Rough Times All Around For The GPU Crew

[Heinz68]

what's the difference between dx10 and 10.1 again? (legit question)
For the differences use Google.
Main difference is, 10.1 is something NVIDIA hates too see unless implemented on Nvidia cards and they are not in hurry with that.
It doesn't mean anything that, Nvidia recently signed on to the PC Gaming Alliance, whose charter involves pushing common standards like DX10.1 and increasing "the number of PCs that can run games really well."
For more read source (http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14707) or Google more.

[LordJuanlo]

nVidia has competition now, they haven't had it in years. They have been releasing refurbished cards after the launch of the 8800GTX, and some of them really overpriced. Now ATI has stroke them really hard. They have been forced to lower the price of the 200 series (and now they have a proper, realistic price, because when they were released the GTX 280 price was almost double than 15% less performer 4870).

Who are winners, nVidia or ATI?. Who cares?. I think we users are all winners.

[Blacklash]

nVidia has competition now, they haven't had it in years. They have been releasing refurbished cards after the launch of the 8800GTX, and some of them really overpriced. Now ATI has stroke them really hard. They have been forced to lower the price of the 200 series (and now they have a proper, realistic price, because when they were released the GTX 280 price was almost double than 15% less performer 4870).

Who are winners, nVidia or ATI?. Who cares?. I think we users are all winners.

Agree.

Most would do perfectly fine with an overclocked GTX 260, HD 4870 or even HD 4850.

If you buy an Asus brand of the ATi cards get Smart Doctor 5.12. It will work fine under Vista x64 and gives you fan control. You may google it to locate it fairly easily. Here's one location-

http://www.opendrivers.com/driver/248246/asus-smartdoctor-ii-5.12-windows-2000-xp-vista-free-download.html

There's a 5.18 version here (date 7/12/2008)-

ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/vga/app/

Competition is indeed a win situation for us consumers. :)