http://www.nordichardware.com/news,7794.html

Just saw this and figured I'd update everyone on the current status of these beasts. Sorry if there's not much new here I'll be interested to see how the $600 GTX280 fares against the cheaper $500 4870X2. The info is from the Inq., so take it with a grain of salt as usual. I'm sure once official benchmarks are out the forums will be flooded with posts.....

EDIT: Some more info on the coming 4870X2: http://www.nordichardware.com/news,7796.html

600$ a GPU, funneh no ? I love this Nvidia jokes. Guess ill have to Crossfire in my next build. That will be....around January.

Yeh I was seriously considering the GT280 until i recently read the stats on the 4870 and its price compared. Will have to wait until the end of June and see whats up if the $100 difference will be worth it or not.

Yep, same here. I'm thinking the 4870X2 will be closer in performance (to the GTX280) than in price. Oh well, like you said we'll have to wait for the end of June to see how it all turns out.

The 4870 is supposed to perform more or less the same as a 9800GTX(so "they" say). I'm pretty sure Nvidia will have the better performing product, but I think ATI will win with lower prices. As the global economy is in a rut people won't want to spend $450-600 on a great card when they can get a very good card for around $230 from ATI.

I know i'll be getting the gtx 280... unless the performance difference is like 10%... then it won't be worth and extra couple hundred... anyway... I won't get it till early 2009 first of because I won't have the dough, and I have other priorities till then so I'm just interested in the performance thus far

It's been said that the jump from the 9series to the 2** series is like the jump from the 7's to the 8's. So the performance is intriguing.

You are the first one I have seen who has actually used his brain for something other than warcraft and took a look around.
I agree with you. The prices for this stuff is going to be their demise.
This is also what is going to kill the console industry.

Message to all:

If you are smart, you will realize that there will be no real benefit to buying any of this junk. The performance gains are marginal at best since everything has become CPU-bound, and you are getting ripped off. Don't buy anything at all.

Why is it that something new comes out and the video card you loved a day ago suddenly becomes a piece of crap? Well, it's not. There is no need to buy anything new. Keep what you have and that will pull the prices down on all this "new and revolutionary" doo doo they are currently trying to push.

I am tired of hearing people here touting all of the jargon relevant to these new features, and architectures without even having close to an understanding of them, only to use them as a selling point. I am also sick of seeing the same pattern with the supposed "leaked information" like it's top secret or something. That information is "leaked" on purpose to psychologically arouse the consumer base into thinking something good is coming, when history has proven it to be not near as good as it's touted to be in every case.

People have silicon sitting in their machines now not being used to near it's potential, and they throw it out in favor of getting stuck in the spider with a 600 dollar video card that can't do too much more.

One must ask themselves how many companies have become multi-billion dollar empires because of idiot consumers.

You want to get a slightly better card for a better price? Then don't buy anything for an entire production run from either ATI or Nvidia.
Let them croak for a while and come back to reality with their prices.
Then get your 150 dollar gtx 280 or whatever the hell instead of paying a fortune for something that wasn't worth half the price.

But if what you have works, don't buy anything!

The you'd be stupid to get a GTX280, by that time they'll be starting to offer a shrunkend refresh, and unless you like buying first generation products ofr the nostalgia, I doubt you'll want a GTX280 versus the other options at that time.

There's no need to buy anything new, but your theories on how pricing and development work are messed up. If people don't buy these products, that means there is no money to fund replacements, they will just keep the doo doo products in the market longer. If you don't want the new products, then buy the cheaper ones they replace.

Because of and in spite of 'idiot consumers'.

Says the idiot consumer who thinks that chips manifest themselves from goodwill not R&D money. 'Let them croak' doesn't move technology forward it slows them down. It's because people buy the new product that you have a refresh every 18months, if peple didn't buy the product they push out their product lines to cover the cost of producting them.

No then you pay 150-200 for an old product, like still paying $200 for a Geforce 7900GT
You want to save yourself money, then spend that $200 on a Geforce 8800GTS-512, whose price wouldn't be that laow without something new coming to replace it and making sellers drop their prices to sell off the 'old stock'.

That depends on what you mean by works.
An FX5600 still 'works' but I sure as heck wouldn't want to be stuck with one.
The best purchasing method is look to buy something once the games you play do not play where you would like them to play.
If someone has a high resolution LCD then there are very good reasons to get the new cards, however if you're still on an old monitor (as you probably are because that 1993 15" CRT 'still works' right?) with lower resolution, then the benifits of upgrading may be less to you.

However if you don't like progress, I'd suggest you're involved with the wrong passtime/industry, because it's those new products that fuel progress, not sitting back an not buying them.
BTW, why are you even using a computer, don't pen/paper still 'work' for you?

righteous, I agree prices are insane, but shut up. I have a god damn 7600 GT, and I'm looking to upgrade. The GTX280 will never be $150 that is close to the production cost. Now what does anger me is the idiots with 2 8800 GTXs who want to upgrade to this crap, there will not be a huge performance difference. They always say, yeah but I can't max out Crysis! Thats because Nvidia built their last few cards AROUND Crysis, that is the only game where the performance difference is large enough to differentiate the 9800 GTX from the 8800 GTX, and just barely. Also the 4870 is supposed to be as fast as a 3870 X2 which is slightly faster than an 8800 Ultra, and without the instabilities of the the design of a dual card system in one card the performance should be pretty good, if not close to the 9800 GX2. The only thing that worries me is that they are only using a mere 512mb of GDDR, even if it is GDDR5. Also Crossfire should be much more effective with 4870s than 3870 X2s, whether the 4870 X2 will be worth it, who knows. We shall see I guess.

Go TheGreatGrapeApe!

I plan on doing trade up for the geforce 260 because that is only a 100 dollar difference for me. I agree though that everything has become cpu bound and that is a problem that should be fixed with nahalem.

TGGA just pwned righteous... lol

anyway tgga your point about the refreshes or the smaller die makes sense to me... I just meant like what ever is top of the line, I have a 24" monitor and like being able to play games on it, so i 'd basically be getting the best card no matter what, even if the price is a little more, but unless it's something like the 8800 gtx to the 8800 ultra original price, then no way, but I think you get teh idea

=D