I think that the only thing that would chear you lot up would be if Nvidia went bust.
Ignorant statement from someone who wishes it were the case for ATI obviously.
No one wants them to go bust, that wouldn't help anyone, we wanted them to pay the penance for their misdeads (as a lesson to ALL), they have, and this is a whole new round, so whoever is #1 is #1, period.
PR, no one believes the PR, geez if we've learned anything it's that the PR guys have NO IDEA what the Engineers, both Hardware and Software, are doing.
Nvidia lost their way a bit,
Actually more like they made a mistep and then made it worse by not addressing that issue but instead doing everything else, INCLUDING PR BLITZES, to try and cover up. That's a big issue. If their initial response hadn't been to fudge, but if instead they cam out with the run-time compiler sooner, then this wouldn't have been half as bad.
but look set to right ALL the wrongs of the FX,hopefully.
We'll see. Right now that's just hopes and PR. They will likely come out with a better card than the FX, but it'll take more than that. The question is how do they do against the competition. Our hopes that there would be more have been dashed by XGI's shortcomings, but still neither company (ATI nor nV) can afford to have a crummy piece of hardware like the NV30 or worse the Volari Duo. If one is significantly farther behind, expect a quick return with an acceleration of the replacement part. Should the R420 be significantly slower than the NV40 or vice versa, the 'loser' will quickly rush out a refresh. But it will mean they're lost the first round of the #4 series war.
Likely we will see one card do better at some things, and the other do better at others, the question is whether overall they are equal enough to be arguably equal.
BTW, if those are your prices then you have terrible sources.
<A HREF="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/hercules_ati_graphics_cards.html#agx_2d029_2dhe" target="_new">Here's a HERCULES R9800XT for <b>UNDER</b> £320</A>
<A HREF="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/sapphire_ati_graphics_cards.html" target="_new">Sapphire for £323</A>
<A HREF="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/connect3d_ati_graphics_cards.html" target="_new">Connect 3D also for 323</A>
Only the specialty cards like the ASUS are even close to as expensive as you paint the R9800XT, even the FX series you have overprices (I notice you didn't list it as ULTRA either so even worse).
As for TRUE FX5950Ultras the cheapest is Leadtek @ £280.83.
Personally I think that the next round will be GREAT.
This round was truely the battle for the middle class GF4ti vs R9500Pro vs R9600Pro vs FX5600Urev2 (for a brief moment) vs FX5700U. The high end cards saw very little change in the leader.
I think that all the major players have had enough time to perfect their designs. Anyone coming out with a substandard part really was sleeping during the previous year.
Ann an X-fold increase in shader performance alone is not enough. Currently without the run-time compiler replacing workload, the Top-end FX line has 1/2 to 1/4 to pixel shader performance of the equivalent radeon. So eight times better would mean a doubling of the current Radeon line, which is pretty close to what we could expect with just the lcock rate increases, let alone the large increase in # of pipelines.
It's pretty much what most of us expected.
an 8x2 core is double the pixel engines, and the R42X is either 12x or 16x1 so either a 50% increase or a doubling in architecture alone (let alone any core increases).
The only thing that WOULD surprise me is if the NV4X series came out with pretty much the same pixel shader weakness. Nothing would hurt them more than having their new card performing worse than ATI's older R3XX series.
The same could be said for the Radeons, should they suck at something so bad that NV's old architecture, or even thei own OLD architecture outperform somewhere then that will not look good.
Whatever they have to offer, expect both companies to offer at least a significant increase over their older card. If it's not double the perforomance theoretically, expect at least 25-50% for real-world gaming.
Also expect new features, like NV's new AA/AF implementations.
Should be nice for anyone wanting to play at above their current level.
- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK
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