A bad time to buy a new graphics card??

B

bilalc

Newcomer
I have been thinking about buying a new graphics card for the past couple of weeks, however I am not sure if this is a bad time or not... I plan on buying a G4 card, almost certainly a Ti4400. But after surfing a few boards and stuff, some people seem to think it's stupid to buy one now. Any info on when GF5 might arrive? I think I'm still gonna buy a GF4, cuz GF5 will probably too expensive, but it's also very certain that GF4 prices will sink. I want to get a new card to play new games (of course... :rolleyes: ) There are so many cool releases this summer, and my old Radeon 32mb DDR just ain't up for the job anymore. I can wait a bit, but if GF5 is like 6-8 months away, I'm not sure if I want to wait... Suggestions?

Oh, and what company should I buy, IF I decide to buy btw? Where I live, it's easiest to get Abit, Asus, Creative, Gainward and MSI. Thanks for any help!
 
I think now is definately not the right time to buy a new gfx card. The release of the R300 and later the NV30 will drive the prices of the current killer cards down.

And we don't know what *flavours* of next gen cards may appear. If you can afford a GF4 Ti4400 now then you may be able to afford the *cheaper* version of the GF5 or R300 if they appear.
 
bilalc,

Balance your needs and what you really want and decide then wether you can still wait a couple of months.

Careful though you might end up waiting for the competitor´s competitor and that competitor´s competing successor and so on in the end. Buy a top of the line comp today and there will be already something better around the corner.

At least waiting for the R300 wouldn´t be a bad idea though since it seems very close to at least get announced.
 
Now is a great time to buy an under-$200 video card. The GeForce 4 Ti4200 is $139 on pricewatch, and will play any game released this year (or next year) perfectly well.

The trouble with the next generation of high-end cards, including the new ATI and NVIDIA cards, is that no software is going to take advantage of their new features until two years from now. By "no software", I really mean no software. No games, no CAD tools, nothing. Unless you're a developer, or you really think that playing Quake at 300 fps is noticably different than playing Quake at 200 fps, you're wasting your money by buying them.

(Of course, here at Beyond3d, we are adicted to high-end 3D. But that's no reason to sucker a normal person into wasting their time, or wasting their money. Let this guy buy a card and start enjoying it. Life is short!)
 
Since ATI is obviously gearing up for a release (see their site) this is a BAD time to buy anything. Just wait till whatever they have is released, at that point you should buy.
 
Nagorak said:
Since ATI is obviously gearing up for a release (see their site) this is a BAD time to buy anything. Just wait till whatever they have is released, at that point you should buy.
Click to expand...

The problem is that a release in this case usually isn't the same as being able to buy the card. It takes some time before the cards start to hit the shelves, especially if you're not in the US. And the prices can be ridiciously high in the beginning also.

So what to do if you have a couple of games (Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Grand Prix 4 ...) you need to play and f.e a Voodoo 2 card ?

Bottomline is (and maybe a bit obvious :)), if you have a card that you think is good enough to play the games you want to play, well, then wait. If you can't play you favourite games (i had an old TNT1 until 1 month ago, bought a GeForce 4 ti4400) then buy a new one.

And as duffer said:

The trouble with the next generation of high-end cards, including the new ATI and NVIDIA cards, is that no software is going to take advantage of their new features until two years from now.
Click to expand...

Might be better to get a cheap card (Ti4200, Radeon LE 8500) and then wait until Doom3 comes out and then get the fastest card for that game. Even if you're not a Doom fan since a lot of games are going to be made from that engine. Or maybe even skip one generation since both the Radeon 8500 and GF3-4's will run Doom3 just fine.
 
Bjorn said:
The problem is that a release in this case usually isn't the same as being able to buy the card. It takes some time before the cards start to hit the shelves, especially if you're not in the US. And the prices can be ridiciously high in the beginning also.
Click to expand...
]
No, i think he meant that becasue it will be released within a few eeks (one maybe even) it would behoove you to wait, ebcause upon its release, even before it gets on the shelves, the prices for competing cards will fall drastically. So if you want a GF4 4400, wait two weeks, and get it much cheaper.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys! Wow, I just went to sleep a little after posting this, and now I have lots of replies :D Oh, I am new here btw.. ;)

Anyways, Althornin got it right in the last reply here. Even though I may not wait for GF5 to buy it, I may wait for it so that prices for the GF4 cards may drop. I see duffer's point, but you have to remember that other cards' prices probably WILL drop. It sounds like a few new cards are around the corner, so it might be best to wait. And Bjorn also mentioned something important that I thought about. "If you have a card that you think is good enough to play the games you want to play, well, then wait. If you can't play you favourite games then buy a new one." I can play the games I have, even the new ones like SOF2, NWN, GTA3, etc. But not always at desired resolutions, and/or details. At SOF2, and NWN I can actually get 1024x768, at high details, as long as I turn shadows off, or simple blobs. If the next-gen cards are not too far away, I can live with this just fine. However, being the hard-core gamer that I am, I would of course love to have all details maxed out, and higher resolutions :)

I Think I will play the waiting game, at least until the NV30 and/or R300 shows up. Thanks again for the help guys!
 
Another possibility is buy a good and cheap GF3Ti200 ($83) it will help you now and will be twice as fast as the Radeon when playing UT2003, U2 and Doom3.

Save your money and then next year get a low cost version of R300 or NV30.
 
ATis r300 is rumoured to be announced on july 17th and the release of the card should force nvidia to drop its prices. The last I heard of the gf5 is that it won't be out for quite a while yet.
 
I disagree, I think now is a great time to upgrade.
But it also depends on what your upgrading from. For instance, GF3/8500 users should just wait till next Gen cards, for obvious reasons.

But if your comming off a Gf2/Radeon 64/7500 then buying a Gf4 is not a bad choice.

Unreal2 engine is the newest engine going to be released. All the next few games will use this engine (UT2, Unreal2, etc) and the Gf4 (any version) runs this engine smoothly, at 1280. (1024 with 2x actually works well as well)

So unless your willing to stick it out with the next few games at reasonable FPS and reasonable image quality, then it's all up to you. I upgraded from a Voodoo4 to a Ti4200 - This was a perfect time for me to upgrade.
 
So you wouldn't wait a few weeks for the r300 to be announced/released which will drop the prices on a gf4? Then you could get a gf4 for less than you would now.
 
Only 13 days until the announcement of R300 and Rv250 if any of the net rumours are to be believed.

Definitely wait two more weeks - you will get a better idea of what the next generation cards are offering and at what price too. Also you will have the benefit of prices lowering as ATi will definitely be wanting to get rid of its R200 stock too which should force GF4 prices down as well.

13 days isn't too long to wait is it? :)
 
Another possibility is buy a good and cheap GF3Ti200 ($83) it will help you now and will be twice as fast as the Radeon when playing UT2003, U2 and Doom3.
Click to expand...

How do you know this? :D
 
Just my 0.05€

Just bought a 128MB GF 4 TI 4200 for 1440,- DKr. The 4400 is twice that. The ATI 8500 is around the same.

It might be a bad time to buy super high end cards considering P10, NV30 and R300 is just around the corner, but for value cards, this is the time.

Cheers
Gubbi
 
Well I bought an MSI GF4 TI4200 -64Meg and it is sterling :D

£129.25 GBP which over here is a good price for a card of this quality.

....and it overclocks well.

300/603 and still it has something left. No artifacts nothing :D I chickened out at this point and ran out of time but I'll resume OCing tonight.

As my first nV card I reckon this is a winner. When the R300 comes out I don't see the prices of the 4200 changing much to be honest. Totally different market segment.....
 
Dio said:
Another possibility is buy a good and cheap GF3Ti200 ($83) it will help you now and will be twice as fast as the Radeon when playing UT2003, U2 and Doom3.
Click to expand...

How do you know this? :D
Click to expand...

I have a GF3Ti200 and it is very good with all games until now.
Anandtech has a benchmark with UT2003 and from there I guesstimate this twice improvment.
Carmack said that the new Doom3 engine is twice as fast with GF3.

Probably next year we will see some R300LE and/or NV30Ti200 under $200 ;)
 
PVR_Extremist said:
As my first nV card I reckon this is a winner. When the R300 comes out I don't see the prices of the 4200 changing much to be honest. Totally different market segment.....
Click to expand...

I agree 100% with PVR_Extremist, if your current video card is not performing as you would like it or you have to turn down too many details for your liking, then the budget cards right now are an excellent possibility. A Ti4200 or R8500 can last you for quite some time and the prices probably won't go down dramatically soon either (and my god are they cheap already, you never before got so much oomph for that kind of money IMHO). You might consider waiting a few more weeks to see what ATI is about to release, but beyond that I wouldn't hesitate getting a new card now if I were you...
 
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