News NVIDIA won't be dropping prices before Christmas

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/10/14/nvidia_prices/

 

Well a new midrange is welcomed, price drops would have been nice but fair enough, it's already available so far below MSRP it's crazy.

 

After reading the title, then seeing you it, I thought you were a bit weird, but now I understand!

Nice to see 512MB cards coming out though, looks like the ultra will be available for the christmas rush.

 

It's so depressing that I paid $300 USD for a 6800 last August. While PC games are getting more and more power hungry the financial requirements to keep up are pushing me further and further away. It all just makes console gaming look better. I've had my Xbox since it's initial launch and the games are still super fun to play and the graphics are... well, decent. Point being that it's lasted me 4-5(can't remember if it came out in 00 or 01) years and I'm still pleased with it. I'm assuming Xbox360 will be the same way. With prices the way they are I could either buy 6-10 console games or a new graphics card every 2 years.

Clearly there are arguments for PC games, but with the possibility of using a keyboard and mouse on PS3 (not sure about Xbox360), FPS gaming on consoles may get a boost, especially with well implemented services like Xbox Live. Thus far I've stuck with PC for FPS games, and console for driving/sports, but as a guy in my early 20s I can't really afford to continuously stay up to date with the hardware requirements of today's PC games.

I guess it's a good thing that games are getting better and better, but the speed with which hardware becomes outdated is extremely frustrating. At least with consoles it feels like everyone is on a level playing field and the experience is the same for everyone. I guess the trick is to get a job with one of these hardware manufacturers and get hooked up with the hardware early. heh

 

nvidia plan to charge more for each genration as they have found that people will pay for it.

 

You're lucky, $300 isn't that much compared to how much it would cost in the UK, in fact a 6800 today in the UK isn't that much less than $300! But I agree, games are using a lot more advanced hardware than users have, or can afford. I don't really see a solution to this, however my guess is that there will one day the change will slow down as users no longer demand such high quality graphics games, to me, HL2 is good enough and I am not desiring better graphics, just more or better gameplay.

 

Doesnt supprise me considering how much more technology you're paying for for each new evolution.

I loved the bit about where NV feel ATI is no current threat

 

Are we going to see much new kit or price drops after Christmas that are worth waiting for? Not just graphics cards either, general hardware.

 

If you don't want to be forced to pay more for each generation you have to promote competition in the market. At the moment ATI just aren't competative. The midrange is owned by the 6600gt the low end the 6200 and the high end the 7800gtx. Ati's cards are good but over priced compared to their nvidia siblings and calling every card from their real midrange card to their top end card x800 is dammed confusing can't they just have three basic cards with an ultra version and an SE? Why the 400 different versions with slightly different combinations argh!

edited for spelling - bigz

 

Ultra = 512mb (90nm??) version of the GTX?? Might use slightly faster DDR3, and maybe a small clock speed bump - increase the vGPU a tad and you'd get 100mhz maybe more from the core with a little better stock coolance.... Should make even more if the cards moved to 90nm...

If nvida feel ATI is no current threat, why are there rumours (ok these may not be true, but they're releasing the "ultra"..." of an upcoming launch? And why does Nvidia feel the need to release the "ultra" version which was supposedly caned?

 

The Ultra was never canned.

Oh, and they recently purchased a shed load of 1.26ns memory from Samsung - they need a board redesign to use it because it has a different number of balls in the Ball Grid Array. Take in to account that I remember Tony Tamassi (Director of Technical Marketing) stating that he didnt feel that the GeForce 7800 GTX was memory bandwidth limited...

Clues, clues....

 

Well, while ATi may not be a threat to high end cards, supposedly the 9550 has totaly destroyed the FX5200's OEM market, which was huge and extremely profitable for Nvidia, so in market position terms, ATi have the large profitable OEM market, and Nvidia have the significantly smaller and no doubt less profitable enthusiast Retail market. Intresting stuff.

If ATi lower their warrenties to 1 year, as I heard they're going to, I reckon that'll push alot of people over to Nvidia, myself included.

 

OEM/System builders is mostly PCI-Express these days - X300's, X550's, 6200's, etc.

Oh, and the warranty only affects Built-By-ATI cards, none of ATI's board partners. As far as I know ATI are trying to stop selling cards and leave that to their board partners.

 

Hmm, well, I was only saying what I read, I can't remember where it was from but I think it was a fairly reliable site. Regardless, ATi seem to be doing well in the OEM sector.

Warrenty is good news, thanks for that, looks like I might be getting an X1800 afterall

 

Any idea if this is the 32pipe monster we've all been waiting for

or just a GTX with higher clock speeds?

They put it on the backburner for a bit until the X1800s came out. New they are releasing this to **** all over the X1800

edit: :\ seems the Ultra is basically a GTX on a smaller process with higher clocks and 1.5ghz mem

 

I think the memory order is one clue...

 

when is the 7600 coming out?

 

Man, I wish you would have said this earlier -_- (damn NDA's I guess).

 

Has there been info on whither they will have to update the single slot cooler on the 7800 to a dual slot to effectively cool the increase in mem and such? What about price? Really hope not as high as previous 512mb cards.