Unfortunately, it's a bad time to be in the market for a video card. Actually, it's probably the worst time you could imagine. Several things have happened in the last year or two:

DirectX 10 released - only 1 card that I know of supports it right now. Want a card that will kill for a long time? DirectX 10 is the best way to go as games will be developed in it for years to come. DirectX 9 is fading away.

Windows Vista released - "Games for Windows" will require Vista. Don't expect to play Live Anywhere games on XP. Either way, not all cards are supported by Vista. Even further, only certain cards will run the Aero interface. XP is fading away.

PCIx16 - most motherboards don't have a lot of PCIx16 slots if they have one at all. PCIx1 cards are fading away as are AGPx4 and x8.

SLI - nVidia's SLI (dual...and even quad...video card) configuration owns. For the best performance, hook two video cards up in parallel. Single card configs are fading away.

As you can see, that's the kind of technology that's out there right now. And it is expensive to get in on the top of the line card. For under $600, you can have the nVidea GeForce 8800 GTX 768mb which is by far the best card to have.

I'm going to have to upgrade my motherboard if I want to run the 8800 GTX. If I want to run it in SLI (which I do), I'll have to get another video card and a better motherboard.

The good news is that if you don't want to go high-end, you can get good deals on PCIx cards. You can get decent cards for well under $200. Some even under $100.

ATI Radeon and ATI x1X00 cards perform well. But, if you want a high-end card, nVidia is the way to go. They perform a lot better.

Check out this article at Tom's Hardware Guide entitled: "The Best Gaming Video Cards for the Money: January 2007"

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/05/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money/

If you want to compare card specs, go to THG and look at his VGA charts found here:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

On that last link, you can compare all cards on different games and software. You can see how they all perform.

When you get ready to buy a card, I recommend checking out:

http://newegg.com/ and
http://www.pricewatch.com/video_cards/

to get an idea on how much you should be spending for the card you want.

Me - I've been saving to upgrade my Alienware. It appears that I got in at a bad time. I bought my system with the idea that I would upgrade it along the way. And it did. I've improved everything but the CPU in some way. But, I can't improve any more without doing major surgery. If I had gotten in 2 years earlier, it would have been so easy and cheap to upgrade.

But, since I purchased my system, almost every component went through a controller change. The new stuff simply won't plug into my current system.

PCIx16 won't work. I have no slots. Core 2 Duo and Extreme chips won't fit anymore. So, I can't really upgrade my CPU or GPU without a new motherboard.

So, I need a new mobo that will run at least PCIx16 slots and a Core Duo 2 chip.

I feel that now would be a good time to get into a DX10 card because DX10 will be around for a while.

While it's a bad time to be upgrading your machines, I feel it's a great time for anyone to get a new BAMF machine. Surely it will last several years as all this new technology has just hit the market in the last year.

Thanks rap, It looks like I need to check my pc's upgrade-ability. I got a deal on it a couple months ago without any interest in pc gaming, If I got into gaming on it then I would anticipate buying a new pc in a year or two so I might be in the situation where I can get a DX9 card and cut my losses. On the other hand, If the pc has got some room to breath, then I might wait a little while and save some money towards the DX10 SLI PCIx16 card.

On that note, SLI looks fantastic. If I was into it, a double card setup would be unbelievable!

Update: Here are the details about a new GeForce 8600 coming out.
Report from Engadget:

"Details of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 8600 series have been revealed,
with the 8600 GT going for roughly $150 and the 8600 Ultra demanding a
$180 pricetag. Considering the fact that an 8800 GTX will cost you
about $600 at the moment, this is good news indeed. The specs aren't
anything to sneeze at, either, with both 8600 cards being built with
an 80nm process and 300 million transistors. The GT runs at 350MHz,
with 256MB of RAM to call its own, while the Ultra sports a 500MHz
core, with 512MB of memory. The launch is supposedly timed to coincide
with the R600's launch, will certainly steal a bit of ATI's thunder."

Not bad. Wonder how it will perform, though.

Spec'ing out new systems online at DELL and Alienware, $4000 gets you
a top of the line system. Ouch. A $2000 system on there doesn't
really get your CPU and GPU into this generation. That wasn't the
case when I got my Alienware. I could have spent $4000 back then, but
I would have only gotten faster components of what I already had. I
wanted an affordable system that I could upgrade later.

But to upgrade my current to the components to the top-of-the-line
isn't that bad when compared to the cost of a new system. For under
$2000, I could have a totally new and top of the line machine:

motherboard $250 (supports SLI video cards and Core Duo processors)
CPU $900 (top of the line Intel processors)
GPU under $600 (top of the line nVidia) (only one, though)

Actually, if I wanted to, I could spend under $500 on the CPU and
overclock it to get the performance of a $900 processor. Of course,
then I would need to by a good heat sync or water-cooler which would
eat into the savings. Still, I would save several hundred bucks.

I've got RAM. I've got HDD space. I've got peripherals.

I think I'll wait until Shadowrun comes out for Vista before I make my
move. By then, new cards will be out and prices will drop on my
target CPU and GPU's. Who knows, I could have a smoking system for
under $1500 by then, if not less.

Ok, it looks like I'm sitting on a 3.4ghz Pentium 4, with 1G of ram. I have 1 PCIx16 slot so I'm good in that department. I might be better off going with around 512mb of video memory, it's probably more along the lines of the price range I'm looking for. SLI is not going to bother me at the moment because I'm not exactly in the market for two cards anyways, just something that will handle games very well and run Vista if and when I decide to switch. I'm in research mode right now.

I don't think you can do much wrong for the next year (maaaaybe two) by upgrading to one 512mb video card.

Looks like you are sitting pretty good, Oc. You should be able to get a good deal on a 512MB PCIx16 card since 640MB and 768MB cards are getting more popular. 512MB will run all the games that are coming out.

After a little bit of research, it looks like the geforce 7950 gt is a decent deal ($267). It's a lot easier to stomach than the $600 8800gtx, however it's a directx9 card. The 8600 Ultra that your talking about seems like it is close (a little less I think) to the specs of the 7950gt, but it's got directx10 and it's only $180, however it's not out yet, hmm. This is a tough decision.

I guess this all boils down to whether or not I anticipate using dx10/vista in the next year and a half. crap this _is_ a tough time to be buying.

Take for instance if I decide on the 8800gtx, well, then I'm probably looking at a new power supply, that bumps up the price. Then I'm going to be looking at vista because of dx10 as well, that's another bump.. Now the price is starting to look like almost a whole new computer, ouch. Maybe a $267 loss now isn't looking so bad.

I was listening to Major Nelson's most recent podcast. He interviewed the "Games for Windows" guy. He said something that hit home with me.

If you want "Games for Windows" you will need Vista, a DX10 card, and a DX10 game.

I would hate for you to miss out on some of these Vista only games. I'm not so sure that you'll even get to experience Live enabled games on XP. Even if you are, you're going to miss out on all the Vista exclusive titles coming out. How many in the next 1.5 year? I don't know.

Looks like I don't have to buy a power supply. I had one sitting in the closet, an antec smartpower 2.0 500w puppy that was a freebie from a while back. ($70 saved). I went from 305w to 500w, so it looks like I've got room for any power beast now.

I've done some more research on video cards as I'm trying to plan out my next computer purchase.

ATI is soon going to release the ATI R600 which will likely be called something like the Radeon X2900. Reportedly, it will jump ahead of the NVIDIA 8800 cards. Actually, the reports are that it blows them out of the water. This card is due out in Q1 07.

The performance increase sounds amazing. Tests have shown a 20% improvement in graphics while gaming over the NVIDIA 8800. Holy Cow. 20%. One NVIDIA 8800 is faster than two of just about every other card in the world. It even runs faster than two NVIDIA 7900 GTX's in SLI mode.

Now the ATI R600 is supposed to run 20% faster than the NVIDIA 8800. Holy crap.

These guys got to test the R600: http://level505.com/2006/12/30/the-full-ati-r600-test/1/

They played several games at 1600x1200 will 4-16 times full screen anti-aliasing and 4-16 times anisotropic filtering and they blew away the 8800.

Rumors are that the R600 will take a lot of juice. It could require more than 250W of power. This had led some to believe that we'll see this card as an EXTERNAL attachment to the computer.

The R600 will cost about $600 bucks.

Also, there is something else to keep in mind with this and other ATI cards. Just as CPU's are used to run the software, video cards are used to display the video, and sound cards are used to improve the audio, graphic processing units (GPU's) are gaining momentum. There is already one on the market that only works with a few games and costs near $200.

ATI is reportedly building GPU's onto their new video cards. So, no only will the graphics look great, but the physics in the game will be enhanced to create better visuals of explosions, fires, grass, etc.

Found a good resource for comparing motherboards.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/21/680i-motherboard-comparison/page9.html#3d_games

Looks like the ASUS Striker Extreme is the best 680i board to get. It's $420 bucks, though.

The EVGA 122-CK-NF68-TR is half the price and has all the same specs at the ASUS Striker Extreme. The EVGA 680i board is a little over $200. However, it appears to have some problems with RAM. But, it's got over 400 reviews on NewEgg and gets 4/5 "eggs". So, it must be a popular board. The ASUS board has 60 reviews and a 4/5 rating.

Real quick, what you're talking about there rap is a Physics card, not a GPU. All video cards are/have GPUs. It's the standalone physics card that very few games take advantage of. Most notable among these is the Ageia PhysX. Not worth buying just yet. Secondly, while the nForce 680i chipset stands head and shoulders above the rest of the world, it's essentially an nVidia GPU only chipset. You can use ATI cards with it, and they'll run decently, but it's designed to run best with nVidia hardware. As for motherboards, spend the money for the Striker Extreme. I honestly can't come up with a reason other than extreme price to not get it. However, most, like myself, see price as an issue, so the EVGA 680i board is a good backdrop, and won't cost you too many frames in the long run. Whatever minor problems with the ram it has can be solved by a bit of research and buying the correct ram. Just remember though, if you get a nForce based board, you won't be able to run dual ATI cards. You'll have to get a CrossFire based board, so you very well could be stuck with inferior nVidia products.

Power supply. Hard to believe, but this little brick is the most important part of your computer. That little 500w Antec you have might or might not be enough to run your new system. Depends on what you get. Running a couple of 7950GX2 in SLI? Not on that PSU you won't. Any SLI system basically requires an SLI approved power supply, and one around 600w. Gotta figure, some of the beefier cards suck up 200w of power each, and even the smaller ones will tag your PSU for 150w a piece.

I can answer more specific questions for a little while longer today, and after I get home from work at around 1am. In my opinion though, it's worth waiting a few months for the big guns from ATI to come out, and to let some of these mega motherboards drop in price. As it stands right now, even I couldn't build you a top of the line system for under $2000, and that's just not right. :)

DJ

Thanks DJ for the input. What's your take on the Crossfire vs SLI argument. From what your saying it looks like your essentially choosing your graphics company when you choose your motherboard.

On the power supply, I agree with you on that one. I am getting better performance out of my 128mb graphics card after installing the 500 watt psu... go figure. I have heard that Dell skimps on the power supplies in their standard issue pcs, this may be evidence of it. I will definitely have to get a new one if I'm going to do SLI.

Right now SLI has it cold. The way the SLI cards are connected is through a little connection inside the case. Crossfire has a dongle that's outside the case. However, I have see the newer versions that are just like SLI, inside the case. Eventually, once ATI gets their stuff down smaller, it's gonna be either or to be honest, and will come down to your choice of video card when you buy your motherboard. Me personally, I've been an ATI fan since I upgraded to the 9800 a while back, (HPC upgrades anyone?), and I can still play every game I've got with decent framerates. The cards have been workhorses, and the AIW I've got is a beast too. Dell skimps on everything, just look at their prices. Best thing about Dell is there monitors, pretty solid no matter what. Off to work for me!

DJ

You brought up DELL, so I thought I'd speak up. If you are buying a new gaming rig, don't buy a DELL (unless you happen to have, say, a 25% off coupon). Alienware is now the way to go, IMO.

Back in the day, the case could be made that Alienware was overpriced. Now, DELL XPS gaming machines are the ones that are overpriced.

DELL has inferior parts at nearly the same price as Alienware. If you are spec'ing out a new computer, you might as well get an Alienware. Alienware, now owned by DELL, has better parts for about the same price. When you go high end, the high end DELL costs almost the same as the high end Alienware with slower RAM, a smaller motherboard with a slower FSB, and weaker power supply. With Alienware, you get top of the line components with a nice case that makes upgrading as easy as changing the batteries your remote control. The Alienware will be a couple of hundred bucks more expensive. But, when you are spending a couple thousand on a gaming rig what's a few hundred bucks for the extra performance boost over 4 years?

All gaming rigs are expensive but Alienware is now the "budget" gaming rig maker. Falcon Northwest and VooDoo PC are at least 15% more expensive for a similar Alienware machine.

But, if you are upgrading components, DELL is probably a good way to go. They might be better than Newegg.com when buying new components. DELL has a huge accessory and components inventory. They regularly discount those PC accessories at 15% and even 25%. Bundle that with free shipping, a good warranty, and DELL's support, then DELL might be the best place to buy parts for upgrading. They even sell mobo's.

****************************

I've been a big ATI fan, also. The 9800 Pro I have had no problems playing games while some nVidia owners had trouble back in the day.

Now nVidia is having problems with DX10 on Vista. You can't run SLI on Vista just yet. Double you tea, eff?

But nVidia's 8800 is in the reference documentation for DX10. A chunk of DX10 was built with the nVidia GPU in mind. So, that makes me think nVidia will be the way to go...that and the fact that they are the best right now.

I'm anxious to see what ATI rolls out. ATI was recently bought by AMD. ATI and AMD may play a lot better than ATI and Intel. That could mean taht Intel and nVidia will play best. Of course, Intel just shot right past AMD in the CPU market with their Core Duo's.
It's a weird time to be upgrading or buying a new PC. You've got technology merging together. You've got companies merging together. You've got new operating systems and the new DX10.

I'm planning to upgrade to a high-end PC this year, as my low-end system is not enough to satiate my inner-PC gamer. However, before I can upgrade, I want to wait until Windows Vista has all its kinks and bugs worked out. By that time, I'll purchase the best parts and bask in DirectX 10 glory. I'm talking a serious power-tower here.

It's going to be custom-built. Dell, Alienware, Voodoo, Falcon--they're all great, but it'll be much cheaper if you build your own rig.

By the way, regarding Ageia's PhysX Accelerator: I think the concept is brilliant, as it can take a load off your CPU so it can leave more power to process other things besides physics, such as AI, and it can open up a whole new door--just as sound cards and 3D GPUs have changed PC gaming. And like sound cards and the 3D graphics cards and the sound processors, all physics processor units need at this point is a killer game that's best experienced with this hardware.

600W is a lot of power! We have Honda generators that output not much more than that and we'll run a couple laptops, coffee pot, halogen lights, and a couple cell phone chargers off of it. Granted, the coffee pot and halogen lights can't be on at the same time. That is all.

@Master Kim - I think you are right about the the PhysX card. If it supported more games, I might have one already. It's the perfect way to take the load off the CPU. Calculating wind effects and explosions is expensive.

Maybe ATI's new cards will calculate the physics for us. Maybe there will be a lot of games supporting it. Surely it's got to be more likely to be adopted by consumers if it's attached to a device they are already buying versus chunking over the cash for a specialty card that they don't really need and that takes up an extra PCI slot.

@Midnight - I'll see your 600W and raise you 1000W. 1kW of power is suggested to run two 8800 GTX's and a fast Core Duo processor.

1GB of DDR4 memory
OEM version 12.4" long (better have a big case)
Retail version is smaller...9.5" (acceptable)

Can you imagine having 2GB of video memory in Crossfire configuration?

I'm holding off on my motherboard purchase until I see the benchmarks for this card. I might end up sticking with ATI.

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4622

You know, I wonder something...

Why is it called the R600?

600cc engine

Typing this from my overclocked P4 3.74ghz. and overclocked 8800gtx. more info later...

Holy smokes! Literally! You better find a way to keep that thing cool!

I call BS. Hmm. Oc hasn't been online much lately. Perhaps he's sucked into 1920x1200 BF2142?

Ok, got some more info. I've been installing updated drivers, bios's, and testing the limit overclock-wise all day. I've been able to crash it a few times while pushing it past 4ghz on the cpu. Here's the equipment. Mintz, the cooling was thought of for sure:

Asus Striker Extreme Motherboard
P4 (was 3.4ghz in the Dell) now 3.91ghz overclocked.
XFX Nvidia Geforce 8800gtx XXX factory overclocked.
500w Antec Power Supply (this might not be enough)
For cooling: Zalman large A** cpu fan/heatsink
Antec nine hundred case (has lots and lots of fans)

Next on the chopping block might be the RAM or PSU. My RAM speed is on the bottom end of what this motherboard is capable of. It seems I should have more power for this thing with the amount of fans and overclocking that's going on.

One huge improvement I noticed is when I turned off hyperthreading. I have never liked it for any application I've ever run. With the cpu at 4ghz I was able to run games for a little while before I got a blue screen of death. 3.91 ghz (a 15% increase in clock speed) turned out to be the sweet spot for the setup. Games are running butter smooth on maxed out settings so far. F.E.A.R in particular. I seem to be choking a little on the cpu or ram side with BF2142 when I do a force run of the highest resolution on my 4:3 monitor. I'm not exactly running on the highest bus speed because of the P4 cpu though.

I just noticed that both fans on the PSU are running constantly, that gives a little hint that it's probably having to work pretty hard. I'll post some pictures later when I have the time.

Awesome, Oc! Congrats. The hard work is done. You've got a system that will be easily and affordably upgraded for the next few years. RAM is pretty cheap right now. Core Duo processors are going down in price each week. You're going to have a killer gaming rig.

I'll be hitting you up for some help if I upgrade my machine.

Wow, you're on fire! Not literally (this time). Enjoy your PC gaming goodness!

Can't do w/out pics, so here you go:

-I got this out of a 747

-The Aftermath

-Business up front

-Party in the Back

-Hmmm. Should I press it?

-The Dell goes in the 'stack of yesterdays'

As far as the wiring goes, it's kindof a (as Jeff would say) major clusterf**k of jumble because I've got so many fans to supply power to. Once I get some plastic ties then it should be a little better, but it would only be for aesthetic purposes, as the airflow going through this thing right now would keep my house cool.

Wow, nice rig. How does one go about adjusting how much to overclock a processor? Is there a little dial on the chip or something?

Higher end motherboards have BIOS's which allow you to adjust the CPU clock frequencies. You won't find these features in typical OEM boards.

Asus made it extremely easy. Press 'delete' to get into the bios on startup. Go to the tweaker menu and select from their pre made settings, most of which will be fine for any overclocker. It lets you choose from 5,10,15,20% adjustments. Almost too easy. The only legwork you have to do is try and see how far you can push it without crashing.

Dell wouldn't do this, because every 13 year old gamer in the country would be calling their customer support wondering why their system keeps crashing.

Oc: How is the fan noise on the system? Particularly, how does the video card sound?

A harrier jet comes to mind. I haven't heard the video card fan, so it must not be a problem. The cpu fan and the top case fan are staying maxed out, so the noise is coming from there. At least it's not a high pitch whiny noise from the motors, it's just the sound of air, so it doesn't bug me really.

Exactly Dell doesn't want to support people who fried their processor by screwing with the settings in the BIOS. Especially when your screwing around with voltage settings.

BTW, microsoft paint is running as smooth as it has ever run. But where it's really shining is on the command prompt. The 'Dir' and 'Move' commands are noticeably faster. 'ipconfig' is dishing out the pain and Notepad is owning hard now, a definite plus. As far as games go, solitaire is rock solid and minesweeper is pounding out at least 60 frames per second on max settings. I haven't had any hiccups on volume control, it's definately much faster.

My envy for you is unhealthy.

A serious LOL.

Actually, I am actively designing my future gaming rig right now. All that I'm waiting for now is timing. I'm waiting on the games that demand it. I'm waiting on the ATI DX10 cards and new quad core processors from Intel.

We had some dual quad core x64 systems come through here the other day. They also had 32GB of RAM and some massive dual video card setup, I didn't look into it that close. I think they said that they ran about $15k apiece.

Wow. That system sucks. Oc's could take it.

You can get into an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 at 2.4GHz with 2 x 4MB L2 Cache and a 1066MHz FSB for about $800. The Q6700 runs at 2.66GHz and costs about $950.

I'm shooting for investing in a cooler and overclocking whatever I get to a superfast speed. I want to get a Quad core, but that might not happen until next year. I think I'll do just fine with an Core 2 Duo. I could get a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo for about $200 and overclock it to near 3GHz by spending a little more money on a cooling system.

Then, I could keep the cooling system, sell the Core 2 Duo and get a Quad core once they come down in price and I'm ready to upgrade.

But, what good is a quad-core if A) software developers aren't writing for the 4 cores and B) it runs about the same as a dual-core? Could just be a gimmick.

I'm thinking about upgrading my existing system:
get a new motherboard ($230-$420)
get a fast video card ($500)
get an E6400-ish CPU ($200-ish)
get an cooling system ($100)
overclock the CPU ($0)
wait for Quad core CPU's to come down in price
get a second fast video card (<$500)

I'm doing a study of the markup on off the shelf systems made by DELL, Gateway, Alienware, CyberPower and VooDooPC. The results are surprising. Summary: The markup is incredible (and in some cases wrong) and building your own rig saves you about half the cost of a new system (this wasn't the case a few years ago). I'll publish here when it's ready.

I definately will be buying a dual/quad core in the future so take this from a conversation perspective.

Multi-core cpu's are a mixed bag for me right now. I know the potential is there to have blazing speeds, but the fact of the matter is, it all depends on the software. This was a decision I had to make when I chose the single core p4 when I bought the dell a few months ago. It comes down to how multiple threads are being used. The question isn't whether or not some games are using multiple threads, because they all most definitely are. The question is how close the threads are to each other processing wise.

If I have one thread using heavy processing time and another that's just using a tiny bit here and there, well, then I'm really wasting one of the cores on the cpu. One might think that there's a sort of "reverse hyperthreading" where both cores can function as one and share the workload on the heavy thread... well, there's no such thing. It only exists in fantasy with the unicorns and the Midnight(Cat)'s. Otherwise intel could just keep piling on the cores and keep from having to increase the speeds on the chip. So in order to be able to fully utilize the multiple cores the software needs to be designed where each thread is significant enough to validate having a whole other processor core.

So, while I still might have a quad core cpu some day, It's a tossup as to whether or not the game devs are going to really be utilizing all of those cores to their full potential. Lately this has been an interest for me since I read an article about intel's new experimental 80 , yes I said 'Eight O' core cpu.

That sounds more like a server or a supercomputer.

Good deal on insanely fast RAM:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=40&threadid=2007372&frmKeyword=&STARTPAGE=3&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

2GB for $200

Buffalo FireStix DDR2 DIMM 2GB KIT, 240 Pin PC2-8000 Unbuffered x64 Non ECC, CL5

Review: http://www.pcstats.com/ArtVNL.cfm?articleid=1954&page=6

Cool, I've been looking for an alternative to the $450.00 Corsair pc-9136 sticks. This just might be the answer. Cool case they have around them too.

Yeah. I'd buy them just for their looks.

This RAM is made for OC'ers, so you might maximize its performance.

The following is from http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6138

Late yesterday DailyTech was briefed on the final details for the upcoming R600 retail specifications, just in time for everyone to go on vacation for Chinese New Year. AMD has briefed its board partners on the specifications that will appear on the marketing material for the card launches.

AMD's guidance claims R600 will feature 700 million transistors. By comparison, the Radeon X1900 series R580 GPU incorporated 384 million transistors into its design; the half-generation before that, R520, only featured 320 million.

As disclosed by DailyTech earlier this year, the GPU features a full 512-bit memory interface with support for GDDR3 and GDDR4. R580 was also similar in this regard as it supported GDDR3 and GDDR4.

On March 30, 2007, AMD will initially debut the R600 as the ATI Radeon X2900 XTX in two separate configurations: one for OEMs and another for retail. The OEM version is the full length 12" card that will appear in high-end systems.

ATI guidance claims the X2900 XTX retail card comes as a two-slot, 9.5" design with a vapor chamber cooler. Vapor chambers are already found on high-end CPU coolers, so it would be no surprise to see such cooling on a high-end GPU either. The OEM version of the card is a 12" layout and features a quiet fan cooler.

1GB of GDDR4 memory is the reference configuration for Radeon X2900 XTX. Memory on the reference X2900 XTX cards was supplied by Samsung.

Approximately one month later, the company will launch the GDDR3 version of the card. This card, dubbed the Radeon X2900 XT, features 512MB of GDDR3 and lower clock frequencies than the X2900 XTX. The X2900 XT is also one of the first Radeons to feature heatpipes on the reference design.

AMD anticipates the target driver for X2900 XT to be Catalyst 8.36. WHQL release of the X2900 XTX drive will appear around the Ides of March.

Radeon X2900 will feature native CrossFire support via an internal bridge interface -- there is no longer a need for the external cable found on the Radeon X1000 series CrossFire. There is no Master card, as was the case with other high-end CrossFire setups. Any Radeon X2900 can act as the Master card.

A much anticipated feature, native HDMI, will appear on all three versions of Radeon X2900.

One 6-pin and one 8-pin (2x4) VGA power connectors are featured on Radeon X2900, but both connectors are also backwards compatible with 6-pin power supply cables.

AMD claims the R600 target schedule will be a hard launch -- availability is expected to be immediate. Board partners will be able to demonstrate R600 at CeBIT 2007 (March 15 - 21), but the only available cards will be reference designs.

Why was there such discrepancy with the board layouts and designs up until now? An ATI insider, who wished to remain nameless, states "The original Quad-Stealth design is what we build the R600 on: GDDR4, full-length and dual-slot cooling. As the silicon further revised, [ATI] took up several alternative designs which eventually included GDDR3 and heatpipes into the specification. The release cards demonstrate the versatility of R600 in each of these unique setups."

Final clock frequencies will likely remain estimates until later this month.

So basically, what needs to happen, is someone needs to give me about $4000 to build my next rig so I can show you guys how to do it for real :). I'm accepting donations in the form of cash, checks made out to "Eric Stevens", and direct funds transfer into one of my many bank accounts. In other news, I need an HD converter that will down convert HD signals to 480i so I can capture Halo 3. Donations are being accepted for this as well. Remember, a happy DJ = a happy DJ, and no one wants a sad DJ. :)

DJ

Why downconvert to 480i for capture? Playback on a SDTV?

Uh, I have a crappy Pinnacle S-Video capture card you can buy for... 10 bucks?