More competition already!

[ErrorS]

GD.. last gen it was $250 for highend .. $400 now?! WTF.. next gen it'll be $500 .. $600 after that

im not paying 1/2 a G for a ****in video card..

we NEED a 3rd competitor.. no upcomming cards that can even begin to claim they are a competitor against highend cards.. tridnt is trying with this claim but the people there are f'n delusional..

Matrox = pwnd
SiS = nothing
Trident = nothing

MS, intel, AMD SOME big name in PCs needs to release a highend video card.. and they need to do it within the next couple of weeks :x

[netviper13]

We've certainly seen $400 highest-end cards before (GF2 Ultra, GF3, I think the 8500 was too), so there's nothing new there.

Remember how much the price usually falls in the first few months too.

[StealthHawk]

Voodoo2 SLI: each card was at least $200-$250 when they first came out.

GeForce2 Ultra: $500
GeForce3: $400
GeForce3 ti500: $400
GeForce4 ti4600: $400

[Matthyahuw]

That's why you buy the low or middle end of the chipset...
That's why nVidia has 3 versions of one chip, too bad ATi doesn't do that...I refuse to pay that much for a card...

You can get a Ti4200 now for $125! and most OC within a few MHz of the 4600, can't beat that!

[StealthHawk]

nvidia didn't do that at the introduction of the GF3 though, and the GF2ultra was still very expensive

[volt]

I bought my Geforce 256 DDR for 300 bucks when it first hit the shelves. Almost 3 years ago.

[ErrorS]

GF3 price dropped when 8500 came out.. GF4 Ti price will drop now that R9700 is out..

but there is too much damn time in between these two companys releasing cards..

GF4 had how long at the $400-500 "We can charge what we want" price? quite a while..

I just wish it were a highend card competing every 2 months.. not the 6+ we're seeing now .. two competitors arent enough to do this

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by ErrorS
GF4 had how long at the $400-500 "We can charge what we want" price? quite a while..

I just wish it were a highend card competing every 2 months.. not the 6+ we're seeing now .. two competitors arent enough to do this

Retail price on the Ti4600 was $399 so I don't know where you're getting this $500 bull. We all know NVIDIA is guilty of the charging what they want, but can't we say the same of ATI? Why isn't the 9700 $350? Why isn't it $300? Same logic applies here and there's very little doubt in my mind that it will be "quite a while" before the price on the 9700 drops.

A high end competing card every 2 months? Are you nuts? While I agree that more competition is a good thing, I think we should be thankful that we're seeing so many high end gaming cards with the frequency we're seeing them now.

[marqmajere]

Video cards are just like golf clubs. As long as people pay the high price, that's what the companys will leave them at. Hell. Some people paid near $500 U.S. just to get the card a week earlier. Crazy man. Crazy.

Marqus

[ErrorS]

ok now i know what made me so mad.. Radeon9000 and GF4MX .. mainstreem cards that are gonna keep games ugly forever..

we need more and BETTER mainstream competition..

[travbrad]

Originally posted by Matthyahuw
That's why you buy the low or middle end of the chipset...
That's why nVidia has 3 versions of one chip, too bad ATi doesn't do that...I refuse to pay that much for a card...

You can get a Ti4200 now for $125! and most OC within a few MHz of the 4600, can't beat that!

ATI will be releasing a Radeon 9500 for those middle end users. Also they may just make an improved version of the Radeon 9700 and have the current Radeon 9700 become the middle card :eek: :eek:

[StealthHawk]

not likely, then they will have a radeon9500, radeon9700, radeon9700 pro, and radeon9700 pro pro ;)

[gravioli]

Originally posted by StealthHawk
radeon9700 pro pro

The Radeon 9700 Pro²! Sweet!

[Bigus Dickus]

Originally posted by StealthHawk
radeon9700 pro pro ;) Is that kinda like a GeForce 4 Ti 4600? ;)

I'm sure there will be a ~300/300 version, if not by ATI (OEM) then by AIB (Powercolor, Gigabyte, etc.).

That would give: 9700 Pro, 9700, 9500, 9000 Pro, 9000

Pretty rounded lineup. I don't expect to see a higher clocked (higher than 325/325) 9700 Pro this year. Maybe early next year after the NV30 hits the shelves.

[travbrad]

Originally posted by Matthyahuw
That's why you buy the low or middle end of the chipset...
That's why nVidia has 3 versions of one chip, too bad ATi doesn't do that...I refuse to pay that much for a card...

You can get a Ti4200 now for $125! and most OC within a few MHz of the 4600, can't beat that!


ATI RADEON 9700 PRO = GF4Ti4600 equivalent
ATI RADEON 9700 = GF4Ti4400 equivalent
ATI RADEON 9500 = GF4Ti4200 equivalent
ATI RADEON 9000 = GF4 MX equivalent

[ErrorS]

Originally posted by travbrad



ATI RADEON 9700 PRO = GF4Ti4600 equivalent
ATI RADEON 9700 = GF4Ti4400 equivalent
ATI RADEON 9500 = GF4Ti4200 equivalent
ATI RADEON 9000 = GF4 equivalent

uh no.. added speculation of course but:

ATi Radeon 9700 Pro = Owns GF4 Ti4600
ATi Radeon 9700 = 20mhz less then 9700.. still owns the Ti4600
ATi Radeon 9500 = should be as fast as Ti4600 .. and should be main competitor(if nvidia does the smart thing and drops prices)
ATi Radeon 9000 = GF4 MX level

no midend.. but not like it matters.. nvidia killed the 4400 cuz noone gave a **** about it and the lower priced 4200 still has a MSRP of $200 ..

nVidia has mainsteam(GF4 MX) mid(GF4 Ti4200) and highend(GF4 Ti4600) .. within the next couple of months ATi will have 9700, 9500 and 9000 .. dunno how anyone thinks that is ANY different then what nvidia is doing

[StealthHawk]

ErrorS,

i really don't think he was intending to compare the respective ATI cards to nvidia cards. he was merely surmising what the ATI version of the breakdown would be, although that seems to be painfully obvious(aka that a r9700pro is like a gf4 4600, r9700 is like a 4400 etc).

if rumors are true, i doubt the 9500 will be like the ti4200 of the gf4 line. it would be what a gf4mx should have been, a scaled down gf4. in this case, it will obviously be a scaled down r9700(feature set intact but crippled with half pipes, 128bit bus, very much like the gf2mx was to the gf2)

[jbirney]

keep in mind its still not econamically convient to have a low end DX9 part. DX9 calls for full floating point pipeline which adds a lot of complexity to the GPU. ATI ceo was asked by Ben and he replied next year before we see low cost DX9 :(

[Jandar]

Originally posted by ErrorS
ok now i know what made me so mad.. Radeon9000 and GF4MX .. mainstreem cards that are gonna keep games ugly forever..

we need more and BETTER mainstream competition..

ok, weird logic there, considering the GF4MX is DX7

Radeon 9000 is DX 8.1


:rolleyes:

[saturnotaku]

I think his point was that both NVIDIA and ATI are releasing crippled cards into the mainstream along with their feature-packed higher-end products. The GF4 MX is crippled in the fact that it supports no DX 8 features. The 9000 is crippled because it's a stripped-down version of the 8500. Yet both these products' naming conventions imply to Joe Consumer that the GF4 MX and Radeon 9000 would be superior to their predecessors, the GF3 and Radeon 8500, respectively. Obviously this isn't the case with these products and I agree it hurts us as consumers who are very discriminating over our choice of hardware.

[Matthyahuw]

SWEET!
where can I buy a 9500 :confused: :rolleyes:

[volt]

a side note: I went to BestBuy the other day. There are stacks of 9000's laying around, but when I asked the guy (on purpose) when they expect to get 9700's he didnt even know heh. I wonder how many of those people working there actually know what they are doing.

[saturnotaku]

One other thing, aren't the Radeon 9700 PRO and 9700 one in the same product? Unless I misread something, it seems that both names have been used interchangably. :confused:

Another thing I've noticed about Best Buy is they always seem to have a perponderance (sp?) of ATI products on hand, along with lots of GF4 MX cards. But there's usually only 1 or 2 cards in stock each of Ti4200 through Ti4600's with the Ti4400's being out the most often.

I made it a point to ask which cards sell more and which are returned more. And the guy said they sell whichever cards are the best deals at the time, sometimes it's ATI, sometimes it's NVIDIA. So as not to get into too much of a conversation with the BB employee, I left it at that. But it makes me wonder why I always see more ATI products than NVIDIA on the shelves especially since, as Matthy will attest, I'm a BB junkie (I go to stores on an average of once a week). :confused:

[jbirney]

One other thing, aren't the Radeon 9700 PRO and 9700 one in the same product?


I think the 9700 and 9700 Pro is clock speed. The Pro is clocked higher at 325... No idea on what the 9700, maybe 300?

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by jbirney
I think the 9700 and 9700 Pro is clock speed. The Pro is clocked higher at 325... No idea on what the 9700, maybe 300?

Then that would be akin to the Ti4400/Ti4600. Makes sense, especially if ATI charges reasonably less for the 9700 compared to the PRO. But of course that all depends on what exactly the difference in clock speeds is to justify any price differences. Would I be able to buy a 9700 and OC it to PRO levels while saving $100 in the process? We'll have to see.