

[sciencewhiz]

but you still can get a $20 trident!

 

[xtreme2k]

for those who bought a V2 SLI set a really bad 'standard' and 'benchmark' so that all new high end video card are US$500+

it made all these company think we are willing to pay $500 for such a high end card

 

[dl]

people, I've saying that all alone! I even asked everybody to boybcott these high prices vid cards...

the more people are willing to lay down the moola, the more future vid cards will cost...that's the way all businesses operate.

if few buy into this hype, then they'll realize that their cards are actually worth only 2/5 of what they hype them up to be, and eventually adhere to the public's disapproval of their fooking shameless hype and price future cards at lower prices. I don't know about you..but I was expecting GTS 2 Ultra performance in the GTS 2...what happened? nVidia decided to short change their customers bc they themselves were short changed on available ram..well, that's no excuse to put out a product that does not perform up to spec just because they want to keep their existing product cycles...

I'm happy with my V5 5.5K now...fuk nVidia, fuk 3dfx, fuk ATI, fuk Matrox, fuk them all until one of them can offer me a card that will allow me to play UT |1600X1200|32bit|100MHz refresh rate|w/8xFSAA| 60FPS consistently AND priced $300 retail upon release. The 1st company to do this will have my businesss, until then they can all kiss my @ss! :|

 

[3615buck]

Video cards are expensive, OK,
BUT... I thing CPUs are even more expensive.
I mean, when you buy a CPU, you get... a CPU and nothing else.
When you buy a video card, you get a GPU, a card, memory, games...
A low-end CPU costs more or less the same as a low-end video card.
A high-end CPU is twice as expensive as a high-end video card !!!
So who are the thieves, Nvidia-3dfx-ati or intel-amd ???

 

[AngelOfDeath]

I have to agree these cards are aweful expensive. The problem is that people buy these s*ckers even though they cost twice the price they payed last time for a at that time high-end vid-card. But mostly this is due to lack of competition 'cause in the market we have for the time being only two major 3D-brands - 3DFx and NVidia, Matrox and ATI haven't yet delievered a kick ass card but hopefully this will change.

The most optimal situation would be a new competitiv entrance a company able to deliever a brand new card with exceptional features and a kick-ass engine at a low price (Hmmm, keep on dreaming AoD) that would lower the prices on the market but we have a kind of Oligopoly in the market which is extremely hard for new comers to enter . But lets see what the future can bring...

AoD

 

[andylawcc]

dl: when your expectation is met I am sure UT5000 is also out .

3615: PIII 450 OCed to 600 was the "SweetSpot" processer like year, priced at 200 bucks. Low End Cele366@550 was 70 bucks.
now, 700e is the sweetspot, and its now 200 bucks. Cele533 is 85. CPU price is always about the same.

 

[hans007]

3615buck, you can get a duron 600 for $50 now, they are definitely not expensive. Now as for the video card thing, if you think about it when the v3-3500 came out a low end 3d card was a savage4 or rage128 or tnt1. Now a low end card is a v3-3000 so the high end has just moved up a lot faster due to competition. Besides people are still willing to pay, so we should all be happy since the lower vid card tiers are a lot faster than they would be than if people werent willing to keep buying expensive cards

 

[Sword]

I agree qith you andylawcc BUT at the same time I believe that the less than 6 months cycle of nvidia is cause by video card high price.

I mean that TNT and voodoo were the first real great card out there and since that time the video cards are almost doubling speed with each generation. So the high price of video card help a lot in the developpement of these technologies.

I believe that you cannot develop new products that are 2 times better and maybe more than your older line of product without a lot of cash.

So, yes I agree that video card is high...but do we want all the research and development to stop to make products cheaper but not really faster ?

I think that is the choice that company will to make soon : cheaper product or better product. I say that because both requires a lot of work to achieve.

Any comments on my point ?

PS and its just my opinion.

NB I am a french canadian so my english is probably bad, feel free to correct me so i can get better without high price

 

[Czar]

I´v allways bought a high end video card, but because how 3dfx and nVidia are pulling the prices up I´ll probably just buy a mid range card next or skip that generation.

I´m ready to spend $200-250

 

[RagingGuardian]

I refuse to pay more than $250 for a video card. I also agree that Nvidia and their 6 month product cycle is part of the reason we're seeing such high prices for cards. For Christ's sake I could buy a motherboard, cpu and some memory for the price of the Ultra. What we need is an AMD to step forward in the video card arena.

 

[andylawcc]

ah... yeah, must think on the other side, nvidia is pushing stuff out ReAl fast...

 

[nEoTeChMaN]

If you look hard enough...you should be able to get a CL GeForce2 GTS for mere $180 which was the amount I paid for.

 

[rahvin]

Yea, that extra memory and much bigger chip on the card don't cost any extra! Get real. Margins are the same, the components cost more.

 

[SJ]

As cards got larger amounts of RAM, their prices will keep going up until RAM prices drop, drastically, which is not likely. The video chips themselves, aren't that expensive, remember Nvidia ONLY gets money from selling chips, not cards. RAM is why the cards are expensive. Remember, its not good to sell things below cost(consoles excluded), companies have to make a profit off each card, and its not that large of profit.

 

[chiwawa626]

heh, what r u gonna do about it though? boycott the cards? and go with trident
lol

 

[Wooster]

nEoTeChMaN

Where did you get that CL GeoForce 2 GTS for $180 from? Am I missing anything on the forum? It's about right price and right video to look for, since other cards are way up there. It's not worth it to spend that much money.

 

[*kjm]

The one thing that kills a lot of us is when we got the two Voodoo2's for $500 we had the best card for around 3 years. Now you spend the same amount for a card that is king for only 5 to 6 months. That is just crazy

 

[nEoTeChMaN]

I don't know if you can find another $180 CL GeForce2 GTS card and I got my from the 'For Sale' forum.

 

[Suicidal]

I paid over 300 bucks for my hercules geforce 2 64mb and i don't care... the card is blue and it's pretty and it's the last card i'm buying for at least a year. These cards are expensive, yes, but if you don't upgrade every 6 months then it's justifiable. There really isn't a need to upgrade so quickly anyway. One new game may take advantage of some obsucre new feature but what's that worth to you? Even if you people boycott, there are plenty of people who don't care, like myself, and will keep paying the price of admission because that's what they charge and there's nothing you can do about it.

 

[BD2003]

The problem lies in technology being brought to market before its needed. There is truely no reason to buy a geforce 2 GTS unless youre rich. If you think about it, a geforce 2 MX will run todays games as fast as a v3 3000 ran yesterdays games. People keep waiting for the next best thing, when its truely not necessary. I guess if you want it, its there. If youre actually buying a card to play games, you'd save a lot of money and not lose much by buying 6 month old technology. You can find a geofrce sdr for about 100 nowadays, and a mx for about 120. Is there anyone thats actually going to tell me either of those is slow for even the most high end games?

 

[Doomguy]

dl: NVidia didnt short change us. They gave us the fastest card, with more features and better drivers than 3dfx for a lower or equal price. 3dfx ripped you off by not giving you T&L and poor opengl drivers.