NVIDIA Price-Cuts

[Mehen]

9800GTX > $199
GTX 260 $399 > $329
GTX 280 $599 > $499

GTX 260 is a pretty nice buy. It is roughly on par with the ATI 4870, but gets my vote because you don't have to use crappy ATI drivers.

http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=14206

Our sources have revealed that NVIDIA has announced another round of price cuts to its AIBs (board partners) on the 9800 GTX, GTX 260 and GTX 280 GPUs.

It’s taking a further $17 off the 9800 GTX, which on top of the $30 channel rebate and £60 reduction announced when AMD/ATI launched the HD 4800 series, gives it a net price to AIBs of $165. This makes the target selling price of $199 very achievable.

If it hasn’t already, NVIDIA is chopping $30 off the AIB price of the GTX 260, leaving it at $222. The recommended selling price is apparently $329, which seems a healthy margin.

Again, if it hasn’t already, NVIDIA is knocking $90 off the AIB price of the GTX 280 to $392. The recommended selling price for the 280 is now $499.

[Marshmallowman]

hmm, I am going the opposite way. I am quite peaved with nvidia drivers in particular video acceleration and multiple monitor...gaming its ok

My 3870 has been very nice replacment to my 7800gt,

The ati drivers I would say are good at this stage. (for XP64 that is )

The fact they have official provided OSS and there own proprietry driver for linux on the day of release of there hardware has got me plonk down $$ for a 4870 pre-order

The 3870 will get a new fanless cooler and go into my HTPC replacing the Asus 8600gts which is quite nice for gaming but Fails epicly for video acceleration and just sucks the proverbial for multi-monitor functionality(feeding a hdmi projector + LCD)

So over the last 3 months or so nvidia has been booted out for ATI, both the main an HTPC still have nvidia chipset mobo's tho ...sofar.

[Evildead666]

I'm really just waiting for the X2...
I've been Nvidia since my 9800Pro, and went from that to a 6800GT, 7800GS, 7900GS+, 8800GTS-640....
Will be stopping there. I would never have gone Nvidia if ATi had a card to go against the 6800, but there wasn't anything at that time..

video acceleration is crap on Nv, just awful. image quality is worse also...
its either gonna be an X2 or two 4870's....

[Jammrock]

And you get PhysX with nvidia.

[Evildead666]

But then you lose some pixel pushing power.
May as well just integrate the core into the hardware, that way its there permanently...

I'm not that bothered, since if Nv can do it, there is no reason why ATi can't, or even do it better...

edit : some sites used to do image quality comparisons, and i would like to see if there are any visual differences between the image ATi outputs and the image Nvidia puts out...

As I remember, there was a buffer problem, and screen caps can't be done properly on Nv hardware...?
is that still the case ?

[Mehen]

I basically just hate the Catalyst Control Centre. Bloated, slow, and would randomly change my display config (multimonitor+tv).

[Jammrock]

They changed the CCC from Java to C++ so it's really snappy now. Actually faster than the nvidia Control Panel in my opinion.

I haven't used multi-monitor on an ATi card in a while so I couldn't answer whether the multi-monitor support is better. I know nvidia has suffered with a lot of multi-monitor problems in Vista ... just ask Gurm and he'll tell you the tale. It works okay for me.

[Marshmallowman]

ATI says the 4870 does/will have physics acceration for havoc, but I am a bit unsure on that one as a believe intel now owns havoc?.

[Jammrock]

http://www.havok.com/content/view/639/53/

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/17/intel-picks-up-havok-for-21m/

It is owned by Intel, but ATI/AMD has a license with them.

[Mehen]

BFG GTX 280 OC for $429 after rebate! Holy #@$!!!111

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=30480&vpn=BFGEGTX2801024OCE&manufacture=BFG%20Technologies&promoid=1051

[Evildead666]

Yup, but ATi won't be bringing out GPU Havok for some time...not until DX explicitly demands it or the market demands it.

Even a cheap 280 i wouldn't touch right now...
There are no games atm that demand that much power...finished crysis et al on best available settings ...