Nvidia, anyone?
 

Last night I read a slew of reviews about the new Nvidia GTX480 and GTX470. Since I plan to use a 24 inch monitor I now figure I can go with an ATi 5850, then later do it in Crossfire. I was hoping to be impressed by the 470, but it's just not fitting my price/performance comfort level. Sadly I'm reading that the prices for ATi's cards will not drop because the performance of Nvidia's new cards don't really overwhelm Ati. Plus, the heat and the power draw for the GTXs put me off (for the small performance advantage they manage).
just my thoughts.
Flyby out

S!

Will be upgrading my 5870HD to the 2Gb version when available :) About nVidia..everyone can draw their own conclusions and choose whatever card or brand :)

hmmm...2gigs of memory. Are you planning to run a 30 inch monitor? I'd wait to see if that extra memory does any good if at lower resolutions. I'm not sure the extra memory will serve you well except at 2560x1600.
Flyby out

Yeah, I can honestly say that I was hoping the Fermi would do much better so that ATI lowered their prices. I was hoping to upgrade my 5770 to a 5850 or better. But I am sure they will come down after their refresh which will be pretty soon. I am hoping to get a 5850 for the same price the 5770's are now($160). But I will likely have to wait for next xmas for that.

S!

ATI should have gone with 2Gb from the start. 1Gb of memory is nothing these days when looking at games. If I crank up RoF details nearly 80% is used already and that does not leave much headroom. So the more the better IMO :)

I think that the 2gb version of the 5870 will be only with 6 display port....

S!

Yes, I read about this on the Sapphire 5870HD 2Gb TOXIC review. Sure helps with many monitors but also in a few games that are intensive with memory, like Rise Of Flight etc. So if within affordable price range while trading in or selling my current 5870HD..why not :)

I dunno.

I'm using one 512MB HD 4870 ATM.

I was thinking of getting a second, but the prices have gone ridiculously high for 512MB ones (1GB ones seem to be much more reasonable, which in general terms is just silly), so I can't really see that since the memory is limiting, 2x HD 4850 means two new cards, and not that great a performance gain over one HD 4870, and beside that there are problems with IL*2 and Ati cards. I wish the nVidia cards had turned out better/cheaper, but I might end up buying those anyway.

You might want to carefully research that 24" monitor thing. I bought a 24" 1920x1200 and I may have missed the mark.

IT seems the standard may narrow down to 1920 x 1080 like HDTV. Also, I have two dvi ports on my video card, but you can't mix and match monitors. The monitors have to be the same resolution. So I'll have to find another 1920x1200.

Sadly, the prices on digitial monitors are dropping, except for 1920x1200. I bought mine over a year ago and the price is still the same.

Also, remember if the 3D is on your mind you need 120hz monitor.

Good luck

I wouldn't buy another ATI card primarily because I found the Catalyst software to be pitiful- I could write a couple of pages about it's inadequacies. It even conflicted with joystick driver software (that took a while to pin down, as the first thing I loaded up), plus the psychedelic effect I got in Il-2, plus the fact that almost every game I've bought in the last couple of years has been optimised for nvidia.