Question of the week: what will be your next graphics card?

[Ferral]

Think I am going for the GTX 260 when I do my new build.

[stevie lee]

I have had plenty of use with with 7 year old radeon 9600. use it till it breaks is what i do.. I think crysis pushed it a bit too much, but still - 15fps in low at 1024x768 can't be bad for a 7 year old card... pity the push-pins persihed, the heatsink fell off and the chip melted.. but hey - thats life...


the only nvidia card i've had was a TNT2.. it was so long ago I can't remember whether it was any good or not.. it played worms and diablo1 though, so cant have been too bad..

I think a crossfire 4870 setup or a 4870x2 would last me easily another 7 years.

onwards to SCAN!! tally-ho..

[Platinum]

Just ordered a 4870

[Rosaline]

I think vläd is right on the money here, although the sad thing is the timescales involved here. Sadly I doubt nVidia could practically, so soon after the 200 series, release an entirely new design to compete with the 48*0 series until the middle of next year (Q4 this year at the latest).

Personally, though, that's not going to be a problem Mid '09 was when I was thinking of getting a new desktop anyhow, so I think I shall wait to see what nVidia comes up with and how the market and drivers mature.

[TiG]

Sorry just out of interest why do i need to upgrade my gfx card?, what benefit will I see from it?, have we got a new graphics standard to display in 3000x2000 pixels?.

Surely the way graphics cards have leaped on huge amounts over the last few years isn't sustainable as a business model?.

Huge amounts of R&D yet such short model life can't be good for profitability.....

just my 2p

TiG

[shadowmaster]

Has to be the 4870 for me, however I first need to buy a higher res monitor . At 1280*1024 there is little point in me upgrading now.

[Ferral]

Regardless of price and performance of the Radeon cards I won't be buying another one at all ever. 2 cards go wrong within the first year of purchase, not very good at all.

Firstly a Connect3D 9600 Pro, then a Sapphire X1950 Pro. Must admit the Connect3D customer service was good once things got moving, then Scan customer service managing to sort my issues with the X1950 Pro. I don't think the guys and gals at Scan could cope with me buying another Radeon based product!!!!

Hence my thoughts on the GTX 260, regardless I am going for Nvidia. See what the prices are etc when I do my build. Could end up with two 9800 GTX+ in SLI. Just have to wait and see.

[Biscuit]

The GTX280 may offer an overall better performance than the 4870 but in all fairness its not far enough ahed to warrent the huge price tag. The 260 is appealing but in all honesty i think its only because my 8800GTS has been fantastic.

4870 for me, my hats are off to AMD... well played boys!

[TooNice]

Surely the way graphics cards have leaped on huge amounts over the last few years isn't sustainable as a business model?.

I don't think that we are seen bigger leaps than in the nVidia vs 3DFX days to be honest. And nVidia ended up the winner despite their very aggressive product cycles. Yes they have released more product in the last 18 months, but those were mostly variations of the 8800GTX.

[Zhaoman]

Since my next pc is going to be an htpc for the living room the 4850 definitely looks like the best choice. Considering that those performance figures would've been considered high end just a couple of months ago, the 9800GTX or the 4850 look like the ones to snap up, especially with the 4850 CrossFire performance.

If I had a 30" monitor and I wanted eye-popping gaming performance then the best thing to do now is wait and see the performance and price of the 4870 X2, and subsequently nVidia's response. If things get tight, both companies may start cutting the prices of their top components. The GTX280 certainly sticks out like a sore thumb at the moment with it's massive price tag and not so all-conquering performance.

[Methanoid]

Actually the prices are increasing with performance. The 4650 (yes 4650) will probably have performance around current 3850 levels for current 3850 prices.

4850 is £125. How much is a 3870? A lot less....IMHO 4850 needs to come in at UNDER £100 to make it a killer "mustbuy" package

[DavidM]

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[mi1stormilst]

I just got the 3870OC for $129 but that $4870 has me drooling bad.

[finlay666]

Probably a 4870, but I will only really be getting a card if I head over to the USA with work, then I will probably get a new cpu and another graphics card too

[staffsMike]

Actually the prices are increasing with performance. The 4650 (yes 4650) will probably have performance around current 3850 levels for current 3850 prices.

4850 is &#163;125. How much is a 3870? A lot less....IMHO 4850 needs to come in at UNDER &#163;100 to make it a killer "mustbuy" package

Blimey you are difficult to please. ATi offer the same if not better performance than nvidia for &#163;60 less and you're still not happy

Both of these cards are a bargain in my eyes. I think an HD4650 would fit nicely into into the &#163;70 bracket,a little more could be justified by awesome performance though, we will just have to wait and see

[SiM]

Might get another 9800gtx in a year if SLi comes to Nehalem... should be very cheap second hand... otherwise I will wait and see what's out when I upgrade to nehalem