New higher end video card - $449.99 (allegedly)

[Dillon 1st MRB]

Well, you may remember my prior post on the 7970 being released, and its a great card. However, it is $550-$600, so its out of the reach of most of us. Well, the 7950 has been released at the slightly less heart rending $450. You can read all about it, but here's the thing: You only can justify it if you have a viewing area of ~4 megapixels. What does this mean? Well, the old VGA standard resolution was 640x480. Multiply that out, and you get 307 kilo pixels. For HDTV's, you have 1920x1080 as the standard, which when that is mutiplied out, you get 2 megapixels. If you are running two of these monitors, voila! 4 megapixels. So, what's the big deal about these? Well, the 7950 is a better card than nvidia's behmouth GTX 580, which sells for ~$500.

For most of us, this card is not a great option. Its, dare I say, too powerful for us. Even for my now old and dated resolution of 1680x1050 (a 16:10 rato rather than 16:9), I only run 1.7 megapixels. I am looking to the mid-range products coming out in the next month or so for a great product that may fit my next upgrade. That being said, it will be a phenominal day for all gamers when we see nvidia's "Kepler" products released. Rumor has it those cards are going to be extremely powerful with some pretty good efficiency. My biggest gripe with this generation's nvidia cards is how stinking hot and power hungry they are. It is looking like these issues are going to be resolved, which will make for some great competition.

[Goodwin 1st MRB]

I've had nvidia and ATI; for some reason NVidia always struck me as the better cards.

Now, I admit, I never did 'card for card' comparisons... it was always after an upgrade. I'd buy a new nvidia card and play on it and be in love with it. Then upgrade with a new ATI and play on it, then eventually upgrade to an Nvidia etc.

Not sure why - but Nvidias always seemed a little smoother and had more 'pop' to the games I was playing. Probably just personal bias I think more than anything.

Once again my graphics card is the weakest link on my machine. For a while, it was the only bright spot! But now it's a bit dated. Still runs DoD:S on high everything while getting around 300FPS so I don't think I "NEED" the upgrade. But I like neat shiny things.

I'll be excited to see Nvidias new releases to the arena - hopefully something in the far less $$$ category. Most I've ever dropped on a video card was around $175. Maybe that will change now that I have a rig that could really utilize it.

[Al-Jefri 1st MRB]

7970 prices will either drop after Nvidia's counter video card. or Nvidia's new card will be cheaper.

Either way prices will be dropping pretty soon

[Nathan]

I agree with Goodwin, I like ATI on principle but I've found that Nvidias always seem smoother. And now that ATI pulled this jacked up naming scheme scam, I'm switching back.

Now the real question: If my (crappy) 4670 is doing ok at low-medium settings, do I spend my money on a new card or an ASUS Transformer Prime?

[R. Thompson]

right now im about to be running a semi-decent card... geforce gtx 550 ti but soon ill be looking to upgrade. anyone have any suggestions?

Edited February 22, 2012 by R. Thompson 1st MRB

[Dillon 1st MRB]

Depends on your timeframe. If you can wait afew weeks, the 78xx series cards are ciming out from AMD. Nvidias are few months out. However, what is your monitors maximum resolution?