Anantech's video cards buyers guide....

martrox

Old Fart
Veteran
While we beat the guy up for his bad reviews, you have to give credit where credit is due. I think that those of us that condemn the PR machine from you-know-who, and seem to look for reasons to condemn many sites whose reasons for doing reviews are suspect - reciently, Hexus & Anandtech - we really need to give credit to these same sites when, in spite of the way they review, they reach the proper conclusions....

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=1907

Narrowing down what to buy is never the easy part. Right now ATI is laughing all the way to the bank. Our midrange video pick of the week is the 9600 Pro, at under $150. Quite naturally if NVIDIA gets their DX9 act together and can regain some of the ground lost, we would consider the GeForce FX cards a bit differently. But if you had to buy a midrange card now, right now, Radeon 9600 Pro is the way to go; even if the 9600 XT is available.

On the high end market, it’s a bit easier to call ATI the better choice, but it comes down to which card. The 9800 XT is clearly not the best option, at $500+. The Radeon 9800 non pro would typically be our choice, but it’s almost impossible to find; and the Radeon 9800 SE is kind of a sucker card with no advantage over the 9600 Pro. We still like the 9700 Pro a tad more than the 9800 Pro, mostly because of the $80 price difference. However, 9800’s are certainly dropping in price and it will only be a matter of time before the 9800 is our pick of the week. This, of course, is assuming it doesn’t get any competition from NVIDIA.
 
Not really sure how he can say at the high end ati is more clear choice than in the mid range. DX9 support is laughable in the 5600.
 
IMO, I think all the references made recently, such as that one and the conclusions on which is the DX9 cards of choice may be saved until the others are seen.
 
It's really a puzzling dichotomy. In his reviews he calls DX9 software "controversial" and waffles all over the place about it, as if he's afraid of it or something...:) But in the paragraph you quote above he makes no bones about how nVidia needs to "get its DX9 act together" and presumably on that basis recommends the 9600P/XT. And on the high end he's mainly puzzling over which ATi card to recommend and doesn't even mention a comparable nVidia product, except to speculate that nVidia at some point might offer something competitive, eventually.

Oh, wait...I see now...Anand didn't write the buyer's recommendations...he wrote the reviews....Ah, ha...certainly makes more sense at this point. I congratulate Kristopher on not becoming nearly as beffudled by the intellectually demanding challenge of "DX9" as his boss. Hmmm....Maybe Kristopher should write the reviews, too?

:devilish:
 
DaveBaumann said:
IMO, I think all the references made recently, such as that one and the conclusions on which is the DX9 cards of choice may be saved until the others are seen.

Are you referring to later this week or hinting at XGI?
 
I'm just trying to say that we really need to stop demonizing these people. Yes, you can pick anything apart and find the errors. Would I trust everything I read at Hexus / AT? no....but, again I wouldn't trust everything I read anywhere, even here. (Although I do give much more weight to what I read here - reviews/previews - than anywhere else on the net)

DaveBaumann said:
IMO, I think all the references made recently, such as that one and the conclusions on which is the DX9 cards of choice may be saved until the others are seen.

Well, Dave, just what are you trying to tell us? 8) At the point at which the guide was written, I think it's fairly accurate.
 
Is it demonizing, or just not accepting incompetence from the one site that can afford to hire people who know what they're doing? Seriously, AT was declared as raking in over a million a few years ago, and I assume things have only improved since then--how can they not afford people who know as much as Dave? It's not very professional.

I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I really shouldn't have to to a site that can afford its own testing lab.
 
Pete said:
Is it demonizing, or just not accepting incompetence from the one site that can afford to hire people who know what they're doing?
The latter, BIGTIME! (I know you meant it rhetorically, I just felt like chiming in. ;) )
 
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