Price Guides May 2004: CPU and Video
by Kristopher Kubicki on May 11, 2004 6:02 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
NVIDIA Video Cards
NVIDIA, as of yet, has not come to market with their new NV40-based cards and this is not expected until near June of this year. With that in mind, the GeForce 6800 Ultra is still a very solid card for gaming, and even supports some things the X800 does not, such as PS 3.0. This makes the card very much future-proof as long as game developers do indeed start coming out with PS 3.0 games such as the upcoming patch to Far Cry which is expected to implement this graphically stunning technology. Pixel Shader 3.0 has been widely talked about as an enormous advancement over PS 2.0, but there have been very few ways to actually confirm this. Look forward to many Image Quality (IQ) tests from AnandTech in the future.
In addition to the 6800 Ultra, NVIDIA has already decided to release a ramped-up version of this card, the 6850 Ultra. Basically, this card follows the trend of other 'Golden Sample' products released for previous models and continues with the higher clock speeds for both ram and the GPU. This is NOT to be confused with NV45, a completely different chipset NVIDIA has planned for later in this year which will be an even larger ramp from the NV40 (GeForce 6800).
Again, back on Earth, the 5900 (non-ultra) and the 5700 Ultra provide for the power you need if you need it right now and don't intend to fork over hundreds of dollars more for the likes of the 5900 Ultra and beyond. There are some specials right now on GeForce 5900s for well under $200; a fairly good buy for the price. The 5900XT cards also offer good performance for the price, but you need to overclock them to really unlock the full potential of those cards.
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KristopherKubicki - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
Price engine is doing better now.9600XT's wont drop that much until we see RV380 - at least a month or two. They are good cards, if you do not want to spend a lot of money buying one now is not a bad option.
Kristopher
vlsi54199 - Friday, May 14, 2004 - link
Shall I hold on buying a 9600XT card? how much do you think the price will drop? and how soon?SHO235V8 - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - link
There must be BIG price cuts coming (or rebates, argh). I don't know many of us who would pay essentially the same $400 for last year's technology, good cards or not! :)KillaKilla - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - link
Well that's no good... The X800, as of late, costs as much as a 9800XT does!Alright! Wait... no... no! It's not all right! oh! -Ira-,e r, Quagmire
Chaotic42 - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - link
D'oh!I just paid $177 each for two MP 2800s.
Oh, well.
l3ored - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - link
from what i read, a64 mobiles are just regular ones without the heatinkJGF - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - link
oh well THATS encouraging....Actually I wasnt expecting PCI-E to be available for 939 until late summer and had pretty well convinced myself I didnt need it. Hopefully the PCI-E is being bumped up to rollout closer to 939 and 939 isnt being bumped back to accomodate PCI-E. >:(
TrogdorJW - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - link
So I have a question: the Athlon XP Mobile chips are not multiplier locked. What about the Mobile (DTR) Athlon 64 chips? (Hey, I can dream, can't I?)KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - link
Hehe, to be honest, i think everyone is having problems getting PCI-Express to work. Thats what Intel has been delayed too.Kristopher
JGF - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - link
Lord almight every month its 'in a month or so' wrt the 939 launch. Has it been pushed back from the June 1 Computex date now?????? I have half a mind to flip amd the bird and get a 3.4 ghz P4. >:(