2010 Graphics Cards

[XencryptX841]

This is a post to all.

What Graphics cards both Nvidia and ATI are coming out in 2010? I am thinking about buying one GTX 295 or should i wait for something new?

 

[Kari]

well fermi is supposed to launch this year and ati should have the 6xxx ready before the year ends...


but why would you buy gtx295?? if you want the fastest card at the moment get the 5970, or if your happy with the second best, get the 5870. 5870 is only slightly slower than the 295 and uses a lot less power, is quieter and probably cheaper as well.... and has no problems with two core scaling...

 

[flyinfinni]

Fermi is supposed to release on March 26 (newest Nvidia cards) and ATI is supposed to release their 6000 series cards sometime in the second half of 2010 as well. If you are going to buy right now, get either a 5870 or a 5970 as they are both DX11 and Eyefinity compatible and perform very close to, or better than the GTX295. If you are going to wait through 2010, see what Fermi looks like and maybe even the 6000 series from ATI and then make your decision. Whatever the case, I would not buy a GTX 295, as the 5870 is very close to the same performance, with more longevity AND its cheaper.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

ATI's new generation (DX11) video cards came out in the Fall....nVidia had a series of problems and theirs won't be out till March 26. Whether or not the 295 makes sense for you depends on whether you find DX11 necessary at this point in time. It's supposed to be the "next big thing" but then again so was DX10. Lotta peeps think DX10 failed cause Vista failed, and if they are right, DX11 should hold more interest to game developers. Only time will tell....and it should be summer 2011 before we can make a final judgment.

If you are looking for a GFX card to last you until then, then I see no real disadvantage in getting a DX10 card if it saves you money. If you want it to last well beyond that, then I'd say it's wise to make a choice on the best DX11 card you can afford. At the the GTS 250 / GD4850 level and below, DX10 cards have a place .... at price categories above that, I'd stick to DX11. The 4870 and GTX 260 remain fine cards but price bloat ($155 to over $200 in last 3 months) has pushed them out of the "reasonable buy" range.

Back in the fall, the 295 could be had for $450-$465. That's not a bad price for what THG had to say about it:

Despite ATI's new Radeon HD 5970 taking its place as the fastest graphics card on the planet, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 (with SLI-on-a-board) remains an extremely powerful graphics card. Essentially two conjoined GeForce GTX 275s, the GeForce GTX 295 offers very notable gains over a single Radeon HD 5870 in the great majority of game titles,

The 295 won the "Honorable Mention" moniker in the January's THG GFX card roundup...the same title that the 5870 got at $410 and the 5970 got at $625. Right now newegg's prices are:

5970 - $649 (1) $699 (2) and none of the 3 are in stock.
295 GTX - $509 (1) $519 (1) and $529 (1) and none of the three are in stock.
5870 - available at $399

In February, THG dropped the $500ish price category from the roundup and now only have a $400 (5870) category and a $680 (5970) category. That's unusual for THG to have a $280 spread and no category in between but the fact of the matter is the stock of 295's has all but completely dried up....and , while I can see the logic in getting a DX10 card at < $200 given the Dx11 performance of the 57xx series in DX11, I really can't see investing over $500 on a 295 when the next gen cards are just 31 days away.

So in answer to your question ....I'd wait till June when the cards have had a chance to compete for a while, both manufacturers get to mature their designs a bit more and competition starts to eat into both their price margins. With cards runnning as much as $100 over MSRP, I think it's time for us consumers to keep our money in our pockets until sales prices are < MSRP.

 

[photonboy]

I agree, wait for at least two months after the launch of FERMI on March 26th.

AMD vs NVidia DX11:

- Idle power consumption
- performance
- game optimizations (NVidia has been better)
- hardware video decoding (still not great. I'd lean towards NVidia but this is not certain)
- PhysX (NVidia)
- Optimus? (will require specific motherboard and graphics card.)

If you can wait, maybe NVidia Optimus will come to the desktop.

My decision between AMD and NVidia will come down to IDLE POWER. AMD has really done a great job here. I'm leaning towards NVidia for everything else. NVidia needs to come close in Idle power. Optimus would be awesome.

 

[jyjjy]

and , while I can see the logic in getting a DX10 card at < $200 given the Dx11 performance of the 57xx series in DX11

How many other DX11 games need to be released before you stop judging the performance of DX11 based on 1 game...?

The GTX 295 doesn't really make sense at this point. It is a hot, power hungry dual GPU card. The HD5870 is a better buy at this point. If you aren't in a rush wait for Nvidia's DX11 cards to see if they can reasonably compete with ATIs cards in price/performance or at least see if ATI drops their prices some once they have some competition in the high end market.

 

[jennyh]

Gtx295 is probably the worst card you can buy right now. The only Nvidia cards worth buying are the 250 and 260 depending on prices.

Truth be told I'm being generous and there are actually no Nvidia cards worth buying, but you can nearly make a case for those two while the rest are just laughably outmatched by their ATI equivalent.

It's pathetic to see how far Nvidia has fallen.

 

[jyjjy]

Gtx295 is probably the worst card you can buy right now. The only Nvidia cards worth buying are the 250 and 260 depending on prices.

Truth be told I'm being generous and there are actually no Nvidia cards worth buying, but you can nearly make a case for those two while the rest are just laughably outmatched by their ATI equivalent.

It's pathetic to see how far Nvidia has fallen.

I wouldn't go that far. I would pick the 9600GT and 9800GT as the Nvidia cards that are still worth buying at their price points. GT 240 has actually come down in price enough to make it a decent purchase as well. GTS 250 perhaps if there happens to be a good deal.