To upgrade or wait?

[Mr. Slayer Profile]

Originally posted by Bullhead
Spike, PCI-E = shit right now. We don't even use all the bandwidth available on AGP 4x, let alone 8x, let alone a 16x.

However, nvidia just announced a reintroduction of SLI video cards, which essentially allow you to link multiple cards togther to all draw your onscreen image (making performance sick), much like the old 3dfx cards could......looks intresting, although I haven't read the full release yet...

I am not even going to think about buying things like this until they prefect every aspect of them. I figure a Radeon 9800 Pro will do me well for a couple of years. When it comes time I need to build a completley different machine, I will look into the PCI-E Mobos. But is it true that PCI-E is only available for Intel Xeon Chipsets?

-Slayer

[RCglider Profile]

It's mostly marketing hype.

No matter what you buy they'll say it's gonna be obsolete because something better is coming.

PCI-E is just another ploy to get people to separate cash from their wallets. There's no advantage to it, at least not the first generation. And who cares if AGP will fade away. It's not like someone's gonna confiscate your video card after you buy it.

Seems to me $220 for a 9800 pro is a pretty good deal. Prices can only drop so much.

Remember all the hype about SATA??

[Bullhead]

Originally posted by Slayer
But is it true that PCI-E is only available for Intel Xeon Chipsets?

-Slayer

currently, yes. But it's not exclusive to them, AMD platforms will have it. VIA, Nvida, ATI, and all the other chipset companies will support it in their next-gen platforms. Intel just was the first to release it, and they've only released it on server boards (which they've already recalled ).

RCglider is correct, it's mostly hype, just like AGP 8x was/is. It will be a great thing, it's just gonna take time, just like all new technologies. SATA wasn't worth much when it first hit, but it is now exploding, and the drives are getting faster and faster (new gen with NCQ are REALLY nice).