New Era of PC Gaming

[AK4Life]

Oh any news on the release of the ppu?

I did some research and heres what i got.

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=12753
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_processing_unit

 

[beedubaya]

Flanker greatly overestimates the GeForce 7 series. All current owners of GeForce 6 and 7 series, except owners of the 7800GTX 512MB and 7900GT/X will want to upgrade to the GeForce 8 series if they want to continue to play games at max settings or at a resolution higher than 1024x768. Now is a terrible time to buy a graphics card IMO with all this stuff comming up. I base this off of how these games are going to be far more demanding than F.E.A.R. and CoD 2, and the 7800 GT really shows its weaknesses in those games (with all settings turned up and at 1280x1024).

If all you care about is running the games, yes, the 7800 series will last you a while longer. If you want to crank the settings all the way up, well, the 7800 series is comming to the end of its glory days next few months I'm afraid. If you care about eye candy, wait for the G80 series.

 

[003]

I agree, my 7800GT chokes in FEAR when I crank up the resolution or try to use any AA, I wish I wouldn't have bought it and saved the money, but when my 6800GT died I had to pick between a 6800GS or the 7800GT. I wish I could redo that day. AM2 wont make that big of a difference, it's the physics cards and next gen video cards that will make the hige difference. And BTW, I really hate to say this, but intel's next gen CPU's (cedar mill, yohna, presler) actually look like they may take the crown from AMD.

 

[beedubaya]

The 7800 series would have been more fit as the 6900 series because the difference is not really great enough over the 6800 series to warrant a new generation, being only about 30-50% faster than the 6800 Ultra. The G71 looks to be more than a normal refresh, and the G80 will be the real next-gen.

I will definately need to drop another $400-$500 on a video card in the next 6 months as fast as games are advancing. Hopefully the G80 will be powerful enough so that it takes games a bit longer to catch up, unlike the 7800 GT/X which was being taxed to its max only 4 months after its release.

 

[Waphlez]

If you have a 7800 GTX 512MB, a 7900, or a X1900 XT/X, I say your in a good spot and should handle newer games at very good performance. I would take a single 8800 over a 7800GTX w/ a ppu for it has DirectX10 (or whatever you want to call it) and it is much faster making up for the PPU, then once I have more money get a ppu when they are worth the price.

 

[Flanker]

I agree, my 7800GT chokes in FEAR when I crank up the resolution or try to use any AA.

I'm sorry that you're unaware of FEAR's horrible engine management. No other game runs like FEAR does. My friend who has a FX-55 and a 7800GT can run CoD2 at max with ~50FPS, beat that GeForce 6.

Intel's next gen CPU's (cedar mill, yohna, presler) actually look like they may take the crown from AMD.

You're confused. Ceder Mill (single core) and Presler (Dual Core) are simply Pentium 4 Prescotts on a 65-nm process. Thats not going to do anything for performance. Intel's only going to 2.6GHz with the 65-nm P4s.

What you're thinking of are the Merom, Conroe, and Woodcrest cores. Those are the new PentiumM-like architecture processors, and that could indeed take the crown from AMD.

The 7800 series would have been more fit as the 6900 series because the difference is not really great enough over the 6800 series to warrant a new generation, being only about 30-50% faster than the 6800 Ultra.

Jeez man, 30-50% is a pretty freakin huge increase in power. And thats just talking about the 7800GT.

I overestimate the GeForce 7's power? My friend, you underestimate it and listen to stupid friends whose Dads work for Nvidia.

 

[WWS]

Since it is february, has anyone seen the PhysX cards for sale yet??

 

[zerodayATK]

nope ... but still waitign i think thee going t obe around 200 dollars , at least , that was pc worlds predictions ... quick question if i stuck with this crappy card and got a ppu would it have more of an effect over a better card ???

 

[beedubaya]

If you have a 7800 GTX 512MB, a 7900, or a X1900 XT/X, I say your in a good spot and should handle newer games at very good performance. I would take a single 8800 over a 7800GTX w/ a ppu for it has DirectX10 (or whatever you want to call it) and it is much faster making up for the PPU, then once I have more money get a ppu when they are worth the price.

True statement. 7800GTX 512MB is the minimum if you want to max out this year's games with decent performance. If you are okay with medium settings and 1024x768, a 6800GS or 7800GS/GT/GTX256 should get you fine for another two years at least.

 

[NeedAcpu]

Actually the 6800 might be coming to an end with these new games coming up.