GeForce 5 (Omen)

[phil c]

Has anyone heard anything solid about this card? i know its supposed to be iminently released but details appear to be very sketchy at best - ideal scenario being nvidia letting mac folks have first crack at it again.......

[MacBandit]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5610

From I've read elsewhere but can't determine where at the moment ATI is suppose to have a second generation of the 9700 due out like a month after the NV30 comes out. So at the moment it looks like ATI is on top for a while.

[phil c]

ATI getting the upper hand - has the world gone mad?

[P-Worm]

Originally posted by phil c
ATI getting the upper hand - has the world gone mad?
it sure looks like it! :eek:

P-Worm

[MacBandit]

ATI has had the upper hand in the past and once again has it for about a month now. That's how long the ATI9700 has been shipping for the PC.

[phil c]

card technology seams to change so fast now it makes the computer upgrde market look positively stable - where do you draw the line in the sand and say enough already - can a geforce 5 or ati 9700 really do anything major to improve your current gaming experience that a decent 128mb g4 or 8500 couldnt? and if so is it worth shelling out the extra dosh or just wait a few next big things pass by before reinvesting

[ericb88]

card technology seams to change so fast now it makes the computer upgrde market look positively stable - where do you draw the line in the sand and say enough already - can a geforce 5 or ati 9700 really do anything major to improve your current gaming experience that a decent 128mb g4 or 8500 couldnt? and if so is it worth shelling out the extra dosh or just wait a few next big things pass by before reinvesting

its more of a longevity issue, the top fo the line 128mb 8500 that you bought a few months ago will have some trouble running doom3 at all high settings, and who knows how well it will run quake 4 at all. If i get a 9700 now, maybe i wont notice that much of a difference between a gef4 or 8500, but come janaury 2004, when i can run Quake 4 inj 1280x960 (or whatever is above 1024x768) at all hgih settings without a fram skipping ill be happy.

[rice_web]

Games will likely be requiring 128MB of video memory before long. So, even the Radeon 9000 (which isn't a bad video card) has a relatively short life ahead of itself.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by ericb88


its more of a longevity issue, the top fo the line 128mb 8500 that you bought a few months ago will have some trouble running doom3 at all high settings, and who knows how well it will run quake 4 at all. If i get a 9700 now, maybe i wont notice that much of a difference between a gef4 or 8500, but come janaury 2004, when i can run Quake 4 inj 1280x960 (or whatever is above 1024x768) at all hgih settings without a fram skipping ill be happy.


The ATI9700 has 6x AntiAliasing and Anisotropic Filtering and twice the vertex shaders which really make the game look nice. Not to mention the ATI9700 is twice as fast while running all the AA and Anisotropic filtering and everything on as compared with the GeF4 with no filtering on. Oh, and the price will be the same as the current GeF4 when it comes out on the Mac at about $399.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q3/020718/index.html

[scem0]

I need a new graphics card. I can't afford one though. Sigh :o ....

[phil c]

Originally posted by ericb88


its more of a longevity issue, the top fo the line 128mb 8500 that you bought a few months ago will have some trouble running doom3 at all high settings, and who knows how well it will run quake 4 at all. If i get a 9700 now, maybe i wont notice that much of a difference between a gef4 or 8500, but come janaury 2004, when i can run Quake 4 inj 1280x960 (or whatever is above 1024x768) at all hgih settings without a fram skipping ill be happy.


Purchasing a video card now for games that wont be on the market for another 14-15 months? - at the current rate of progress well probably be 2 or generations of video card improvement past the 9700 and omen cards by then so there seams to be, as i stated earlier, little point in taking the plunge just yet.

[phil c]

Originally posted by ericb88


its more of a longevity issue, the top fo the line 128mb 8500 that you bought a few months ago will have some trouble running doom3 at all high settings, and who knows how well it will run quake 4 at all. If i get a 9700 now, maybe i wont notice that much of a difference between a gef4 or 8500, but come janaury 2004, when i can run Quake 4 inj 1280x960 (or whatever is above 1024x768) at all hgih settings without a fram skipping ill be happy.


Purchasing a video card now for games that wont be on the market for another 14-15 months? - at the current rate of progress well probably be 2 or 3 generations of video card improvement past the 9700 and omen cards by then so there seams to be, as i stated earlier, little point in taking the plunge just yet.

[sturm375]

The NV30 will be the last nVidia offering using AGP. Near the end of '03 they plan on offering the next generation of video card interface. I don't remember the exact marketing name for it, however it's something like Extream PCI. Same principle as AGP, providing a shorter, faster path to the processor, and system RAM.

[rice_web]

Yeah, the faster PCI is moving into server motherboards shortly, and will hit consumers by late 2003, if memory serves. It runs at 100MHz as opposed to the 66MHz that AGP runs at, and the 33MHz that the original PCI runs at.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by rice_web
Yeah, the faster PCI is moving into server motherboards shortly, and will hit consumers by late 2003, if memory serves. It runs at 100MHz as opposed to the 66MHz that AGP runs at, and the 33MHz that the original PCI runs at.

AGP works very similar to DDR Ram though in that it is able to send data on both the rising and falling side of the clock cycle. This is what has allowed AGP to gain a speed advantage over PCI in the past.

[phil c]

so, as i thought, if youve already got a decent spec card - theres not much point and rushing out and buying the next big thing just yet then - unless of course your seriously minted and a marketing mans wet dream.

[PCUser]

There is actually a reason to buy a Radeon 9700 Pro or a GeForce 4 Ti (or the upcoming NV30), and it was already mentioned. The ability to plan current games at high resolutions (1600x1200 or better) with 4x anti-aliasing (and antiscoptric filtering) and STILL have them be playable (75+ FPS). That makes the current games look a helluva lot better then what they do even on a Radeon 8500.

However, that reason alone may or may not be worth $400.

[phil c]

its the minted/wet dream scenario after all then

[Falleron]

Take a look at this article. I think it gives us an insight into what mac system we will be getting with this new card.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/27367.html