Why are the top of the line ATi cards so cheap??

[TheCarLessDriven]

Like this one....http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102847

native HDMI, Display Port, 2gb of GDDR5 RAM, insane core clock speed. none of the Nvidia cards even have native HDMI or Display port or GDDR5, yet my GTX 285 2gb cost $400 from newegg. Only way they best the ATi is in memory speed and they have 512bit cards. (Why does ATi never make 512 bit cards?)

So besides the 256bit why are they so cheap?

[zanzabar]

ati has small chips so they are cheaper to make and the 256bit buss + gddr5 gives 512bit gddr3 bandwidth with half of the chips so that saves. amd also wants volume. then the ati dx11 cards are out in a month (but the normal 4890s wee around $150-160 a few weeks ago so who knows how its priced.)

and for a side note, dont buy somehting with display port it will mess up the HDCP flags on dvi/hdmi, and i dont think that display port is a goo idea or viable format for non laptop use

[TheCarLessDriven]

Well eventually Display port is going to take over for DVi / HDMI so it should get more support in the future.

Thanks for the info.

[SoulsCollective]

Display Port should die in a pit of burning fire.

[Overfiend]

Maybe because they will be at the top for no longer than 3 weeks now?

[[XC] Oj101]

(Why does ATi never make 512 bit cards?)

My HD2900XTs are 512 bit

[r1rhyder]

It's because nvidia cards are so overpriced, it makes ati cards appear cheap.

[labs23]

It's because nvidia cards are so overpriced, it makes ati cards appear cheap.

Bullseye! LOL. Agreed.

But, things are about to change to ATI's side, coming Sept.

[Splave]

+2
285 gtx prices are ridiculous imo

[larrabee]

nVidia charges that much, merely because they can. If they didn't have the performance crown, they would be priced much more competitively. Lots of people must still be buying their cards, although I hear ATI gained significant growth in the discrete graphics area recently.

[WrigleyVillain]

It's because nvidia cards are so overpriced, it makes ati cards appear cheap.

+3. A pity $250 for a graphics card is considered "cheap".

[texasreefer]

My HD2900XTs are 512 bit

We're talking bandwidth here, not memory. 2900s are not 512 bit, are you kidding?

[demonkevy666]

+3. A pity $250 for a graphics card is considered "cheap".

lol
2gbs 4890 is $250
while a
2gbs 285 gtx is $389

[ELItheICEman]

We're talking bandwidth here, not memory. 2900s are not 512 bit, are you kidding?

Yes they are. I had one myself. 512-bit GDDR3.

The reason they don't usually use it is because 512-bit memory chips are ing expensive.

[ownage]

We're talking bandwidth here, not memory. 2900s are not 512 bit, are you kidding?

PWNED!
They are/were 512bit!

[zanzabar]

nVidia charges that much, merely because they can. If they didn't have the performance crown, they would be priced much more competitively. Lots of people must still be buying their cards, although I hear ATI gained significant growth in the discrete graphics area recently.

the 4890 is the fastest it will win with the factory oc v factory oc, and 4x 4890 is the king of 3d mark. only suckers think that NV is winning in performance

[texasreefer]

PWNED!
They are/were 512bit!

Sucks to be me..my bad OJ

[perkam]

HD 5870 @ $299 will see an interesting drop in GTX 285 price.

Perkam

[_G_]

Like this one....http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102847

Interesting , I have seen some spy pics of the backpane on the new 5xxx series and it looks identical to that one(including the display port lol). I wonder if that's the reference pcb for the 5 series?

[zanzabar]

Interesting , I have seen some spy pics of the backpane on the new 5xxx series and it looks identical to that one(including the display port lol). I wonder if that's the reference pcb for the 5 series?

or sapphire has used that IO panel on their custom cards for a year or 2 now so the one that was shown was for sapphire. i will personally not be buying anything with DP for a non laptop and then for an internal connector only

[zsamz_]

just be thankfull ati makin great cards or we be payin 400$ for a renamed 8800gt

[Lightning98]

Totally agree... if there wasn't any competition we'd still be paying premium for last gen. cards... just remember the huge price drop nVidia was forced to make when the 48xx series was released.
These days you can get 2x4870's for about 570$ (Europe), which means that's about 200$ is the US

So as far as i'm concerned, i'm totally not complaining.

[Stijndp]

I started using NVIDIA since the gf256 and I stayed with them untill I saw the 4870. I just couldn't find reasons anymore why I wanted to stay with NVIDIA. Now going on to 2x4890. I used to buy simple 6800ultra's at €650 but thank god ATI/AMD came with good cards and NVIDIA's pricing is /fail now.

I don't know in USA but over here NVIDIA is doing 0,0 effort with their upcoming celebration of 10years GeForce brand (31st august). If I were a manafucturer who wasn't in deep sh*t, I'd be throwing competitions all over the world.

[Security]

These days you can get 2x4870's for about 570$ (Europe), which means that's about 200$ is the US .

What?

[3Z3VH]

the 4890 is the fastest it will win with the factory oc v factory oc, and 4x 4890 is the king of 3d mark. only suckers think that NV is winning in performance

I guess it all comes down to what you want in a card... good benchmarks, or good gameplay

Personally, of the five ATI cards I have owned, all five had texture clipping issues, and improperly drawn shadows. Of the seven GeForce cards I have had, only one had issues and it was due to faulty memory on the card. You are correct, the ATI cards all outperformed their Nvidia counterpart at the time in synthetic benchmarks (which is why I bought them instead of the Nvidia at the time) but when it comes to gameplay, ATI still needs driver work. I have simply been burned with less than stellar video anomalies by too many ATI cards to trust them anymore.