Who's getting a GTX 280 in June ?

[johnrr6]

Originally Posted by fvbounty

Well that price has dropped again now the 280 is under $400, in fact $392...here's the story....

[H] Enthusiast --- www.hardocp.com

That price is a lot more reasonable.....

If ATI comes out with w dual GPU that clearly out performs it----and want's say $399

It's gonna get HAIRY!!!

I LOVE IT!!!

Finally, competition to drive down prices....

[fvbounty]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

That price is a lot more reasonable.....

If ATI comes out with w dual GPU that clearly out performs it----and want's say $399

It's gonna get HAIRY!!!

I LOVE IT!!!

Finally, competition to drive down prices....

These are the best prices I think I've seen on high end gear in 6 years or better....

[TQ]

I'd say that pretty much tells me the GTX 200-series - in its current incarnation - will be history in short order...say by November.
nVidia hasn't screwed up this badly since the NV35.
The good news here is that it takes nVidia to get fat, dumb and happy enough to release a disastrous product, then we see them return to engineering good products that offer solid value.
It's somewhat ironic that instead of a poorly performing FX5900 - that gets killed by a superior Radeon 9800 - we have a product in the GTX that performs well, but loses bady in the performance-to-dollar ratio when compared to the 4800-series Radeons.
ATi just out-smarted nVidia this time 'round, just as they did five years ago with the 9800's.

[fvbounty]

Originally Posted by TQ

I'd say that pretty much tells me the GTX 200-series - in its current incarnation - will be history in short order...say by November.
nVidia hasn't screwed up this badly since the NV35.
The good news here is that it takes nVidia to get fat, dumb and happy enough to release a disastrous product, then we see them return to engineering good products that offer solid value.
It's somewhat ironic that instead of a poorly performing FX5900 - that gets killed by a superior Radeon 9800 - we have a product in the GTX that performs well, but loses bady in the performance-to-dollar ratio when compared to the 4800-series Radeons.
ATi just out-smarted nVidia this time 'round, just as they did five years ago with the 9800's.

I still have a ATI 9700 PRO in the drawer here and that was 1 fine video card!!!!

[TQ]

That's pretty funny...I still have my old 9800 in a drawer, too.

[fvbounty]

Originally Posted by TQ

That's pretty funny...I still have my old 9800 in a drawer, too.

Can't seem to give up on that card played a lot of games with it!

[johnrr6]

The 9700 cards were a breakthrough---9800 followed on with even better price/performance

Never saw anything quite that much a "Leap" until Nvida's 8800GTS came out----that card was a pretty huge leap---marking the beginning of a great 8800 Series....

I love competition!!!!

[TQ]

It's the reason nVidia's having to swallow a bitter pill and drop the price on the GTX 280...which, if the previous story is correct, is now encroaching into GTX 260 pricing.
That card's going to have to start coming down, too.

[WhiteEclipse]

The gtx260 is down to $299 already.

Newegg.com - MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

The 280s are $450 after rebate.

Those were fast price drops. This is why fanboys drive me crazy - whether it is Intel or AMD/ATI or nvidia. Competition is always good for us. To promote one brand zealously is crazy.

[johnrr6]

Originally Posted by WhiteEclipse

To promote one brand zealously is crazy.

Exactly....

In the end----there is only two ways to look at it....

Spend as much as you (or they) want and get the absolute fastest.....

Or price to performance.....

And in EITHER situation----competition benefits the consumer....

That be me.......

[zapionics<alt>]

Originally Posted by WhiteEclipse

sure, I first became aware of the issue in this article. It is not the 9800gx2, but SLI / crossfire in general.

PCGH - Test/Benchmark: Video proof: Micro stuttering may destroy the performance gains from current multi GPU technologies

Then I noticed on the evga forums, people were complaining about it. Here is a good thread.:
Is 9800 GX2 stuttering a hardware issue?

On this thread, this guys claims that evga acknowledged the microstuttering at high resolutions:
9800GX2 Stutter (Quad SLI)

There are tons of threads throughout the web about it, but it is not discussed by a lot by reviewers. google "9800gx2 stutter" and it will bring up lots of stuff. For official reviews, some reviewers have found it when using 2 9800gx2's (quad).

Hardocp mentioned they got some stutters in higher resolutions then with 8800gtx's, presumably due to bandwidth.

[H] Enthusiast - XFX GeForce 9800 GX2

a poster on hardocp's forums experiences it, and thinks it is because of memory issues and bridge chip:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread....1317576&page=2

Of course, other users claim they don't experience it. Some have said it was fixed with drivers. So there is a chance you won't get it - I just thought people should be aware of the issue. Perhaps instead of "well documented" I should have used another term - "possible but well complained about stuttering"

Thanks bud for giving me this info! I nearly made a serious mistake... wow, stutter is one of my major pet peeves, I HATE it. I dont think I will be setting up a SLI or xfire rig or even getting one of the x2 cards until this design issue is fixed!

Which means the 4870x2 is no longer an option for me, no matter what the max FPS are. So now I'm left with only a 280 or a 4870. Big difference in price and noise, but for a small difference in FPS? hmm...

[WhiteEclipse]

Originally Posted by zapionics<alt>

Thanks bud for giving me this info! I nearly made a serious mistake... wow, stutter is one of my major pet peeves, I HATE it. I dont think I will be setting up a SLI or xfire rig or even getting one of the x2 cards until this design issue is fixed!

No problem. I really hate it too. When HL2 came out, the source engine would stutter when streaming audio some times. It drove me crazy, but many people claimed that they did not see it or it didn't bother them. Eventually it was fixed in an update. I used a work around before the update, but could not enjoy the game with the stutter.

I should also note, according the article, the lower the fps, the more noticeable it is. So if you are @ 100fps, you are fine. But at 45fps the card may feel subjectively worse than a single card @ 30fps. This is why it is most noticeable in Crysis, because it spends more time at low fps than most games.

[hansje]

I will return my 4870 ATI card...and will buy a 280GTX
Was not happy with it.

I can buy one for 360 euro's now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...before around 550 !!

There are a lot of overclocked 280GTX out, like the Asus TOP card.

Is it worth the extra money, or better buy the standard one and overclock it myself ???

Hans

[WhiteEclipse]

"Maybe even in August

We said a few months ago that Nvidia drives two projects in parallel. GT200 65nm that got launched and branded as GTX 280 / 260 is out and there is a GT200 55nm chip that should be launched shortly.

Our sources are telling us that 55nm version of the chip should be ready either in late August or in September, which means that Radeon HD 4870 X2 will get some competition.

We believe that Shaders and clock of 55nm GT200 are definitely going to be higher than the 65nm and the chip itself should be a bit cooler."

Fudzilla - GT200 55nm comes by September

I know it is a somewhat iffy source, but they were spot on with the 280 info. I will sign up for a cooler, quieter and cheaper gtx 2x0!

[zapionics<alt>]

Originally Posted by hansje

I will return my 4870 ATI card...and will buy a 280GTX
Was not happy with it...

What was the issue with it hansje? I havent done any gaming on my new rig yet... just cant seem to find the time to get to it ... but I did run up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and it seemed pretty fine (I've got the sapphire card).