4850 and 9800GTX for £125

[Shooty*]

Edited becuase, on reflection, it wasn't funny. My bad.

[Blitzen]

Actually, if you take the US price, halve it, then add 17.5% VAT you do get pretty close to the online prices of things in the UK. There are some cases, mostly with rebates where this doesn't apply, but it is much closer than it used to be. Which is good.

If nvidia have actually dropped the price of the 9800GTX to $199 then we should see that reflected here too, though when it might happen is anybody's guess.

I am hoping that the 4850 was benchmarked on early/beta drivers as at the moment I'm unimpressed... 8800GT performance is not what we were expecting...

Sorry but your price comparison will never work. It never has before so no reason to think it will now.

As long as no one pays more then you would, they are sane eh?

£400 for an 8800GTX nearly 2 years ago and still going strong against todays cards. Kind of proves that GPUs do not move on that fast at all.

Its time that moves fast, not the market. I shocked myself when looking for the purchase date of my card. Never dreamt it would have been almost 2 years.

If people are silly enough to jump for every new card, then they will waste a lot of money unnecessarily, pick the right card to blow your cash on and it can be a wise purchase, although anyone thinking of purchasing right now should wait a bit IMO though, at least until the 4870x2 has been released so we can see what happens to pricing.

I guess that inflation and the scares of a recession must be taking its grip on some forum members as the amount of "You must be an idiot to spend X" posts around here lately have really been annoying me, never used to see them before and they stink of jealousy (if I cannot justify spending that much, then anyone who does is an idiot!).

Can we leave this BS out of future posts and stick to technical details please? These forums are for sharing information, not knocking people who can justify greater spending then yourself. By all means state that the price/performance ratio isn't as good as X or Y. But to state people are "idiots" or "should be sectioned" is not really in the spirit of these forums.

Your post is totally inappropriate and utterly pointless.

For starters, we all know the 8800GTX to be an exception rather than a rule.

Secondly, i can justify spending that much if it was a worthwhile investment.
You are right on one point though. These forums ARE for sharing information as you rightly say (so why not try it yourself instead of having a little hissy-fit). I called no-one an idiot but after reading your post im not so sure i shouldnt have. If you cannot determine a 'tongue in cheek' post from serious comment without a tantrum then maybe i was wrong.

[shaithis]

Your post is totally inappropriate and utterly pointless.

My post was to ask people to stop with the BS. You aren't the first here doing it but it seems to be getting rife.

For starters, we all know the 8800GTX to be an exception rather than a rule.

Hmmm, so the 7800GTX didn't hold its own for a good 18 months then? Plus the further and further you go back, you will find that the time between gfx card models gets longer and longer.

Secondly, i can justify spending that much if it was a worthwhile investment.

And that is why we are getting these posts. just because something is not "a worthwhile investment" to you, doesn't mean it isn't to another. Hell, I hate multi-GPU setups, I tell people I don't believe they are worth their money but would never refer to people derogatorily for buying such a setup.

You are right on one point though. These forums ARE for sharing information as you rightly say (so why not try it yourself instead of having a little hissy-fit).

Hmm, seems that as much as I cannot detect your 'tongue in cheek'(ness), you cannot see a request for politeness.

I called no-one an idiot but after reading your post im not so sure i shouldnt have. If you cannot determine a 'tongue in cheek' post from serious comment without a tantrum then maybe i was wrong.

I didn't say you called anyone an idiot, its just the word that another person used yesterday in the same context and as I was talking about the trend here recently, thought it was worth including. We can all clearly see from your post and the quote that you didn't, but if you want to split hairs......

And if my post was a "tantrum", then I think you need to look the word up in a dictionary.

[TooNice]

The 9700 Pro lasted a good while too. I don't think that the top range has moved that fast. Not every number one card will last 12 months, but they remain in the top quartile for two years more often than not. And the gap between the top cards narrows.

Despite being a bang for buck hunter. Spending beyond your mean is stupid. Buying something beyond the optimal bang for buck point is what most enthusiast do, some more than others, and is fair play in my book (as long as it's within their mean).

£125 for a 9800GTX is pretty optimistic. If the 4850 is competitive with the 9800GTX (say, a little slower), I reckon that it is more likely that the 9800GTX drops by £20-25 it's intended price and the 4850 increases by £20-25 of it's intended price (similar to the mark up we've seen with saw with the 8800GT). It seems to me that most enthusiast will be happy to shell more than £125, more towards the £150-160 range, for something they perceive as 'upper mid-range'. That's my prediction

[Muska]

The 9700 Pro lasted a good while too. I don't think that the top range has moved that fast. Not every number one card will last 12 months, but they remain in the top quartile for two years more often than not. And the gap between the top cards narrows.

Despite being a bang for buck hunter. Spending beyond your mean is stupid. Buying something beyond the optimal bang for buck point is what most enthusiast do, some more than others, and is fair play in my book (as long as it's within their mean).

£125 for a 9800GTX is pretty optimistic. If the 4850 is competitive with the 9800GTX (say, a little slower), I reckon that it is more likely that the 9800GTX drops by £20-25 it's intended price and the 4850 increases by £20-25 of it's intended price (similar to the mark up we've seen with saw with the 8800GT). It seems to me that most enthusiast will be happy to shell more than £125, more towards the £150-160 range, for something they perceive as 'upper mid-range'. That's my prediction

thinking the same thing can't see amd wasting a chance to make a few more £ and nvidia loosing quite a bit

[Noxvayl]

Two of my favourite sites for hardware reviews came out with lovely reviews for the HD4850.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=1

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-at...--powercolor/1

From the looks of it AMD have lived up to the hype and beating the 9800GTX on occasion is a very good sign. Can't believe 2 of the HD4850's together beat the GTX280... I mean that's $400 verse $650(£270 vs £450). AMD have definitely won the battle of strategy I'm afraid. They have won me over with catering for the midrange(bulk enthusiast) market primarily and then later bringing scaled GFX cards for the power hungry folk.

Its a strategy I have been hoping to come to the forefront of the GPU market for a long time and it was disappointing when the first attempt AMD made was such a failure.

[EarlGrey]

The Anandtech review really does show the 4850 in a good light

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=12

on this page they show the the 4850 absolutely destroying the GTX260 in Bioshock! And yes, they conclude that the 4850 is a much better card than the 9800GTX. Maybe I can get my free 9800GTX from Blitzen when they come down to £125, though perhaps I don't want one anymore...

[EarlGrey]

And here, http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14967/8 at techreport, they show the 4850 beating the GTX260 again in 'Race Driver GRID'
Awesome stuff!

[Ommid]

But surely the 9700gtx is better? When is its price going to be dropped? What would you guys get and how much is the 4870 going to be?

[Noxvayl]

But surely the 9700gtx is better? When is its price going to be dropped? What would you guys get and how much is the 4870 going to be?

I would get the HD4850 and its price is rumoured to be in the region of £135. Its better than the 9800GTX, cheaper and uses far less power so is an all round winner

Companies to get ATI cards from would be Gigabyte, Sapphire or HIS. They are my preferred ATI partners.

[!TIMMY!]

Ohhh yeah, I hoped I had made a good choice in the X48 over the 780i chipset.

ATI could be back with the 4850 and 4870. I might just hold out to see the 4870 benchies and then crossfire maybe a realistic possibility.

[EzyRyder]

You can buy the 4850 today for less than £125 ... absolute bargain I say!

[kalniel]

You can buy the 4850 today for less than £125 ... absolute bargain I say!

Where?

[!TIMMY!]

Dabs

[burtie]

I'll be keeping my 8800GT for a while longer as there's no games it can't play, that i want to play that is. Its looking like an Xmas upgrade for me.

[kalniel]

Dabs

You can't buy that today.