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This card will destroy anything NVidia has to offer at this price including its entire new 8600 series.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102067
*Note* there are no DX10 games and even if there were you would need Vista to run it on...

While over all that card beats the 8600, DX 10 isn't that far off. And once it's here, DX 9 cards will not run them, at all. If someone's waited this long to get a card, I'd say wait just a bit more. You'll be glad you did. I'm not saying buy an 8600, I'm suggesting waiting until there are more offerings / price cuts from both camps.

I dont see worthwile DX10 games being available before mid 2008.
Any games that do debut before then will still be playable with DX9 cards.....its just that you dont get the DX10 eye candy if you are running a DX9 card.
If you are in the market for a midrange card to play todays games then this beats anything in its price range.
The 8600 cards are a waste of money...there are no DX10 games and they are slower than cheaper Dx9 cards like the card above and the X1950 Pro.

pete_roth wrote:

While over all that card beats the 8600, DX 10 isn't that far off. And once it's here, DX 9 cards will not run them, at all. If someone's waited this long to get a card, I'd say wait just a bit more. You'll be glad you did. I'm not saying buy an 8600, I'm suggesting waiting until there are more offerings / price cuts from both camps.

Wrong, the upcoming DX10 titles will use a DX9 render path for older hardware. Game developers aren't foolish enough to kill off their potential userbase when DX10 hardware isn't mainstream yet.

By the time DX10 is mainstream and gaming titles required DX10. We will have a "8700/HD 2700" on the cheap.

And whats the point of the thread? While ATI does have the better product in the price range now, does this need a thread by itself?

Here is a question, if I start a thread proclaiming that the PS3 is the best console in the world, what would people think?

I got my info from TR's own review. I guess I read too much into it, but FWIW...

tr 8600 review wrote:

...Of course, the X1950 Pro isn't DirectX 10 compliant, and once DX10 apps arrive in force, DX9 cards may begin to feel old very quickly. DX10 is a clean break from the past, and if you want to run DX10 apps, you'll need to have a card that's compliant. But one doesn't wish to be held hostage to the DX10 conversion, forced to cough up more money and to sacrifice DX9 performance in order to get into the club. That's what the Radeon X1950 Pro versus GeForce 8600 GTS tradeoff feels like right now, which is unfortunate.

I took that to mean that no dx 10 card = no game. So much the better if I'm wrong!

lordtottuu wrote:

And whats the point of the thread? While ATI does have the better product in the price range now, does this need a thread by itself?

Here is a question, if I start a thread proclaiming that the PS3 is the best console in the world, what would people think?

Well dude,try looking at the thread catagory...this is the "hot deals" section and for $179.00 it is a hot deal.
So whats ur problem....

pete_roth wrote:

I got my info from TR's own review. I guess I read too much into it, but FWIW...

tr 8600 review wrote:

...Of course, the X1950 Pro isn't DirectX 10 compliant, and once DX10 apps arrive in force, DX9 cards may begin to feel old very quickly. DX10 is a clean break from the past, and if you want to run DX10 apps, you'll need to have a card that's compliant. But one doesn't wish to be held hostage to the DX10 conversion, forced to cough up more money and to sacrifice DX9 performance in order to get into the club. That's what the Radeon X1950 Pro versus GeForce 8600 GTS tradeoff feels like right now, which is unfortunate.

I took that to mean that no dx 10 card = no game. So much the better if I'm wrong!

AFAIK Dx10 games allow DX9 cards to run using a different version of Dx9 called "Dx9L".
This allows them to play the game however they cant take advantage of the Dx10 features.

Good to know, I'd say that is a pretty hot deal. I kinda want ATI to release something competitive in all respects and soon, I want a new video card in the next 6 months.

Fighterpilot wrote:

lordtottuu wrote:

And whats the point of the thread? While ATI does have the better product in the price range now, does this need a thread by itself?

Here is a question, if I start a thread proclaiming that the PS3 is the best console in the world, what would people think?

Well dude,try looking at the thread catagory...this is the "hot deals" section and for $179.00 it is a hot deal.
So whats ur problem....

Amen. That is a Hot Deal. Unbelievable card for the money.

(aside: This is why buying a single card to upgrade to SLI later doesn't make sense. In my position, I would be crazy to put in a 2nd 7800GT with cards coming <$200 that will eat my 7800GT SLI alive.)

Fighterpilot wrote:

pete_roth wrote:

I took that to mean that no dx 10 card = no game. So much the better if I'm wrong!

AFAIK Dx10 games allow DX9 cards to run using a different version of Dx9 called "Dx9L".
This allows them to play the game however they cant take advantage of the Dx10 features.

Not quite. The "L" in DX9L is for "Longhorn", it is basically changes to DX9 so it can hook into Vista's 3D desktop composition engine. Remember the DWM does not need DX10 to work its Aero Glass magic, but DX9 SM2.0. It has nothing to do with gaming.

As UberGerbil mentioned in some old thread (too lazy to dig it up at the moment), DX10 is indeed a clean break from DX9, if a game is written in pure DX10 then it won't run on DX9 (the recent wrapper thing may work but it depends on whether most if not all features of DX10 are used). However, given the somewhat poor adoption rate of Vista, game devs may bite the bullet and write two code paths for their games, at least for 2007. There is a strong chance of that happening. My guess is that this time the difference may be larger, kind of like HL2's going all the way to their DX8 rendering on the FX'es. The games should be playable on both DX9 and DX10 systems, but the visuals will be quite a bit different.

Fighterpilot wrote:

lordtottuu wrote:

And whats the point of the thread? While ATI does have the better product in the price range now, does this need a thread by itself?

Here is a question, if I start a thread proclaiming that the PS3 is the best console in the world, what would people think?

Well dude,try looking at the thread catagory...this is the "hot deals" section and for $179.00 it is a hot deal.
So whats ur problem....

I didn't see the thread category. I just came by the thread through the main page. My apologies.

computron9000 wrote:

(aside: This is why buying a single card to upgrade to SLI later doesn't make sense. In my position, I would be crazy to put in a 2nd 7800GT with cards coming <$200 that will eat my 7800GT SLI alive.)

As a single 7800GT card owner, I disagree. You can get another 7800GT off eBay for <$100 (goes for $80-110 depending on the auction). Unless I can find something that performs on par with a 7900GTX (7800GT SLI rough equiv) for the same price range (used or otherwise), SLI doesn't seem like too bad of a deal.