Nvidia GeForce 3 vs ???

[astroller]

Hi.

First of all, I must say I'm a novice at graphic cards! With all the hype of the new GeForce 3, I'm just waiting for the price cuts on the GeForce 2 family.

Tom's hardware wrote a very long article on the GeForce 3. One hell of a powerful beast it is! Tom mentioned that NVidia has again rule the hi-end graphics card arena with the GeForce 3. 57 million transistors! Are there no competitions against this card? What about 3D Labs oxygen and wildcats? Those are around $1000 cards! Silicon Graphics machines are powered by those right? I'm not anti-nvidia. Rather, I'm curious at this whole new breed of VGA cards! Any comments anyone?

What would be the estimated price of the GeForce3 when it's launched? And how much the GeForce2s will fall?

[G_Sup]

Well, the Radeon (ATI) series of card's are Nvidia's direct competition at this point. They offer more options for users that desire such things as multi monitors, dvd, digital camera's ect... Basically it's more user friendly for people that do editing among other things. The little added bonus is that they are very good gaming cards as well, however not quite up to par with Nvidia (A lot of critic's claim that the software ie: driver's aren't at full potential either).

So, is Nvidia the topdog? Yes. I personally have the GeForce 2 GTS Ultra and it rocks. As a matter of fact, as of right now (keep in mind that more optimized driver's for the G3 will be out soon) the Ultra actually scores higher in A LOT of benchmark's over the G3! Personally, I'm going to skip this batch of vid card's and wait and see what the next generation has in store. It will take some time before game engineers make games worthy of the G3's potential, so with that in mind, my GF Ultra should suffice until the next generation...if not more.

As for the going price on the G3, I have heard that the Hercules line will go for about $530...a far cry from the suggested $699!!! With this, the whole GeForce line, at least the cards worth anything, the Ultra, Pro, and 32MB GTS line should drop in price. Hell, as of right now you can get a 32MB GTS for as low as $145 shipped! That's a screaming card as long as you have the muscle to power it. If I were going to do it all over again, that would be the route I would go for about another year.

So in conclusion, IMO the only "true" players at the moment are the Nvidia card's and ATI's Radeon series. Do some research. Sites like HardOCP.com are excellent sites with HUGE forums where you can get good opinions along with articles.

[Inque]

I heard ATI is coming out with a Radeon SE which is suppose to be as fast as a GeForce 2 Ultra. Imagine that with all the features of a ATI All in Wonder...

[jarfykk]

When I win the lottery I may contemplate purchasing one. Before that, no.

[jase71]

ATI is supposedly working on the Radeon2, which they claim will beat the GF3 in both features and speed.

I don't doubt it. I own a Radeon, and am VERY impressed with it.

However, like Dark Fury says, whether ATI can get the Radeon2 out before the market passes it by is the real question. It doesn't do you any good to beat the GF3 if the GF4 is right around the corner.

jase

[astroller]

Any inside news of when to expect the Radeon2 or a more advanced version of the current Radeon (i.e. Radeon SE)???

I'm considering to buy a Radeon, but I'm afraid if I buy it then out of the blue another Radeon gets launched and the price of the current Radeon will crash.

[Speedfreak]

As of now, the only thing that I have seen the GF3 being faster than the GF2 Ultra in is FSAA, and by a huge margin.

That really doesn't make me want to go out and spend the cash on it right away. I know there will be better drivers out for it later on, but I think I will wait til that time comes and especially until all of the companies that will be making them get's their card out.

[jase71]

Originally posted by astroller
Any inside news of when to expect the Radeon2 or a more advanced version of the current Radeon (i.e. Radeon SE)???

I'm considering to buy a Radeon, but I'm afraid if I buy it then out of the blue another Radeon gets launched and the price of the current Radeon will crash.

Radeon2 is supposed to be "By the end of the year", which knowing ATI, means Q1 or Q2 2002. I've got no doubts it'll be a great card, but if it's 9 months behind the GF3, how much does it matter? I hope it comes out sooner just to prove me wrong.

The RadeonSE is just a pumped up version of the Radeon, I think, like an Ultra is just a pumped up GF2. It should be out shortly, if it isn't already.

For the money, if you're buying a card NOW, the Radeon is a great way to go. It hangs with the GF2 GTS in most benchmarks (except 3DMark)... losing in some, winning in some. It's got the edge in image quality and 32 bit color, the GF2 has the edge in raw speed.

Considering you can get a Radeon 32 DDR for $100 or less if you look carefully, it's pretty tough to beat. You don't have to drop a lot of cash for a great card, and you can stick the money you saved away towards a GF3/Radeon2 in a year when the prices on them reach reasonable levels.

jase

[cruelpupet]

it doesnt matter who comes up with a card to rival the geforce3 or how much better it is. Games are goign to be developed with the geforce features in mind, because of the Xbox.

[unnamed]

nvidia is the king in everything except price/performance and image quality, which are two VERY important things in my opinion.

yeah the gf2 ultra is faster but it also costs like 3 times more then a 64meg radeon card AND doesnt even really have comparable image quality.

[sbp]

Actually DarkFury the Radeon was released on time.

As for the Radeon's drivers they are good enough. Except for Direct3D performance under Win2000 which definitely needs to be improved. Anandtech article comparing GeForce 2 GTS and Radeon's performance under Windows 2000 and 98 (http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1422)

The Radeon 2 was rumored to be coming out during the 2nd quarter but now appears likely for an end of the 3rd quarter release.
GamePC Reports: Intel Developer Forum 2001 (http://www.gamepc.com/article/show_article.asp?article=idf2001&page=2&mscssid=&tp=)

If you have agood videocard now my advice is wait until fall and see what videocards are out. DirectX 8 won't be used for quite a while in games. By the time it is there will be faster videocards on the market. The Radeon 2 will be out. The fall should see the release of the NV25-a higher speed NV20 in the fall with a .13 micron fab size.