9800gtx+ price coming down any time soon?

[wildben]

Any price drops supposed to happen for the 9800gtx+? I want one of these but wont pay $200 bucks for it. It should be about $150 and then a little less with rebate since its roughly as fast as the 4850... I just want this instead of the 4850 because it has dual slot cooler, and I've had driver problems with ATI in the past that I would not like to repeat...

Anyone think Nvidia will drop the price soon?

 

[metalweenis]

It's actually 5-10% faster than the 4850 and it overclocks more without setting the room on fire. I was able to pick mine up on sale for just 169$ at my local store about 3 weeks ago, I am quite pleased with it. As far as Nvidia dropping the price, I doubt anyone knows.

 

[Antman56]

Any price drops supposed to happen for the 9800gtx+? I want one of these but wont pay $200 bucks for it. It should be about $150 and then a little less with rebate since its roughly as fast as the 4850... I just want this instead of the 4850 because it has dual slot cooler

Take a look around. The first 3 4850's listed on newegg (by ascending price) have upgraded coolers. If you want a nasty card for the price, get a 4850.

This card comes with a a rebate that knocks it down to $139.99. And they are reported to knock max temp to around 55 - 60 Celsius.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261027

I've had driver problems with ATI in the past that I would not like to repeat...

Yo man... not to bust your chops but if you think that the ATi cards of the modern day experience tons of stability or compatibility problem, you are being ridiculous. I can see if you posted this when the Radeon 8500 was out, but anything after that time period is not valid.

If you are using an Nvidia SLI motherboard at the moment... then maybe the 9800GTX+ makes sense. Though if I had an SLI board and a money constraint on any modern setup, I would have two 9600GT's overclocked.

If you want to spend $200 dollars or desire to stay with Nvidia due to loyalism, I would goto tigerdirect and buy a 8800GTX for $199.99 and overclock it to Ultra Speeds... the 9800GTX+ will have serious problem with that card after that. Otherwise, your stuck with the renamed 8800GTs (9800GTs) or the 9800GTX with a wicked rebate or open-boxed.

A side note: The G80/G92 architecture has been out for a good while and these products all have VERY mature drivers, thus the performance increases due to drivers are going to be minimal compared to the ATi 4000 series. You can expect the "still-being optimized" ATi 4850 to be more than "roughly" faster than the entire Geforce 8/9 series in the future (if longevity is an issue you consider). Let's just say that I currently own an 8800GTX above Ultra Speeds and I am trying to sell my card for the price of a decent 4850... but no one will buy it.

 

[megamanx00]

^+1 for the 4850

If you want to wait for the 9800GTX+ to come down in price though you have to wait till it's named the G120.6 or something. You'll see the prices on the cards in the old boxes that say 9800GTX+ go down pretty fast since people will think that the G whatever is faster when it's the same crap.

 

[wildben]

No, Im taking about a Radeon x1650xt that I had several years ago... It would hang randomly in every game. It was either drivers or incompatibility with the motherboard.

I had been and ATI fan since the Rage 128, but I switched to Nvidia after that disaster of a card... Everything was soooooo much better - drivers, card performance, lifetime warranty... No contest. Maybe ATI is much better now, but I'd rather not take the chance, especially now that ATI is married to AMD.

 

[Antman56]

Hey... its all good. Just trying to help you make a smart decision.

 

[spuddyt]

general rule: do not even consider experience with previous generations of cards, because wether the experience was good or bad, drivers and hardware evolve so fast that by the time you need a new one, the book is completely rewritten.
on topic: I don't recall seeing any signs of a price drop the the 9800gtx+ anytime soon, most likely though, as megamanx said, when they are renamed the old ones will fall...