Best time to buy?

[MrRichard]

Hi, I was wondering if there's a best time to buy a graphics card this year. Is there supposed to be another price drop anytime soon?

 

[kiban]

2010 fall, is supposed to give birth to the hd 6xxx series, (not sure about this though, just speculation)

If you are in a hurry.. the gtx470 and the 5850/5870 are great cards for price performance.

And then crossfire/sli when prices goes down ^^

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Prices start falling and performance starts increasing when non-reference boards hit in quantity which I expect will be June or so.
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here's a review which compares the cards on a dollars per frame basis:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=516&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=16

# Radeon HD 5850: $11.40 per FPS
# GeForce GTX 470: $11.42 per FPS
# Radeon HD 5870: $11.65 per FPS
# GeForce GTX 480: $12.54 per FPS
# Radeon HD 5970: $14.03 per FPS

As to the price drops, here's another take from the same article:

NVIDIA's GF100 Fermi GPU delivers more than just a giant boost to video frame rates over their previous generation, it also delivers GPGPU functionality that is usable in- and outside of video games. Comparing video game frame rate performance between the GTX 470 and the ATI Radeon HD 5850 still puts the 448-core GF100 GPU ahead of the competition by significant margin in DX10 tests, and a decisive lead in DX11 applications. In a few cases, the Zotac GTX 470 also matched or exceeded performance of the ATI Radeon HD 5870. As inventory begins to match demand, manufacturers will become more competitive with pricing and bundled extras, so be sure to shop for your best bargain.

 

[MrRichard]

2010 fall, is supposed to give birth to the hd 6xxx series, (not sure about this though, just speculation)

If you are in a hurry.. the gtx470 and the 5850/5870 are great cards for price performance.

And then crossfire/sli when prices goes down ^^

Yeah, I think I'll be purchasing a 5850 in the next two weeks or so...unless I can find a gtx470 under $300. What can I say, I'm shooting for the moon .

 

[notty22]

Newegg has 12 gtx 470's in stock,
Sparkle , ECS , new to Fermi
This new Sparkle combo caught my eye, a 1250 watt gold+ psu, 225 off with Fermi
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.404572
The PSU is going for 350.00 at Amazon , lol, you can look at this a couple ways, your getting A gtx 470 for 125.00 http://www.amazon.com/Sparkle-Class-80plus-Supply-GW-EPS1250DA/dp/B003KYSTA6/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1
The logic is based on if you needed a monstrous PSU, like this.

 

[kiban]

Wow, that must be a hell of a PSU for 349$ : P

 

[MrRichard]

Prices start falling and performance starts increasing when non-reference boards hit in quantity which I expect will be June or so.
\
here's a review which compares the cards on a dollars per frame basis:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=516&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=16

# Radeon HD 5850: $11.40 per FPS
# GeForce GTX 470: $11.42 per FPS
# Radeon HD 5870: $11.65 per FPS
# GeForce GTX 480: $12.54 per FPS
# Radeon HD 5970: $14.03 per FPS

As to the price drops, here's another take from the same article:

NVIDIA's GF100 Fermi GPU delivers more than just a giant boost to video frame rates over their previous generation, it also delivers GPGPU functionality that is usable in- and outside of video games. Comparing video game frame rate performance between the GTX 470 and the ATI Radeon HD 5850 still puts the 448-core GF100 GPU ahead of the competition by significant margin in DX10 tests, and a decisive lead in DX11 applications. In a few cases, the Zotac GTX 470 also matched or exceeded performance of the ATI Radeon HD 5870. As inventory begins to match demand, manufacturers will become more competitive with pricing and bundled extras, so be sure to shop for your best bargain.

Do you have a rough estimate at when inventory will match or outweigh the demand for the 5850 or gtx470?

 

[MrRichard]

Best answer selected by MrRichard.