Buy 9800GX2 or wait for GT200

[mannyjarnail]

Hi All

Over the last few months i have been purchasing some components for my pc, which are as follows:

Thermaltake xaser iv
Thermaltake Bigwater 780e LCS
Enermax Galaxy 1000w ega1000ewl
Toshiba SD-H802A 2.4x HD-DVD ROM
Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black/Silver) - Retail
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ)
intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
OCZ DDR3 2GB (2x1024MB) D/C Kit PN – OCZ3P2000EB2GK PC3-16000 Platinum Enhanced Bandwidth Edition (OCZ3P2000EB2GK)
ASUS Striker II Extreme nFORCE 790i Ultra SLI 3-Way SLI S775/ DDR3 / GB LAN/FW/Aud 7.1/ SATA2/ RAID / MAD OC

I am in a bit of a dilema i have been reading about the new GT200 graphics card thats coming out in rumoured July, should i wait for the new cards or buy a 9800GX2 please advise. Furthermore when do you think realisticaly the new cards will come out. There are probably many of you out there with same dilema.

At the moment i have no gpu what would you advise as a temporary card without wasting too much money.

Here are some links i have read:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nvidia-0 ... 5817.shtml
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nvidia-P ... 5446.shtml
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/disp ... essor.html
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37554/135/

[Apoptosis]

I can't show any performance numbers on the card or talk about it, but it is coming (soon) as you have read on the sites that are big enough to get away with breaking NDA's. It all depends on the price you want to pay and how soon you want things... The 9800 GX2 is out now, the drivers are refined and it has solid performance the GT200 core is obviously polished new core, but it will be full price on launch and will need some driver refreshes to see just how much performance NVIDIA will be able to milk out of it. If you looked at the leaked numbers and compare it to the GT200 series then I think you have a good idea of how it can compare to the 9800 GX2... If not, then hold tight till all the reviews come out and be sure to read mine ;)

[HONkUS]

if you look at history then you could compare the 8800 and 9800 to the 7800 and 7900/7950. 9800 is a core refresh of the 8800 just like 7950 was a core refresh of the 7800. Now if you compare the 7950 to the 8800 from a performance increase standpoint then perhaps you might get an idea of where it will stand as compared to the 9800 and the GT200. Im seriously considering whatever the "GTS" version of GT200 will be

[eva2000]

I bought a 9800GX2 EVGA last week and only installed it last night LOL But it cost me AUD$560 while it retails in OZ at AUD$665-900 still depending on brand.

Folks in the know told me to sell it quickly as GT200 series is a monster beast even compared to 9800GX2! So for you it would probably best to wait, but question is do you want to pay the premium on GT200 when it comes out and be beta tester for early drivers

OR

do you want to nab a cheap 2nd hand 9800GX2 when all us 9800GX2 dump our cards for GT200 hehe

[Sovereign]

I already did the "nab 9800GX2" routine. Now, mind, I'm coming off a single 7900GTX (no SLI for an abit IP35-Pro) so that's gonna be a massive improvement. I know that I could have waited, but then I'd probably pay $550+ for a top-of-the-line card while also ripping my hair out over drivers. I got my 9800GX2 for $400.

[mannyjarnail]

Thanks for all your responses

I am based in the UK where a EVGA 9800GX2 SSC will cost $900 so i dont see the new card being much more expensive then this, which is quite steep anyway.

I am going to hold on but do you think the new cards will come out in July or just rumours?

I suppose you have to live with driver issues if you buy early but i found its always the case as i am having a nightmare with my motherboard at the moment.

So looks like a nice $50 dollar card for time being thanks guys.

[mannyjarnail]

im looking fwd to your review apoptosis

[Digerati]

Definitely wait. If not for the GT200, for the HD 4800 series. Both seem promising.

[aircommando13]

Theres going to be two cards, a GT260 and a GT280, and the GT280 is supposed to be 512-bit and have 1GB of dedicated VRAM(rumored). Nvidia is still sticking to GDDR3 which is odd because ATI is now on GDDR5 for the 4000 series(rumored) which allows even more bandwith than GDDR4. Oh well if it aint broke don't fix it I guess.

Yea even if you don't get a GT260 or a GT280, at least the 9800GX2 prices should drop about $50 or so when they come out, if you can wait that long.

[CoolZone]

if I were you,I would wait for GT200b

[tomcat2200]

I want a pair of the 280's comming out. They will have 1Gig RAM to work with on each card. One of the surprizes that hit nVidia is that Crysis can use more than the 512Mb space on the GX2's and 9800's. By all means be ready for a significant improvement with this next gen cards. A lot of what they are doing now is what the 9800 series should have done in the first place, plus a bit more. It is one reason the 8800 Ultra beat out the 9800GX2's in Crysis. It had a larger RAM space to work with.

Future games will also raise the bar on RAM space utilization. Wish they would get off the dime and come out with a 4Gig RAM space card. Get a little future proof at least. I loath constantly chasing multi-hundred dollar video cards every year.

One of the best bets is the 5600 card. It has all the bells and whistles and a 1.5Gig RAM space with almost 80Gb/s bandwidth. It's the bomb, but it also costs $3K list. Must be some trust babies out there with nothing better to spend it on.

[martini161]

I want a pair of the 280's comming out. They will have 1Gig RAM to work with on each card. One of the surprizes that hit nVidia is that Crysis can use more than the 512Mb space on the GX2's and 9800's. By all means be ready for a significant improvement with this next gen cards. A lot of what they are doing now is what the 9800 series should have done in the first place, plus a bit more. It is one reason the 8800 Ultra beat out the 9800GX2's in Crysis. It had a larger RAM space to work with.

Future games will also raise the bar on RAM space utilization. Wish they would get off the dime and come out with a 4Gig RAM space card. Get a little future proof at least. I loath constantly chasing multi-hundred dollar video cards every year.

One of the best bets is the 5600 card. It has all the bells and whistles and a 1.5Gig RAM space with almost 80Gb/s bandwidth. It's the bomb, but it also costs $3K list. Must be some trust babies out there with nothing better to spend it on.

While what you are saying may seem logical, it the amount of ram on a card has less to do with performance than you think. any card with 512will work great. the only time you benifiet from amounts of Vram like 1 or 2gb is when you are driving two HUGE monitors like 30''. having 4gb of vram is going to do absolutly nothing for you , unless you are driving lots and lots of displays. and as for that quadro card you posted, that thing would get about as good gaming performance as an 8800gtx probably less. its a profesional card, its ment for driving a large number of displays, not gaming

[Nifos]

I would wait, the gt200 is supposed to be the next gen of cards so regardless of whether or not it does do that much better the price of the 9800gx2 will most likely drop. As for a current card, how much do you want to spend and what games do you want to play? You're not going to be able to play something like Crysis with high settings on a $120 card lol =/

[pcgate]

Having used the 9800GX2 (which is awesome btw), it would have to depend on have fast I wanted the new card. If you're in no hurry and have the $ set aside, wait on the GT200, it'll most likely outperform the GX2 and use less power. If you have a crap card now and can't stand it any longer, get the GX2 now, it will impress you and the performance difference will most likely not be too great, 10-15% at very most I'd imagine.

[mannyjarnail]

Well generally everyone is saying wait for the gt280 so thats what i am doing but many of you have got a point it depends what ever i am considering to run and how desperate i am know.

I built the system so that i can run woteva i throw at it and primary use is home cinema hub for streaming movies around house.

[mannyjarnail]

A few pics of my new build.

New mods underway fusion block water cooling NS SB.

Additional Twin Rad with two 120mm fans.

[mannyjarnail]

more pics

[martini161]

if you dont clean up those cables i might have to break into your house and do it for you looks good, what card you got in there atm?

[mannyjarnail]

hahahah i know i have go to sort the cabling out.

I bought a MSI 7300 cheapy card pmsl so when i get my new gpu cables and rad will be sorted.

[DMB2000uk]

How's that watercooling unit working for you? What sort of temps are you seeing?

Nice to see that you have put the case to good use, but seriously, you have no excuse for messy cables with the amount of room to hide them behind the motherboard tray!

Dan