V
vissione
Guest
When do you guys think the R300 core will become a mainstream performance card? It came out last year, and it's still pretty expensive... but once Half-Life 2 is out or nearly out I expect it to fall in price to the levels of a mainstream performance card ($150-$200).
It'd be great to get a Radeon 9700 pro for that price, it'd definately be a bargain.
I have a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 which is a fast, and reliable DirectX8 card which will perform wonderfully in Half-Life 2. I didn't opt for a 128MB version because the card is too slow to run at high resolution AND high quality textures. The 8x and 128MB extra memory on Geforce 4's and Radeon 9000 pro's are just gimmicks IMO (largely based on reviews too) because you'll never be using every bit of it. Purchasing a Radeon 9700 pro with 128MB is worth it because the card has the speed to handle the texture workload.
I've always been a struggling gamer, hence why I've had to put up with Half-Life on a DX6 integrated video motherboard. This marks my first jump into quality PC gaming, so having a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 is a big thing for me.
I'm still antsy about missing out on the DirectX9 features... and until I can get a DirectX9 card that can run the game better than my Geforce 4 Ti 4200... it's not worth getting a DirectX9 card yet. I consider the Geforce FX 5600 Ultra and below crap, the cards are either much slower or neck to neck with my Geforce 4 Ti 4200. The Radeon 9600 pro is borderline for me, since benchmarks show it destroys the FX5600 Ultra. I'd get a Radeon 9500 pro, but it's too scarce and by the time I'm ready to get a DirectX9 it's gonna be soldout everywhere.
So back to my first question, anyone with any info or educated guesses on when the Radeon 9700 pro... or even the Radeon 9700 will be in my price range (mainstream performance)? The limited shader instructions of the Radeon 9700 pro shouldn't affect my performance in Half-Life 2 and Doom III, correct? I'm guessing that since I'd like my Radeon 9700 pro to last until I head off to college (I'm in 11th grade right now). If I lasted so long on integrated video, I think a R300 should be enough till DirectX10 is out. :bounce:
P.S. I take into account stock speeds because I seriously doubt I will overclock my GPU... not very fond of the practice, plus the extra cooling isn't worth it IMO.
It'd be great to get a Radeon 9700 pro for that price, it'd definately be a bargain.
I have a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 which is a fast, and reliable DirectX8 card which will perform wonderfully in Half-Life 2. I didn't opt for a 128MB version because the card is too slow to run at high resolution AND high quality textures. The 8x and 128MB extra memory on Geforce 4's and Radeon 9000 pro's are just gimmicks IMO (largely based on reviews too) because you'll never be using every bit of it. Purchasing a Radeon 9700 pro with 128MB is worth it because the card has the speed to handle the texture workload.
I've always been a struggling gamer, hence why I've had to put up with Half-Life on a DX6 integrated video motherboard. This marks my first jump into quality PC gaming, so having a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 is a big thing for me.
I'm still antsy about missing out on the DirectX9 features... and until I can get a DirectX9 card that can run the game better than my Geforce 4 Ti 4200... it's not worth getting a DirectX9 card yet. I consider the Geforce FX 5600 Ultra and below crap, the cards are either much slower or neck to neck with my Geforce 4 Ti 4200. The Radeon 9600 pro is borderline for me, since benchmarks show it destroys the FX5600 Ultra. I'd get a Radeon 9500 pro, but it's too scarce and by the time I'm ready to get a DirectX9 it's gonna be soldout everywhere.
So back to my first question, anyone with any info or educated guesses on when the Radeon 9700 pro... or even the Radeon 9700 will be in my price range (mainstream performance)? The limited shader instructions of the Radeon 9700 pro shouldn't affect my performance in Half-Life 2 and Doom III, correct? I'm guessing that since I'd like my Radeon 9700 pro to last until I head off to college (I'm in 11th grade right now). If I lasted so long on integrated video, I think a R300 should be enough till DirectX10 is out. :bounce:
P.S. I take into account stock speeds because I seriously doubt I will overclock my GPU... not very fond of the practice, plus the extra cooling isn't worth it IMO.
