GPU's - Its all getting a bit much now!

Think about it and take stock over the last year or so and see what we have.

8800GTS G80 (both flavours)
8800GT G92
8800GTS G92
8800GTX (old but still more than worthy in this line up)
3850
3870
3870X2
9600GT
9800GX2
now 9800GTX

When all said and done, does one of these cards REALLY have a massive performance difference over any of the others......because i dont think so...there is nothing there i wouldnt be happy to have in my machine right now.

Most PC users play a few games but even the lower ones in this list (3850 and 9600GT) will cope more than admirably with the newest games on a monitor 21" or smaller.

The makers (particularly nVidia) are churning out cards and more confusing numbers by the month and ATI are now starting to follow suit.

To me, its just a case of the manufacturers now dicking people around so the get confused and think they are making an 'upgrade' when in reality, there is probably less than 15-20% from the top to the bottom of the list.

If i had been on a desert island for the last 18 months (i wish and so do most of you probably :( ), and i want to build a new rig (obviously first thing you think of after being stranded for 18 months), would anyone REALLY know where to begin with all these numbers?

The next generation cards, historically have always been more powerful. Bottom End new gen being better than top end last gen. This has all gone out of the window now.

Sorry...rant over but its getting a bit much now :D

you forgot to add in the 8800GTS G80 (people do get confused with that one :P) and the 9800GX2

that's true... I blame nVidia :P. but then if you do your research and plod around forums a bit, it's not too difficult to figure out... i mean, loads of people know that the 9800GTX (gX2?) is 2 8800GTSs floating about on 1 PCB

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i get what you mean

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Originally Posted by -iceblade^

you forgot to add in the 8800GTS G80 (people do get confused with that one :P) and the 9800GX2

that's true... I blame nVidia :P. but then if you do your research and plod around forums a bit, it's not too difficult to figure out... i mean, loads of people know that the 9800GTX (gX2?) is 2 8800GTSs floating about on 1 PCB

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i get what you mean

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added :p
ta

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Originally Posted by Blitzen

To me, its just a case of the manufacturers now dicking people around so the get confused and think they are making an 'upgrade' when in reality, there is probably less than 15-20% from the top to the bottom of the list.

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True, but the GPU manufacturers need to claw back some money - the majority of PCs sold are now laptops or small factor PCs which don't take their graphics cards.

What about the good ol' value for money choice, the 8800 Ultra :p
I prefer console gaming (not that I have time for any gaming at the moment), so I am stuck on a hd2600pro :(

I agree. I got my 320 8800GTS pretty much the week they came out and i wont be changing for another 6 month at the very least

and the funny thing is, all those cards are perfectly capable... actually sorta envy and commiserate with the owners of the G80 cards... comiserate, because of the huge abount of money (compared to now) spent to get those cards, but envy cos now they can simply chuck another in and have some SLI fun on the cheap

still makes me laugh to consider that my '70 is as powerful (in practical terms) as the hulking G80 640mb GTS, which i used to aspire to, AND the 320mb which i used to ADORE... ATi has done a great thing for us...

What about the ever popular 8800GS? :D What a crock of *expletive deleted*

I'd buy ATi on principle right now :laugh: That said I am a big fan of the current ATi cards. Fairly priced, great performers, all the HD goodness you could want and the models are clear cut and simple :)

Oh and there's some nice passive models floating around.. I'm all for that right now.

I disagree. I think it's great we have all those options...

...just kidding. I'd say this isn't totally new (and not long ago I did a similar rant on hard drives in another forum) but the problem is that should've liquidated out the old stock before introducing the new. There is no reason why we should still be able to G80 GTS, few reasons to have the GS/256MB GT and the 9600 (makes sense to have one 'filler' product prior the 9600's release, but not two). The price of the Ultra is still ridiculous, you would've thought that they'd slash the price after the release of 3870X2, if not the G92 (to narrow the price gap). The GTX became obsolete with the G92 GTS (same performance give or take), cost them (larger process) and the consumer more. NVidia have good engineers, but I wonder if they are just hiring a bunch of placement students with no interest in this field to work in their marketing department.

When the Radeon 9600 series, it replaced the 9500 (much to the chagrin of some people). The X1900 series replaced the X1800 pretty quick too. I am not sure why they are churning out so many cards without retiring old ones first.

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Originally Posted by -iceblade^

and the funny thing is, all those cards are perfectly capable... actually sorta envy and commiserate with the owners of the G80 cards... comiserate, because of the huge abount of money (compared to now) spent to get those cards, but envy cos now they can simply chuck another in and have some SLI fun on the cheap

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I feel sorry for anyone who bought them late in the game just before the G90s, buying one early in the game was a great move and has proved to be money well spent:)

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Originally Posted by TooNice

I disagree. I think it's great we have all those options...

...just kidding. I'd say this isn't totally new (and not long ago I did a similar rant on hard drives in another forum) but the problem is that should've liquidated out the old stock before introducing the new. There is no reason why we should still be able to G80 GTS, few reasons to have the GS/256MB GT and the 9600 (makes sense to have one 'filler' product prior the 9600's release, but not two). The price of the Ultra is still ridiculous, you would've thought that they'd slash the price after the release of 3870X2, if not the G92 (to narrow the price gap). The GTX became obsolete with the G92 GTS (same performance give or take), cost them (larger process) and the consumer more. NVidia have good engineers, but I wonder if they are just hiring a bunch of placement students with no interest in this field to work in their marketing department.

When the Radeon 9600 series, it replaced the 9500 (much to the chagrin of some people). The X1900 series replaced the X1800 pretty quick too. I am not sure why they are churning out so many cards without retiring old ones first.

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I agree with this, i struggle understand why they thought that an 9600GT would be a good way to introduce a new line of graphics cards. Surely if you want people to jump on board you *wow* them with something really special, not something they have seen already (which btw is still perfectly suitable and capable) with a different name. Whatever happened to the 8900 GT/GTX aswell... are we going to see a 9900 appear a few months after the 9800?

Whats really annoying is the lack of differing price points, or the fact that you can have several cards in different 'ranges' covering the same price bracket. Its utterly stupid in most cases.

I'd love to see perhaps 5/6 different types of card from one company at the same time, and no more. With each one being faster than the previous one, making it easy for anyone to understand.
A prime example of this nonsense is taking a lower end card, offering a 'super overclocked lulz' version, which then has the price upped as a result and puts it smack in the bounds of the next range up - which is probably about the same speed, if not faster and around the same price. Stupid.

I think I can see the reason, ATi and the mid range price.

With the HD3870 under cutting the 8800gts G90, nvidia has tried to move fast to fill the gap.
Both the 8800gs and 8800gt 256mb where struggling vs the 3850 512mb and they needed something in there that could fill the gap ie cost the same but perform better than the ati cards. and so we get another card the 9600GT

I still have a personal suspission that the whole G92 chip was suppoesd to be the new 9 series but nvidia had to push it out eairly as the ati HD38x0 where neatly sewing up the mid price range and the 8600 really wasn't up to much.

What I still find intresting is that these cards are ineffect the 2nd series of dx10 cards (not includeing the old 8800gts, gtx and ultra) and in many ways the performance from these is what I was originally expecting out of the HD2xxx and GeForce 8xxx

EDIT: cleared up my wibbling slightly

that's true... it is hard to believe that they are the second generation - maybe nVidia and ATi weren't up to the task of making proper drivers or w/e for DX10? it could be worth considering

I'd add in the 2900XT aswell, the 3870 isn't a massive leap ahead.


I've given up following the graphics cards now, I waited ages for something to happen, then bought the 2900XT 512, and what do you know, 4 months later they released the 3870 for 70 quid cheaper.

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Originally Posted by educatedfool

I'd add in the 2900XT aswell, the 3870 isn't a massive leap ahead.


I've given up following the graphics cards now, I waited ages for something to happen, then bought the 2900XT 512, and what do you know, 4 months later they released the 3870 for 70 quid cheaper.

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just gotta wait for the right moment. I waited it out with a 7600GT (temp stepdown from 7900GTX) until the 8800GTS 512. It was worth the wait.

Yes it has gotten a bit too much, mainly due to both Nvidia and ATI trying to out-smart each other...

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just gotta wait for the right moment. I waited it out with a 7600GT (temp stepdown from 7900GTX) until the 8800GTS 512. It was worth the wait.

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Yes I agree :)