PowerColor Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB

Alan Wake looks like a late '07 release. I'm not sure on specifics for Valve and DX10, but we're going to attempt to find out in the next couple of days.

 

Ah, so no smart(by smart I mean not stupidly expensive) DX10 cards 'till around march? That makes the reviewed card a great looking stop-gap, as rupbert suggests.

 

yeah, I wouldn't spend much more than £150-160 on a stop gap though.

 

I wouldn't either, and I would wait at least two weeks. With luck, the G80 launch will push the prices of 7900s down. A 7900-7950GT, at that price would be a very nice upgrade over rupbert's x800.

On the other hand, if prices of 7900 do come down, I'd even think carefully of getting a 7900GTX. DX10 games are nowhere near (save perhaps, Crysis...and I have yet to see how much "DX10" is in there) and if rupbert's display is 1280 or 1024, a 7900GTX will chew through anything available for another 12-18 months at least.

 

As you say a £150 7900GT would be a very nice card for the price. I assumed that the GTX version would maybe only offer a 5-10% increase in performance , for a relatively high price hike?

I think I will switch to a widescreen display when more games take advantage of them (without having to hack them).

 

I don't know the exact numbers, but the GTX is noticeably faster and (even as important for me), much more silent. The GTs have whinny little LOUD fans. IIRC, the 7900 series fans, wouldn't even slow down when the card is in 2D mode. If you are going widescreen and intend to keep the card for some time (say, those 12-18 months I speak of) and once the 7900 come down in price, I'd certainly go for the GTX.

Alternatively, the x1900 series, IF you change the cooler (which is simply unbearable if you are half-sensible to noise), are absolutely great for widescreen gaming and are dropping in price very fast. I have a x1900XT (the first model, with 512Mb) with an Accelero X2 cooler and it chews through anything I throw at it at 1680x1050 (Dell 20' Widescreen). I can even play Oblivion with HDR+AA comfortably. And I don't know why, but people don't seem to want them...I went to a spanish hardware forum to see how much could I get for mine (with upgrading to a G80 in mind), and nobody offered more than 230€ (153 GBP)... when G80 arrives they are going to be dead cheap.