Ati's 512mb X850xt

[thugnature 0]

ATi has jus announced the worlds first 512 MB of GDDR3 memory!!. Although they say its similar to the 256

orignal source http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display0224141431.html

[adriantc 0]

I think someone must be REALLY stupid to pay 500-600$ on a high-end video card. For example you could use the technology for nVIDIA that allows you to connect 2 video cards and get 80-90% more performance.So just buy two middle-end video cards and get the performance of a high-end video card.Personaly I was quite satisfied with my old GeForce 2 MX-400 (with 64MB) till I decided to get the GeForce FX 5700. I really don't think I'll change this video card for 3 years from now on. That's because i'm not the gamer I used to be ... I still play a lot but not the way I used to...

[HmmZ 0]

Adriantc,You would be surprised how many people buy such expensive cards, just because they are new, and the people are collecting them. Remember, a beta version of a card is something completely different then a Game's beta version.Personally, I would never buy such expensive cards, if I even had that kinda money () I could spend it on better things in life.With the many improving developments, like PCI-Express, S-ATA and much more. The development in cards, processors and motherboards seem to have gotten a good push in the back, pushing them on the highway of development. But the unfortunate thing about new development are always the costs. The producers still produce low-budget technology, but you can't expect those things to work as good as their newest cards.

[canute24 0]

It had to happen some day or the other, it happened now. At least people who have losts of money who don't know where to spend it can give a reason to buy it : Doom 3.

[HmmZ 0]

Err,It may be an addition ATI added to the card, or and extended sponsor feature by the creators of Doom 3/ATI. But Doom3 has very few or even nothing to do with ATIs latest card.Games like Doom 3 and Half Life 2 just give people the reason to buy excessive graphics cards. And in the other way, without game makers of doom 3 and hf2, ATI wouldn't be even creating these kinda cards in mass production, Gamers buy it for their "super" games. But the real and optimal use of these kind of graphics cards is pretty much leftout, doom 3 and hf2 can easily be played with a much cheaper way of graphics cards (such as a good double AGP cards).The people that buy ATIs x850xt also have their system configured with PCI-Express, wich is, at the moment, an seriously expensive expansion of the lesser Game monsters. At the moment, AGP x8 is more then enough for ANY game available. PCI-Express becomes valuable in maybe a year, maybe even 2 years, by that time they are more then pricable if not even taken from the market, because the Graphic Card industry isn't holding back, there is a large enough quantity of people who buy these excessive cards.

[canute24 0]

That's correct. Demand and supply like thing. Graphics card manufacturers make these expensive cards more and more expensive with new features each time and the game developers make optimizations to their games favouring one card or the other. Like UT2003 and nVidia and Half life 2 and Ati. And stupid people buy it. Instead of using their older graphic cards or waiting till the cards get cool and then buy it.

[Davor 0]

I agree that buying such expensive graphics cards is really stupid. The difference in price is so big compared to best-buy cards,and performance gain is OK,but not valuable enough.Off course,if you have money to waste,then it's really cool to have such hi-tec ultra mega giga turbo card,and to rock your favorite game as never before.Potential market for such hi-end cards is not really big,but they are pretty much loyal customers,as it's more fashion thing to them,than really valuable piece of hardware.I would go for nVidia 6600GT any time. Great performance and value for money (about 200 Euros here in Serbia). I hope I will be able to buy it soon,together with Athlon 64.

[canute24 0]

You are lucky with that. Here in India a GeForce 6600GT or a Radeon 850 costs as much as a mid range PC. I can buy a bike for that price.