READ THIS!!!!! READ IT NOW!!!!!

[Hovis]

Okay so I'm on an Non Disclosure Agreement regarding the next generation graphics cards, so I can't tell you guys anything much about them, I just wanted to spell this out in one thread with big letters so none of you guys make a big mistake.

DO NOT BUY A NEW GRAPHICS CARD

JUST HANG IN THERE A COUPLE OF MONTHS

Seriously guys I don't want any of you to spend for instance £300+ on something like a 6800 ultra now when that same card will be going for far less before very long. The 7800s will not be costing any more than the current generation of high end cards (and to be honest I think both the card companies are being arseholes for not warning people).

The new ATI and Nvidia graphics chipsets are fucking awesome, truly. If anybody asks you didn't hear this from me but the 7800 ultra is at least twice as fast as the 6800 ultra. At least twice. For the same money. So that means for about four hundred quid you'll be getting more than eight hundred quids worth of graphics power by todays tech standards. Think SLI 6800 Ultras, one of these puppies is quicker than that for half the cash. That's not the Nvidia fanboy in me talking either, if ATI deliver on what they are promising their new tech is going to be just as good, maybe better.

Hope you can all appreciate I'm not supposed to be saying any of this and I only do so because I'm a hero. :p

[GuardianAnge1]

arse.. well, whatever, i'm gonna have to buy a graphics card now and then upgrage.. sorta need one for my new computer to work :P

any time frame for the release or are you NDA on that aswell?

also, even though this is a bit of a hijack, what graphics card is the best one out right now? no worrie about price, just the best one - duel slot preferably. Which manufacturer should i look at for it (HIS, BFG etc)?

[Hovis]

I can't go into specifics because of the NDA but the new cards will be out and available this summer. And I don't really count August or late July as summer.

[Vasquez]

lol

Cheers mate.

[One Armed Scissor]

i will never be able to afford a PCI-e card. So how much will AGP cards be when this comes out? or will AGP cards be discontinued.

[Hovis]

I expect that we'll have to wait for the AGP ones to arrive, I'm sure they will eventually. Because the guy who told me about the new cards was on an NDA himself about future projects, so I don't have hard facts, I'm free to speculate. I'd say that you should look medium to long term at going PCI-E but in the meantime see what the new generation does to the prices in the short term.

[One Armed Scissor]

i really need a new g-card if im going to play BF2.

and alot of new stuff.

i highly doubt it willl work with a 2.4ghz celeron d, 512 PC2700 ram and a 128mb GeForce 5200LE

[Vasquez]

That's what everyone said about HL2 and D3... but then again, this is EA...

[Hovis]

Don't shit your pants over BF2. As it nears completion word has been going around that it's just a BF:V retread with slightly sexier graphics. FEAR and STALKER will need more power though. Those are the genuine next generation games.

[Vasquez]

STALKER is what I'm reeealy excited about. A very...new game. I'd almsot call it a new genre...

This might interest some people:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/

Read the story and trivia...

[Hovis]

I'm not 100% sure about the system requirements on STALKER but for FEAR there is talk that some of the gubbins it is going to want for graphics will only be doable on the new graphics chipsets.

Bottom line is that STALKER and FEAR (hate to use caps but I think they are meant to be acronyms) will be what Doom 3, HL2 and Far Cry were in terms of showcasing the abilities of the 6800s. They'll look as far beyond Far Cry and other games of that generation as they look are beyond Jedi Academy, Soldier of Fortune 2 and so on.

[Echor]

I'm watching the date 22nd of June.... (I thought that was the unofficial launch of the G70)

[Ludicrouse]

Hovis.... You are god in a Bakers Suprise!

[MiMaRz]

cheers m8t

[Vasquez]

To be honest, I think graphics are as advanced as they need to be, or they will be with the next gen games. I think it's the animations and the filling out of the world with more detail and aparell that need to be worked on right now.

[Kali81]

7800gtx

Specs:
0.11 micron process TSMC

430Mhz core / 1.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 memory

256-bit memory interface

38.4GB/s memory bandwidth

24 pixels per clock

10.32Bps Fill Rate

8 Vertex Pipes

860M vertices/second

400MHz RAMDACs

NVIDIA CineFX 4.0 engine

Intellisample 4.0 technology

64-bit FP texture filtering & blending

NVIDIA SLI Ready (7800 GTX only)

DX 9.0 / SM 3.0 & OpenGL 2.0 supported

G70 comes with 3 models; GTX, GT and Standard

Single Slot solution

Single card requires min. 400W PSU with 12V rating of 26A

SLI configuration requires min. 500W PSU with 12V rating of 34A

Launch : 22nd of June