2x7950 covers my needs for 2 years at least.
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2x7950 covers my needs for 2 years at least.
I guess it depends on whether a new console is out in the corner or not. My setup with the dual 8800GTs (mid range cards from 2007) can still play most games at max in medium resolutions. That's four years and counting.
If however a new console is about to be released "your" card won't last for a year (see what happened to X1XXX series - great products which had the bad luck to be released about/around the time the new consoles were coming out).
It's a sad state of affairs but computer hardware's evolution is not "independant" anymore...
we also do not know what the next consoles will even need. also since the last console the PC world has adopted multi gpu as a commonplace (if we wanted extra AA or resolution). while the console world will probably be stuck at 1080p. so i somehow suspect the next wave of consoles will not launch at 600$, or even come close to matching PCs. instead i bet they focus on more fun for the family, and keeping it affordable.
i think 2x 7950s will be the best bang/buck for the next 5 years, which is why i am about to jump on that wagon myself. (this is all just an educated guess, and by educated i mean strait up guessing)
Sure, but the developments in the console world dictate the worth (and longevity) of your hardware.
What's good in having a super duper HD 9990 dual card if there's no software (games) to use even 1/10th of its power (since everything is a console port these days)?
Or -in reverse- what's good in buying the latest card only to find shortly thereafter that all games require twice that power only because the latest consoles happen to have a card more powerful than yours (therefore everybody develops with *that* in mind)?
Like I said, it's sad, but the console world IS part of our lives (no matter how much most of us -here- wouldn't want to have anything to do with it).
When should we expect GTX 660? jan, feb march?
4th Dec sounds very optimistic for Pitcairn, I believe its somewhere in January. Should bring about a nice reduction in TDP, some increases in core clock and a decrease in memory clocks compared to Cayman.
It costs a lot of money to make games now, and the high end PC market isn't big enough to support $80,000,000 PC exclusives that push new cards to the edge. Crysis sold more because it was a graphical benchmark than a great game, people bought it to see if their upgrades made a difference.
When the new consoles come out they won't have twice the power of a PC, they'll just have an API that eats up less cycles, and they don't have high driver overhead, that makes them look like they have twice the power.
I was merely remarking on the fact that you speak with such certainty. How can you be so sure that two 7950s will last you no less than two years? Are you from the future? There are countless variables, not the least of which is whether the new architecture will even be good or not - as you may well know, the thing with new architecture is: it is almost never quite works out the way anyone hoped on the first try ;)
This is totally not true. The higher the hz is, the better will be the experience at same framerates. Obviously you will be maxing your screen when you get 120fps at 8ms per frame, but thats not to say that at 80fps @ 120hz will be the same as 80fps @ 60hz, because its obviously not true no matter what you think.
So, you don't need more fps to enjoy 120hz, not at all. You will ALWAYS get a much better experience with 120hz no matter your framerate.
I certainly hope the 7980 beats or matches the 6990 and uses as much power as my GTX 470 :p:
If so I'll have a worthy upgrade for my system. At the moment the GTX580 and ATI6980 just don't don't seem worth it
for me at 2560x1440 in a MITX system.
I have to agree on some of the points BHAVV makes though. Unless you "want" to run the latest games completely maxed out at AA, Ubersampling and Tesselation a mid range card like the GTX 560Ti is perfect at 1920x1080.
I also completely agree with this.
I love my LED IPS Monitor, and I'd stay with it and it;s 60hz limit then have a 120hz TN panel....
There's just no comparison in My opinion really where it comes to image quality.
i play WoW at a friends where i left a 120$ LED backlit TN monitor, and then i have a 27" IPS 10bit monitor at home that i paide 750$ for about 5 years ago. the difference is obvious after just a few seconds of playing. on the chepo monitor the colors are washed out, the whites are too pale, no black levels at all, and never look at it from the side, EVER, lol. monitors are one of the best investments for a PC since price/quality lasts a long time for the better products.