Buy graphic card now or wait for DX10? HELP ME DECIDE!!

[fishboy25uk]

Right, I'm planning to get a completely new rig in a few weeks, and I'm having alot to trouble deciding on graphics cards.

I was going to go for a Radeon X1900 XT 256MB (at about £170 inc VAT) on a Asus P5W DH Deluxe, giving me to option of getting a second X1900 XT crossfire masterboard to pop in in a few months time when they're alot cheaper.

HOWEVER....

Would it be better to get something cheaper now to save money, with a view to replacing it with a nice new DX10 card in 6 months?

And even if I go for option 1, is the X1900 XT the best bang for my buck? I'm happy to overclock, so would a NVidia be a better choice? I'm looking at about £180 max for a graphics at the moment.

Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers!

[sTrAnGeFrUiT!]

are u going to buy Vista in the next 6 months!!??

if the answer is no then do it NOW!!

stuff geting quite cheap with the run up to DX10 and Quad core!

[sTrAnGeFrUiT!]

also in 6 months there will be something bigger worth waiting for
and that will always be the case so theres no point in hangin about!

[kalniel]

Hi and welcome to Hexus,

There is always going to be the 'should I wait?' question, and while DirectX 10 seems like a major step forward I can't imagine everyone jumping ship just yet - Windows XP has been an amazingly sucessful OS and it still took a while before new games wouldn't run at all on older polular OSes like win98.

Games developers know there is a market in Windows XP machines - by the time the user base has built up enough in Vista for that to become the main target there will have been x refreshes of graphics card products as well.

There is also the arguement that it's never very sensible to buy hardware for something in the future. If you buy for what you need now, then by the time you need something else it will be that much cheaper/faster anyway.

So, if I were in your shoes I would buy a card that played this generation of games well - what kind of games do you play?

If you play openGL games (QuakeIV, prey etc.) then NVidia cards really do very well, and any of the 79** series cards are good. If you play shader heavy games (Oblivion etc.) then ATI cards do better, and anything from a X1900GT upwards should be comfortable for a while, depending on what resolution you play at (if you're 1600x and higher then I would go for the 1900xt)

The x1900xt is very good bang for the buck - if you wanted to save money then the X1950Pro drops performance a bit, but could be worth the saving in money if you're still thinking of upgrading sooner rather than later.

[fishboy25uk]

Well, I don't play a great deal, but I do play things like Call of Duty, Company of Heroes, Empire at War etc (and I've got Oblivion, but it doesn't like my old mobility 9800 very much). When I do play, I'd like to be able to whack up the detail as I always feel I'm missing out.

I am planning to get Vista pretty soon after it eventually appears (like the Microsoft whore that I am), but I think you're probably right that DX10 only games will be a fair way off. I suppose with the pace of the PC market, it's pointless waiting for the next advance because by that point, the NEXT big thing is just around the corner, so you're in a constant cycle.

Anyway, cheers for the advice. I'm quite fond of ATI so I think I'll go for the X1900 XT like I said, and maybe try and free up some extra cash for a 512 MB version, just to totally future proof myself. Hopefully the prices will be coming down a wee bit in time for Xmas.

[Rob_B]

Buy a £150 card & wait, even if you dont go to DX10 in 6 months you can buy a faster card cheaper than it would cost you now! Well, that or just set a date (ie January) & buy the best card you can for the money then, otherwise you'll always be waiting!

[harry1]

Buy a £150 card & wait, even if you dont go to DX10 in 6 months you can buy a faster card cheaper than it would cost you now! Well, that or just set a date (ie January) & buy the best card you can for the money then, otherwise you'll always be waiting!

idd do that imho

[EtheAv8r]

I think wait..... I was all for getting a DX10 card at Christmas, but having seen the speculation over the power requirements of the new G80 (feed from PCIE plus two additional 4 pin connectors = 275 watts) just for 1 card, this is going to put a big hit on PSUs, and power draw from the wall socket! (hence maybe explains the new 1000 watt and 1100 watt PSUs and bigger now appearing, and Antec's new P190 with two PSUs giving over 1000 Watts - one for main system, one for GPUs??).

I hope they must surely get more power efficient with subsequent incarnations????

[CrazyMonkey]

I would wait perhaps a few more weeks 2ish and see if the price goes down anymore.
But at £170 you cant go wrong, it looks like a bargain to me and as said you will always be waiting for something new.

[Blitzen]

My advice would be to leave it until after Xmas.
The prices will be unbelievably low then, especially with the next generation on the horizon.

Unless you are a 'must have the best' bloke then also leave DX10 well alone for at least another 9 months.

That way the technology will be right and the software available to utilize it.

Even the DX10 is backward compatible, whats the point of paying for something you simply cant use now.

[mark_a_scott]

Looks like I will need to rebuild my PC, was getting intermittent erros on this box, even after a complete reinstall.

Am definately looking at a core2 Quad and maybe an 8800 card (but I hear that HDCP might be borked on that board)

What is ATIs (oops...AMDs) answer to this?

[shamus21]

yes wait until after the per christmas selling frenzy is over then you should be able to save yourself some £££££££. now not really the best time of the year to go buying computer kit.

[tickedon]

Personally, I'd wait till the DX10 cards from nvidia are out, and see how/if that affects the pricing of the current cards. Hopefully they'll go down a bit, and you can grab yourself a bargain

[Tom|Nbk]

whats the point in going dx10 card's when theres nothing to take full advantage of them yet, the new nvidia card comes out in a week or so, but dx10 isnt out for about 4 month's and games will take even longer to surface by that time the first dx10 cards will be out of date .

[cotex]

I'd pick up something that doesn't break the bank, for now depending on how much you play? I'm amazed even now the amount of times that I sit back and think of want I'm seeing on my lcd and say,," wow and i started with games like warlords and defender an atari,"
So from that aspect of it and the fact that I'd like more time to be playing,, When I sit down I want the best I can afford within reason for my budget. So the choice is simply, if you can then why ask the question, have some balls and pull the trigger.


tex

[Thorsson]

Personally, I'd wait till the DX10 cards from nvidia are out, and see how/if that affects the pricing of the current cards. Hopefully they'll go down a bit, and you can grab yourself a bargain

My guess is it will be too late by then. Lot of products will no longer be available.