Graphics Cards too expensive?

dent

Just looking at the price of the new generation graphics cards. 500 euro seems to be about the average (Give or take a few euro). Do people really have this kind of money to spend. When you take into account the cost of all your other PC parts this just seems crazy.

How long will it take for these cards to drop to the 200-250 range.

I know graphics companies make their money from selling less powerful cards to the likes of dell etc. My PC in work has a 16mb graphics card. But do they really make a profit with these prices.

I have a 9800 pro flashed to an XT. When you think these cards almost double the performance I'm a bit worried I won't be able to play the games of the future at high quality.

I'm all for technology but would I be right to say that most gamers can't afford to keep up with it.

Thats my rant.

Khannie

I fully expect my machine to be able to play games for the next while (specs below). I also have a 9800 pro. I paid 300 euro for mine at the time, and it was a SPANKY card then.

Personally, I wouldn't pay 500 euro for a graphics card. The rate of depreciation would really upset me, but some people need to have the latest and greatest, and that's who ATI / NVidia are targetting with the 500 euro cards.

Games makers wont target those cards until the majority of their market have them. That would be a bit mad. As it stands, I think most people are around the 9800 pro mark (or thereabouts).

The trend over the years (imo) has been that people with high end cards can play the latest games very well at 1280x1024 and acceptably at 1600*1200. Mid range cards have normally topped out at 1024*768 (while still looking well).

Spec: 3200+, 512MB, 9800pro etc.

Boro

i have a 9700np that i flashed to pro when i bought it. It cost me near €300 (was just brand new then - the fastest available at the time) and i have no intention of upgrading for at least another year. I havent come across a game that i cant play yet so why bother upgrading?

Graphics cards, especially at the bleeding edge of technology, are very expensive. But they are aimed at a specific market. There are always 3 tiers of users - those who want the newest and most powerful cards on the market, those who wait for said cards to become middle of the road cards before buying and those who just dont care.

Before i splashed out on my 9700, i had a tnt2 32mb card, the v770u. I had that from pretty much the time when that was top dog, until i got my 9700. Basically what i try to do is get my monies worth out of the card. I will probably buy the biggest and best card in a year or two from now.

Prior Of Taize

Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Ultimate Edition...beat the x800 xt in framerate tests on doom3...€345 or €550...the choice is yours...

Canis Lupus

i got me a 9800XT when they were new.... paid a bundle of money for it as well.... my opinion is buy the best and then u wont have any doubts as to its performance.... also it allows me to upgrade the gfx card.... then later the system... then later the gfx card and repeat... in the long run really whats 500e? for something that will stay in yur system for a fair bit?

leeroybrown

The really high end cards won't be dropping in price for a while yet. There seems to be quite a shortage of GDDR3 memory meaning that manufacturers aren't able to produce enough cards to meet demand.

Personally speaking, I game quite a bit but wouldn't consider myself a serious gamer so I'm content buying pretty good cards at the right price and keeping them for a good while. I just upgraded to a second-hand 9800Pro from a Geforce2Ti.

Some people do have the money to spend and will buy the top of the line parts. I think that top end graphics card prics can be quite sensible comparied to CPU prices. You're more than likely paying a couple of hundred € for the newest technology and a noticably better card as opposed to the same difference for a 5%/10% increase in processing power you under use.

El_MUERkO

What about the new 6600GT and x700XT, their both getting benchmarks around the 9800XT area.

ViperVenoM

i must say spending that much on vid cards hurts, i got my 9800xt when they were top of the line..cost me (according to this currency converter) 480 euros.. :eek:

and by may time or whatever i was reading reports about these "next gen" cards that were crapping all over mine by like..90% increased performance in some things

ok its been 8/9 months now and i must say i cant find many games that really give my card a run for its money, last few bosses in D3 @ 1024x768 / ultra details, admittingly took it down to about...15fps but apart from that everything else has been fine so i doubt ill need anything better, sure the increase would help for the likes of benchmarks but in terms of real world performance does it matter if im getting 70fps or 120 in a game :rolleyes: ..so i intend this to last me a damn long time yet...although christmas is coming and i cant think of anythint to ask for..maybe the folks will treat me to a new one :eek: ...i really need to think of something else or ill prob end up getting some...512mb X800XT or whatever is top by then...which i dont even need

well..that didnt really go anywhere..i was just..adding my opinion...it hurts to buy them and even though i will get at least a year out of mine its still over priced...but we continue to spend this money :rolleyes:

BloodBath

The market has always advanced like this and always will. You don't need a top range card unless you want to run a high resolution with max detail with anti-aliasing and anistropic filtering.

It's like any other market. There are cars that cost 50k but you can get a perfectly good one for 10k. It depends what kind of performance you want and what your willing to pay and there are markets for all areas.

I'd say it will be about a year before the cards half in price. Buying a top end card isn't so bad if you get it when it comes out. A year down the line you can sell it for half the price and put another 200e towards the new top end card. It's not really much different from people waiting for them to become mid range.

There are ways of saving a few quid as well like getting a 6800gt and flashing to an ultra or getting an x800pro vivo and flashing it to an xt. For what your getting and the amount of money the manufacturers pump into the cards you are getting value for money.


BloodBath

vishal

i think the best time to buy a new card is just after a new gen of console is released. look at the the geforce 3 ti. it can even play d3 albeit at low res with some of the details off. when ati release there r520 that will beat the xbox 2 chip, that is the time to upgrade. it should last 3-4 years.