OT: Deciding on a new graphics card

[Ragnarok-X]

Fyron, would you suggest me to upgrade from my 7900 GT to a 8800 ? (2 gb of ram, e6600).

[Kana]

I guess it would depend on what games you want to play, and what detail level you want to play at.

I had an ATI X300SE, which barely ran CoD4 at the lowest settings. Bought an 8800GT, and now I run it maxed out.

[Ragnarok-X]

Currently im running Stalker and CoD at 1280 * 1024 with max details, though no anti-aliasing at all. I dont really have the need for a better GFX since i dont even own Crysis (and i believe CoD 4 is already high-end) but who knows ?

[PvK]

Thanks Fyron.

[Fyron]

Ragnarok-X:
That depends; do you feel your 7900GT is sluggish, or is its performance acceptable for the games you play? Pricing on the 8xxx cards can only go down as more 9xxx cards are rolled out. If you don't feel an immediate need to upgrade, there isn't usually any purpose in upgrading.

[Raapys]

Right now is probably a very bad time to buy a graphics card. Within the next few weeks there'll be new drivers for ATI's 3870x2 (which could possibly take it all the way to the top; or confirm that the card really isn't all that great), we'll see the release of the 9xxx cards from Nvidia and we'll see the introduction of PhysX in Nvidia's cards via drivers. So many changes will greatly influence the market prices, although the performance difference between all these cards isn't too big since none of them are yet introducing new architechture.

Will be interesting to see the performance of Nvidia's X2, though.

[PvK]

Ok, I read these. They are indeed blaming the media corps and acting like M$ (and Apple) has no choice but to design their OS so that it supports this wacked-out DRM design (HDMI/HDCP) that requires computers not to have full control over their audio/visual devices.

Still seems to me that this is unacceptable to me. I don't want to run a so-called Operating System that doesn't let me control my computer, nor do I want hardware that is wired to turn itself off or degrade its performance unless it is obeying some such protocol. My word for that remains sabotage, and it applies to Vista.

[Fyron]

I hope you've never used OS X, Win ME, 2k, or XP either, cause they all have DRM schemes built into them. Not quite to the level of HDCP, but they still "sabotage" your ability to play encrypted media files without permission, and prevent you from not having full control over audio/visual devices in the event you try to play stolen files without permission... Win98/OS9 for life!

I should point out that you still have exactly as much control over a 8xxx/9xxx card (or the ATI ones with HDCP support) as you do over older cards. The only thing you can't do is steal Blu-ray or HD-DVD content and play the files (without also stripping AACS etc., which is in the works). HD-DVD at least had managed copy as part of its spec for backups and media center purposes...

[PvK]

Pre-Vista Windows DRM was trivially opt-out-able, ignorable, bypass-able, run-other-software-able, as it should be on a computer that I own and therefore control.

When the OS (e.g. Vista) and/or video card (e.g. nVidia 8xxx series and later) are designed not to let the owner have that level of control, I feel like if I pay for such a device or OS, I'm supporting a power grab by corporations who want to push an agenda that private citizens should not have the right to freely operate their own computer and program and run digital media hardware on it.

I strongly object to that.

[Suicide Junkie]

How does the OS tell whether you paid the cashier or not before you walked out of the store with it, Fyron?