NEW GRAPHIC CARDS

[jiggy]

At last a bit of compition for nvida as ati is bringing out a new range of graphics cards and this monster

Flagship dual-GPU 4870 X2 cards will include 2048 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1.73 GHz. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 will be introduced at a later date (and could see spec revisions).

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ati-radeon-4800,5223.html

[Raven]

And here is another graphics card that will cost an arm and a leg .

It's funny, I'll never understand these people who go out and spend over 400 quid on the latest graphics card every six months or less....I mean upgrading every once in a while to stay up to speed is one thing, I can even understand those who spend up to 250 quid every two years or so to keep pace with gaming technology. But the idea of spending over 400 quid every six months just to stay on the forefront of graphics/gaming technology I just cannot understand it me. People who have more money and pride than sense so it seems.

The main reason I can't fathom it is because PC gaming isn't that widespread in terms of top end gaming choice, take for example right now the most demanding game out at the minute being Crysis, so people spend that much money just to play Crysis or the next big taxing game ? I just think that up to a certain amount of money it's better off buying an X360 or PS3 since there is arguably more choice of games, especially on the X360 aswell as the exclusive console titles to play too. Plus with a good card, though not the best, you can still play the vast majority of PC games also and its at least 50 percent cheaper than the best card available at the time.

400+ quid on a graphics card every six months sure is strange logic to me.

But that card there looks a beast .

[jiggy]

Your bang on there i used to spend a lot of cash upgrading all the time it can be very addictive but i finally came to my senses. Now i just like to keep an eye on the latest hardware i only upgrade if its really needed and the prices have dropped on what i am looking for.

[Raven]

That's what I do, at the minute I'm trying to get my PC up to a certain standard, all that's left is a good graphics card or perhaps better quality RAM....an extra hard drive and better quality headphones . But after that I will leave it for at least a year before I upgraded again, maybe longer for the graphics card. Because the other thing is the longer you hang fire before upgrading again, the bigger bang for the buck you will get.

[C64]

I used to be a slave to technology, I'd always be chasing the latest GFX cards and CPUs but I suppose I've just got older and 'wiser' I'm nowhere near as interested in the latest stuff these days. I'm still using an old 6600GT gfx card and an AMD 64 3400 CPU

[Raven]

It also depends what you use your PC for aswell, if you don't use it really for gaming then it's obvious that you shouldn't go mental with upgrading, except for maybe the CPU, HDD and RAM....but if you do use it for gaming and multimedia then yeah you need some serious kit, but unless you have money to burn then it becomes a juggling act. Quite a fun one too, .

[jiggy]

I finally gave up the hardware chase when i relised The big hardware developers know what they are doing they have new stuff they hold back to keep the prices high and only bring it out when some other company betters there stuff also how big a con is the sli / crossfire graphic card setup

[Raven]

I'm glad you mentioned that about the SLI thing, where is the logic in buying 2 seperate but identical cards, hooking them up inside ur PC, then NOT getting double the performance ? for double the price I might add.

All SLI/Crossfire gives you from what I understand is basically dual core for your graphics card, but definitely not double the performance which is what it should do since you are buying 2 identical cards and having them work in tandem on one machine.

[Raven]

good jop

Any point to this one or just tryin to get to the downloads ?

[ticticboom]

yeah the prices for graphics cards are scary, the 8800 gts are about 100 quid , but with such high end cards are there enough pc games made to enjoy having an amazing graphics card??

[Raven]

I know exactly what you mean there, I can't remember if I said this previously or not, but pure PC gaming generally doesn't warrant spending hundreds of pounds every six months on the latest and greatest graphics card simply because there aren't enough PC games on the market, let alone good ones, that would justify spending that much money. Unlike console gaming.

The opposite is true for consoles, lots of games, lots of good games....you pay your 200 quid and that's it. You're good to go for five years or until ur 360 red rings. This is console gaming's biggest asset, that for an affordable amount of money you are (theoretically) getting a console that will simply PLAY all stuff released for it end of discussion.

However it's biggest detriment is PC gamings biggest asset, in that technology doesn't move forward with consoles whereas it's constantly improving, shifting and changing on the PC.

But for what PC gaming is there's no need or justification in buying the newest graphics card every six months or less "just to be on the forefront of technology".

But then again once you're PC is souped up to a certain level you pretty much don't need an Xbox360 since alot of the major Xbox titles are improved and released on the PC anyhow, including Gears of War. And Windows has Live online services now aswell, apparently.

But that's it at the end of the day, PC's are not just for gaming....they are used for lots of other things which would benefit from an upgrade. So on the whole it's worth upgrading after a while - maybe once per year at the most, for me personally it's an incremental thing as and when required. But as for buying the latest new card just to stay on top of the mountain and purely for PC games then no it's absolutely not worth the money spent.

But hey some folks do it and then gloat about their 3DMark3000 scores . Whatever makes them happy, it's their money not mine.