Nvidia slashes prices

[Gazz]

Thanks to AMD really picking up the price/performance strategy Nvidia has responded with significantly cutting their prices.

9800 GTX: $165 ($199)

GTX 260: $222 ($329)

GTX 280: $392 ($499)
NVIDIA keeps cutting prices :: HEXUS.channel - The online home of the UK technology channel

Great to see that AMD returning to the business (with great cards that is, they really dropped the ball some time ago), and affecting sales prices in such a positive manner. With prices dropping so soon, early adaptors do get quite a kick in the balls though.


With Intel and AMD battling in the processor market and ATI and Nvidia battling it out in GPU market, we can only hope that the last big bottleneck of gaming gets some real competition soon. The advances that will be made in the pc gaming scene if Linux would join the party would be immense. Right now the work being done for gaming on pc is below sub standard because of lack of competition.



Anyway, I might get a 9800 GTX for myself instead of the 4870 now. Depends on the drivers for Windows and Linux though.

[Richard_Rahl]

Since I don't want to change my MB, I will stick to the 4850 after changing the cpu and psu. The 4850 is single slot, while the 9800gtx is dual slot.

[Magus]

About the drivers, they are pretty good, except for that last one 175.19 scandal. And it's okay on Linux, just not opensource.

But i'm happy that AMD is back with good cards, can once again recommend a AMD card to a friend, and the prices dropping is great too!

[Slaymate]

I modified the .inf file in the 260 and 280 only 175.16 drivers and they work Great with my 9800GTX's. As far as I'm concerned these drivers and the new Sales Price is an AMD Killer.

@ Richard, what do you have in your PC that makes the dual slot design a problem. With the temps those ATI cards are hitting you need to buy an aftermarket cooler anyways, if your smart, and it will be a dual slot design if it's any good.

[Magus]

Originally Posted by Slaymate

I modified the .inf file in the 260 and 280 only 175.16 drivers and they work Great with my 9800GTX's. As far as I'm concerned these drivers and the new Sales Price is an AMD Killer.

Can you tell me how you did that?
And will that work with a 8800GTX? Dieing to try PhysX out..

[Richard_Rahl]

Originally Posted by Slaymate

@ Richard, what do you have in your PC that makes the dual slot design a problem. With the temps those ATI cards are hitting you need to buy an aftermarket cooler anyways, if your smart, and it will be a dual slot design if it's any good.

It seems that PCI slot 1 is bit in the way, though I could measure the distance between that and the PCI-e and compare that distance with the height of the card. Yet, I don't feel that much for a 9800GTX yet, and additionally I still need to find the cpu I want (s939). So I will worry later, when it is time to make the choice for one of the two models.
BTW, I have a Cooler Master cpu cooler, which is not a standard cooler afaik. Plus the psu I have in mind has a 120mm fan. My current case has quite a lot of holes on the side panel, so my conclusion is that it may not be that bad, if it will be a 4850. Anyway, I have read somewhere that the Sapphire model makes it well possible to change the cooler (so it seems AMD realised the issues), though I don't remember the source. So correct me if I'm wrong on that, please.

Anyway, if I can find a s939 Athlon X2 4800+ (I have been too busy lately to be able to search well), I will take the stuff I wrote about above into consideration, and do a good measure instead of a half - ass assumption when it comes to the question whether a dual-slot will fit. You guys can expect a revival of my "Mission: upgrade" thread soon.

[Slaymate]

Originally Posted by Richard_Rahl

It seems that PCI slot 1 is bit in the way, though I could measure the distance between that and the PCI-e and compare that distance with the height of the card. Yet, I don't feel that much for a 9800GTX yet, and additionally I still need to find the cpu I want (s939). So I will worry later, when it is time to make the choice for one of the two models.
BTW, I have a Cooler Master cpu cooler, which is not a standard cooler afaik. Plus the psu I have in mind has a 120mm fan. My current case has quite a lot of holes on the side panel, so my conclusion is that it may not be that bad, if it will be a 4850. Anyway, I have read somewhere that the Sapphire model makes it well possible to change the cooler (so it seems AMD realised the issues), though I don't remember the source. So correct me if I'm wrong on that, please.

Anyway, if I can find a s939 Athlon X2 4800+ (I have been too busy lately to be able to search well), I will take the stuff I wrote about above into consideration, and do a good measure instead of a half - ass assumption when it comes to the question whether a dual-slot will fit. You guys can expect a revival of my "Mission: upgrade" thread soon.

You can change the cooler on all video cards, not just the Sapphire cards. But some aftermarket coolers may not fit on all cards if they are not based on the reference design.

Originally Posted by Magus

Can you tell me how you did that?
And will that work with a 8800GTX? Dieing to try PhysX out..

It's a little complicated to explain. But I can attach the modifed .inf file for you.Then, after you expand the 177.41 exe you'll need to replace the existing nv_disp.inf with my .inf file. This will let you install the driver, but the 8800GTX still does not have PhysX support yet. It's just not written into the code yet. But the 8800GT does have PhysX support with this driver. And this .inf is for 177.41 Vista 32-bit.

[Richard_Rahl]

Originally Posted by Richard_Rahl

It seems that PCI slot 1 is bit in the way, though I could measure the distance between that and the PCI-e and compare that distance with the height of the card. Yet, I don't feel that much for a 9800GTX yet, and additionally I still need to find the cpu I want (s939). So I will worry later, when it is time to make the choice for one of the two models.
BTW, I have a Cooler Master cpu cooler, which is not a standard cooler afaik. Plus the psu I have in mind has a 120mm fan. My current case has quite a lot of holes on the side panel, so my conclusion is that it may not be that bad, if it will be a 4850. Anyway, I have read somewhere that the Sapphire model makes it well possible to change the cooler (so it seems AMD realised the issues), though I don't remember the source. So correct me if I'm wrong on that, please.

Anyway, if I can find a s939 Athlon X2 4800+ (I have been too busy lately to be able to search well), I will take the stuff I wrote about above into consideration, and do a good measure instead of a half - ass assumption when it comes to the question whether a dual-slot will fit. You guys can expect a revival of my "Mission: upgrade" thread soon.

Originally Posted by Slaymate

You can change the cooler on all video cards, not just the Sapphire cards. But some aftermarket coolers may not fit on all cards if they are not based on the reference design.

The first PCI slot indeed is in the way as far as I can see (the MB's form factor is mATX, I suppose that the latter is the the cause of that). And the Sapphire model of the 4850 is build according to the reference design, so I suppose I can add a compatible single slot cooler if necessary.

[Magus]

Man that sucks, The 8800GTX should have physx, instead of a 8800GT, But yeah i'm using Vista 64 bit so I can skip this I guess, thanks though

[Slaymate]

The 8800GT is designed off of there G92 chip so the same code works for it as the 9800GTX. But the 8800GTX is suppose to have support and they say it's coming.