Question about Video Cards

From what I have seen, framerates increase fairly consistently across resolutions... but generally these tests are happening at higher resolutions (1920x1200 and beyond) - which you generally don't see short of 24" screens (which you DO have).

The real question is how those framerates translate into the overall experience. The current argument remains that you should aim for a 60FPS *minimum* to ensure the best possible gaming experience.

Despite Television broadcasting in 24FPS (30FPS HDTV) and movies being shot at 30FPS (29.97), the human eye can detect images at a faster rate. Another problem that factors into this is that when you look at television or movies, you're often looking at intentionally "blurred" images to help "trick" your mind into not seeing the crisp edges (look at early CGI-heavy movies like "Twister" and you'll see the edges that appear due to "crisp digital images" on film).

When you deal with CPU graphics, you are dealing with instant, clear, digital images - and your eyes CAN detect them when they dip down slow enough - that leads to the perception that a game is choppy and/or even motion sickness.

While you can go higher than 60FPS.. you'd need a display cranking better than 60hz for you to really see the end result.

Most people have moved into flatscreens which seems pretty heavily locked in at 60hz (some 75hz screens are out there).. and in the future they are pushing for a 120hz standard - but for now.. 60FPS seems to be the goal to aim for.

Whether or not the new cards come out as "Dual Core GPUs" that would technically allow you the benefit of Quad-SLI through just two cards or not, given that Crysis is famous for dragging a single 8800 Ultra into the dirt at high res / settings - there's still value in going for SLI at this point - even on your 24" running 1920x1200 if you're not able to hit that 60FPS mark.

Odds are some of the other guys here can shoot holes in my point of view.. so let's see how it holds up! =)

--Akkim

*edit* fixed my TV/Movie numbers, got 'em backasswards, oops!

Edited by Akkim - 09 Jan 2008 at 11:36am

So really, the only advantage to waiting on these new cards is that if I get SLI now, I'll be limited to 2 cards, whereas if I wait and get the new cards, I can basically have 4 cards in 2.

And apart from helping with framerate at higher resolutions, we're not actually talking about faster cards.  Correct? 

I'm wondering how 2 "Dual Core GPUs" coming in Feb will fair against the next true generation released after them when it is run in SLI.

That does help, thank you.  I guess my next question would be about cost and price reduction.  When new cards come out, prices normally drop.  So I'm thinking that I will wait on the new cards and either get them for the price of current cards, or get what I would now, for a reduced price (even if that's only a few bucks off).

I have heard of the eVGA Step-Up program.  Has anyone here used it?  My last computer was from Alienware, and their warranty offered something similar (and yet still different) in that you could upgrade to new cards for quite a bit less than retail.  However, when I went to do that, the prices they quoted me were above retail.  So I felt very cheated.  It would help me to hear of other's experience in this step-up program, as it sounds like what I was expecting from Alienware.

Digital Storm is an EVGA approved system builder which means the EVGA card that comes with the system can qualify for the Step Up program. Being an approved system builder only allows the cards to qualify for the program, it doesn't extend the duration from 3 months to 12...

The Step-Up program is handled directly through EVGA. You will ship them your old card within 90 days of purchase for a new card. You pay the price difference between the two cards and shipping. The price of the cards are determined by EVGA's current retail price on their website.

You may find cheap last gen cards from users or ebay but most retailers will not lower their prices. You can check all the old cards and see what I mean...

The first 9th generation card is going to match 8800 ultra performance -.- They wouldn't release a new generation if it couldn't beat the previous. The 9800GX2 is about 30% faster than the 8800 Ultra (makes logical sense).

And you only benefit from SLI if the game supports the technology.

You can decide to wait or not but just remember what you want and how much you can pay. These cards will be under $200 and over $500 most likely.

No official info have been released about the cards besides the fact that 3870 X2 is 2 GPUs on a single PCB and 9800 GX2 is another 7950GX2.


Edited by skyR - 09 Jan 2008 at 8:05pm

Thanks