Realistically speaking, I don't think I'll upgrade until Vista and DirectX 10/Direct3D and probably a whole new wave of graphics cards are out. Who knows what new hot stuff in terms of processors etc. will be out then. Maybe I'll make a whole new system a $2500 X-mas present to myself.
Not to brag or anything..
Word. Speak truth.
Hyfe: Yes. I can't disagree with the 7900's. What's the price per?
I'm an AMD man myself. My laptop has a Pentium M in it, becuase that's the best mobile chip, but I'm firmly AMD for desktops. It started because AMD was cheaper. Then it was because AMD was just plain... better. Sure, you could buy an Intel P4 that was adverted as a 3.5 GHz, but good luck ever getting it to run at that for more than a few minutes unless you had some specialized coolers on it. Stupid chip throttles itself automatically because it's overheating immediately.
My current desktop is outdated, and I likeley won't buy a new one for quite a while. Audio Reinforcement is a huge money sink. Bigger than racing, but not dangerous. Ha! There's no room for a penis extender when a pair of dual-18 subs are wanted too.
Doesn't mean I don't drool though.
Damalis: Broadband on the way for me too. I'm moving presently, and broadband is the dealbreaker for any apartments I'm looking at. Nine years of dialup is enough, IMO.
My current desktop is an AMD XP-2100+ with 512 2100 RAM, ~120GB of storage and a sweet little ATi 9600XT. I almost wet my pants when I bought that thing. Then I had to wait five months until I could upgrade my Motherboard, because the existing one had a major problem with something being inserted into its AGP slot.
My current desktop is outdated, and I likeley won't buy a new one for quite a while. Audio Reinforcement is a huge money sink. Bigger than racing, but not dangerous. Ha! There's no room for a penis extender when a pair of dual-18 subs are wanted too.
Doesn't mean I don't drool though.
Damalis: Broadband on the way for me too. I'm moving presently, and broadband is the dealbreaker for any apartments I'm looking at. Nine years of dialup is enough, IMO.
My current desktop is an AMD XP-2100+ with 512 2100 RAM, ~120GB of storage and a sweet little ATi 9600XT. I almost wet my pants when I bought that thing. Then I had to wait five months until I could upgrade my Motherboard, because the existing one had a major problem with something being inserted into its AGP slot.
The duals 7900 GT's are offered on that computer for $599 total. The super duper uber goober card that nvidia just put out is the 7900 GTX which would cost me $1139 for 2. EEK! So yeah they're upwards of $500 a piece. Really it's all null and void though, becau se I just read an article stating that when Vista and the new Direct3D 10 come out all new compatable video cards will be needed to run Direct3D 10 games. Meaning when Vista is released the Direct3D 10 will be backwards compatable but you can't run the Direct3D 10 games on an old DX9 system/video card. At least that's how I'm reading it.
"Windows Vista will arrive with the usual fanfare associated with past Windows operating system launches, but don't be surprised to see Windows Vista-only games available for sale alongside the operating system on release day. Windows Vista will be backward compatible with DX9 and OpenGL games shipping for Windows XP, but true DirectX 10 games will require Windows Vista and a DX10 video card to run at full speed with all the graphics set to "pretty." Bungie has already announced that the PC version of Halo 2 will be a Vista-only game, and you can expect to hear more exclusive Windows Vista game announcements as we get closer to launch.
We're still waiting to hear about what kind of hardware these Vista-only games will need to run. The only nonsleazy reason to build a Vista-exclusive game will be to take advantage of DirectX 10 or some undisclosed Windows Vista voodoo magic features. Bungie can easily create a Windows Vista version of Halo 2 that can run on DirectX 9 video cards, and it would make sense from a business point of view because most video cards made in the last three years fall into the DX9 category. However, if Bungie makes Halo 2 into a full-blown DirectX 10 game with all the bells and whistles, you will need a new DirectX 10 video card to play it.
The problem is that DirectX 10 video cards don't exist yet. Nvidia has the G80 in the works and ATI is polishing up the R600, a GPU based on the Xbox 360 "Xenos" core, but cards won't appear until Windows Vista ships the second half of this year. Even the game companies are having a tough time getting early-development GPU hardware right now. Several game developers we've spoken to have told GameSpot that they're still waiting to see DX10 reference cards.
Aside from a handful of Windows Vista DX10 launch games, most PC games shipping in the next year will be DirectX 9 titles. Since the number of Windows XP DX9 video card system owners will dwarf the Windows Vista DX10 video card installation base for quite some time, we'd have to guess that the DX10 game developers will create DX9-compatible fallback versions of their games to make them playable on current hardware."
"Windows Vista will arrive with the usual fanfare associated with past Windows operating system launches, but don't be surprised to see Windows Vista-only games available for sale alongside the operating system on release day. Windows Vista will be backward compatible with DX9 and OpenGL games shipping for Windows XP, but true DirectX 10 games will require Windows Vista and a DX10 video card to run at full speed with all the graphics set to "pretty." Bungie has already announced that the PC version of Halo 2 will be a Vista-only game, and you can expect to hear more exclusive Windows Vista game announcements as we get closer to launch.
We're still waiting to hear about what kind of hardware these Vista-only games will need to run. The only nonsleazy reason to build a Vista-exclusive game will be to take advantage of DirectX 10 or some undisclosed Windows Vista voodoo magic features. Bungie can easily create a Windows Vista version of Halo 2 that can run on DirectX 9 video cards, and it would make sense from a business point of view because most video cards made in the last three years fall into the DX9 category. However, if Bungie makes Halo 2 into a full-blown DirectX 10 game with all the bells and whistles, you will need a new DirectX 10 video card to play it.
The problem is that DirectX 10 video cards don't exist yet. Nvidia has the G80 in the works and ATI is polishing up the R600, a GPU based on the Xbox 360 "Xenos" core, but cards won't appear until Windows Vista ships the second half of this year. Even the game companies are having a tough time getting early-development GPU hardware right now. Several game developers we've spoken to have told GameSpot that they're still waiting to see DX10 reference cards.
Aside from a handful of Windows Vista DX10 launch games, most PC games shipping in the next year will be DirectX 9 titles. Since the number of Windows XP DX9 video card system owners will dwarf the Windows Vista DX10 video card installation base for quite some time, we'd have to guess that the DX10 game developers will create DX9-compatible fallback versions of their games to make them playable on current hardware."
There is no way games will become vista only for at least 2 years. Developers aren't going to shoot themselves in the face with that sort of stupid.
And no, DX has ALWAYS had a software fallback. Also, Gamespot isn't exactly a well regarded source of technical information. I'll believe it when I see it on Arstechnica or Beyond3d.
And no, DX has ALWAYS had a software fallback. Also, Gamespot isn't exactly a well regarded source of technical information. I'll believe it when I see it on Arstechnica or Beyond3d.
Geek.