Bad News for those waiting for GTX prices to drop. The GTX 260, 275, 285, 295 have been discontinued and are available while supplies last. Speculation is that nvidia is going to cut their losses, raise the bridge and dig in, and wait out the siege until Fermi arrives in Q4 2009(paper launch)/ Q1 2010(availablility). http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3659
I've been on the fence about which card to get, the 5870 has DX11, lower temps/wattage, and better performance; but the 275 would let my keep PhysX. In the end though it just doesn't seem worth it to keep buying a nVidia card just for the PhysX support - so I think I'll be buying myself a new 5870 in the next few weeks. On that note, how will I manage the drivers? Because I plan on keeping my 8600GT for my third monitor, so I'll have one nVidia and one ATI card.
It's doable, but ATI driver hate Nvidia card, and Nvidia card equally hate ATI cards. Your up for trouble.
no, i see what you are saying and agree...buying a 275 i could see, but not a 285... surely that can't be right. fermi still a good time off and ati offering similar if not slightly better performance at the price point + dx11 support, they would get killed in market share/revenue...am i wrong?
I don't know what they are thinking or have in store. But it looks like they are very confident that Fermi will gain back whatever they lose. I'm not buying it tho.
I dont' know why, but with Nvidia, it seams to have the same story over and over again. ATI wins early as they are first, then Nvidia win with either feature + performance, or simple way more performance, even though the ration money/performance is not as good the ATI one. They are just being purchased as simply they are more powerful.
thats not a problem for me. If the paper launch gives the real world performance and a reputable site or 2 gives a comparable benchmark with the HD5000 series then I'll wait until both are out. I'm not in a rush for a new GPU. But I'll have the cash available for it in a month or 2. If by End of November there are fermi out there getting tested and reviewed, sitting on the money for a month or 2 aint a problem. I'm not a fanboy at all. ATI/NVIDIA AMD/INTEL Via/Nforce/Intel had all of them in various combo's I'm up for who's best and thats it. I'd be really p!ssed off if I spent £250~300 on a HD5870 at the end of next month, for Nvidia to bring out a gtx380 for £350 that walloped the 5870. I expect to be able to make an informed decision in the next few weeks. I *might* be able to by a gtx380 in December. If Nvidia have not said anything by the end of next month, then they miss the xmas sales, thats a biggie. Even a paper launch at the end of November *may* put off enought people to make a 2010 launch viable. But for that to work they have got to get some serious hardware that will kill AMD in the benchmarks, otherwise folks will just get a 5870 for chrimmy. If they say nothing and have no gtx380's out there by then, then they are to far behind. and then getting the 5870 IS a good proposition. So. IMO Nvidia need the paper launch no later then the end of November. Which means you should start seeing the usual raft of leaks, sneak shots, tittle-tattle in the next 5~6 weeks. If not then Nvidia are dead in the water for at least q1 2010, and there'd be no rush to get the card out until the easter sales period in Q2. So that puts the gtx380 out in 6 months. the added benefit for me is that would keep the price of my GTX280 high, so Get a better rturn on it for the 5870 next month. I've got this worked out IMO. Next month is decision time.
Just run all three displays off the 5870, isn't it's multi monitor support annother reason to go for it?
But will I still have good game performance when running all three monitors off of one card? I would be running the game at 2048x1152; but it would still display 4848x1152.
That's what I figured, which is why I was going to keep the 8600. So what would I do for drivers with one ATI and one nVidia?
I thought Windows 7 let you do that now? I know Vista and XP couldn't, but a few months ago I read something about Microsoft letting you run multiple graphics adapters with different drivers in 7.
Hmm....interesting if its true, so I could just install the newest nVidia drivers and then newest ATI drivers and Windows 7 will be fine with it? Can anyone confirm this?
2 little updates. AMD bashing Nvidia IMO makes them looked scared of Fermi. Radeon HD 5900 found in drivers so 5870x2 would be a 5970 interesting.
Its all about the crave and the pocket. But always the better choice is a popular, good reviewed and a great price to performance product. I would opt for the 4870 instead, No shame about that for me.
bad thing is we probably see the 5900 series till after christmas.. think they'll use it to spoil fermi's launch and that card is going to take quite awhile if it wants to live up to the fake cards stats I'm even skeptical about that.. I mean really anyone can parade around and say they can make monkeys fly out their ass
XP actually DID let you use two different graphics cards (as in ATi and nVidia) for multi monitor use. It's only Vista that took away that capability competely. Now, with Windows 7, Microsoft seems to have had a change of heart.
My goodness I have read some rubbish being passed for "fact" in this thread???? Let me try to addresse this a little, what to buy, Buying a gfx card atm douse present a challeng but a few key fact's to consider.. 1. Ati's 5870 is currently the best single gpu card available (direct x 11 seals the deal) 2. Ati's new 5850 card (just going on raw procesing ability) is about that of a gtx275/280. direct x 11 is also a sweetener but loosing pys-ex and direct control of AA and detail settings is a slight minus (also true for for the 5870) 3. Nvidea has yet to realease it's answer to ati's 5870/50, and if the current trend continue's I would imagine that n'videa's card will be more powrfull (in terms of raw horspower at least). The above (1 and 2 particularly) are pretty much undisputed. what fallows is more my opinion and theory. I have been thinking that for a while now custom pc has had a slight bius towards ati's hardware. This is perfectly understandable amd/ati is much loved company and currently the only competition against market domination via market leader's Intel and N'videa. Were they to go under, it would leave nvidea free to charge whatever it wanted for it's product's and we the consumer would loose out..... Having said that, here is a little story for all you ati fanboy's I and a freind boath made our computer's at the same time (boath using core2quad Q6600 processors) only he went with a 1 gig 4870 whilst i opted for the 1gig gtx280. Boath computer's were extreamly competant gaming mashin's some games he might have a small fps advantage other games I would have the advantage, but overall either of us could expect to play games at there best, that is until we come to crysis. whilst i could run crysis on max detail with 2x aa @1920/1200 my freind's mashine was struggaling. So whilst I still have my 280gtx my freind is having to upgrade to the 5870,,,.... Ultimatlly the ati card's arn't as powerfull as there nvidea equivelents (at least with high end directx10 cards, directx11 being an unknown as nvid's directx11 cards arn't out yet) Yes they may be able to get ahead of nvidea in a few game benchmarks but the nvidea cards can stll play these games just as well, with the added bonus of being able to play some games wich the ati card's cant manage!! (5870and duel gpu cards aside). If I HAD to buy a gfx card right now i would undoubtedly go for a 5870 (definately not a 5850) but seeing as my gtx 280's are Soooo good (esp in sli) I'm gonna wait and see what nvidea's card's are like before I switch camps. If i was you I'd look for a cheap 260 or 280 gtx on e-bay (so you can still get some use from your current card via phs x) then when the battle for direct x 11 starts to bring down prices sell all your current cards and go for wichever direct x 11 card's are king o the hill. And for all those people saying directx 11 will be a dishapointment (like directx10) microsoft have stated they are expecting at least ten top games that will support Direct x 11 within the first month or two, and game developer's are reported to be very exited about the graphicall advances in 11. Added to wich seeing that direct x 11 will be available to vista owner's (wich allready has a huge installed userbase) developer's will have much more confidence in using the platform. Direct x 11 is gonna be big news,trust me!!!
i always enjoy when someone new who can't spell/can't use a spell checker worth a lick and only reads half the thread gets on his/her soapbox and rambles on about things that he clearly has no idea what he is talking about....thanks for your input.
Ok, so I won't have a problem using a 5870 and an 8600GT at the same time? Just drop them in, and download/install the drivers from each site? EDIT: Also, for the 6pin to 2xMolex connectors that come with a GPU, I can just use a molex cable and plug them straight into my PSU without any problem right?
