Price Guides, August 2005: Video Cards
by Anand Shimpi & Cara Hamm on August 14, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
High End Graphics
While ATI pretty much concedes the Ultra High End to NVIDIA, ATI does come back a bit in this segment. ATI's X800XL has been the High End darling since it was released. Trading performance punches with NVIDIA's more expensive 6800GT at $100 cheaper, everyone would agree that the X800XL is a deal. Unfortunately, that deal didn't get any better this month with prices remaining relatively static around $268 shipped [RTPE: 100105]. We've always liked the X800XL PCIe and continue to make it our High End recommendation for those willing to shell out $270 for a video card, but price cuts on PCIe 6800GT are closing the gap rapidly.Update: Prices on the X800XT AGP models have taken a massive drop in response to other changes. There are some great deals available if you really want to spend $225+ on an AGP card. This may simply be intended to clear out old X800XT inventory, so we don't know how long the prices will last. With the higher clock speeds on RAM and core relative to X800XL, for AGP owners at least it's a great card.
We mentioned last month that the 6800GT cards really only make sense if you're stuck in the AGP market. That still holds true for the most part, since their price has fallen about $40 to $269 with the Albatron GeForce 6800GT 256MB [RTPE: Albatron 6800GT]. NVIDIA's 6800GT supports SM3 unlike ATI's offering and is roughly the same price as the X800XL AGP.
With the launch of the 7800GT, the 6800GT prices are scheduled to drop to $299 MSRP. The eVGA PCIe card has already dropped significantly to $278 at one store after rebates [RTPE: 256-P2-N376-AX], although for the most part the 6800GT PCIe cards are still hovering slightly above the new MSRP. Trying to SLI two 6800GT's is a waste, since a single and more technologically advanced 7800GTX can usually do the job better with much less power, noise and cost.
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bob661 - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
What's this mean?
JarredWalton - Sunday, August 14, 2005 - link
See change in subject. (nt) means "no text" if you didn't know. Basically, Kris is wanting to know if you assume the prices will change, or if there's more to it than that.FWIW, most of the articles posted on AT are written in advance and posted a couple days later. The purpose of the RTPE is to give the the prices available now, not at the time of writing. As a few others have pointed out, there have been some changes in price over the past couple week that make a few recommendations really nice. X800XT AGP for example is cheaper than X800XL - almost at X800 prices ($220 right now).
bob661 - Monday, August 15, 2005 - link
Wow! That would be an excellent buy for an AGP user.