HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY FOR A GRAPHIC CARD?

HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY FOR A GRAPHIC CARD?

  • <100$

    Votes: 3 6.4%
  • 100$-200$

    Votes: 13 27.7%
  • 200$-300$

    Votes: 14 29.8%
  • 300$-400$

    Votes: 6 12.8%
  • 400$-500$

    Votes: 11 23.4%

  • Total voters
    47

neocristi

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Jan 10, 2006
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Just a question for all the gaming enthusiasts outthere:

Are you REALLY that much into gaming that you pay 500$ for a videocard?

(guess you buy a "matching" CPU too :D )

Isn't this a little bit... too much?

I myself play a lot of NFS MW, AOE III, and used to play DOOM III last summer on my OC'ed ASUS EN 6600TD/128 Silencer and it works very good, not high sky framerates, but ok
(54fps in Doom3 1024x768 High Detail AA2X AF ON).

The $110 i have paid for the card seemed a little bit expensive, i mean come on, if you pay more than 100-200 for a component, the PC will end up in more than $1000 final cost.

I paid $700 for mine and about $350 for a samsung 730BF LCD, Logitech keyboard and mouse > $50, +somme ArcticCooling fans to make it silent and ended up in well over $1100 for a PC that to your standards is "Mainstream".

Aren't PC's supposed to be afortable? If we encourage producers to sell very expensive video cards.... they will just... sell more of them, more expensive, right?

(see what happened in CPU market where we have $1000+ worth CPU's on regulary basis)


I know that the state of the art components are supposed to be expensive, but come on... $500 for the videocard only? Confused

I know i'm being a little bit(more) off topic but is anyone with me?

Are there others like me who think that the PC should stay afortable?

Are there others who think that the components should stay within earthly prices?

Remember the days when the PC games were not so concentrated on graphics and the reviews were more about the AI and the playability of the game?

I read a game magazine, THG and Anantech for a very long time now (i'm in the IT from the begining (since the first pentium 60Mhz and AMD K5 (my first PC) !!!)).

During this time I was always addicted to games, and my work ofcourse. The point that i want to make is that during this very long period, the games have lost the fun and the ...."game" (i don't know how to call it) and now they are just "video monsters" that stress out the hardware, BURN Prescotts Very Happy (yes, I am an AMD fan since the beginning of K5 era) and I miss the old STARCRAFT BROODWAR that worked on any PC that didn't have to cost over 2000$ (it was 2D graphics) and the game was concentrated on "playability".
The teams were very well balanced and players were supposed to THINK in order to PLAY, thats why it becomed a world wide phenomenon 5-6 years ago.

Please show me that "perfect playability" now in AOE III or in other modern strategy game. AOE III looks great, great textures, shadows, reflections...etc. but it is "empty", it s like a shooter with 200 units at your command.

Seriously, talking about Video Cards is ok, but is that that interests you, the gamers? Is this what you want? More FPS? More Details? More Shadow s? More HDR?

WHERE IS THE GAME?
 

sirkillalot

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Jan 16, 2006
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yo neocristi

you need more ops.. in yr poll

i have to pay $1000 for my nexted card
7800gtx
because of taxers etc but what can i do if i want the best, fasters etc

Isn't this a little bit... too much? .......YES
PC should stay afortable......YES they are, but not for the high end stuff
guess its like a car $1000-$100000 still gets you from A-B :lol:

"WHERE IS THE GAME?"......... its coming and its called OBLIVION :)
I HEAR YEA ! I still play games from 10 years ago because the story is very good or just the game play eg: dune 1 Arena stonekeep red alert etc
 

neocristi

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yo neocristi

you need more ops.. in yr poll

i have to pay $1000 for my nexted card
7800gtx

Ok, sorry, it seems that i need more options in my pool, can you tell me how to modify the pool to add one or tw more options, cause i think that once you submitted, the pool is read only.

Anyway, man, you re telling me that you are spending $1000 for your videocard.... damn, i must start thinkng about making more money somehow... maybe i'll just sell my body or sommething :D cause i'd like a 7800GTX too, maybe one of those EVGA ones that are water cooled :lol:
but unfortunately it s out of my league.

Tell me more about OBLIVION, how is it? cause i never played it.

Then again... 1000$ for the videocard :) wow, are there more of you who would pay this amount?

Cheers.
 

cleeve

Illustrious
Are you REALLY that much into gaming that you pay 500$ for a videocard?


What are you saying? That entheusiasts shouldn't have the right to buy the fastest machines out there?

The only reason that cheap, high performance cards exist is that the quest for more performance - driven by the high-end market - pushes technology further, and this technology trickles down to the mainstream so cards like the 6600 can exist in the first place.

Besides man, this is a graphics card forum. What you're doing is like going to a ferrari forum and telling everyone that a Volkswagen Golf should be sporty enough...
 

neocristi

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Cleeve said:
What are you saying? That entheusiasts shouldn't have the right to buy the fastest machines out there?

Besides man, this is a graphics card forum. What you're doing is like going to a ferrari forum and telling everyone that a Volkswagen Golf should be sporty enough...

You understood it wrong my friend, i didn t ment the "ferrari" story and i don't say that the gamers shouldn't have the right... and so on, I'm just saying that it s going too far, and in this manner, in a few years we will only be able to play the new games on 5000$ rigs (they are allready selling rigs at this price, see alienware, etc)


Is this what you want, in order to play a new game, each year, to be forced to spent a few thousand dollars on a new rig?


The gaming enthusiasts are not making any statements about this, they just... spend more and more money.
 

trunks512

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Jan 4, 2006
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neocristi said:
What are you saying? That entheusiasts shouldn't have the right to buy the fastest machines out there?

Besides man, this is a graphics card forum. What you're doing is like going to a ferrari forum and telling everyone that a Volkswagen Golf should be sporty enough...

You understood it wrong my friend, i didn t ment the "ferrari" story and i don't say that the gamers shouldn't have the right... and so on, I'm just saying that it s going too far, and in this manner, in a few years we will only be able to play the new games on 5000$ rigs (they are allready selling rigs at this price, see alienware, etc)


Is this what you want, in order to play a new game, each year, to be forced to spent a few thousand dollars on a new rig?


The gaming enthusiasts are not making any statements about this, they just... spend more and more money.

well money is not an object to some people
so why not stand in the forefront of technology?
as i like to get the a nice new video cards every year
I mean if there is AA and AF and resolutions as high as 2xxx X 1xxx
why not take advantage of it before it comes old?
 

cleeve

Illustrious
Is this what you want, in order to play a new game, each year, to be forced to spent a few thousand dollars on a new rig?

Well man, I take issue with your assumptions:


1- No-one is forced to buy anything. Someone who bought a 9700 PRO four years ago can still play any game out there.
If you're buying better, it's because you'd like a better gaming experience, and can afford one.
But that's hardly "forced"

In fact, developers program for the lowest common denominator - to make a game that only, say, the geforce 7800 could handle would mean the game developers are ignoring 90% of the buying public.
They'll never do that; it'd cut their own throats as far as revenue potential goes.
Sure, some games will have graphical OPTIONS that only high end cards can display, but that only lends credence to my next point...


2- You can't move forward unless you push the boundaries of technological innovation, yes the cost can be large to be on the cutting edge of progress... but the only alternative to moving forward is stagnation.
I personally would prefer that graphics technology will keep progressing at least until complete photorealism is achieved.

If graphics companies stopped pushing forward, we might all have the same $25 videocards right now, but they couldn't handle anything more than quake 1.

.
 

pmr

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Gaming is like everything else. For instance: my mtb worths like $6000 and I ride just for fun. Sure i like mtb more than computers, otherwise I would have a high end pc and mac too. I´ve got a mainstream pc and a "nearly" high end mac. Not that I can´t afford better machines, but for me it's enough. I payed $120 for my AIW 9600 pro and fits me nice. Just have three pc games, ther others are for my PS2. If enthusiasts can afford high end gfx cards, why not?
If you've got the money and you want to spend it, go for it. You don´t have to be the best player in ther world, but when someone asks you, why do you have that machine, you can answer: Because i can afford it.

Because I have a Porsche 911 Turbo, I don´t have to drive as good as Montoya or Schumacher.
PS- I don´t have a porsche!!!!
 
You really did need:

$500-$600
$600-$700
$700-$800

as options, as that is where the XT1800XT and GTX512 fall in prices....

ANd if there is SLI/Crossfire for topend cards, there would need to be a

$1200-$1500 option as well.... :)
 

nottheking

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Well, I'd apparently pay in the $200-300US range; that was the price I paid for my X800XT quite some time ago. It brought the total price of my machine to about $750US. The rest is an Athlon64 setup I built in early 2004.
Sure; he didn't say max details. Min spec for Fear is a GF4Ti / Radeon 9600 right?
Which boggles me, considering the parrallels here. They don't mention the Radeon 9500, after all. And even if it's on performance, simply listing the minimum as "Geforce 4 Ti or Radoen 9600" is simply preposterous; they should've also included "GeForce FX 5700" as well.
 

pokemon

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You might want to add a 'steal' option to the poll, we might be able to get another voter or two. $300 is the max, moddable $150 cards also work well too.
 

p05esto

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I agree these cards are marked up tooooooo high. These companies purposly bend you over and shove their foot up your ass when you buy $500 graphics card. They probably make $400 on that single sale.

Because if you wait for the next gen of cards in a few months that $500 card is now $200. And they're STILL making money.

I'm all for the right to choose and have options....but greed is going too far when they charge an arm and a leg just for the greatest. The companies are taking advantage of people's desires. And while the make money on those crazy early adopters they also are hurting the average person who would love to have the latest but can't afford it.

If the early-adopters would boycott those insainly expensive cards maybe manufactures would lower the prices to a point more average people could afford them. They'd make the same money and make more people happy. Win, win.

So shame on you if you buy $300+ graphics cards. Ridiculous!

:) Okay, I know I'm gonna get flamed for that so don't bother....I won't check back to this thread :)
 

pauldh

Illustrious
They probably make $400 on that single sale

Doubt it. remember, their costs drop too over time. The Top cards have the newest & best available RAM, and that would cost alot. Also, chip prices go down too for the card makers. ATI and NV need to make up for the R&D costs on their chips...They are in the hole, on a new Top end chip, for quite a while. But it's the cost for them to compete, and they pass it on to those few who must have the best.
 

lakedude

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I didn't vote because the value of a graphics card depends on many things. The most I've ever spent was about $350 for a x800-xl AIW. For the perfect (impossible) card I might spend over a grand. Right now I wouldn't spend over $300 because the 7800 GT is an awesome deal making the 1800's and GTX's not worth the extra cost (IMO).

The perfect graphics card is not really possible because of conflicting factors. For example the perfect card would be:

1) Super fast (of course) and in proportion to cost. This is not currently the case with CPUs or GPUs. Right now you got to spend a lot more and you only recieve a small return for the fastest products.

2) Low power

3) Tested and reliable.

4) Rare, so that you would be one of only a few with bragging rights.

5) Rich with software/games of many titles that looked a lot better on your rare card (this would never happen, no one would write software for only a few cards).

6) Semi-future proof and upgradable.

If a card did all that or at least 1) and 3) I'd go over $500 and maybe up to $1000 or more.
 

Heyyou27

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Jan 4, 2006
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I didn't vote because the value of a graphics card depends on many things. The most I've ever spent was about $350 for a x800-xl AIW. For the perfect (impossible) card I might spend over a grand. Right now I wouldn't spend over $300 because the 7800 GT is an awesome deal making the 1800's and GTX's not worth the extra cost (IMO).

The perfect graphics card is not really possible because of conflicting factors. For example the perfect card would be:

1) Super fast (of course) and in proportion to cost. This is not currently the case with CPUs or GPUs. Right now you got to spend a lot more and you only recieve a small return for the fastest products.

2) Low power

3) Tested and reliable.

4) Rare, so that you would be one of only a few with bragging rights.

5) Rich with software/games of many titles that looked a lot better on your rare card (this would never happen, no one would write software for only a few cards).

6) Semi-future proof and upgradable.

If a card did all that or at least 1) and 3) I'd go over $500 and maybe up to $1000 or more.

You're an idiot. You can't have a card be cheap and rare.
 

AntiHax0r

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Dec 22, 2005
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neocristi said:
What are you saying? That entheusiasts shouldn't have the right to buy the fastest machines out there?

Besides man, this is a graphics card forum. What you're doing is like going to a ferrari forum and telling everyone that a Volkswagen Golf should be sporty enough...

You understood it wrong my friend, i didn t ment the "ferrari" story and i don't say that the gamers shouldn't have the right... and so on, I'm just saying that it s going too far, and in this manner, in a few years we will only be able to play the new games on 5000$ rigs (they are allready selling rigs at this price, see alienware, etc)


Is this what you want, in order to play a new game, each year, to be forced to spent a few thousand dollars on a new rig?


The gaming enthusiasts are not making any statements about this, they just... spend more and more money.


As game developers... they want to target the mainstream market... which is not those who have $5k +/- systems... but those who have around $500<$2000 ... devs too know how to make $....
 

AntiHax0r

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Sure!

A 9700 can play fear just fine... have you tried it?

I have a 9700 PRO on my secondary computer...

I recently bought a 9700Pro ... b/c it was cheap and still is good ...isn't it about on par performance-wise 6600/x600?

Anyways I got it on ebay for like 40USD and like $8 shipping from the ebaystore isoldit*