Video cards... have they hit a temporary plateau?

[Tiretool]

Food for thought...

With the ATI Radeon and the GeForce GTS and the Ultra on store shelves, and the NV20 (GeForce 3) just around the corner, I've been wondering... "Just how much video processing power is truly necessary?" Personally I feel that my Elsa Gladiac will be my video card of choice for at least the next several months, if not for the next year and a half... Who will buy the next gen stuff? The prices keep skyrocketing in order to fund research and development for future GPUs and video cards. How much is too much?

I for one won't be upgrading to the next gen stuff for probably at least a year. There comes a point where you just have to stop and wonder How much is too much? (Oh wait, I just said that... sorry)

With processor prices plummeting and RAM prices back down to earth, a video card can last for much longer without being upgraded for the "next big thing".

Anyone agree? Disagree? I'd love some feedback on this!

[Floppyman]

Yep I totally agree with ya tiretool. My ATI Radeon 64mb will probably my last videocard I buy for a couple years. I will be graduating going to college in about 1.5 years..and at that point won't really have money to buy new videocards or hardware and I'll have to make do with what I have, which then will still probably play some of the new games.

[Strider]

While I agree that today's video cards will last (I hope) a couple of years, from what I am reading that the video cards that are coming out this spring will knock the socks off today's video cards.

[Xayd]

I agree. More power in a vid card can do what, let me play at 1280 x 1024 plus in 32 bit color? My monitor is too small for that, and processor speed becomes an issue there as well.

Vid cards still sell, though, because uneducated gamers are under the assumption for the most part that a 400 dollar vid card will make your games fast, even if you have 96 megs of ram and a P2 350.

The marketing is carrying vid card sales now, not the performance.

At this point I'd say that my Voodoo5 will last me well over a year, maybe more.

Xayd

[Prader Willi]

and I welcome this. Let's face it, video cards are not good investments so the fewer times I need to buy one the better.

I have a Geforce DDR 32 mg-- and I see no pressing need or real advantage to upgrading- couldn't say this last year when I went from a Riva TNT 16 mg to the Geforce.

Upgrade= 300 to 400 hundred dollars
-- no thanks, that's more than enough money for a weekend fishing expedition to the Great Lakes, plus some new equipment

[Tiretool]

Good comparison Prader Willi

$300-400 = A new firearm, or a deerstand (one of the really nice all aluminum frame climber stands), or a couple of nights in a decent hotel with the wife and a bottle of bubbly and some nice food and entertainment, or a trip to Six Flags for the entire family, etc. etc.

[padawan]

GeForce 256, 1999- $250
GeForce2 GTS, 2000- $300
Voodoo5 5500, 2000- $300
Being the first guy on the block to break 12,000 3DMarks...priceless.

Heh, had to do it.

[Floppyman]

Hey Scott,

Mind if I asked how you broke 12,000 3dmarks? Just curious...thanks.

[padawan]

Hehe,
Actually I was guessing my score with an NV20. I'm only scoring about 7600 right now.

[Floppyman]

LOL....I thought you had exactly achieved that score, that's pretty high.